Guide to Energy & Utilities Cloud

The energy and utilities sector faces compounding challenges, including the need for grid modernization, managing aging infrastructure, meeting affordability and resilience obligations, and addressing trust and security concerns. Companies must find ways to power the future despite fragmented data and fixed workforce capacity. This environment creates complexity for every organization in the industry. Technology is key to managing this complexity and achieving sustainable growth and efficiency.

An energy and utilities cloud is a specialized industry-specific cloud platform built to address the unique needs of electricity, gas, and water companies. The platform brings together a suite of solutions designed to manage the entire customer and asset lifecycle, streamline operations, and support the industry's digital transformation.

This specialized cloud helps energy companies move past siloed data, which can include customer, asset, and work information spread across multiple systems. By unifying this information, an energy and utilities cloud makes it possible to improve customer service, optimize field operations, and accelerate sales processes. It provides a foundation for modern utility management and growth, addressing challenges like rising electricity demand and the doubling of asset and IoT data connections.

Salesforce Energy & Utilities Cloud is the industry-specific solution developed to meet the complex needs of energy providers and utilities companies. The platform, which has evolved into Agentforce Energy & Utilities, provides an industry data model and business processes tailored for the energy sector.

The history of this innovation began around 2015 with the initial launch of Salesforce for Energy & Utilities, and it later became known as Energy & Utilities Cloud. A major milestone was the addition of Vlocity, which contributed to making the platform an industry leader for Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), Field Service, and Service. The platform continues to advance, incorporating technologies like generative AI and Agentforce to power human-led, AI-augmented experiences that drive customer value, revenue, and safe operations.

The comprehensive features and capabilities of Energy & Utilities Cloud deliver a range of powerful benefits that help companies achieve their strategic goals, from revenue growth to safer operations. Benefits include:

The platform is designed to accelerate productivity by augmenting employees and partners with agents. For example, the use ofAI agents in service teams can reduce costs. The solution supports a human-led, AI-augmented approach across various roles, including customer service, sales, energy advisory, operations management, and the mobile workforce.

Energy & Utilities Cloud helps companies deliver personalized support on a continuous, always-on basis. The platform makes it possible to provide a personalized customer journey, including offering a personalized quote, promotion, and proactive advisory based on consumption insights. It supports 24/7 service for common customer inquiries like billing.

By anticipating stakeholder needs, the solution helps organizations grow customer value and increase margins. This is achieved by empowering customer service and sales teams to upsell and cross-sell. Utilities can recommend tariffs,products, program incentives, or rebates to customers.

The platform includes tools to optimize scheduling, dispatch, and overall field service operations with new features like Drone Dispatch and ESRI Integration. This optimization leads to improved technician productivity and safety, decreased labor costs, and an extended life for asset equipment. These outcomes can scale operations and reduce the cost-to-serve.

Energy & Utilities Cloud offers the Grid & Network Connection feature to streamline and optimize new connection and interconnection processes. This helps manage the entire process, from application management and guidance to quoting, contracts, and orchestrating field service and dispatch.

Energy & Utilities Cloud works by leveraging a specialized platform architecture designed for the industry. The platform is structured around a Metadata Platform, Data 360 , Agentforce Energy & Utilities processes, and a layer of AI Agents. The core functionality operates through these integrated layers:

• Metadata Platform: This foundation provides the underlying capabilities, including custom apps and agents, AI and models, flow automation, security, and analytics.
• Data 360: This layer is where customer, asset, work data, and context are unified. It includes features like Structured & Unstructured data handling, Connected Assets, Consumption Insights, and AI Governance, creating a single source of truth.
• Agentforce Energy & Utilities Processes: Built on the data foundation, this layer provides industry-specific processes and workflows across the business, such as Pricing & Quoting, Grid & Network Connections, Clean Energy Program Management, and Schedule & Dispatch.
• AI Agents: The top layer consists of specialized AI agents tailored to different roles, such as Customer Service, Sales & Acquisition, Energy Advisory, Operations Management, and Mobile Workforce. These agents augment human teams to perform tasks and resolve cases autonomously.

The platform’s capabilities are delivered through a set of powerful, integrated features designed to address the specific operational needs of the energy sector. Key features include:

• Industry Data Model and Business Processes: This core feature provides the necessary framework and pre-built workflows for energy and utilities companies, allowing them to manage industry-specific transactions and stakeholder needs efficiently.
• Purpose-Built AI Agents: These specialized agents perform tasks across various functions. Examples include the Customer Service Agent to resolve billing inquiries, the Quoting & Ordering Agent to streamline sales, and the Energy Advisory Agent for consumption and tariff recommendations.
• Field Service Agents: Focused on field operations, these agents manage scheduling and dispatch 24/7, provide field mobile support through voice recognition, and handle grid and asset maintenance, including summarizing asset telemetry.
• Grid & Network Connection: This feature simplifies the complex process of new connections and interconnections, offering tools for application management, quoting, contract signing, and orchestrating the necessary field service work.
• Data Cloud Kits: These provide immediate value by offering pre-built data models and calculations, such as Asset Health Score, Asset Service Prediction, and Asset Remote Event Orchestration.

The flexibility and specialization of the platform allow energy providers to implement solutions across their entire operation such as:

Customers want to save money, and utilities can use Energy & Utilities Cloud to act as a personal energy advisor. The Energy Advisory Agent provides personalized recommendations on usage, tariffs, and clean energy programs, and it provides customers with instant insights on their consumption. This capability enhances customer value and loyalty.

The platform helps utilities overcome the challenge of fixed workforce capacity by augmenting mobile workers with technology. The Mobile Workforce Agent can provide pre- and post-work summaries, offer knowledge assistance, help with time tracking, and even suggest upsell and cross-sell opportunities while on site. This augmentation saves mobile workers time on the job.

The sales cycle for energy and utility services is often complex. The Quoting & Ordering Agent eliminates complex code and clicks, helping to streamline sales and accelerate deals. Additionally, the Multi-Site Quoting agent intelligently groups sites for multi-recipient quotes based on feasibility conditions like serviceability and eligibility. Sales teams can use the platform as a B2B and B2C sales coach.

Getting started with the platform, now known as Agentforce Energy & Utilities, is a straightforward, three-step process. First, empower teams with unified data by setting up Data 360 as the single source of truth for all customer, asset, and work information. Next, optimize operations by implementing the industry-specific data model, processes, and workflows provided by Agentforce Energy & Utilities. Finally, deliver richer experiences with speed by leveraging the out-of-the-box templates and actions designed to help organizations scale quickly.