Open-cis
Open-cIS is a GUI-based, full-featured, and comprehensive customer information and billing system (CIS) owned by Accenture. Open-cIS is architected on a flexible three-tiered (client/server/database) component object model (COM+) platform in such a way that it is not married to any one particular industry. Open-cIS was built - and continues to be built - exclusively using Microsoft technologies and is one of the most modern and most technologically advanced CIS systems in the world. In a marketplace where competitors own software specifically written for a particular business - for example, 'Zoracle Utilities' or 'ZAP ERP' - Open-cIS can adapt to any business in any industry no matter how simple or how complex. Open-cIS is a one-size-fits-all CIS solution. To put it another way - if you can name it, Open-cIS can bill it.
History
In 1998, a group of twelve ex-Andersen Consulting employees were hired by National Water & Power (NWP) to form National Water & Power Technologies (NWPT). NWPT was charged with developing a new CIS for NWP and for NWP's multi-family resident billing business. The result of NWPT's efforts was Open-cIS - the newest, most modern, most technologically advanced, most flexible and most configurable CIS ever developed. The company name National Water & Power Technologies was changed to Open-c Solutions in 2000 and Open-c Solution's CIS product was christened Open-cIS. This trademarked billing software name remains to this day even though Open-c Solutions was absorbed in to Accenture as a result of Accenture's purchase of the Open-cIS asset from NWP in 2005.
Prior to the implementation of Open-cIS at NWP, Open-cIS had grown from its original twelve employees to over fifty employees who were involved in research and development, implementation services, migrations, design, code, fix, test and deployment.
In 1999, AquaSource - a water division of Duquesne Energy installed the earliest version of Open-cIS to run AquaSource's disparate billing systems as a single platform. In 2000, Wisconsin Public Service chose Open-cIS as its choice for a new CIS which would replace its aging and inflexible AS400 mainframe system. WPS would convert to Open-cIS in October 2005. In 2001, Washington Gas chose Open-cIS as its choice to replace its no-longer-supported legacy billing system for its deregulated customers. WG would convert to Open-cIS in 2002. In 2003, Open-cIS was finally installed at NWP and would replace NWP's custom CIS CBASS (customer billing and service system) which had outgrown its usefulness and also prevented NWP from growing its multi-family residential billing business. Also in 2003, Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES) chose Open-cIS as its choice to replace its no-longer-supported legacy billing system for another subset of deregulated customers for Washington Gas. The WGES implementation would be the first fully outsourced arrangement for Open-cIS and would be installed in 2004. In 2006, Best Buy began using Open-cIS for billing Geek Squad service calls. In 2007, National Electronic Warranty - through the existing partnership with Best Buy - began using Open-cIS for its warranty billing business.
Motivation - The Market
The twelve people who were originally involved with the development of Open-cIS recognized that the days of custom installations in the utility billing market were numbered. As employees of Andersen Consulting, this group recognized that a product-model CIS would be more easily marketed to utilities and retail businesses in search of a product CIS since this was the direction the market was headed. After leaving Andersen Consulting, this group found a willing partner in NWP. Even today, most CIS installations are custom installations - the CIS is written specifically for the client and any repeatibility is lost since there is no way to leverage installations between clients. Open-cIS was developed from the ground up in order to solve this problem and was one of the first truly product CIS solutions to come to market. Open-cIS is flexible enough to be installed at any utility, retailer, marketer, hybrid or deregulated company without having to make customizations specific to each business.
The Future
Today, Open-cIS is wholly owned by Accenture having been purchased from NWP in 2005. Accenture continues to support the existing clients who use Open-cIS and clients continue taking Open-cIS releases in order to continue expanding their businesses. Part of the impetus for Accenture's purchase of Open-cIS was to provide a way for Accenture to enter new markets that they had not been able to penetrate previously.