Case Study: Southeast Utility Streamline achieves faster new account activation and $50,000 change-control savings with Equifax's InterConnect

Equifax Helps Southeast Utility Streamline New Account Acquisition and Lower Change Control Costs

A Southeast natural gas marketer serving more than 200,000 residential, government and business accounts faced a slow, manual new‑account process driven by a legacy call‑center system that required dual data entry, struggled to integrate disparate systems and third‑party data, and made timely edits to score cuts and business rules difficult. The utility’s goals were to automate deposit determination and credit‑risk decisioning, streamline account booking, ensure FACT Act compliance, and reduce change‑control costs.

The utility deployed Equifax’s InterConnect for Communications & Utilities, centralizing application processing and integrating real‑time data from Equifax’s consumer and small business sources plus internal billing systems, while using the Rules Editor to quickly update score cuts and business rules. The solution eliminated dual entry, fully automated credit approvals and real‑time deposit decisions, improved call‑center talk time and deposit precision, and is on track to save about $50,000 in change‑control costs in year one.

Southeast Utility Streamline