Paramus, NJ, May 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
IDG’s CIO has announced SUEZ North America as a recipient of a 2019 CIO 100 award for the second consecutive year. The 32nd annual award program recognizes organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology (IT).
“Across the business landscape, companies everywhere recognize the vital role that an innovative, value-driven approach to information technology plays in their success,” said Maryfran Johnson, IDG’s Executive Director of CIO Programs. “SUEZ has joined this year’s CIO 100 winning companies as an inspiring example of how IT leadership, business collaboration and digital transformation will drive future growth.”
SUEZ North America was selected as one of the 2019 CIO 100 award winners for “Delivering a best in class Customer Experience.” The CIO 100 is a highly competitive program, with more than 400 applicants evaluated by an external panel of industry judges, so the honor is a great testament to SUEZ’ innovative use of IT and the business results achieved by the company.
“What makes this so exciting is that water utilities are not generally known for innovation, nor for providing a cutting-edge Customer Experience,” said Eric Gernath, CEO of SUEZ North America. “Our true innovation lies in an all-inclusive approach, which defines an aspirational industry-leading experience, leverages the latest technology, and actively reaches beyond IT to develop an organization that supports customer expectation in a digital-first environment.”
The SUEZ’ Customer Services, Customer & Digital and Business Technology Services teams embarked on a journey to develop a best in class Customer Experience. The purpose was to empower water customers to control their environmental footprint, motivating them to engage with value-adding and conservation-oriented features by ‘gamifying’ conservation of resources.
This customer empowerment combines SUEZ’ expertise with technology and data transparency and enables customers to control their water usage, which is unique in the water industry. SUEZ has introduced engaging conservation tools, providing highly actionable, personalized conservation tips based on a customer’s specific situation, and allowing them to set personalized conservation goals that are tracked via real-time smart metering data.
Within the first 12 months, these new online service offerings resulted in a 27% growth in online profile registrations. Secondary benefits included increased adoption of self-service channels (such as eBilling and Direct Debit) via the Green Profile associated with online profiles.
The rollout of SUEZ’ new contact center solution introduced natural language speech recognition and a self-service rate of more than 40% to contact centers that previously had no self-service capability, significantly reducing employee time and improving the customer experience.
“This award clearly recognizes that the job of a modern CIO is about much more than just technology,” said Michael Salas, Chief Information & Digital Officer for SUEZ. “Our function is essential to successfully formulating customer-facing solutions, creating new capabilities, developing new revenue-earning opportunities and fostering innovation.”
About SUEZ in North America
SUEZ North America operates across all 50 states and Canada with 2,825 employees dedicated to environmental sustainability and smart and sustainable resource management. The company provides drinking water, wastewater and waste collection service to 6.6 million people on a daily basis; treats over 560 million gallons of water and over 450 million gallons of wastewater each day; delivers water treatment and advanced network solutions to 16,000 industrial and municipal sites; processes 160,000 tons of waste for recycling; rehabilitates and maintains water assets for more than 4,000 municipal and industrial customers; and manages $4.1 billion in total assets. The company posted revenues of $1.1 billion in 2018 and is a subsidiary of Paris-based SUEZ.
About SUEZ
With 90,000 people on the five continents, SUEZ is a world leader in smart and sustainable resource management. We provide water and waste management solutions that enable cities and industries to optimize their resource management and strengthen their environmental and economic performances, in line with regulatory standards. To meet increasing demands to overcome resource quality and scarcity challenges, SUEZ is fully engaged in the resource revolution. With the full potential of digital technologies and innovative solutions, the Group recovers 17 million tons of waste a year, produces 3.9 million tons of secondary raw materials and 7 TWh of local renewable energy. It also secures water resources, delivering wastewater treatment services to 58 million people and reusing 882 million m3 of wastewater. SUEZ generated total revenues of $19.36 billion in 2018.