55 A COOPERATIVE SPIRIT CHAPTER THREE Tracy Liley, an NISC Software Engineer, loads the converted data ahead of schedule — allowing extra time to test the Customer Care and Billing system. To convert the last open service orders, Peace River employees spend the weekend entering them into iVUE. Go Live Day dawns on Monday, October 5. NISC employees arrive at Peace River’s branch offices, and Wolfrum and a support team work at headquarters. At 8 a.m., the phones begintoringwithroutinecustomercalls.Memberservicerepre- sentatives answer customer questions, cashiers take payments and field workers access service orders on their new laptops. Some glitches arise, but the NISC team resolves them easily. By day two, Peace River begins processing bills. By the next week, everything is back to the regular schedule — a new routine, made more efficient with iVUE. This process is more than the implementation of new software, says Blackman. It is the evolution of an important new relationship. Every year, NISC adds about 30 to 50 new Members. While NISC devotes millions of dollars to developing and supporting new products, the company also makes an incalculableinvestmentinpeople—itsemployees,itsMembers, and even the end users, the electric or telecom customers. “The values NISC has are the same values we have at Peace River — always doing the right thing,” says Blackman. “Anybody can provide software, but not everybody provides the trust, the integrity that NISC does.” Go Live Day occurs as many as 50 times a year, and each one is a microcosm of NISC’s core values: Relationships built through implementationandMembertraining.Innovationinproducts. Teamwork that smooths out the edges, as employees support each other and the Members. Commitment to making things right, no matter what challenges arise. Rex Moorman, one of the NISC Professional Services Industry Consultants who worked with Peace River on their implementation, has helped dozens of Members convert to iVUE since the very first iVUE implementation in 2003. He never takes an implementation for granted. “I always go on site, and there’s a certain amount of fear in me: am I going to meet these Members’ expectations?” he says. “With iVUE, we normally can exceed their expectations. That’s gratifying.” “I always go on site, and there’s a certain amount of fear in me: am I going to meet these Members’ expectations? With iVUE, we normally can exceed their expectations. That’s gratifying.” — REX MOORMAN NATIONAL INFORMATION SOLUTIONS COOPERATIVE