Sydney – 17 May, 2012 – Australian Power & Gas, an energy retailer for residential properties on the eastern seaboard, has recently had a surge in its customer base. With just under 350,000 customers the company needed a system to maintain and track customer records and implemented Microsoft’s Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM), to fulfil the requirements of the business and its customers. The return on investment and ease of use were key factors that led to the company’s strategic decision to adopt the Microsoft business solution.
Australian Power & Gas, CIO, Joseph Gullotta, said: “The Microsoft Dynamics CRM system is a platform that is very stable, customisable, and empowering, allowing us to take all the complexity out of what can be a very complex environment.”
Australian Power & Gas received over 10,000 customer emails over the last 12 months – relating to topics including enquiries, complaints and the retention of customers. With no process in place, Australian Power & Gas was manually passing these enquires to the relevant people within the business, leading to administrative problems. As a result, the business worked with Microsoft partner, CSG, to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM to handle all of its electronic correspondence, improve its processes and ensure better customer service.
“Profiling and understanding our customers is important to Australian Power & Gas which is why the CRM component has been so useful. Microsoft Dynamics offered us the versatility needed to program and change the environment to handle emails as a workflow activity. Allowing us to track, escalate and respond to each individual enquiry in a timely manner has given Australian Power & Gas an edge over our competitors.” said Mr. Gullotta.
Australian Power & Gas evaluated Salesforce.com, Right CRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM and chose the latter for its in-house option, the integration it offered with other systems and the ease of use.
Thomas Gudman, Director of Dynamics, Microsoft Australia said: “Australian Power & Gas is a great example of how Microsoft Dynamics CRM has helped their people be more productive by providing a familiar user experience, enabling greater collaboration, streamlining of processes and access to real-time data so the business can improve their customers’ experiences and effectively compete in the market.”
Moving forward, Australian Power & Gas’s data warehouse built on Microsoft SQL Server R2 is a key focus, particularly the data the business is incorporating into the warehouse. The business is now starting to reap the rewards of the warehouse which is why it’s looking at expanding this area in support of its business intelligence, reporting and analytical capability. “We’re putting more work into our data warehouse so the ability to gather and use more information has been great.” said Mr. Gullotta.
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Australian Power & Gas is an Australian company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The company’s business was founded in 2006 and was listed on the ASX in January 2007. Australian Power & Gas provides electricity and gas to just under 350,000 customer accounts in the eastern states of Australia. More information can be found: http://www.australianpowerandgas.com.au/
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential. More information can be found: www.microsoft.com.au
For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact: Rudolf Wagenaar, Howorth, 02 8281 3879, [email protected]
