Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Sept. 18, 2024 –  National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC), a leading provider of enterprise software and solutions to utility and broadband companies, provided its roadmap for strategic development of current and future innovations during the highly anticipated Utility & Broadband Industry Outlook: Member and Solution Strategies during the 2024 NISC Member Information Conference (MIC).

David Bonnett, NISC Chief Solutions Officer, hosted the industry-specific sessions that outlined the overall enterprise development vision – and invited NISC product managers on stage to discuss strategic initiatives currently in development. Jason Bartsch, NISC Vice President of Product Management, also interviewed Members in attendance, inviting them to share their NISC experience story, from implementation to support and all processes in between.

Both industry sessions were focused on Member solutions and strategies deploying today and into the future, with an update on the critical product initiatives at NISC including iVUE Connect and Customer Engagement including Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) and SmartHub updates. Also highlighted during the session were Operations solutions including Staking, Outage and Network Health and Data Access.

Multi-Channel Messenger took the main stage as Product Manager Amber Wesche highlighted the latest enhancements to the enterprise offering, emphasizing its significance for NISC Members. One feature that will benefit Members immediately is voice customization that can be tailored to meet demographic needs.

The updated platform now supports a single toll-free number that syncs with SMS (text messages), inbound and outbound calls, streamlining communication. NISC has also added Secure Payments functionality, significantly boosting security by reducing Payment Card Industry (PCI) scope as transactions are processed directly by credit card companies.

“We work every day to not only expand on the NISC Member experience, but also help them deliver an unmatched customer experience,” Wesche said. “Expanding Multi-Channel Messenger capabilities allows Members to provide enhanced communication from the start of the customer lifecycle, which means greater efficiency and increased customer satisfaction.”

NISC Operations solutions also had major updates for the Membership, most notably announcing enhancements of NISC’s Dispatcher, harnessing machine algorithms to deliver powerful operational changes to the way Members do business.

“Our Members can drop windshield time by 40 to 50 percent with this new technology,” Jeremy Lang said, NISC Product Manager. “This is a game-changer as it will factor in variables such as traffic, roadwork, crew skills, truck equipment – all things we do manually today will be done through complex machine learning, taking the inefficient and time-consuming planning and maneuvering of field techs out of the equation.”

Lang also discussed an enhancement providing life-changing impact for a Member recently. The new, cloud-based hosted outage map is now live. Real-world impact was seen almost instantly for a Member system after a hurricane. The cloud-based features improved the speed in which the NISC Member received the critical outage data, knowing almost instantly how many customers were without power and allowed them to instantly start planning the workforce needed to get services back up in their community.

“That data holds the key to how they serve their communities,” said Lang, “And our pledge was to ensure they can get that data quickly and seamlessly. The NISC Membership needed this to better serve their communities, especially after a natural disaster. NISC Members have a voice – and we heard it.”

The MIC is NISC’s premier learning event and will be held Sept. 16-19. The event is an excellent opportunity for NISC to learn more about industry challenges, unveil the newest technologies and share best practices to ensure all NISC Members are using the suite of enterprise solutions to the greatest potential. The four-day event will feature 170 concurrent sessions, with more than 50 of them being led by the Membership themselves.