Cohesive Operations allow Municipality to Reimagine Efficiency

The City of Vinton is a riverside town located in Iowa. Vinton supports their customers by providing water, sewer, garbage, electric and telecom. City Clerk, Melissa Schwan, explained the need for a new BSS/OSS like eLation, “With the development of our telecommunication utility, we needed a billing platform that could cover all of our services.” During her research, she found that there are very few vendors that support all Telecom and Utility services.

Schwan explains that residents wanted something better. “We needed to provide a service to our residents that was modern. We really needed something that would better meet the needs of our residents.” Prior to eLation, Vinton did not have the ability to send text messages to customers or have customers view and pay their bill online. The eLation team asked Schwan if switching to a new BSS/OSS was worth it. She answered, “We’ve added efficiencies, it’s improved some of our processes, our customers are happy. The switch has been worth it, absolutely!”

General Manager, Matt Storm, explains that Vinton is now operating more cohesively. “eLation gave us the ability to gain control of our record keeping, our customer counts, all reporting. Everything is tied to one system, instead of operating as multiple identities.” Vinton had customers requesting online bill pay and wanted to meet the needs of their customers. They wanted to provide their customers with the opportunity to go in any time of day to make a payment. “It’s given them [residents] the ability to go in and have a little control over their account,” Storm explains. The bills are now clearer, and the readings are accurate which Schwan hopes will ensure their customer’s trust in Vinton. Storm mentions how crucial it is to have an BSS/OSS partner that can integrate and automate so that service providers can keep the focus on delighting their customers.

Innovative Systems has helped us to fulfill our mission of supplying not only the best products available, but the best customer service. It gives us all the information needed from start of service to ongoing support.

Matt Storm, General Manager, City of Vinton