One workforce system. Several service lines.
Public power, water, gas, and fiber utilities often run a single HR and payroll system across every service they deliver. The same organizations are replacing customer information and billing systems. Avèro advises on both, as an independent, vendor-neutral consulting partner.
The HRIS has to cover the work the crews actually do.
A multi-service utility is one employer. Lineworkers, plant operators, customer service, and finance share payroll, benefits, and an employee record. The full-suite replacement path (needs assessment through post-go-live stabilization) is the HRIS and HCM advisory practice. What changes for a utility is what the requirements have to name before the RFP.
One system, several lines
Electric, water, wastewater, gas, and fiber can sit in one HR and payroll system. Costing, scheduling, and certifications still differ by line. The requirements have to say which differences are pay rules and which are just departments.
24/7 and on-call
Outages and plant coverage do not follow an office calendar. Time and labor administration has to cover on-call, call-out, shift differentials, and more than one schedule. Write those scenarios into the scripted demonstrations. Avèro does not claim a completed utility shift-scheduling engagement. The requirements still have to include it when the utility runs that way.
Field crews
Crews clock in away from a desk. Timekeeping, scheduling, and manager self-service have to work for supervisors who are not in an office. Badging and the internal directory belong on the integration inventory.
Safety and testing
Health and safety requirements include drug and alcohol testing, workers' compensation claims, and safety training that expires. A requirement that says "safety module" is not enough. Name the record, the renewal, and who is blocked from dispatch when it lapses.
Certifications and licenses
Accomplishment reporting covers certifications, licenses, and degrees. For a utility, a license is permission to do the work. The HRIS has to show what is current, what is about to expire, and which job requires it.
Bargaining units
Union and collective bargaining rules, including an employer with one bargaining unit and an employer with several. Pay, leave, overtime, and discipline follow the agreement. Put the agreement into the demonstration script. Do not treat "union rules" as a yes-or-no question on a checklist.
Retirees and survivors
Retirees and surviving spouses and dependents often stay on utility benefits after employment ends. Benefits administration has to cover that population, and the carrier files have to match it. Pension data and interfaces are a requirements area, not a claimed pension-system engagement.
The current HRIS
The transition from the current HRIS is the project. Oracle PeopleSoft is a common starting point for public employers. Moving off it can be discussed as that starting point. It is not stated here as a named past engagement.
What to decide early
Whether ATS and LMS are in the suite or outside it. Who owns parallel payroll. Which support end date the timeline is counted back from. The essay is what to get right before the RFP.
Name every system the HRIS has to talk to.
A utility HRIS replacement fails quietly when the interface list is discovered during implementation. Build the inventory during requirements gathering. For each line, write the system, the direction of the data, the owner, and whether it is in the vendor's scope or a separate contract.
Workforce systems
Timekeeping, ATS, LMS, compensation software, surveys, the internal directory, and badging. Timekeeping is not optional when crews and on-call rotations exist. ATS and LMS are in or out by decision, then interfaced if they are out.
Finance and carriers
The finance system, benefit-vendor EDI files, and safety training. Payroll has to land in the general ledger the utility already trusts. Carrier files have to include retirees and surviving dependents when they remain covered.
Comparing UKG, Workday, and Oracle HCM for a public utility is a verification exercise, not a ranking. The framework is how to decide. Named utility HCM work is Infor CloudSuite at Rancho California Water District, below. UKG, Workday, and Oracle HCM are not claimed as utility engagements.
Customer systems, beside the workforce system.
CIS, utility billing, and the rate structures behind them are the other half of a utility technology program. A billing decision ripples through every customer interaction. An HRIS decision ripples through every employee. They share a finance system, a project calendar, and a board. They are not the same procurement unless the agency chooses to make them one.
CIS selection
Customer information system selection, utility billing, and the interfaces billing needs (work management, GIS, and the financial system). The longer account of how to choose a CIS advisor is utility CIS selection.
Billing upgrades
Some engagements are an upgrade and a down-select, not a full replacement. Scope, fit, and the path off an unsupported release are the questions. The recommendation is independent of which product is already installed.
Fiber and public power
Municipal power and growing fiber operations add services without adding a second HR department. Rate, reliability, and broadband operations still belong in the CIS and billing conversation on the industries page.
Utility work Avèro can name.
Client names appear only where the engagement is already public. Other utility billing work is described without a name.
Rancho California Water District
End-to-end project management for Infor CloudSuite, including Human Capital Management, Financials, and enterprise asset management. Contract negotiation, data migration, interfaces to Infor Public Sector, OnBase, and Cayenta CIS, user acceptance testing, and training. July 2023 to September 2024.
City of Maryville, TN
A path off an unsupported financial ERP and HRMS (Harris GEMS). The Cayenta utility billing upgrade was completed in February 2019. The published case study is that billing upgrade and the business-process work around the unsupported ERP and HRMS.
City of Dixon, CA
Already listed on the industries page for Tyler Utilities Pro CIS, as part of the city's Tyler transition. The case study is that ERP transition, including utilities billing, not a separate HRIS claim.
City of Piqua, OH
Already listed on the industries page as municipal power. The published engagement is an IT assessment, a strategic plan, and the ERP replacement that assessment identified.
Separately, Avèro advised a Tennessee city's utility billing upgrade down-select. That client is not named here.
CIS vendors and HCM vendors both pay partners. Avèro is not one of them.
No reseller agreements. No implementation partnerships. No referral fees. No vendor compensation. Avèro does not implement software. The fee is the same whether the findings support a new CIS, a new HRIS, an upgrade, or staying. How to test that claim is in why your HRIS consultant should not also be your implementer.
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