BSES Wins Over Customers With CRM

Summary:

When K.B. Singh, VP-I.T., BSES, introduced IT-driven measures to an ailing power utility, little did he know the size of the can of worms he was opening.

Highlights:

The IT project that Singh gambled on helped the organization reduce losses from 60 percent to 20 percent. It also lowered consumer complaint levels by over 89 percent with the grievance closure rate of 91 percent.

Reader ROI:

How tenacity helps an individual battle against all odds

“When I first took on this assignment, I knew it faced potential risks from almost all quarters. In fact, I was afraid it would be the biggest mistake of my life. But, despite very little room for error, we decided not to let this project fail. Come what may!” says K.B. Singh, VP-IT at BSES, recalling the string of mammoth business process improvements he and his team drove in 2003. The aim of all those projects? Turning the Delhi-based BSES into a modern, profit-making utility and creating a single-window business platform called the Customer Application System (CAS).

It might not sound like much but that project completely revamped the way the electricity utility functions—and created ripples that are still felt today. It curbed corruption, reduced power losses by over 40 percent—and saved the Delhi government crores. “The amount it saved the Government—by not doling out urban subsidies—played significant role in funding the Commonwealth Games,” says Singh.

The real risk in the project lay in the management of multiple stakeholders. Singh would face real resistance from large swathes of corrupt consumers, acerbic criticism from the media, and little support from within his company. Under those provocations, Singh leaned heavily on a risk attribute that ensured the project’s success: Tenacity.

He would need plenty of it.

Powerless For a very long time, the supply of power to Delhi was a government undertaking. But after decades of losses, in 2002, the state government decided to reduce its hold and unbundle what was then called the Delhi Vidyut Board. BSES bid to take over the Board and about nine months later, Reliance Power bought over BSES. That left Delhi’s power distribution in the hands of a public private partnership between Reliance and the Delhi government. And the new entity’s biggest challenge was to corporatize the creaking government enterprise.

One word best describes the state of process at the power distribution company before its privatization: Antediluvian. Ad-hoc business processes were the norm and were shaped by the person currently in authority. Once that person was replaced by another official, processes changed. This state of inefficiency continued even as the government subsidized power costs heavily and the utility failed to make any money because corrupt employees—in cahoots with dishonest consumers—tampered with power meters or overlooked the rampant power theft.

That was the mess Singh and his IT team were asked to step into. Their brief was to help standardize, re-engineer, and automate the utility’s business processes, and create a single platform that would give management visibility, stem losses, and increase customer experience.

We had to spend up to five hours a day just dealing with the press, as the corporate communications department wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation

“We needed to revamp processes to create an efficient organization, build a roadmap that aligned business and IT, orient a large and diverse work force to be more productive, centralize the control of all applications, and improve customer care and services. The mission was to achieve self-sufficiency by reducing losses,” says Singh.

After an exhaustive study of the status quo, Singh crafted a broad roadmap for process improvements. While a much-needed, basic IT foundation was being laid, BSES customers were segmented into four categories. Different teams were allotted to these segments and were tasked with collating and auditing the data needed for BSES to gain visibility into its consumer base. At the same time, different aspects of new business processes were hammered out.

Simultaneously, the CAS app was being implemented and other business critical apps—on multiple platforms—were being integrated on single client-server architecture. The app was to provide a centralized platform for consumers to log and track their complaints. While all business centers were connected to the core datacenter, various technical components to ensure connectivity, the consistent flow of information, strengthened security, and data mining were put in place. An Oracle database was deployed to support the CAS. This was further integrated with a call center, payment counters and gateways.

 “It was a transformational time,” recalls Singh. On the technology front, he was creating a database of 17 lakh consumers from scratch, which needed to be cleansed and modeled without halting business. “But that was the least of my worries. It was the business end that worried me,” he says. As the project progressed, Accenture was roped in. Based on the data the team analyzed, they found real instances of meter tampering, multiple meters being used on a single power line, the deliberate fictionalizing of meter readings, and areas where illicit connections flourished. Working off that data, BSES went about replacing thousands of tampered meters with the new electronic meters, removing the illegal power connections, and introducing new processes including the use of handheld devices that could record the meter readings without manual intervention. That’s when all hell broke loose.

We had to spend up to five hours a day just dealing with the press, as the corporate communications department wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation

Rolling Blackout Across the state, there was a huge public outcry as consumers began to see their bills rise. Things got so bad that employees sent to sever the illicit connections were physically assaulted. New meters were burnt. Corrupt officials saw their illegal income being choked and started to fight back.

They provided wrong customer details that led to incorrect bills, and based on that, encouraged consumers to complain to the media. “We had to spend up to five hours a day just dealing with the press, as the corporate communications department wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation,” says Singh.

The pressure began to take its toll on the business. “As the introduction of IT systems were held responsible for almost every problem, business departments were not convinced about the viability of the project,” says Singh. “The media, people with political pull, and employees with vested interests all pressured us to shelve the project.”

 All that pressure fell squarely on Singh’s shoulders. It didn’t help that BSES was investing Rs 4,000 crore in augmenting the utility’s infrastructure. “If we wanted to support the government in its intent to discontinue urban subsidies, we had very little room for error. We had to get our project right the first time,” says Singh.

Singh enlisted support of honest employees who welcomed the changes. They were trained in the new IT systems. Processes for effective business continuity were created both from technological and staff perspectives to ensure a seamless customer experience. Things started to turn around. Corruption ebbed, and power distribution and billing issues faded, leading to more profits. The IT project that Singh gambled on helped the organization reduce losses from 60 percent to 20 percent. It also lowered consumer complaint levels by over 89 percent with the grievance closure rate of 91 percent.

That has allowed BSES to turn into a self-sustaining enterprise and save the Delhi Government Rs 15,000 crore. Looking back, Singh allows himself the indulgence of a little philosophy. “We knew that if this was the state of affairs of the utility sector in the national capital, then something drastic needs to be done. The stakes were high, but despite the odds we had to keep moving on. A win in this case was a must as failure wasn’t an option,” he says.