Common Sense Energy Policy for the United States

With November fast approaching I decided to put down two proposals for changes to energy policy that actually will work. Not a list of pie in the sky renewable utopia concepts that have no chance of ever impacting the energy position of the United States in the global economy… Step 1:
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How expensive is a new CSR?

Contact centers have a lot of daily challenges and high on the list is hiring, training and retaining a consistently high-performing organization of customer service agents (CSRs). The technology solutions and procedures chosen to enable, track, and manage the contact center can have
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3 Key Barriers in seeking to improve call center operations

The absence of relevant metrics and process documentation can lead to call center managers and operators being lulled into a false sense of security. Call centers routinely collect data on “average” performance, such as average handle time, average speed of answer and aver
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Hidden time thieves in your call center

Is it the complex telephony infrastructure? Are your IVR menus too complicated? Too many levels? Is the skill based routing off? Hunt groups are setup wrong? Possibly, but these issues jump off the page and if your call center was having this type of issue, the KPI’s wouldn’t li
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What will drive Demand Response adoption

I just finished reading a good article by Kate Rowland at Intelligent Utility about the future of Demand Response 2.0.  Most agree that it is one of the keys to a smarter grid, but how to engage customers and drive adoption is still a work in progress. As I have worked with clients an
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Texas winter storms 2011 rolling blackouts, are the energy companies to blame?

by Adam Cox   Where was Smart Grid and why didn’t it help?   Well now the rubber has really met the road. For the past 24 months consumers have been hearing about Smart Grid, Sustainable Communities, Energy Conservation, etc…and how the grid can now heal itself, blah, blah, blah and t
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I saw the weather forecast, did you?

By Stephen Daniels Why didn’t my utility see this coming? I saw the news. “Winter Blast 2011″… “Lay in heavy supplies, this one is going to be a bear”…”Colder in Dallas than it is in Anchorage today”. So, I prepared. I rushed to th
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Smart Meter deployment creates consumer concerns

Smart Grid and smart meters hold the promise of long term consumption management and reduction but how reliable is the new technology? Recently consumers in California have contended that the new meters do not capture consumption at the same rate as traditional meters and have resulte
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Why put an IHD in the home?

This question has been floating around for a while now and with the grant release recently it seems like a good time to address this issue. Couple of interesting facts about smart phones and the market forecast for adoption: 1. GSM and Smart Phones combined made up 63% of the world ma
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Smart Grid…where do you start?

In discussions with various utilities and listening to other vendors providing both products and services over the past couple of years I hear a common question, “how do we get started?” Smart Grid creates a unique challenge, mainly based on the fact that the scope of a gi
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