CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
title
Approve the award of Single Source Procurement 26-107, PowerAssist Outage Management Services, to Util-Assist for an amount not to exceed $128,000 and for a two-year term (Item 1 of 2)
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DEPARTMENT: Electric Utility
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Groth, Director
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
The other related item on the City Council agenda is:
* 26-0393: Waive the first reading and pass the ordinance amending Section 8-0.5 (Naperville Public Utilities Customer Bill of Rights) of the Naperville Municipal Code to add outage management services as a permitted third-party service (requires six positive votes) (Item 2 of 2)
In late 2020, the non-emergency City Dispatch moved from the Police Department and merged with the Finance Call Center with the vision of serving as a broader customer service center. City Dispatch provided 24/7 non-emergency customer service and internal service support for Water, Electric and DPW, while the Finance Call Center only provided customer service during normal business hours.
Since that time, the newly consolidated Call Center has operated 24/7/365 and is available to submit service requests for Water, Electric and DPW, answer general inquiries about City services, report power outages, and assist residents with utility and other billing issues. The Call Center also serves an internal service role, completing after-hour callouts for Water, Electric and DPW, triaging power outages with Electric, and providing administrative support.
Multiple long-tenured City Dispatch employees have retired since 2021. In recent years, the Call Center has struggled with the following:
* both recruitment and retention,
* 24/7 operation challenges,
* the number of systems used by Call Center representatives,
* challenging customer interactions,
* inconsistent and varying services provided to departments, and
* legacy responsibilities.
Staff from every City department, led by the City ...
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