STATE COLLEGE, Pa., March 3, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The City of Tucson, AZ, has revamped its energy management program following a successful two-year software implementation. The City went from a limited spreadsheet system to a full-blown utility bill management solution through a process that led to many discoveries and efficiency improvements.
"Previously, our organization had very poor transparency of our utility expenditures at the departmental and building levels." said Jason Laros, Tucson's City Energy Manager. "They were paid centrally and budgeted in silos. We wanted an energy management system to assist in streamlining an audit process, as well as help us do proactive energy management."
A new Case Study from EnergyCAP, Inc., titled Tucson Two-Step, walks the reader through the implementation process for this large municipality (population 525,000+).
"We spent time meeting with every stakeholder department and looking through every utility account," said Laros. "Most departments … did not have transparency about their utility consumption. The bills would just go to central Accounts Payable (AP) and get paid, then the amount paid would be withdrawn from the linked department's account balance. There was nobody doing a review of the utility bills. There was nobody really watching. So we sat down with each stakeholder and helped them look through every account that we felt they owned, and that yielded many conversations and opened many eyes."
Tucson's staff set and then adjusted the implementation scope, worked with other departments to develop process improvements in handling utility billing data, enhanced existing accounting practices, and raised energy awareness. As a result, the City is anticipating monthly savings of 20 hours just on labor associated with internal billing processes, and the City's substantial solar investment (15 solar sites) is being integrated into energy tracking.
The software implementation was also a catalyst for increasing the visibility of the energy management program city-wide, and resulted in a strategic improvement in the location of the energy management office in the City's political hierarchy.
You can download a copy of the Case Study here.
About EnergyCAP, Inc.
For more than 30 years, the award-winning EnergyCAP software has helped 10,000 energy managers to track more than $25 billion in energy spending. EnergyCAP utility bill and energy management software helps users get value from their utility bills and meter data. Software features include bill entry (manual, spreadsheet import, and EDI), bill tracking, an optional AP/GL interface, customizable bill approval workflow, audits, rate schedules, interval and production data tracking, cost avoidance (M &V), issue tracking, submeter tracking, virtual meter formulas, re-billing, greenhouse gas tracking, 300+ reports, automated ENERGY STAR building data submittal, building benchmarking, and graphical PowerViews. Discover why EnergyCAP is America's #1 utility bill management software at http://www.EnergyCAP.com.
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