Seamless Provisioning and Billing Accuracy Speeds Time to Market

They needed a way to add, provision and bill for video services on customers’ existing utility account.  Enter ETI Software with a proven and pre-integrated solution that greatly speeded their time to market.

CDE Lightband is a public power provider owned by the people of Clarksville, TN the fifth largest city in the state and one of the fastest growing in the nation.  Initially formed in 1938 to provide light and power to a rural community, today CDE directly connects 68,000 households and businesses providing high-speed, reliable utilities over a world class fiber optic network.

CDE Lightband wanted to augment, rather than replace, their existing billing and financial system but it was not set up for the addition of broadband services especially video.  They needed a way to add, provision and bill for video services on customers’ existing utility account.  Enter ETI Software with a proven and pre-integrated solution that greatly speeded their time to market.  With ETI, CDE was able to automate provisioning, work seamlessly with high numbers of service activations and deactivations and provide accurate customer billing on their utility bills.

Even though CDE was “flying blind”, according to Christy Batts, Broadband Division Director, ETI Software was easy to learn and use.  Implementation was smooth and they were able to build and set up bundles for specific target audiences in a day and then implement them the next.  From pricing, to packaging and work orders, ETI enabled CDE to integrate its IT and billing systems for video services quickly and easily.  This resulted in CDE launching services faster, driving efficiency, and reducing not only capital expenses but ongoing operational costs.

“ETI is so flexible that it future-proofed our service activations and evolved with us. We were able to build and implement just what we needed the initial first few years and then when we were doubling our customer base every year, ETI’s software was able to grow and develop with us … and still has to this day,” said Christy Batts, Broadband Division Director.

In spite of the market’s almost constant churn, CDE Lightband has grown the broadband business by 8% per year – performing as many as 750 new customer connects each month.  ETI Software’s automated solution manages these subscribers, services and devices and enables CDE to bill accordingly on one consolidated utility statement.   And notwithstanding the younger population’s tendency towards cord-cutting, video continues to pay for itself.

Over the years, ETI Software and CDE Lightband have steadily developed a relationship built on trust. “A relationship,” Christy Batts said, “that you can’t put a value on.  It’s so important to have strong, lasting partnerships with the people that we serve and the people [ETI] that serve us.”