September 22, 2017 | Blog
Apogee recently attended the 30th anniversary of the E Source Forum in Denver. This year the conference saw 800 energy professionals register for the event. Apogee Interactive debuted their latest in a long list of firsts, surprising attendees and generating excitement about new innovative technologies. Attendees year after year have come to expect to learn about the latest energy trends and technologies at this event.
Apogee chose this venue to unveil its latest success integrating its proprietary bill analysis algorithms with the Amazon Echo. With Apogee’s technology, Echo’s voice assistant, Alexa, responds to questions like, “Why has my bill changed from last month?” Alexa can now explain impacts such as weather, days of service, rate changes, and other factors related to home operation or behavior like guests in the home or changes to thermostat settings.
Using the same time-tested energy algorithms Apogee uses to power their comprehensive line of residential applications, Alexa pours over a customer’s 13-months of billing history along with weather coincident with the meter-read date and AMI data, when available, to give customers answers to commonly asked questions that can produce calls to the contact center.
Ken Black, E Source Co-Chairman, noted that this year’s registration is the highest in E Source history making it a perfect venue for such a launch. “Apogee brings something new and insightful to the Forum, and we appreciate their commitment and focus on energy industry issues.”
Personalization continues to be Apogee’s hallmark message for energy professionals as demonstrated by their development of personalized energy summary reports and video bill explanations, all examples of what utilities can easily do to engage customers and build their digital presence. We believe personalization gives the utility an opportunity to be relevant to customers, and relevance causes customers to engage.
In addition, while at the Forum, Apogee demonstrated a new virtual presence device known to Big Bang Theory viewers as “Sheldonbot” or more aptly, “Joelbot,” since the virtual presence was that of Apogee’s Chief Software Architect, Joel Gilbert, P.E.
Captivating attention and generating interest as he cruised the crowded aisles meeting and greeting friends and acquaintances, “Joelbot” was a show-stopper and lots of fun too. Conversations were warm and personal as he compared notes and caught up with colleagues he has known and consulted with for more than 30 years in the business.
If you are out at a conference this season look for Apogee and be sure to have a selfie made with our JoelBot.
Susan Gilbert is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of APOGEE Interactive, Inc. Susan’s life-long interest and passion is to educate consumers about energy and energy efficiency — through utility and educational channels.
Her career is a natural progression of this passion, beginning as a high school physics teacher in Atlanta. She moved on to work for an energy-engineering firm, A&C Enercom, where she helped launch energy audits for businesses across Georgia under a new State Energy Office initiative. Over the next 17 years, she lead A&C Enercom’s sales and marketing operations, building the business from a staff of five in Atlanta to more than 600 employees across the country.
In the early ’90s, Susan founded Apogee Interactive with the vision of leveraging technology to more effectively deliver energy information. Today, she leads the company in delivering best-in-class Web-based energy analysis and data presentment applications including Energy Advisor Enterprise, Envoy Outbound Communication, Field Audit Tools, Eco-Stewards, Energy Libraries and a Kid’s Korner energy education website, and an eLearning portal for utilities known as Study-Center.com. Through her leadership, the firm, its people and its products, have achieved national recognition for analytical superiority, cutting-edge innovation, and excellence in performance and customer service. In 2017, Susan began a 5-year term as Trustees of Georgia’s Developmental Disabilities Ministries (DDM), a nonprofit, charitable corporation serving adults with developmental disabilities and their families.
Susan earned her bachelor’s of science with a major in physics and a minor in mathematics at the University of Kentucky and also her masters in curriculum and instruction from the University of Kentucky. She serves on the board of Smoke Rise Country Club LLC and is active in Smoke Rise Baptist Church as a deacon.
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