A Smart Solution for Smart Homes - National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC)

A Smart Solution for Smart Homes

NISC’s SmartHub was the first time our solutions had gone beyond the walls of utility and telecom organizations and into the hands of Members, literally, through a smart phone app that provided instant access to their provider.

Since then, SmartHub has grown to include many new features designed to provide the best and most seamless communication between end-users and their service provider.

At the 2019 TechAdvantage Expo in Orlando, Fla., SmartHub took another leap forward, introducing integration with voice assistant technology. The app now integrates with smart home devices like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home to give SmartHub users a hands-free experience.

“What Google Home and Amazon Alexa allows us to do is bring technology down to the end user,” said Nate Boettcher, NISC senior product line manager. “People are already using these devices to check the weather or get directions, so it’s a very natural extension for them to ask their utility provider to offer something like this, and we’re very excited to be able to do that.”

SmartHub users can access their provider through their smart home device and perform a number of functions including retrieving their bill balance, checking on outages, getting any news alerts from their provider and soon, paying a bill through a stored payment option.

“It’s really cool technology that allows the end-users to talk to the device and get more information,” Boettcher said. “In the future we’re going to be adding more features that will really provide some nice value for our Members and their end-users.”