Columbia Gas
Customer Relationship Management System

Background/Overview

Nisource is a Fortune 500 company that delivers energy to approximately 3.8 million customers located within the high-demand energy corridor stretching from the Gulf Coast through the Midwest to New England. In 2011, the NiSource Gas Distribution (NGD) business unit engaged HMB to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

The Challenge

The company was in search of a way to target both existing and potential customers for blast e-mail campaigns of various types, such as promoting its paperless billing service, communicating the launch of its mobile Web site, and promoting its energy efficiency programs. In addition, the company needed a way to manage their outreach processes and dynamically share a broad range of public knowledge.

The Solution

HMB worked with NGD to manage the implementation of the Customer Relationship Management system.

The Result

The key to the CRM solution was HMB’s ability to establish data integration between the CRM system and the customer information systems of record. HMB established data integration that allows the customer information systems of record to share data with the CRM system and for the CRM system to write customer communication-specific information back to the customer systems of record.

Providing this data-share has allowed NGD to create targeted e-mail campaigns for both existing and potential customers. The e-mail campaigns have received greater than expected response. In addition, the CRM solution allows NGD to manage its work processes and created a way for NiSource to establish a dynamic, enterprise-level Frequently Asked Questions presence on the Web.

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