Why Are Utilities Moving Their CIS to the Cloud?
When you were younger, and you said, “Everyone’s doing it,” how often did your parents say, “If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?” Cloud migration is a lot like that. Even if everyone is migrating to the cloud, but is cloud-based utility billing software the right choice for your team? Examining your organization’s motivation for moving your CIS to the cloud can ensure a successful outcome, whether you keep your software on-premise or move to the cloud.
Although you’ve heard many reasons to move your CIS to the cloud, not all of them may be relevant, reasonable, or vital for this transition and its investment. Below are several motivating factors that municipalities think about when considering cloud migration.
Reasons to Move to Cloud-based CIS
Take advantage of new technical capabilities
Reduce capital expenses
Replace end-of-support software
Respond to regulatory compliance changes
Take advantage of cloud security features
Improve business continuity
Take Advantage of New Technical Capabilities
Moving to the cloud provides utilities with many new technical capabilities. Many utilities found it advantageous for team members to work remotely during and after the pandemic. Even if your office is closed, someone can still handle day-to-day operations with a secure internet connection.
And with cloud web-based products like a self-serve portal or mobile workforce management software, your team can serve your community more efficiently than ever. Customers can serve themselves for move-ins, move-outs, and many of the interactions in between. And mobile workforce management software helps your field service representatives and office staff communicate in near real-time to complete service calls quickly and efficiently.
Moving to the cloud gives your utility the most modern, secure architecture and a best-of-breed utility billing software that streamlines your operations. With the latest software, your team will have critical information when they need it without complex workarounds and extra manual tasks.
Reduce Capital Expenses
One of the main reasons to migrate your CIS to the cloud is that you can move a large portion of your IT spend from CAPEX to OPEX. Instead of buying hardware, software, and licenses every 3 to 5 years and maintaining this hardware, your software becomes an operating expense in the form of a subscription.
Moving to the cloud also spreads the cost of software and hardware ownership among all cloud users, making it much more affordable than owning and maintaining your CIS on-premise. When you migrate your CIS to the cloud, you offload software and hardware maintenance to the NorthStar and AWS teams, and your IT staff has more time in the day for other high-priority tasks.
Replace End-of-Support Software
When you move your CIS to the cloud, worrying about replacing end-of-support software is no longer a problem for your team. With NorthStar’s Cloud, everyone is on the same code base making it easy for software to be updated and maintained. As new features are rolled out, everyone can take advantage of them. And your IT staff does not have to worry about routinely maintaining your software. With cloud software, you have the added benefit of keeping your data secure because AWS’ world-class experts are maintaining it for you.
Respond to Regulatory Compliance Changes
As new regulations roll out, your team must stay up-to-date to keep your community’s information safe and secure. Because you work with digital assets and store your community's personal and private information, you must comply with local, state, and national regulations. When you use cloud-based utility billing software like NorthStar Cloud, compliancy is built into the software. And as new regulations are rolled out, NorthStar keeps you up to date so that your IT team doesn’t have to spend time on this task.
Take Advantage of Cloud Security Features
You’ve seen it on the news; utilities and municipalities are being held hostage by bad actors who want to make a fast buck. They know that the grid is aging and that many utilities don’t have the resources or personnel to update and patch their software regularly. Cybercriminals take advantage of this weakness. And keeping your community’s personal and private information secure may motivate your team to upgrade to a cloud-based CIS.
When you move to the NorthStar Cloud, you have industry leaders and world-class experts working for you to maintain your data. AWS’s architecture complies with the latest security features, and your data move safely and securely from the cloud to users.
Improve Business Continuity
With the recent storms, many businesses are considering their processes and procedures to restore and keep business operations running. If you’ve experienced manufactured or natural disasters that have disrupted your operations, you know how difficult it can be to get back up and running if you don’t have a solid plan. When you move your CIS to the cloud, you only need an internet connection to access your data. And the sooner you have access to your data restored, the sooner you can serve your community.
Classify Your Motivations
One or more of the above motivations will likely be why your team is considering the cloud. As your team builds and reviews your list, you’ll see trends that fall into two categories: migration and innovations.
Migration is one of the most common reasons for moving to the cloud. It may be time for you to migrate because of the cost savings or the security you’ll gain. But no matter if it’s one reason or several, what you get by migrating to the cloud is a world-class architecture and the latest NorthStar CIS software available working for you to help you serve your community. With NorthStar Cloud, you can optimize internal operations, increase cost savings, and scale to market demand.
Innovation is another main reason utilities move their CIS and billing to the cloud. With the NorthStar Cloud, utilities can use the latest software and transform services to align with customer demand. Your team can provide exceptional customer experiences and allow customers to serve themselves at a time and place that’s convenient for them. And as technology changes, your team is more agile and able to change.
It may seem like “everyone is moving to the cloud, but when you examine many of the common motivations that utilities consider, you can see why migrating to the cloud is an attractive option for your future CIS needs.
Have you examined your motivations, and are you ready to move your CIS to the cloud? Contact our sales team today.