News

Each year Pacific Gas and Electric Company's California Gas Transmission surveys a cross section of its customers to determine their level of satisfaction with CGT's products and services. Last year CGT topped the charts, earning its highest marks ever.

Although very proud of its 2002 score, CGT recognizes continuous improvement is the only way to retain excellence. During 2003, CGT implemented five customer satisfaction initiatives to address concerns raised by customers in the 2002 survey. With the sun setting on the 2003 calendar, CGT is preparing its next survey and wrapping up the satisfaction initiatives it took during 2003:

Make MDQs Visible

In May, CGT modified the INSIDEtracc 775 Report, giving marketers the ability to quickly view their end-use customers' MDQs.

AutoRenom Enhancements

In August, CGT implemented enhancements to its AutoRenom system. As requested by customers, AutoRenom now accounts for all prior cycle cuts.

Individual INSIDEtracc Training

Responding to a few concerns regarding INSIDEtracc's ease of use, CGT provided personal training sessions during May in Houston and this month in San Francisco. CGT continues to offer INSIDEtracc training in San Francisco throughout the year, and can provide similar services by telephone if needed.

Operations Data

A small number of customers expressed concern with the accuracy of the operations data available on Pipe Ranger. CGT has reviewed the data sources that feed the Pipeline Status forecast and recent activity tables. By December 1, CGT will store all such operations data in a single new database. Pipe Ranger will then directly query this database for its forecast and recent activity operations data. Additionally, CGT will improve back end processes surrounding the capture of this data, eliminating a rare source of inaccurate data.

CGT also plans a cleanup of archived operations data, improving the historical information you may retrieve from Pipe Ranger. The complete data set will be reviewed for accuracy, revised and then stored in the same database as forecast information. When implemented later this year, CGT customers may use Pipe Ranger to directly query this improved archive of operations data back to March of 1998.

INSIDEtracc Reliability Improvements

During 2003, INSIDEtracc processed its four millionth nomination. To keep its nomination system running strong, CGT spent $200,000 upgrading INSIDEtracc this year:

•  In February, CGT upgraded nominating system software to the latest release, increasing system reliability and reducing daily maintenance time by 75%.
• In March, CGT installed a new report server. The faster server, combined with the latest version of the reporting application software, doubled the speed at which report requests are processed.
• In September, CGT replaced five-year-old technology with two new Web/EDI communications servers, eliminating security risks inherent to the older technology. These increased safeguards eliminate the risk of significant system downtime by helping avoid a security breach or virus infection. Additionally, upgraded software allows backhaul volumes to be transmitted between pipelines using EDI.
• CGT implemented automated system monitoring procedures that check all INSIDEtracc functions at 2:30 a.m., Pacific time, each day. If any function is not available, an on call analyst is dispatched to resolve the issue before customers begin morning nominations.
• CGT has also upgraded the INSIDEtracc production server hardware, providing increased processing speed and greater reliability.

Fresh hardware and software technology will allow INSIDEtracc to smoothly and reliably crunch noms for years to come. These improved technologies helped keep INSIDEtracc running and available 99.8% of the time so far in 2003.

Questions?

Your CGT Account Services Representative is available to answer any questions you may have about CGT's annual survey or these customer satisfaction initiatives.