HCL bags contract to modernize customer services for Washington Gas

New Delhi: India’s fourth largest software exporter HCL Technologies Ltd. on Tuesday said it has won a contract to modernize customer services for Washington Gas, a subsidiary of WGL Holdings Inc., a public utility holding company based in Washington, DC.

Washington Gas distributes natural gas to about 1.1 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

The size of the deal was not disclosed. Under the agreement that extends to 30 months, HCL will modernize Washington Gas’s legacy mainframe customer care and billing software. It will replace Washington Gas’s decades-old mainframe billing solution, along with its scheduling and dispatch mobile workforce solution, with a single, integrated and more efficient platform.

“Yesterday’s technologies cannot meet the expectations of today’s consumer in terms of service and engagement. Utilities like Washington Gas are leveraging SAP and Microsoft’s cloud technologies, both components of HCL’s Engage Platform for Utilities to enhance customer service,” said Todd Crandall, executive vice president of public services at HCL.

“This program entails transformation that goes beyond system replacement by addressing the rising expectations of consumers and business benefits. We look forward to partnering with Washington Gas to deliver a digital transformation that will help boost its customer service delivery, leveraging Washington Gas’ technology platform investments, and help meet the company’s operational goals,” Crandall added.

The new solution is expected to help reduce integration complexity across the company’s billing and customer service IT applications, while enhancing call centre and field operations processes.

“We required an enterprise application integration services partner who can help us transform our customer information systems and processes,” said Nassar Akari – division head, business transformation office of Washington Gas. “HCL offers an impressive track record of SAP CRM (customer relationship management) and billing implementations for major utilities as well as a flexible and experienced deployment team to help us meet our goals.

HCL Technologies shares were down 0.45% to Rs.1,555.30, while the benchmark Sensex index fell 0.37% to 28,018.36 points at 12:01pm on Tuesday.

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