Utilities, facing greater regulations and tighter cost controls, are looking for ways to improve operations, and expand customer service through the use of new and innovative cloud solutions. Cloud-based solutions help utilities to be more competitive, by offering new customer services and increased computing power at a lower cost to the utility. Cloud computing allows utilities to provide comprehensive and secure customer access to account information and bill payment features. A cloud-based customer application, for example, can allow utility customers to enable/disable service, pay their bill online, review their monthly statement, and compare power usage from one month to the next. Without broad accessibility provided through cloud services, many utilities would not be able to offer such services. Additionally, they would not be able to spot inefficiencies in their business operations as easily because of the broad visibility that cloud computing solutions can provide.

Power companies are also collaborating with cloud solutions to help conserve energy. Google’s PowerMeter, for example, is a software tool that enables consumers to receive their home electricity consumption information in near real-time from their laptop. This tool helps consumer save money by spotting areas of excessive power consumption so they can make changes to their homes, appliances, and usage patterns. These types of cloud-based tools are good for utility companies and good for consumers.

Symplified acts as a trusted identity broker – Power companies and their customers benefit from a consolidated identity management solution with the capability to process millions of transactions every day and satisfy the needs of thousands of simultaneous users. Customers can easily make a single connection to the SinglePoint platform and achieve integration with an entire ecosystem of partners, internal colleagues, applications and data. Symplified secures the enterprise to cloud-based applications allowing Utilities to provide their employees, partners and customers access to critical data without sacrificing their current level of security.

• Allow utilities companies to work seamlessly with Web and SaaS applications within and globally across organizations.
  
• Establish a secure collaboration portal in weeks instead of months and at minimal cost
  
• Manage data security through:
  » Web and cloud access management
  » Centralized authentication and audit
  » Federated SSO and user management
  
• Secure Web portals from SinglePoint integrate across departments and across the Internet to allow different apps to be accessed in a central location but with de-centralized management