highlights - national information solutions cooperative · pdf filehighlights technology moves...

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HighlightsTechnology moves quickly, and to stay ahead of the game, we have to be agile as well. Luckily, we have a great resource to help us continually improve our solutions and launch new, innovative programs: You, our Members and Customers. Together, we can imagine what the future will hold, aspire to meet the challenges of today’s utility and telecom industries and achieve the goals that will help guide us into the future.

At the 2015 Member Information Conference, you’ll have the opportunity to attend learning sessions that will help you leverage the power of iVUE® to achieve new levels of efficiency and better communication. You’ll hear not only from NISC, but from your peers - our NISC Members - to learn new and innovative ways to get the most from your NISC solutions. Through collaboration, we can leverage not only the power of iVUE, but also use our imaginations to aspire to do great things - and achieve them - together.

MICFestWhile the MIC is all about learning, we know you need some time to unwind, catch up with your friends and of course, eat. At MICFest, our evening entertainment on Day 2, you’ll be able to do just that. The new MICFest format was introduced last year, and the positive response was beyond measure! The 2015 MICFest will once again feature a variety of food stations set up throughout the banquet hall at the Hyatt Regency and a performance from The Brian Young Band. The band is lead by Young, an employee of Nolin RECC which is headquartered in Elizabethtown, KY and a long time Member of NISC. They specialize in rock, blues, country and bluegrass music. For those of you who joined us last year, you may recall The Brian Young Band bringing down the house. They did such a fantastic job, they are returning as the headlining act at this year’s MICFest! The evening will close with a DJ and dancing.

The NISC Partner PavilionLast year’s Partner Pavilion showcased many of NISC’s offerings sharing a space that included over 30 of our closest partners in our first true exhibition experience. This year’s 2015 MIC Partner Pavilion will be even better with new exhibit configurations to ensure that you get to know NISC’s trusted technology partners and get great hands-on experience with NISC’s solutions.

Mini SessionsAt the 2015 MIC, you’ll have the opportunity to attend classes that will increase your knowledge of iVUE. We know that you won’t have an opportunity to attend every available session, so with that in mind, we’ll be providing mini-sessions on some of our more popular topics. These mini sessions will be shortened versions of our larger sessions, located in the Pavilion Theater within the NISC Partner Pavilion. Check the session agenda for details!

“Your Winner Within,” Featuring Holly HoffmanTo close out the 2015 MIC, you’ll hear from Holly Hoffman, Survivor Nicaragua Finalist and motivational and inspirational speaker. Born and raised in Eureka, South Dakota, Hoffman was the last woman standing on Season 21 of the CBS hit reality show Survivor. Throughout that experience, and others throughout her life, Holly was inspired to share her message of positivity, determination and confidence with business leaders, teachers and students across the nation. The author of Your Winner Within, Holly acknowledges that life is made up of challenges, but within each of us is an ability to focus our thoughts, emotions and energy to succeed – if only we have the knowledge, tools and discipline to do so. We’ll also recognize our award winners and close with some remarks from President and CEO Vern Dosch and door prizes.

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WEEKS ONE & TWOPre-ConferenceTuesday, September 22 & Sunday, September 278:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Advisory Committees (Week 1 only) Hyatt Regency7:00 a.m. - 9:00p.m. Registration Opens Hyatt Regency7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Skyline Welcome Reception Hyatt Regency

Day OneWednesday, September 23 & Monday, September 286:30 a.m. Shuttles Depart from Hyatt & Hilton to America’s Center7:00 a.m. - 7:45 a.m. Registration Opens America’s Center8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. Opening General Session America’s Center9:15 a.m. Partner Pavilion Opens America’s Center9:45 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. Concurrent Sessions America’s Center10:50 a.m. - 11:55 a.m. Utility General Session America’s Center11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Lunch Adjacent to the Partner Pavilion America’s Center12:45 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. Telecom General Session America’s Center1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions America’s Center4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Partner Reception America’s Center5:30 p.m. Last Shuttle Departs from America’s Center to Hyatt & Hilton 5:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Tours and Activities Hyatt Regency

Day TwoThursday, September 24 & Tuesday, September 296:30 a.m. Shuttles Depart from Hyatt & Hilton to America’s Center8:00 a.m. Partner Pavilion Opens America’s Center8:30 a.m. - 4:05 p.m. Concurrent Sessions America’s Center11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Lunch Adjacent to Partner Pavilion America’s Center5:30 p.m. Last Shuttle Departs from America’s Center to Hyatt & Hilton America’s Center6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. MICFest: Fun, Food and Friends Hyatt Regency

Day ThreeFriday, September 25 & Wednesday, September 307:30 a.m. Breakfast Hyatt Regency8:15 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. MIC Member Experience Awards Hyatt Regency9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Holly Hoffman - Closing Session Hyatt Regency10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Prizes and Closing Comments Hyatt Regency

• Continuous shuttle service between Hyatt, Hilton & America’s Center from 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Day 1 and 2.

• Advisory Committee Meetings and the pre-conference Networking Social in the Skyline Terrace will take place at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch.

• The 2015 MIC Registration Office will be located on the 4th floor of the Hyatt adjacent to the Grand Ballroom during the preconference events, and it will be located in the America’s Center in Room 116, adjacent to the Partner Pavilion on Day 1.

• The Closing Session with buffet breakfast and Keynote Speaker will take place at the Hyatt on Day 3.

Agenda

Sessions

Engineering & OperationsMiscellaneous

Repeat Sessions

Tech Services TU

Telecom Sessions OnlyUtility Sessions Only

Accounting & BusinessCustomer Care & Billing

Member Experience Sessions

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Thank you for checking out the details of the 2015 MIC sessions. Planning is still underway and the specific times of some sessions may change. Be sure to download the MIC Conference app when it’s available in August for updated session times.

7:00 a.m. - 7:50 a.m.Quintrex Users - Helping You Navigate MIC & More MISC-090TELECOM ONLY As a Quintrex user are you unsure of what iVUE sessions to attend or have trouble understanding some of the iVUE terminology that is used at the MIC? If so, this session is for you. Come to this informal session to mingle with other Quintrex Members and catch up with many of your favorite staff members. They can recommend key sessions to attend, bridge the gap on any terminology questions you have, and discuss our approach for helping make your migration to iVUE a success.

8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.Opening General Session Opening General SessionTELECOM & UTILITY | Ferrara TheaterIt’s 2015 and technology is moving faster and becoming integrated into our day-to-day lives than ever before. Join Vern Dosch, President and CEO of NISC as he addresses current technology trends and the impact they may have on our industry during the Opening General Session. In addition to technology trends, Vern will discuss the importance of being a part of an organization like NISC, one with Members leading innovation and how we are wired differently. Also taking the stage will be several NISC vice presidents discussing why Member Engagement is more important than ever and

where NISC’s latest innovations are taking your organization into the future.

9:45 a.m. - 10:35 a.m.ABS Tips N Tricks* ABS-100TELECOM & UTILITY You are an accounting expert. You have access to every resource to manage your tasks efficiently. Join us as we challenge you to find ways to work smarter, not harder. Are you up for the challenge to share and learn something new…and work more efficiently?

Barcoding & Material Vendor Integration ABS-101TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: West River Electric Association, People’s Electric Cooperative

Week 2: Nueces Electric Cooperative, Wisconsin Rapids Water Works & Lighting CommissionIf you are curious how ABS integrates with various material vendors as well as material barcoding--this session is for you. Learn how you can eliminate double data entry by using an import function. We’ll discuss common integration points with Material Inventory, Purchase Order, Accounts Payable and Work Order.

ABS Enhancements - What’s New Since MIC 2014* ABS-102TELECOM & UTILITY Do you read the ABS release notes and wonder how the enhancement will impact your daily tasks? Do you have a hard time keeping up with changes? Join us for a high-level overview of how recent enhancements can improve your organization’s work flows and help you day-to-day.

Let Your Customers Make the Call Using Secure Payments CC&B-104TELECOM ONLY Week 1 & 2: North Dakota TelephoneMake the most of your Secure Payments features by attending this session. Would you like to modify the prompts in Secure Payments to make them more customized for your company? Has your manager asked for trends with Secure Payments? What is this PIN number we have to enter and where can I change the defaults? Attend this session to learn the answers to these questions and more! The entire functionality of Secure Payments will be reviewed, in addition to enhancements made this past year. A Member will also present how Secure Payments has proven effective in their office, how they marketed it, and how they overcame challenges along the way.

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9:45 a.m. - 10:35 a.m. continued

Everyone Will Clap When They See The iVUE Telecom Roadmap CC&B-105TELECOM ONLY Software enhancments scheduled for the upcoming software development cycle will be reviewed. You will see how our commitment to enhancing the iVUE enterprise will make you even more efficient.

Securing Your Cloud Applications CC&B-110TELCOM & UTILITY The cloud is quickly becoming the most popular way to store data, but many people have one question: How do I provide adequate access for my employees without jeopardizing security? We will explain how cloud security is integrated with the iVUE security model and cover best practices.

Proactive Customer Engagement with MDMS CC&B-108UTILITY ONLY Beat the negative high-bill complaint and learn to build a lifelong customer using NISC’s MDMS solution. This session takes you through the steps to proactively communicate with your customers, increase engagement and keep your customers happy.

The Utility Solutions Roadmap CC&B-109UTILITY ONLY This session shares the latest updates to NISC’s iVUE system and describes some of the upcoming changes you’ll see in our upcoming software releases.

The Facility Management Tool Shop E&O-112TELCOM ONLY During this session learn about several tools that will help you keep up with the fast paced Telecom industry. Using tools like the Equipment/Cable Load, Switch Cut and Network ID Assign processes, you will be able to keep up-to-date records no matter how many projects your company is juggling.

Engineering & Operations - Technology Today & Roadmaps of the Future E&O-114TELCOM & UTILITYDaily operations should be efficient, well communicated and streamlined, allowing you to quickly and safely react to unforeseen situations as they arise. Join NISC’s E&O Product Managers as they discuss new tools, emerging technologies and features being researched and developed to improve your processes. This session discusses the bigger picture of iVUE and also helps you understand the value gained by continuously improving engineering and operations efficiencies.

Stay at the Top of Your Game with the NISC Community & Pathways MISC-117TELCOM & UTILITY The NISC Community & Pathways can help you win at your job! Find out how you can come out on top by leveraging the knowledge and collaboration opportunities of more than 20,000 Community users and accessing the nearly 1,000 online learning courses.

Introduction & Overview of Document Vault MISC-120TELECOM & UTILITY Join us in this session to learn about the current features of Document Vault, NISC’s document imaging product. Discover different methods of attaching and searching for documents, including scanning, browsing, drag and drop as well as importing. We will also explore the Document Vault Administration tool used to manage document access and end user permissions.

Securing Your Cloud Applications TECH-110TELCOM & UTILITY The cloud is quickly becoming the most popular way to store data, but many people have one question: How do I provide adequate access for my employees without jeopardizing security? We will explain how cloud security is integrated with the iVUE security model and cover best practices.

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Introduction & Overview of Document Vault TECH-120TELECOM & UTILITY Join us in this session to learn about the current features of Document Vault, NISC’s document imaging product. Discover different methods of attaching and searching for documents, including scanning, browsing, drag and drop as well as importing. We will also explore the Document Vault Administration tool used to manage document access and end user permissions.

10:50 a.m. - 11:55 a.m.Answering Industry Issues with Innovation Utility General SessionUTILITY ONLY | Ferrara Theater If the ever-changing utility landscape has provided us with anything over the past year, it’s questions. Where are we headed? What are we going to do to stay ahead of the curve? Many of these questions can be answered with one thing: Innovation. Staying ahead of the curve can help us not only provide excellent levels of customer service and gain operational efficiencies, but help us stay prepared for the unexpected. Join us for the Utility General Session where the NISC staff will discuss these industry challenges and how NISC solutions can help you answer these industry issues with innovation.

10:50 a.m. - 11:40 a.m.Telecom Introduction to NISC Accounting Solutions ABS-200TELECOM ONLY In today’s economic environment, constant monitoring of your telecom’s financial situation is critical. This session is designed for NISC guests and anyone looking to become familiar with NISC’s accounting solutions. The session provides an introduction to the capabilities and features available to help your telecom utilize integration, work more efficiently and reduce data entry. A high level overview of all modules will be covered.

Telecom Billing Accounts Receivable & GL Integration ABS-205TELECOM ONLY Week 1: Northwest Communications, Prairie Grove Telephone | Week 2: NISCLet’s talk about integration and balancing our Billing AR. We will share reasons the SIS and GL end up out of balance, what tools are available to reconcile daily, and a Member’s experience going to live integration.

A First Look at Query Builder CC&B-204TELECOM ONLY Ever wonder what that Query Builder button at the top of your screen in SIS is? Then this session is for you! This session covers the basics of using Query Builder to mine the customer data in iVUE. Beginners to Query Builder see how to access it, write some simple queries, sort/configure the columns and manipulate the data in Excel. Become your telecom’s next Data Master!

Telecom Billing Accounts Receivable & GL Integration CC&B-205TELECOM ONLY Week 1: Northwest Communications | Week 2: Prairie Grove TelephoneLet’s talk about integration and balancing our Billing AR. We will share reasons the SIS and GL end up out of balance, what tools are available to reconcile daily, and a Member’s experience going to live integration.

SwitchTalk² Tool Shop E&O-207TELECOM ONLY Join us for an in-depth discussion about SwitchTalk2 audits. Learn about the advantages of managing audits and how they can provide many benefits to your organization. An NISC member will join the conversation to provide their perspective on how SwitchTalk2 auditing is utilized to assist within their organization.

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DAY ONE10:50 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. continued

Maintain Reliable Access to NISC’s Cooperative Cloud with Ecessa ISP Load Balancing TECH-212TELECOM & UTILITY Learn how Ecessa products can grow with your IT needs. As more and more organizations rely on critical Cloud applications for their computing needs, Ecessa solutions can deliver reliable business Internet connectivity to maximize the availability of your Cloud applications, including those available via the NISC Cooperative Cloud.

12:45 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.Taking Efficiency and Customer Service to the Next Level Telecom General SessionTELECOM ONLY | Ferrara Theater The telecom industry is evolving quickly: Competition is getting tougher, customer expectations are getting higher and your telecom is rolling out more service offerings than ever before. It is imperative that staff operates at the most efficient levels possible. But what more can be done to truly increase productivity, reduce costs and keep your customers satisfied? Join us for the Telecom General Session as the NISC staff discusses the newest solutions currently available, and those in development, that can help you take your quest for efficiency and superior customer service to the next level. See first-hand the newest, invaluable solutions that will help you explore your business performance, better track your sales process and put the power of knowledge and self-service in your customers’ hands.

1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. Utility Introduction to NISC Accounting Solutions ABS-300UTILITY ONLY NISC’s accounting products ensure that through the use of financial controls, you are on track with your utility’s financial goals. This session is designed for NISC guests and anyone looking to become familiar with NISC’s accounting solutions. The session provides an introduction to the capabilities and features available to help your utility utilize integration, work more efficiently and reduce data entry. A high level overview of all modules will be covered.

CC&B to GL Reconciling Tips at Month End/Year End ABS-301UTILITY ONLY Do you have difficulty proving account receivable balances coming from CC&B to your auditors? Learn about several reports that can assist in this task. Walk through the steps to consider to put together a month end/year end reconciliation of Accounts Receivable between CC&B and GL. Gather and share tips to help streamline this very important task.

CC&B to GL Reconciling Tips at Month End/Year End CC&B-301UTILITY ONLY Do you have difficulty proving account receivable balances coming from CC&B to your auditors? Learn about several reports that can assist in this task. Walk through the steps to consider to put together a month end/year end reconciliation of Accounts Receivable between CC&B and GL. Gather and share tips to help streamline this very important task.

How to Use iVUE for CC&B Training (Week 1 Only) CC&B-305UTILITY ONLY Johnson City Power BoardThis session discusses the challenges faced by Johnson City Power Board in training when they switched to NISC and how they overcame these challenges. This session shows how JCPB used several different screens and many of their training classes such as Budget, Deposits, Service Orders and Payment Arrangements to explain iVUE to employees in order to help them understand and use the solution to its fullest.

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1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. continued

Taking iVUE to the Next Level with New iVUE Tools* CC&B-306UTILITY ONLY You won’t want to miss this session! Find out about the latest development with NISC’s iVUE Enterprise System, taking iVUE to a new world where you’ll be able to access it through a secure, online platform. This session showcases the latest solution from NISC and how it can help you take iVUE to the next level.

Introduction to Prepaid CC&B-307UTILITY ONLY Prepaid metering has helped NISC’s Members reduce write-off debt and increase customer satisfaction. This session introduces prepaid metering, describing benefits and how it helps you and for your customers.r.

Leveraging Messenger for Your Organization CC&B-312UTILITY ONLY iVUE Messenger is a powerful tool that every organization can employ to increase their marketing power and through using engagement analytics monitor their efforts. In this session, NISC staff will walk through how Messenger integrates with applications across the enterprise, how to manage messages and report on your customer engagement.

Maximizing the Outage Management System (OMS)* E&O-309UTILITY ONLY Maximize the power of your outage management system. iVUE OMS is constantly evolving, therefore staying on top of new functionality can be challenging. This session dives into recent enhancements, including switching management and suggestive switching. iVUE OMS is more than just an office tool. With the addition of the OMS Web Client and iVUE AppSuite, outages can be managed in various ways. Stop by to ensure you are getting the most out of the OMS toolset.

MDMS-DA Implementation and Data Cleanup* E&O-310UTILITY ONLY MDMS-DA implementations are well underway! What can you do to ensure your data is ready when the time has come to kick off your implementation? This session reviews relevant data necessary for a successful Distribution Analytics model creation from MapWise.

Leveraging Messenger for Your Organization MISC-312UTILITY ONLY iVUE Messenger is a powerful tool that every organization can employ to increase their marketing power and through using engagement analytics monitor their efforts. In this session, NISC staff will walk through how Messenger integrates with applications across the enterprise, how to manage messages and report on your customer engagement.

Virtualizing Using the New Dell VRTX TECH-314TELECOM & UTILITY A recent InfoWorld 2014 Technology of the Year award winner, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX integrates servers, storage, networking and management together into a single compact chassis. Pairing this hardware platform with VMware provides a powerful virtualization infrastructure ideal for small to medium-sized organizations. In this session learn how the VRTX has been deployed at a Member site to deliver an all-in-one virtual solution.

2:05 p.m. - 2:55 p.m.ABS iVUE Roadmap Plans ABS-400TELECOM & UTILITY Get insight into what’s coming soon! Learn about upcoming features and the future direction for the iVUE accounting solution. Learn how you can use these new solutions to solve current challenges in your office.

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Better Manage Payroll to Make Year-End Run Smoothly ABS-402TELECOM & UTILITY Join us in this Payroll/Labor support topics session to review the changes associated with Year-End as well as what should be reviewed and balanced. Also learn our best practice for balancing throughout the year. Discover what recent and upcoming changes in Payroll will assist in your payroll routines. Please bring questions for an open discussion.

Capital Credit Tips & Tricks/ABS Integration ABS-405TELECOM ONLY Looking for a refresher or helpful tips on Telecom Capital Credits? This session covers common questions as well as the integration with ABS. Topics include: Estate Retirements, Allocation Statements, General Retirement Check Print, voiding a check to Unclaimed using ABS Bank Reconciliation, and reissuing a capital credit check. Useful information when providing statements and checks to your co-op members.

Leverage NISC LeadAgent to Streamline the Sales Process* CC&B-404TELECOM ONLY Week 1: Great Plains Communicatons | Week 2: Adams Telephone CooperativeIn this session learn how two Members have used NISC LeadAgent to streamline their sales and project management processes. NISC LeadAgent will be demonstrated, and we’ll focus on using it to build automation, workflows and approval processes for sales teams, eliminating all manual tracking.

Capital Credit Tips & Tricks/ABS Integration CC&B-405TELECOM ONLY Looking for a refresher or helpful tips on Telecom Capital Credits? This session covers common questions as well as the integration with ABS. Topics include: Estate Retirements, Allocation Statements, General Retirement Check Print, voiding a check to Unclaimed using ABS Bank Reconciliation, and reissuing a capital credit check. Useful information when providing statements and checks to your co-op members.

Verify Your Customers’ Payments with Verifone CC&B-408TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: Cass County Electric, 3 Rivers Telephone | Week 2: Cass County Electric, NorvadoThe Verifone card readers are a great, secure way to take credit card payments at your office. During this session, NISC Members describe the benefits and security they’ve seen after installing and using the Verifone solution at their organizations.

It’s a Big AMI Project & NISC is Here to Help CC&B-407UTILITY ONLY Moving to AMI meters can be a challenging task, but NISC is here to help. In this session hear about the shared process between NISC and Members, when the Member adds an AMI system. Learn how NISC can proactively help you prepare for the transition to AMI before your meters are even installed.

Advancing Your Annual Meeting with the Annual Meeting App CC&B-409UTILITY ONLY Week 1: Sioux Valley Energy | Week 2: Trico ElectricDo you lug equipment or books of paper to your annual meeting to register attendees? Are you ever unsure if you’ve reached a quorum? NISC’s Annual Meeting app puts the power to answer those questions in the palm of your hand. This session walks through the features of NISC’s new Annual Meeting app and how it can help you advance your Annual Meetings.

Redefining Daily Processes & Procedures E&O-412TELECOM ONLY Week 1: South Slope Communications | Week 2: Ben Lomand Rural Telephone CooperativeWeek 1: During this session hear how NISC Member, South Slope, implemented iVUE AppSuite for their technicians and the advantages of having iVUE AppSuite on smart devices to work and close trouble tickets.

Week 2: During this session hear NISC Member Ben Lomand discuss how they redefined their daily processes & procedures after switching to iVUE AppSuite. Service orders and trouble tickets had become an issue. The entire process was time consuming, resource consuming and dated. iVUE AppSuite helped Ben Lomand rebuild their entire ticket and order process from the ground up.

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MapWise Across the Enterprise* E&O-415TELECOM & UTILITY Are you taking advantage of everything MapWise has to offer? Join us for a discussion of how MapWise integrates into the iVUE Enterprise. This session covers several benefits of fully utilizing MapWise across your organization. Topics include building efficient maps for each mapping persona in the iVUE Enterprise.

Ensuring Accurate Connectivity & Clean Data in OMS Utilizing MapWise & CC&B E&O-414UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Rural Electric Convenience CoopOutages can occur at any time and to be ready for any situation that arises you need to have the most up-to-date and accurate model in OMS. This session reviews maintaining a clean connectivity model in MapWise, as well as keeping attributes in sync between MapWise, OMS and Customer Care & Billing. An accurate OMS Model is key to a successful utiity during heavy outage situations.

Implementing an Effective Vulnerability Management Program TECH-420TELECOM & UTILITY What is a vulnerability management program? How can one be part of your comprehensive information security program? In this session, learn what key components make up an effective vulnerability management program. And, find out what solutions are available from NISC to effectively mitigate your vulnerability risks.

3:10 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. New Member Panel ABS-500

TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: BENCO Electric Cooperative, Cairo Public Utility | Week 2: Hart Telephone Company, WTC CommunicationsAre you getting ready for an iVUE ABS implementation? Listen to those who have been there before! Learn from first-hand experiences of fellow accounting users who have successfully completed the transition smoothly to ABS. This is your opportunity to ask your colleagues questions regarding their strategy, planning, processes, data conversion, configuration, training and validation throughout the implementation process.

Financial Reporting Using Mapping ABS-501TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1 & 2: Midwest EnergyLearn how to leverage E&O MapWise data to automate and accurately report property tax and Form 7 information. Discover how this Member uses NISC solutions to eliminate redundant manual tracking of miles of lines and meters.

Reviewing Underutilized Features in Payroll ABS-502TELECOM & UTILITY Learn how to leverage standard processes to gain greater efficiency with day-to-day workflows. Discover how history screens can locate information such as how overheads were spread, reviewing taxes and taxable wages, and what activity impacted an individual’s paid time off balance. See what standard reports you should be using to understand or report where labor dollars/hours are charged and much more.

Query Builder Pro CC&B-504TELECOM ONLY Maximize your reporting needs by learning how other NISC Members are using the Query Builder to mine the data. Also learn how to use the Query Builder Report and create custom messages using Query Builder.

Process Mapping & Work Flow CC&B-505TELECOM ONLY Information needs to flow between departments: Customer Service to Plant to Accounting. Moving this information often presents challenges: what information is needed, who needs the information, how quickly is the information needed, etc. This session presents some techniques on mapping a process to determine the Who, What, Why and When and shows how iVUE Workflow can be used to automate parts of this information flow.

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The Path to PCI Compliance CC&B-508TELECOM & UTILITY Having PCI Compliant software and hardware is a great step on the path to becoming PCI Compliant…but it’s not the whole journey. This session walks through everything you need to ensure your organization is PCI Compliant and what that means for your customers.

New Developments in SmartHub to Maximize Your Customer Engagement CC&B-509TELECOM & UTILITY SmartHub is an easy-to-use tool for your customers to perform a variety of tasks…but are they getting the most out of it? Are there other ways they can use the solution to help them connect with you better and make their experience with your organization great? It’s likely that the answer to both of these questions is yes. This session reviews some of the ways your customers can better utilize SmartHub, creating a lasting connection with your organization.

Community Solar Garden Challenges CC&B-510UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: LaPlata Electric Association, Inc.When the board of LaPlata Electric Association moved forward with allowing Community Solar Gardens, the utility was challenged with getting transactions to work properly on the bill in a manner the members could easily understand it. Storing the kWh in a separate bank was critical. NISC provided custom programming enabling LPEA to calculate the CSG generation, bank appropriately and separately from net metering, and present the information to their members. Learn first-hand how LPEA faced challenges with Community Solar Gardens, how they overcame them and how you can too.

Utilizing Time of Use Rates in MDMS CC&B-511UTILITY ONLY Week 1: Oklahoma Electric Cooperative | Week 2: Hendricks Power CooperativeSit down with Oklahoma Electric Coop or Hendricks Power Coop, depending on the week you’re attending, to see how they implemented Time of Use rates for all their members. Both utilities chose to compute Time of Use information from hourly and 15 minute meter data utilizing the MDMS. They will share with you how they set up and computed the bills, shared information with members and other information about each of their projects.

Post-It Note Session: Facility Management, Trouble Management & SwitchTalk² E&O-512TELECOM ONLY This session is an open opportunity to network with NISC staff and fellow users. Please bring a topic from the Telecom-Engineering and Operational world that you would like to discuss. With a room full of industry knowledge, you are guaranteed to gather and share great information during this session.

Financial Reporting Using Mapping E&O-501TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1 & 2: Midwest Energy Learn how to leverage E&O MapWise data to automate and accurately report property tax and Form 7 information. Discover how this Member uses NISC solutions to eliminate redundant manual tracking of miles of lines and meters.

Understanding MapWise Inspections* E&O-515TELECOM & UTILITY Staying on top of inspections in the field is a day-to-day job that never stops. With NISC’s MapWise Inspection feature in iVUE AppSuite, staying on top of inspections has become easier. Whether a standard pole inspection, joint-use audit or equipment inspection, AppSuite helps eliminate the paper forms and streamline the inspection process. With the ability to manage inspections on a smart device, live syncing from the field and auto-updating MapWise data, this daunting task has become more efficient.

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The Many Uses of NISC CallCapture* E&O-514UTILITY ONLY This session covers the many efficiencies gained when using NISC’s CallCapture solution within the iVUE Enterprise. When communicating with members/customers, having this phone option along with email and text offerings in NISC’s Messenger product, helps ensure you have flexible communication methods to meet your members/customers’ needs. We will review how to use CallCapture in current delinquent processes, allow members/customers to report outages, communicate outage statuses back to them, notify individuals when their prepaid balance is low, and the many other options that can be configured to keep members/customers informed and connected 24/7.

Developing & Implementing a Successful Technology Plan E&O-507TELECOM & UTILITY Dixie Electric Power AssociationAs a smart meter project at Dixie Electric introduced new opportunities to help them serve their members, they reached out and worked with NISC staff to identify NISC products and services that could also help increase their service to members. The end result: a multi-year technology plan. This session covers the discovery process Dixie Electric conducted with NISC, how Dixie determined which NISC products and services to include in the technology plan, and the tools they used to build the plan and communicate plan details to management. The presentation includes graphical representations of implementation schedules and product interdependencies as well as basic financial tools for vendor selection.

Just In Time Learning Solutions MISC-517TELECOM & UTILITY Providing over-the-shoulder training for every employee at your organization would be great, but not likely in the real world. Attend this session to hear how NISC resources can help your employees learn what to do when they need to do it. Bring your best practices for helping employees learn and find out how other Members and the NISC Learning Center approach just in time learning.

RemitPlus Remittance Processing Solution TECH-520TELECOM & UTILITY NISC and ProfitStars® have collaborated to bring the benefits of Check 21 Electronic Check Conversion to NISC Members and Customers! In this session discover how RemitPlus, an affordable, turnkey automated check-posting system, allows you to capture images of checks submitted for payments and post these payments to your customers’ accounts with efficiency and accuracy. ALSO, ProfitStars wants to hear from you! Bring your ideas for enhancements, and share your experiences with introducing RemitPlus into your daily processes.

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8:30 a.m. - 9:20 a.m. Fleet Management Service Codes ABS-600

TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: Holy Cross Energy | Week 2: NISCLearn how to track pending service, create service requests and view service history. This session covers basic service codes such as oil change, license and registration, and tire rotation for vehicles. We will expand on creating service codes to track for non-vehicle items such as generators and miscellaneous equipment. Document Vault for history and Integration areas will also be discussed.

Financial Reporting Options ABS-601TELECOM & UTILITY Have a financial reporting need? ABS has several options for generating financials. This session includes an overview of the standard financials available in ABS, including potentially underutilized reports such as the Directors’ Reports and Trailing 12-Month Income Statements. We will also discuss how to generate in-house financials using the ABS Financial Designer as well as custom options available through Crystal reporting.

Leveraging Features in Employee Self-Serve (ESS) and AppSuite ABS-602TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: United Power | Week 2: Lake Country PowerListen to a first-hand account of how Employee Self-Serve was implemented and is used at a Member site. Gain insight on tips and features that worked for them and how those features may work for your organization. Get introduced to features such as pay by exception, crew time entry or the ability to record and pay meals using ESS. Learn about Employee Self Serve features that are available for supervisors within iVUE AppSuite.

New Member Implementation CC&B-604TELECOM ONLY Week 1: South Slope Cooperative | Week 2: West Carolina Telephone NISC Members, who recently completed a Telecom Customer Care and Billing (CC&B) conversion/implementation, share their experiences of what worked well, what they would do differently and answer your questions to help you prepare for your conversion.

Enhanced Service Order Management* CC&B-605TELECOM ONLY So who’s looking for a fun and exciting way to up the ante in your everyday service order lives? Attend this session to see how the service order process is being enhanced to allow you to maintain multiple services with a single service order. See how key items you may be working on now will flow in the new enhanced service orders. Out with the old and in with the new! Learn some new ways to unleash this powerful enhancement coming with the year end release.

Making Commercial Billing Easy CC&B-608UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Jackson Purchase EnergyBilling commercial accounts is never an easy task, but Jackson Purchase Energy has made it a little easier through a a special Crystal Report they developed. The report shows all kWh, kW and KVA with at least three years of historical data on one page. In addition, they added other factors outlined in their tariffs such as power factor percentage, load factor and more. The report displays the calculated bill and how it will be based as far as the reading and Unwind Charges (additional bill calc charges) and taxes, allowing them to check these factors before setting up the billing. Attend this session and learn how Jackson Purchase is making commercial billing easy.

Prepaid: How YOU Doin’ CC&B-609UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: People’s Electric CooperativePresentations don’t have to be boring to be educational! By using “Friends” characters we know and love, we’ll walk through how to set up members on prepaid, its benefits, the (endless) questions of prepaid, what to do, what not to do, and why. People’s Electric presented on prepaid back in 2013 to a packed room. Many more utilities have implemented since People’s last presented, so it’s time for a good, ol’ fashioned update with a bit of fun. So to answer the question, “How YOU doin’?” Well, here’s how People’s doing prepaid and why you should too!

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Pay It Your Way with New Payment Solutions CC&B-610UTILITY ONLY Your customers want a variety of payment options, and with NISC’s suite of payment solutions, they’ll be able to pay the way they want. This session will walk through some of the latest payment options avialable and how these solutions benefit your customers and your organization.

iVUE AppSuite, The Engine Driving Your Company’s Success E&O-612TELECOM ONLY This session discusses iVUE AppSuite features available today as well as what lies ahead. If you have not had the opportunity to see AppSuite and what it can do to make your organization more agile, this session is for you.

GIS Data is KING! E&O-614TELECOM & UTILITY The foundation of effective and efficient GIS relies upon spatial data. GIS stores and visually represents data including assemblies, spans and overall connectivity. Accurate maps, based on up-to-date data in GIS, minimize resources used for installations, outages and repairs. Inaccurate or out-of-date GIS data can inhibit these efficiencies. By ensuring data accuracy, you can develop an effective GIS, leading to improved efficiency, productivity and increased customer satisfaction.

Work Management Solutions, Optimizing Your Field Operations E&O-615UTILITY ONLY Get the inside scoop for streamlining your processes, learn more about the top 10 proven workflow processes. Gain insight into why and how these processes are in place and improve efficiencies. Topics include: shortening your operational cycles, using SmartTrack to save time and communicate effectively across your organization, using the assignment perspective, and mobile solutions that empower and provide the relevant information to those out in the field, while ensuring the data gets back to iVUE quickly, securely and accurately.

CalltoOrder Meeting App MISC-617TELECOM & UTILITY Whether you are just thinking about going “paperless” with your board, or you have just taken the plunge and started using NISC’s CalltoOrder® meeting app, this session will benefit you. You’ll see the basic features of the app and also learn a few ideas on how to set up your meetings and store documents to best suit your needs. Join us to learn how CalltoOrder can increase efficiencies, reduce costs and change the way you prepare for your board meetings!

System Administrator’s Survival Guide - Part 1 TECH-620TELECOM & UTILITY Presented by the front lines of our iVUE Technical Support team, this session is a unique approach towards covering the top support opportunities our iVUE system administrators face. Last year’s session was so popular and full of good discussion, we decided to split this year’s session into two parts! Part 1 focuses on iVUE system monitoring and maintenance, backups and printing.

9:50 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.Balancing Subsidiaries to General Ledger ABS-701TELECOM & UTILITY Learn about the various reports used to balance subsidiary ledgers such as Accounts Payable, Asset Management, Material Inventory, and Work Order (among others) to the General Ledger. We will discuss how to best identify out of balance conditions and how to research potential balancing issues.

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Implementing Miscellaneous Receivables ABS-702TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: NISC | Week 2: Wheatland ElectricWheatland Electric, KS set up iVUE Miscellaneous Receivables (MR) from the ground up. With five divisions – each requiring a unique set up in MR for properly tracking revenue – a comprehensive plan was needed. In this session, learn how Wheatland worked with NISC staff to create a detailed plan for establishing account information, control groups, invoice groups and more to ensure a smooth implementation, and most importantly, efficient daily operations. Pam Brungardt of Wheatland says, “The amount of time I spent setting MR up has been worth every minute and has saved me hours of time in my daily workload.” Come hear about Wheatland’s experience and take home ideas for your implementation and/or use of MR.

Leverage NISC LeadAgent to Streamline the Sales Process* CC&B-704TELECOM ONLY Week 1: Great Plains Communicatons | Week 2: Adams Telephone CooperativeIn this session learn how two Members have used NISC LeadAgent to streamline their sales and project management processes. NISC LeadAgent willbe demonstrated, and we’ll focus on using it to build automation, workflows and approval processes for sales teams, eliminating all manual tracking.

Enhanced Service Order Management* CC&B-705TELECOM ONLY So who’s looking for a fun and exciting way to up the ante in your everyday service order lives? Attend this session to see how the service order process is being enhanced to allow you to maintain multiple services with a single service order. See how key items you may be working on now will flow in the new enhanced service orders. Out with the old and in with the new! Learn some new ways to unleash this powerful enhancement coming with the year end release.

Using the Power of MDMS for Business Information CC&B-708UTILITY ONLY This session describes some of the advanced analytical and reporting capabilities of NISC’s Meter Data Management System (MDMS). We’ll cover virutal meters, efficiency programs and other areas where MDMS data can help you make important business decisions and improve customer engagement.

Communicating Service Orders Through Messenger CC&B-710UTILITY ONLY Messenger is a great tool for communicating with your customers but are you using it for service orders? This session walks through the benefits of communicating service order information through Messenger and how it can help you improve customer service.

Utility Adding Fiber to the Home CC&B-711UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Midwest EnergySeveral NISC Members have embarked on projects that have enabled their customers to receive broadband, television and phone service through the fiber backbone that has been deployed. This Member session reviews the process and many of the lessons learned in this project.

Theory of Calix Smart Activate Utilizing the iVUE Enterprise Solution E&O-712TELECOM ONLY How can the iVUE Enterprise Solution help you streamline the Calix Smart Activate process and your fiber to home installs? We know you face a variety of challenges in this process, but with options in AppSuite, Customer Care and Billing, Facilities Management, SmartTrack and SwitchTalk2, efficiencies can be gained. Attend this session and be prepared to discuss your challenges and together we’ll identify possible ways those challenges can be met.

MDMS-DA Implementation and Data Cleanup* E&O-714UTILITY ONLY MDMS-DA implementations are well underway! What can you do to ensure that your data is ready when the time has come to kick off your implementation? This session reviews relevant data necessary for a successful Distribution Analytics model creation from MapWise.

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How to Empty Your File Drawers and Streamline Life Using iVUE Work Management E&O-715UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: San Isabel Electric AssociationJoin San Isabel Electric Association as they share how changing simple processes not only saved them time, but also money. Through using existing features in iVUE, San Isabel implemented work management tasks into many processes and implemented Contact Tracking. By empowering their employees and adopting best practices, their organization is able to think differently about the flow of their work and understand more about the tools in iVUE. Learn how San Isabel changed their processes through existing solutions and what lies ahead as they streamline more processes.

Telecom-AMS Experience MISC-717TELECOM ONLY

This session discusses ActivTrace - how to track mailings and how to retrieve addresses, full color printing and more.

Strategy Execution & Organizational Alignment MISC-718TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1 & 2: Powder River Energy CorporationThis presentation focuses on one cooperative’s recent journey of defining and executing strategy in a way that aligned and enabled employees to be engaged in the process. The steps of that journey will be summarized and insights provided regarding some of the tools, techniques and approaches that were utilized along the way. Key success factors will be shared as well as some lessons learned that will hopefully benefit others that are on this same journey. Some of those success stories include how tools such as NISC’s Work Management solution delivered breakthrough results after being driven by key strategic initatives and benchmarks to improve service to the cooperative membership. In addition, this presentation provides background into how NISC’s new Business Intelligence initiative could provide a foundation for identifying and tracking key metrics to measure the progress of implementing core strategic objectives.

System Administrator’s Survival Guide - Part 2 TECH-720TELECOM & UTILITY Presented by the front lines of our iVUE Technical Support team, this session is a unique approach towards covering the top support opportunities our iVUE system administrators face. Last year’s session was so popular and full of good discussion, we decided to split this year’s session into two parts! Part 2 focuses on iVUE client and connectivity for Cloud applications. We’ll review the iVUE System Administrator’s Survival Guide, our technical repository aimed at arming you with the information and training tools needed to manage your iVUE systems.

10:55 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.Successes in Bank Reconciliation ABS-800

TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: United Power, CO | Week 2: Hart TelephoneWondering why you should start using Deposit Management or Positive Pay? Want to know features in Bank Reconciliation that could really benefit you as a user and as a company? Join this session to hear stories of real successes at companies using these, and other Bank Reconciliation functions.

Preparing for an Audit ABS-801TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: Verendrye Electric, ND | Week 2: NISCLearn about the tools and best practices available in ABS to prepare your organization for an upcoming audit. Listen to a first-hand Member experience to learn how iVUE reports and processes help in preparing for an audit. Time is planned for open discussion to review topics as needed.

Purchase Order - Procurement Tracking - Part 1 ABS-802TELECOM & UTILITY Part 1 - Keeping organization of your current, future and past purchases can be a complex task. With the Purchase Order module and the many new tools added in the last year, iVUE can help! Join this session to learn how these new tools can transform your PO process through: Agreements, Service Items and Reports to see history as well as maintaining the open PO listing.

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10:55 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. continued

QDS to iVUE Implementation CC&B-804TELECOM ONLY Week 1: Hart Telephone, Prairie Grove Telephone | Week 2: Prairie Grove TelephoneAttend this panel discussion to learn more about implementing iVUE Customer Care and Billing and begin preparing for your data conversion, training and validation. This session is for telecoms converting from QDS to iVUE Customer Care and Billing.

SmartHub Order Management CC&B-805TELECOM ONLY Week 1: Mid-Rivers Telephone, Smithville Communications | Week 2: Mid-Rivers TelephoneLearn from two NISC Members who have implemented SmartHub Order Management (SHOM) for telephone, TV and internet. They will provide insight into their goals and recommended best practices for configuring product offerings, business rules, available services and packages. They’ll also share what type of activity they are receiving from customers submitting orders from SHOM. Also, as the Members plan to launch wireless and new customer signups within SHOM, understand their goals and expected activity for these new functionalities. Included in this session are Member demonstrations from their SmartHub websites.

Utility New Member Symposium CC&B-807UTILITY ONLY Week 1: Central Electric Cooperative, Cobb EMC, Inland Power and Light Co., Ozarks Electric Cooperative

Week 2: Elk River Municipal Utilities, Ozarks Electric Cooperative, Pascoag Utility DistrictAre you new to NISC? Do you want to know what you can expect from your technology partner? This session helps you get acuquainted with NISC, understand what we do and how we can help you meet your organizational goals. Stop by and get to know us better!

Taking iVUE to the Next Level with New iVUE Tools* CC&B-808UTILITY ONLY You won’t want to miss this session! Find out about the latest development with NISC’s iVUE Enterprise System, taking iVUE to a new world where you’ll be able to access it through a secure, online platform. This session showcases the latest solution from NISC and how it can help you take iVUE to the next level.

How To Close Your Payment Night Drop Box Locations CC&B-809UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Cumberland Electric MembershipOver the past few years, Cumberland EMC has phased out Night Drop at their offices, and by the end of 2016, will have completely stopped taking payments through Night Drop. By using CallCapture IVR, SmartHub and Kiosk, Cumberland removed the need for their CSRs to post payments that were left at the office enabling them to focus more on customer service and other tasks like closing service orders. This session describes first-hand how Cumberland implemented these solutions and the steps they took to completely close their night drop.

The Benefits of Service Order Auto Close CC&B-810UTILITY ONLY Closing a service order is one of the most important steps in a process, but one that is often forgotten. This session walks through automating the closing of service orders and how it can help make your service order process more efficient.

MapWise Now & Beyond E&O-812TELECOM ONLY This session focuses on the latest features, functionality, and future for NISC MapWise. Join us for a sneak peek into Telecom MapWise’s future!

The Many Uses of CallCapture* E&O-814UTILITY ONLY This session covers the many efficiencies gained when using NISC’s CallCapture solution within the iVUE Enterprise. When you need to communicate with customers, having this phone option along with email and text offerings in NISC’s Messenger product, you can offer customers the right method of communication to meet their needs. We will review how to use CallCapture in current delinquent processes, allow customers to report outages, communicate outage statuses back to customers, notify customers when their prepaid balance is low, and the many other options that can be configured in this system to keep customers informed and connected 24/7.

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10:55 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. continued

The Who, What, When, Where & Why of Going Mobile! E&O-815UTILITY ONLY Week 1: Southwest Louisiana EMC | Week 2: NISCWeek 1 - Southwest Louisiana EMC shares their ‘Going Mobile’ experience from training to implementation for the 100,000+ customers served. Being knee deep in paperwork and using iPads in the field for only mapping and outages, they put together a team from each department to tackle being fully mobile. Southwest Louisiana EMC trained internally. After internal training the plan was to go live one warehouse at a time, having everyone live by June 1st.

Utility-AMS Experience MISC-817UTILITY ONLY This session discusses ActivTrace - how to track mailings and how to retrieve addresses, full color printing and more.

Leveraging AppSuite Enterprise in Your Organization MISC-819TELECOM & UTILITY Managing mobility in any organization can be challenging. In this session, you will learn how to effectively implement and support AppSuite Enterprise throughout your entire organization. From security to privacy to Mobile Device Management and vision into the future, this session will help prepare NISC Members to embrace mobility where it counts most.

Leveraging AppSuite Enterprise in Your Organization TECH-819TELECOM & UTILITY Managing mobility in any organization can be challenging. In this session, you will learn how to effectively implement and support AppSuite Enterprise throughout your entire organization. From security to privacy to Mobile Device Management and vision into the future, this session will help prepare NISC Members to embrace mobility where it counts most.

Understanding Your iVUE Environment TECH-820TELECOM & UTILITY If you’re a new NISC Member or QDS site looking to implement iVUE soon, this session is for you. If you’re a current iVUE user and want to implement a new technology, or you just want to understand the nuts and bolts of how iVUE works, you’ll also benefit from attending this session. Learn about the technology that makes up your iVUE system, including hardware, server virtualization, operating systems and database technologies. Discover how these technologies are used for iVUE, Document Vault, CallCapture, ArcGIS, SmartHub and iVUE AppSuite Enterprise.

1:05 p.m. - 1:55 p.m.Budget Basics to CFC Budget Draft ABS-901

TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: Holy Cross Energy | Week 2: NISCGet a first-hand account of the basic Budget module in this Member led session. Learn how to import a budget from a spreadsheet and make modifications, build a basic budget from a prior year’s historical data from GL History or budget history, make adjustments that can be percentage and/or fixed amount based, and applied to one month or spread over all months. We will review basic maintenance steps and where to retrieve reports for reviewing once the budget is in the GL Account Budget screen.

We’ll also review how to get started with the CFC budget draft. Learn the advantages of bringing in historical data from applications: Payroll/Labor, Fleet Management, Material Inventory, Depreciation and Other income and expenses during the budget process.

Purchase Order - Procurement Tracking Part 2 ABS-902TELECOM & UTILITY Part 2 - Keeping organization of your current, future and past purchases can be a complex task. With the Purchase Order module and the many new tools added in the last year, iVUE can help! Join this session to learn how these new tools can transform your PO process through: Agreements, Service Items and Reports to see history as well as maintaining the open PO listing.

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Capital Credits Best Practices & Trade Secrets ABS-900UTILITY ONLY Learn best practices for maintaining the Capital Credit module by running the CC Data Analysis to make needed adjustments. Get tips for your Allocation and Customer Number Changes that will make life easier. Have you ever gone to the Estate Retirement process and realized there are no estates listed to retire? What if a member is requesting all of their history, and you’re tired of doing screen prints of each and every screen in Capital Credits? Well, we have the fix for you!

EUB Billing Using Job Manager CC&B-904TELECOM ONLY Run your CC&B and EUB billing processes all from Job Manager. See how to set up the EUB processes to run in Job Manager and the benefits that come with running billing from one location.

Gaining Efficiencies Through CallCapture CC&B-905TELECOM ONLY Margaretville Telephone CompanyMargaretville Telephone Company implemented CallCapture IVR in May 2014 and has realized in their words “stunning results”. Hear how they implemented the system enabling their CSRs to focus on the most delinquent cases and improved collections and morale.

Capital Credits Best Practices & Trade Secrets CC&B-900UTILITY ONLY Learn best practices for maintaining the Capital Credit module by running the CC Data Analysis to make needed adjustments. Get tips for your Allocation and Customer Number Changes that will make life easier. Have you ever gone to the Estate Retirement process and realized there are no estates listed to retire? What if a member is requesting all of their history, and you’re tired of doing screen prints of each and every screen in Capital Credits? Well, we have the fix for you!

AMI Full System Deployment CC&B-907UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Noble REMC Noble REMC exchanged 11,500 meters in 10 months over one year. This deployment was simplified by using NISC solutions and automating the meter inventory process. The integration of all the solutions along with the fact that there was very little upfront cost to implement them made it a very easy choice for Noble REMC to use these tools for our deployment. According to Noble, “Going paperless with this project was one of the best decisions we could have made.” With the solutions set up and in place, Noble saved many hours by not generating paperwork, distributing it, hand entering data and researching errors. Learn first-hand how Noble was able to deploy these meters effectively and efficiently, and how they were able to utilize NISC solutions to do that. Noble will talk about some of the challenges they faced and overcame during the process and how you can be more efficient with your meter deployment.

Work Management: Contact Tracking & Service Orders CC&B-909UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Co-Mo ElectricWork Management is often an underutilized functionality of the iVUE Enterprise and plays a key role in improving communication between departments and improving customer service for Co-Mo Electric members. Many coops still rely on the “Notes” screen for tracking purposes and struggle with the steps needed to start down the road of Work Management. Since Work Management is the backbone of mobile functionality, a better understanding of how to get started with Work Management can help so you can move forward with iVUE AppSuite. This Member-led session discusses how to get started with Work Management to help your organization improve communication and efficiency.

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Designing Messenger Themes and Websites CC&B-911TELECOM & UTILITY Creating beautiful and meaningful templates to engage your customers can be challenging. In this session, NISC staff will walk through how to create engaging and targeted templates that can help your organization foster a better relationship with your customers.

It’s All About the X & Y Coordinates E&O-912TELECOM ONLY Streamline your dispatching process by geo-enabling your work management tasks. Learn the setup and configurations needed to geo-enable tasks and understand features in iVUE that use the X & Y coordinates to empower users and add software automations. Viewing work as pinpoints on a map offers efficient decision-making by dispatchers as new jobs come in throughout the day. SmartTrack’s auto assign engine queries new work based on data items as well as geographic locations to auto assign to the proper territory or individual field staff. iVUE AppSuite’s map views allow technicians to see the location of their jobs and get driving directions to the job site when needed.

AMI Full System Deployment E&O-907UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Noble REMC Noble REMC exchanged 11,500 meters in 10 months over one year. This deployment was simplified by using NISC solutions and automating the meter inventory process. The integration of all the solutions along with the fact that there was very little upfront cost to implement them made it a very easy choice for Noble REMC to use these tools for our deployment. According to Noble, “Going paperless with this project was one of the best decisions we could have made.” With the solutions set up and in place, Noble saved many hours by not generating paperwork, distributing it, hand entering data and researching errors. Learn first-hand how Noble was able to deploy these meters effectively and efficiently, and how they were able to utilize NISC solutions to do that. Noble will talk about some of the challenges they faced and overcame during the process and how you can be more efficient with your meter deployment.

Maximizing the Outage Management System (OMS)* E&O-914UTILITY ONLY Maximize the power of your outage management system. iVUE OMS is constantly evolving, therefore staying on top of new functionality can be challenging. This session dives into recent enhancements, including switching management and suggestive switching. iVUE OMS is more than just an office tool. With the addition of the OMS Web Client and iVUE AppSuite, outages can be managed in various ways. Stop by to ensure you are getting the most out of the OMS toolset.

Going Paperless E&O-915UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Cherryland Electric CooperativeCherryland Electric Cooperative shares how they maximized the power of iVUE by pairing their service order processes with NISC’s SmartTrack and the mobility of iVUE AppSuite. Fully combined, these solutions have become the needle to the thread that makes up the paperless service order process for Cherryland. Hear how they approached their going paperless project, the awareness it brought to all groups in their organization when reviewing their current processes and looking for new efficiencies. The end result was that every job for the metering department, overhead construction line crews or contractor crews can be completed without paper anywhere in the field.

Designing Messenger Themes and Websites MISC-911TELECOM & UTILITY Creating beautiful and meaningful templates to engage your customers can be challenging. In this session, NISC staff will walk through how to create engaging and targeted templates that can help your organization foster a better relationship with your customers.

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Securing Your Wired and Wireless Network Perimeter Using NISC’s Network Solutions TECH-920TELECOM & UTILITY In this session, learn about enterprise networking solutions currently available from SonicWALL and Aruba. Among these networking solutions, installed and supported by NISC, are network security, securing remote access, wireless communications, and anti-spam/email security.

2:10 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.Accounts Payable - AP Credit Card & Underutilized Features ABS-1000TELECOM & UTILITY Are you missing the vendor detail from items you purchased on credit cards? Learn how to use the AP Credit Card functionality to track credit card purchases and reconcile credit card charges to the statement. We will also review security best practices and other underutilized features throughout Accounts Payable that can simplify your daily tasks.

Budget Tracking - New with iVUE 2.33 ABS-1001TELECOM & UTILITY How are you tracking your Capital Budgeting items today? New with iVUE 2.33 these items can be tracked within the ABS Budget module. Budget Requests can be used to create Budget Projects and flow through a paperless approval process. Budget Projects track estimates and actual values, giving you access to inquiry and reporting for ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Other financial and commitment projects flow into the income and expense portion of the ABS CFC Budget Pro. Join this session to learn how the Capital Budgeting process can benefit your organization.

Underutilized Features: Plant Accounting ABS-1002TELECOM & UTILITY Do you struggle with areas of Plant Accounting? This session will go into some of the most underutilized features in the Fleet Management, Work Order and Asset Management modules.

EUB Reports - What You Should Be Running Before Billing CC&B-1004TELECOM ONLY This session discusses IO/EUB Automation and the reports used to verify all billable records moving to your customers’ statements before you bill and what to do if a problem is discovered..

Amplify Your Success With SmartHub CC&B-1005TELECOM ONLY Week 1: All West Communications, Triangle Communications | Week 2: NISCLearn how an NISC Member has put SmartHub to work and how SmartHub can help your company improve customer service, increase revenue and reduce costs.

Communicating with Customers: The New Letter & On Demand Features of Messenger CC&B-1008UTILITY ONLY Over the past several months NISC has been working on a new feature using Messenger that will allow you to communicate with your customers based on a list you generate. This new feature will allow you to greatly expand the use of the Messenger application along with further enhancing the ability to print and generate letters using the Automated Mailroom Services area.

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A Day in the Life of MDMS CC&B-1009UTILITY ONLY NISC’s Meter Data Management System (MDMS) can help you leverage your data to make meaningful business decisisons. This session walks through a day with the MDMS, how to make sure the data is getting into the solution properly and how to get it ready for customer presentment - the full daily cycle of MDMS.

Prepaid Challenges & Opportunities CC&B-1010UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: K.C. Electric Association, West River Electric AssociationPrepaid metering offers many benefits to organizations, and it can help you overcome many billing challenges. In this session, NISC Members describe some of the billing challenges they faced and how NISC’s prepaid metering helped them overcome these challenges.

Making the Most Out of SwitchTalk² Auditing E&O-1012TELECOM ONLY Learn the “in’s and out’s” of SwitchTalk2’s auditing capabilities. Find out how you can see revenue and service assurance through easily validating your customer’s service and feature settings when comparing iVUE to each third party vendor.

Understanding MapWise Inspections* E&O-1015UTILITY ONLY Staying on top of inspections in the field is a day-to-day job that never stops. With NISC’s MapWise Inspection feature in iVUE AppSuite, staying on top of inspections has become easier. Whether a standard pole inspection, joint-use audit or equipment inspection, AppSuite helps eliminate the paper forms and streamline the inspection process. With the ability to manage inspections on a smart device, live syncing from the field and auto-updating MapWise data, this daunting task has become more efficient.

Leveraging Your NISC Resources MISC-1007TELECOM & UTILITY NISC is your organization’s technology partner, and as a partner, we want to help you get the most out of our solutions to do your job efficiently. This session details some of the resources you have to get support and ask questions, like NISC’s Regional Business Managers, that can help you learn more about NISC solutions and do your job even more efficiently.

Integrating with the Cooperative Cloud MISC-1017TELECOM & UTILITY Do you want to create applications that have seamless integration with the Cooperative Cloud? In this session, NISC developers will cover the Cooperative Cloud’s single sign on, best practices with security, web services and some new web services in the MDMS.

Latest Document Vault Enhancements - What’s New Since MIC 2014 MISC-1020TELECOM & UTILITY Join us in this session to learn about the new Document Vault functionality available since last year’s MIC. Functionality to be covered includes retention, custom types, security audit, transaction logs, searching enhancements, compression, and encryption.

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3:15 p.m. - 4:05 p.m. Integrating with the Cooperative Cloud TECH-1017TELECOM & UTILITY Do you want to create applications that have seamless integration with the Cooperative Cloud? In this session, NISC developers will cover the Cooperative Cloud’s single sign on, best practices with security, web services and some new web services in the MDMS.

Latest Document Vault Enhancements - What’s New Since MIC 2014 TECH-1020TELECOM & UTILITY Join us in this session to learn about the new Document Vault functionality available since last year’s MIC. Functionality to be covered includes retention, custom types, security audit, transaction logs, searching enhancements, compression, and encryption.

ABS Tips N Tricks* ABS-1100TELECOM & UTILITY You are an accounting expert. You have access to every resource to manage your tasks efficiently. Join us as we challenge you to find ways to work smarter, not harder. Are you up for the challenge to share and learn something new…and work more efficiently?

Material Inventory Best Practices ABS-1101TELECOM & UTILITY Week 1: NISC | Week 2: Linn County ElectricDoes inventory time stress you out? Are you asked “Is the material here for this work order?” Learn best practices in the Material Inventory module and hear first-hand how one Member solved this at their site.

ABS Enhancements - What’s New Since MIC 2014* ABS-1102TELECOM & UTILITY You are an accounting expert. You have access to every resource to manage your tasks efficiently. Join us as we challenge you to find ways to work smarter, not harder. Are you up for the challenge to share and learn something new…and work more efficiently?

iVUE T-N-T, It’s Going to Blow Your Mind CC&B-1104TELECOM ONLY BAM! This session is packed full of dynamite shortcuts as well as tips and tricks available throughout your iVUE software. Discover and diffuse those questions about features such as defaulting field values, multiple sorting of columns, FTPing reports, defaulting parameters on reports, changing screen colors, defaulting tabs, required fields and much more. BOOM!

Who You Going to Contact? CC&B-1105TELECOM ONLY Who is contacting your staff and why? Are people going over their wireless limits? In this session you’ll gain an understanding of the importance of Contact Tracking and why it’s vital in growing your business. This session covers many items, including: how to track individual customer actions, how to set up usage alerts for wireless and measured broadband, as well as how to report on these types of items.

CallCapture Secure Payments IVR: How it Rocked Our Socks Off CC&B-1106UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: Shelby Electric CooperativeOn average Shelby Electric was taking over 700 internal phone payments each month, around 23 phone payments per day. While at first the implementation of CallCapture IVR was in direct relation to becoming PCI Compliant, Shelby found it has proven to be one of the most valuable programs to date when it comes to office efficiency and member satisfaction. It not only lowered call volume internally by 50% and allowed for a more efficient work day for their staff, but they’re now taking MORE phone payments on a monthly basis than before because of members using the new automated system. Shelby staff indicate, “Members are in LOVE with the IVR and we receive compliments on it frequently”. This Member-led session discusses NISC CallCaputure SecurePay and how Shelby ensured all employees knew what was going on with the transition, trained the employees on the phone, provided phone scripts, and worked up a mini-marketing campaign for their membership to inform them about the changes.

DAY TWO

Sessions


Repeat Sessions

Tech Services TU




24

DAY TWO3:15 p.m. - 4:05 p.m. continued

Future of Broadband CC&B-1110TELECOM & UTILITY Learn about the history of broadband from the turn of the century to the present. This session covers the impact “Connect America Fund” and “Net Neutrality” is having in the industry, the emerging trends of Over The Top (OTT) services and the impact they are having in the market, and how NISC’s Broadband Measured Service is providing value to Members.

SmartHub: Features You May Not Be Using CC&B-1109TELECOM & UTILITY SmartHub is a tool that offers your customers a variety of options to perform tasks like paying their bill, checking their use or even communicating with you. There are many tools included in SmartHub, though, that may be overlooked. This session helps you understand the full suite of features available in SmartHub and how your customers can get maximum value out of the web and mobile app.

Maximizing the Customer Experience by Maximizing iVUE CC&B-1111UTILITY ONLY Week 1 & 2: People’s Electric CooperativeiVUE is more than just a mixture of Customer Care and Billing Screens - iVUE is a solution! Learn how to maximize iVUE’s abilities to better care for your members. Are you using these screens? Configuring these columns? Searching using these tools? Merging to Word documents to produce letters? Sending to Excel to create graphs and charts? You don’t need to be an IT/computer wizard to use iVUE and its features. In addition to training through iVUE, attendees will also learn basic/advanced customer service skills which - when paired with iVUE - will maximize the customer experience.

Query Builder - The Data Mining “Easy Button” E&O-1112TELECOM ONLY Become more efficient when pulling data out of the iVUE system. Learn about basic and advanced features of NISC’s Query Builder tool to help you create your own data “Easy Buttons”.

Document Vault Integration with E&O E&O-1114TELECOM & UTILITY This session covers the many efficiencies gained when using NISC’s Document Vault with NISC’s Engineering & Operations solutions. Learn about existing and new integrations that empower field workers to have what they need, when they need it, wherever they are, and allow those in the office to be more connected and aware by having quick and easy access to images as well as documents from the field. Look at the Document Vault with a new set of eyes. Let us help you with new ways to be storing and viewing what is in your Document Vault.

MapWise Across the Enterprise* E&O-1115TELECOM & UTILITY Are you taking advantage of everything MapWise has to offer? Join us for a discussion of how MapWise integrates into the iVUE Enterprise. This session covers several benefits of fully utilizing MapWise across your organization. Topics include building efficient maps for each mapping persona in the iVUE Enterprise.

Physical Security, the Forgotten Piece of the Puzzle TECH-1120TELECOM & UTILITY So much of our time is typically spent on protecting our digital infrastructures that an often overlooked piece of the puzzle is the protection of our physical infrastructure. In this session, learn how a few simple procedures and physical security checks can be added to your comprehensive security program in order to protect your organization.

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Hyatt Regency St. Louis

RenaissanceGrand

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at The Arch

Hilton at the Ballpark



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