News
City of Saskatoon Goes Live with Selectron’s Interactive Utility and Tax Solutions.
PORTLAND, OREGON — August 30, 2005 — Selectron Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of interactive voice, web, and mobile solutions for public sector clients throughout North America, announced the successful implementation of Selectron’s VoiceUtility™ and VoiceTax™ interactive voice response (IVR) systems for the City of Saskatoon today. With over 80,000 utility accounts and 66,000 tax accounts, Saskatoon’s new system will help more than 600 customers and citizens each day by allowing them to check on their utility and tax bills through a user-friendly voice menu system over their phone. The system includes speech recognition so users can simply speak the menu numbers to access the information they need, or they may use their touch-tone keypad to navigate through the system.
“One of the greatest
challenges for the project was the compressed time schedule,” says Todd
Johnston, President and CEO of Selectron Technologies. “The City of Saskatoon
uses a custom billing database, and their former IVR provider’s lease was set to
expire. Normally, given the complexity, size, and scope of the project, a
timeline of less than 60 days to implement such a project – including the latest
in speech recognition technology – would be prohibitive. We appreciated that
both organizations were able to work together effectively to meet the high
expectations of the City.”
“We are just delighted with
Selectron’s performance on this critical project,” states Judi Morin, Project
Manager with the City of Saskatoon. “Not only did they present the most
cost-effective bid, their proposal offered a feature-rich, enterprise-wide
solution using state-of-the-art technology that will allow the City to fully
leverage its investment. We were able to place both applications on a single
server, for example, and will be able to add on other applications in the
future. There were no outage complaints during the transition, and we have a
combined 146,000 utility and tax accounts. Best of all, our customers are
enjoying the new speech recognition capabilities, which give them the option of
using the system by talking into their receiver or using their touchtone
keypad.”
Now that the first phase of
the project is completed, Selectron and the City are working on phase two, which
will deploy Selectron’s Dynamic Information System (DIS) and Meter Reading
modules. The DIS module will allow callers to access pre-recorded messages on
procedures and policy, where they can pay their bills or pick up forms. The
Meter Reading module will assist rural customers who must report their meter
readings to the City each month. Once installed, these customers will be able to
call in and report their meter readings whenever is most convenient, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, without the need to speak to City staff during regular
business hours.
Saskatoon is centrally
located in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, just 780 kilometers northwest
of Winnipeg, a little over 520 kilometers southeast of Edmonton, and just over
300 kilometers north of the U.S. border. It is Saskatchewan’s largest city, with
a population of 205,900 and growing. Saskatoon is also home to the University of
Saskatchewan, which is the only university in Canada to house all five health
science colleges and a major teaching hospital on the same campus. Innovation
Place, located on the university grounds, is one of the most successful
university related research parks in North America. Saskatoon is also considered
to be the agriculture biotechnology capital of Canada, with Saskatchewan growing
half of the entire quantity of Canada’s major export crops.
About Selectron Technologies, Inc.
Selectron Technologies, Inc. is the industry-leading provider of
interactive voice, web, and mobile solutions for government
agencies. Its
extensive product suite helps increase staff efficiency, reduce
infrastructure cost, and ensure customer satisfaction. Equipped with
the industry's top talent, proven methodologies, and nearly twenty
years of experience, Selectron offers innovative and cost-effective
interactive solutions that can benefit any municipal department –
building and planning, business licensing, elections, courts and
citations, taxation, utility billing/finance, zoning, and more.
For further information please contact us.