2017 Special MIC Edition --- Welcome

Transcription

1 2017 Special MIC Edition --- Welcome Hello Members! Welcome to the MIC recap. What a great week we had in St. Louis! It s always good seeing and talking to all of you And getting your perspectives on our industries and solutions. From a software development point of view, it is interesting to hear what will help you move forward and make you more efficient. I m convinced the only way to build great software is to have a tight relationship with the people who will be using it. While not the only avenue of collaboration, the MIC is a great place to collect a lot of information in a condensed time frame. While the MIC is a great learning environment for all of us, it s also a lot of fun. I hope you had an enjoyable and productive time. It is truly the highlight of the NISC year for me. Thanks for coming this year! We hope to see you and anyone who couldn t attend next year at the 2018 MIC. Take care, Dan Wilbanks COO and Vice President of Research, Development & Quality

2 2017 Special MIC Edition --- Members Matter Greetings Members! Driven to Serve was the theme for the 2017 NISC Member Information Conference (MIC), and we are pleased to report it was another great event. The MIC is always our best opportunity to engage with our Members and to showcase our technology solutions. Frankly, it's also a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with colleagues that have become friends through the years of working together. The cooperative family is sometimes just that, family. The MIC by the numbers: - 2,300 total registrations sessions - 45 Member-led sessions - 3 keynote speakers - 7 hotels - 1,966 app users We recognize not everyone is able to attend this year's MIC, and we will be posting the recorded sessions on our MIC Community space in the near future. We also have Vern Dosch's opening keynote address available here. In addition to the MIC, we are pleased to be hosting 36 regional workshops around the country this year. To date, more than 1,000 Members have attended those sessions as well. As always, it's our honor to be your technology partner. Thank you for another great Member Information Conference. Jasper Schneider Vice President, Member & Industry

3 2017 Special MIC Edition --- Another Successful Member Information Conference! NISC Members, Customers, guests and staff once again descended upon St. Louis, Mo. for the 2017 Member Information Conference (MIC), which was held September More than 2,300 joined us from all over the globe, including the continental U.S., Hawaii, Alaska and Canada, with a dedication and drive to better serve their own members and customers. The Welcome Reception kicked off the 2017 MIC as attendees joined NISC staff at the Partner Pavilion, providing an opportunity for Members and guests to become acquainted and old friends to reconnect. The Partner Pavilion also hosted more than 30 of NISC s closest partners in telecom and utility industries as well as the NISC Innovations Lab, where hundreds of Members and Customers converged to test drive the latest and greatest NISC solutions. The fantastic turnout helped set the stage for the learning and collaboration to come. Day One of the MIC officially began with the Opening General Session led by NISC President and CEO Vern Dosch, welcoming those in attendance as well as those streaming from Member offices. Vern s message this year was a departure from the traditional speeds and feeds of NISC. You can view his emotional and energetic keynote here. There have been a large number of requests for Vern s letter to his grandchildren. If you d like a copy, you can find it here. (All links to content from the MIC will require Community access.) The Telecom and Utility Enterprise Sessions were also held on Day One. The NISC Executive Team took to the stage to discuss the current technology, trends and development of the ivue Enterprise System in the future. To view the recordings, click here for the Telecom Enterprise Session and here for the Utility Enterprise Session. Day Two welcomed yet another keynote speaker, John Brennan, CIA Director ( ). Brennan s national security career spans 36 years, culminating in his tenure as Director of the CIA. Previously he was a Deputy National Security Advisor and Assistant to President Barack Obama for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. He imparted advice on how to act quickly in response to events and concerns within your organization. He also had a very interesting Q&A with Vern as attendees submitted questions via the MIC app. Click here to view the recording. Day Two also brought the continuation of the more than 180 NISC and Member-led sessions ranging from Accounting to Billing to Engineering, focusing on industry challenges and how to increase operational efficiencies, grow your customer base and reduce costs with NISC's solutions. Day Two ended with the return of the ever-popular MICFest, which introduced yet a new locale this year: the Dome at America s Center. The stadium is the former home of the St. Louis Rams, and, in keeping with the football theme, NISC transformed the space into a tailgate party.

4 Day Three wrapped up the remainder of the concurrent sessions and culminated with lunch and the Closing Session presented by Global Marketing Expert David Seda. Seda discussed the unique challenges we all face in our organizations and the importance of challenging ourselves beyond our preconceived limitations. Seda's presentation will be posted soon! Follow the MIC Community to receive notification when it is available. Also several MIC concurrent session presentations have been added to the Community, and more are being posted each day with our goal to have them all up by Oct. 30. The MIC came to a close with the announcement of the Member Experience Award winners. Approximately 25 percent of all learning sessions offered were led by NISC Members who helped demonstrate best practices that have worked best in their organization. Based off feedback from the app, winners of the most impactful sessions were selected. Be sure to view the MIC Experience Awards article in this special MIC edition to learn more. Once again, this year s MIC certainly exceeded our expectations And we sincerely hope it did as well for all who attended. For those of you who weren t able to join us, mark your calendars as the 2018 will be held in St. Louis September Also, we invite you to visit our Flickr page to check out pictures of all of the events! 2017 Special MIC Edition --- Congratulations to the Winners of the MIC Member Experience Awards! One of the features of the 2017 MIC that helped make the conference beneficial is the inclusion of more sessions than ever before that were led by you, our Members and Customers. These sessions showcased your skills, your hints, your tips and your tricks to gaining efficiencies and serving your customers better using NISC solutions. These sessions required preparation and practice and boosted the value of our conference with new and exciting information. For the third-straight year during the Closing Session of the MIC, 10 sessions were awarded the MIC Member Experience Awards. These sessions were selected via the MIC app, where attendees could evaluate each session and provide feedback. The top 10 were selected as the MIC Member Experience Award Winners. NISC would like to congratulate our MIC Member Experience Award winners and once again thank everyone that provided a presentation during the conference. Keep an eye out in early 2018 for information on submitting a session idea for the 2018 MIC!

5 2017 Member Experience Award Winners A Taste of Change - Applying Change Management to ivue Applications Rusty Shields, Smithville Communications Intentional Customer Service Allyson McElroy, People s Electric Cooperative Staying in the Know Louise Blackman, Peace River Electric Query Builder vs. CC&B Reports - How to Cover Your Reporting Needs! Bethany Chinadle & Marcella Holden, Triangle Communications Make Complex Accounting Simple to Achieve Your True Mission Michael Whiddon, Holy Cross Energy Prepaid: A Member's Perspective Tony Nettles, Magnolia Electric 21st Century Rate Design Ross Dicken, Cobb EMC Utility Broadband: A Member s Perspective Barbie Petree, Co-Mo Connect David Girvan, United Services Moving the Inventory Accuracy Needle with Barcoding Megan Powell, SECOM Donna Sattler, Lake Region Electric Outage Management Integration Joe Smith & Levi Dunn, Ravalli Electric

6 2017 Special MIC Edition --- NISC Expands Cybersecurity Offering NISC has elevated its efforts to help its Members defend themselves against ever-present and ever-evolving cyber security threats. During the 2017 NISC Member Information Conference (MIC), NISC s annual premier learning event held in St. Louis, Mo., the technology cooperative announced NISC CyberDetect is now available for implementation as part of its recently launched Cybersecurity Services SM offering. NISC is working with security and IT industry leader Rapid7 (NASDAQ: RPD) to provide NISC CyberDetect. Powered by Rapid7 s Incident Detection and Response solutions and services (InsightIDR, Managed Detection and Response), NISC CyberDetect is a fully managed and monitored service designed to detect threats and respond immediately, 24/7. NISC has great trust in Rapid7 and their incident detection and response technology," said Jeff Nelson, NISC Vice President of Information Security & Risk Management. "We used their offering internally to protect our network and are pleased to now offer it to our Members." The launch coincided with a general session address from John Brennan, CIA Director ( ), who shared insight on how to think about and act quickly in response to events and concerns that can affect your organization, including ever-increasing cybersecurity threats. "NISC is able to leverage the size of our collective Membership to offer a leading-edge technology and 24/7 managed service offering through NISC CyberDetect that otherwise would be prohibitively expensive for most Members," said Nelson. "Our Members will now be able to have seasoned security experts from Rapid7, our valued partner, monitor their systems for intrusions, malicious activity and other threats while at the same time receiving support for NISC CyberDetect directly from NISC." NISC Cybersecurity Services offers a complement of solutions to protect vital operational data: NISC CyberAcademy Online user awareness training and phishing simulation NISC CyberDetect Incident detection and incident response NISC CyberProtect Endpoint protection with 24/7 monitoring NISC CyberDefense Perimeter defense leveraging firewalls and report monitoring NISC CyberScan Vulnerability management with advanced scanning, reporting, tracking and risk scoring Visit cybersecurity.coop or call today to learn more.

7 2017 Special MIC Edition --- NISC Expands to 50 States Technology cooperative welcomes Butler Electric Company into its Membership NISC is excited to announce it will now provide software services in all 50 states in the United States after signing its newest Member, Butler Electric Company, based out of New Jersey. The largest software cooperative in the country, NISC serves more than 820 electric utilities and telecommunications companies across the U.S., Canada, American Samoa and Palau. "True to name, we are national and NISC is pleased to welcome Butler into our Membership," said Jasper Schneider, NISC Vice President of Member & Industry. "Our partnership with Butler marks our presence in all 50 states, but also marks significant progress toward serving municipals and the public power sector. We are pleased to expand our services into this market." Butler Electric Company is operated by the Borough of Butler in New Jersey and serves approximately 12,000 customers in Kinnelon, Bloomingdale, Butler and small portions of West Milford and Riverdale. The Borough has continuously operated the electric utility since the early 1900s, and today Butler Electric Company is a $30 million operation. In 2012, Butler invested in Aclara TWACS Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and soon realized that in order to take full advantage of AMI data, they also needed to deploy robust customer care and billing solutions that are fully integrated with work management, meter data management and outage management solutions. NISC's ivue Enterprise System, along with other NISC mobile and data-management solutions, are able to provide an integrated system paired with a proven track record of working with Aclara's TWACS AMI. "We are excited to work with NISC," said Jim Lampmann, Borough Administrator of Butler Electric. "Their progressive and tightly integrated solutions will provide us the efficiencies and reliability we need to best serve our customers, manage our business and leverage other critical solutions like advanced metering." NISC was formed in 2000 when Central Area Data Processing (CADP) in Missouri and North Central Data Cooperative (NCDC) in North Dakota merged with the goal of creating a unified software solution for electric and telecommunications organizations across the country.

8 2017 Special MIC Edition --- Newly Redesigned Community Coming Soon! Thank you to all the attendees of the 2017 Member Information Conference! We hope you had an opportunity to stop by the NISC Community booth to play some putt-putt and learn more about the upcoming launch of the newly redesigned Community! It was great to see many of you in the Sneak Peek at the Newly Redesigned NISC Community session where we dived in a bit deeper and discussed some of the new features that will be available to you. If you didn t have an opportunity to attend, the WebEx link will be available soon on the Community Support space for you to watch the session. Be sure to check back soon! Over the next month, our teams will be working hard to prepare for the redesigned Community launch. We will be posting blogs periodically focused on some of the new functionality you will see on the redesigned Community to keep you informed on the most up-to-date developments on the launch and its timeframe. Be sure to follow the Community Support space to receive the latest information.

9 2017 Special MIC Edition --- NISC Announces Expanded Engagement Solutions NISC announced engagement solutions for both utilities and telecoms, focused on empowering Members to connect with their customers in new and innovative ways. "As technology rapidly evolves, so too should Members approach in providing their customers with the services and tools necessary to meet their growing needs," said Valerie Kniffen, Engagement Lead at NISC. "NISC offers a wealth of solutions to assist Members in developing efficient and effective operations keeping the customer in mind." With engagement tools such as Messenger, SmartHub Marketing, ivue AppSuite and CalltoOrder, NISC s solutions provide options to strengthen customer relationships thoughtfully and intentionally, not only through electronic communications, but through a variety of processes and functions. NISC is also unveiling a newly redesigned, easy-to-use Community, which is NISC s internal online community for Members and employees. Members can now explore new possibilities in printing and customizing bills with the help of ivue Automated Mailroom Services (AMS). AMS allows Members to create visually appealing printed statements, notices and letters and mail them to end-users at the lowest possible first-class postage rate. "Working with NISC s AMS department in creating a new bill for our partners was a truly enjoyable experience," said Kaye Bernard, Chief Operating Officer at MiEnergy in Rushford, MN. "There were many ideas to pull from; our merged co-op created a full-color presentment opportunity to create more information for our account." 2017 Special MIC Edition --- The Learning Continues with the 2018 NISC Workshops Save the Date for the 2018 NISC Workshops! While the 2017 NISC Workshops are winding down, get a head start on planning for 2018! With classes taking place across the country, the 2018 NISC Workshops are sure to have something for everyone. We ll have more information on the 2018 NISC Workshops available soon, so stay tuned, but mark your calendar for next year s learning opportunities! ABS March 20 22: Utility Plant Management - Southwest Louisiana EMC, Lafayette, LA April 17-19: ABS All Module Overview - Golden Spread Electric, Lubbock, TX May 15-17: Inventory/Purchasing Management - Central Iowa Power Cooperative, Des Moines, IA June 26-27: Budgeting NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO June 27-28: Financial Management NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO July 24-26: ABS All Module Overview NISC Office, Mandan, ND

10 August 21-23: Inventory/Purchasing Management Columbia Rural Electric, Walla Walla, WA October 23-24: Payroll/Labor Management Pedernales Electric, Marble Falls, TX October 24-25: AppSuite/ESS & Human Resource Management Pedernales, Electric, Marble Falls, TX November 27-29: Utility Plant Management Johnson City Energy, Johnson City, TN CC&B Telecom March 13-15: CC&B Telecom Overview Beehive Telecom, Lake Point, UT April 10-11: Telecom SIS to GL Integration NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO April 12: CC&B Telecom Capital Credits NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO April 24-26: CC&B Telecom & E-Solutions Overview NineStar Connect, Greenfield, IN May 8-10: CC&B Telecom Overview NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO June 5-7: CC&B Telecom & E-Solutions Overview NISC Office, Mandan, ND CC&B Utility March 20-22: CC&B Utility Overview Berkeley Electric, Awendaw, SC April 17-19: CC&B Utility Overview Magnolia Electric, Summit, MS May 15-17: CC&B Utility Overview Central New Mexico Electric, Moriarty, NM June 12-13: Utility CIS to GL Integration NISC Office, Mandan, ND June 13-14: Utility Capital Credits NISC Office, Mandan, ND June 19-21: CC&B Utility Overview NineStar Connect, Greenfield, IN July 10-12: CC&B Utility Overview Flathead Electric, Kalispell, MT July 24-26: CC&B Utility Overview Central Iowa Power Cooperative, Des Moines, IA August 21-23: CC&B Utility Overview Truckee Donner PUD, Truckee, CA October 23-25: Utility DQ/Collections NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO Document Vault March 13-14: NISC Document Vault Workshop Utility NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO March 14-15: NISC Document Vault Workshop Telecom NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO May 15-16: NISC Document Vault Workshop Utility NISC Office, Mandan, ND May 16-17: NISC Document Vault Workshop Telecom NISC Office, Mandan, ND E&O Telecom March 21-22: E&O Telecom Overview Opelika Power Services, Opelika, AL June 20-21: E&O Telecom Overview TBD E&O Utility February 21-22: Advanced MapWise Workshop NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO May 16-17: E&O Utility Overview Benton PUD, Kennewick, WA August 22-23: Advanced MapWise Workshop Noble REMC, Albion IN November 14-15: E&O Utility Overview Sawnee EMC, Cumming, GA ivue System Administrator May 15-16: ivue System Administrator Survival Guide NISC Office, Lake Saint Louis, MO July 17-18: ivue System Administrator Survival Guide NISC Office, Mandan, ND

11 2017 Special MIC Edition --- Mark Your Calendar November 23 & 24 :: Closed regular business hours for Thanksgiving holiday. December 22 & 25 :: Closed regular business hours for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. January 1 :: Closed regular business hours for New Year's Day.