The City of Cleveland’s Department of Water Utilities (CWD) is one of the ten largest water utilities in the nation. RNR Consulting was engaged for the first phase of a four-phased project to assist in the search for a new Customer Information System/Customer Relationship Management System (CIS/CRM) for CWD. The purpose of this first phase was to create the requirements for a new CIS/CRM system for inclusion in an RFP. RNR Consulting was charged with the tasks of performing a Feasibility Study and assisting another vendor in multiple activities related to the project.

The scope of the CIS/CRM Feasibility Study was to identify and document CWD’s business needs relative to the maintenance of customer information, computation and issuance of bills, record of payments, and the maintenance of a record of customer correspondence and interactions. RNR Consulting identified and documented the business needs of CWD for each of these functional areas. The project team conducted workshops focused on the CIS/CRM architecture in order to identify the requirements necessary for integration of a CIS/CRM system with CWD’s existing software systems. As part of the workshop activities, RNR Consulting created process maps to document the “As-Is” and “To-Be” processes at CWD, while simultaneously identifying the requirements definitions of CWD for the CIS/CRM system. These workshops provided valuable insight into the current and future customer expectations, availability of customer information, and a means of access to pertinent information in the proposed CIS/CRM System.

Another vital initiative of the project was to assess the feasibility of the implementation of a One-Stop Payment Center. RNR Consulting interviewed the CWD Stakeholders in order to identify and document their needs relative to a One-Stop Payment Center. RNR Consulting also conducted research to identify the resources required by CWD to implement and support a One-Stop Payment Center. A key piece of this assessment was the financial analysis conducted by RNR Consulting.