Currently, the biggest challenges for Utilities companies are: implementing EU directives on de-regulation, continuous improvement of efficiency and cost reduction with quality improvement of service, maintaining energetic safety and continuous competitive advantage. Fulfilling these challenges requires effective process integration of the entire company which must be supported with the newest IT solutions.
One of the most important elements of the business-IT environment is a unified IT architecture. It ensures safety, stability of development and it significantly influences cost reduction. As for the Utilities companies, its key components are the following, integrated groups of systems:
- CIS (Customer Information Systems) including: billing, CRM, technical and commercial client service, device management, managing data including TPA (Third Party Access) and RTP (Real Time Pricing),
- EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) including: finance management and its exploitation, management of projects and investments, GIS systems, specialized engineering calculation systems,
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) along with BI (Business Intelligence) – serve as the basis for managing the resources and finances of the company as well as for making correct manager decisions,
- Technological systems such as SCADA, measuring systems, dispatcher systems.
Implementation of a concept of intelligent network (Smart Grid) in Utilities influences changes in requirements toward currently used business-IT environment. They are mainly related to CIS, EAM, measuring systems and they are connected to the necessity of managing data acquired from remote readings, their analytics and processing.
One of the most important foundations of Smart Grid conception is the use of effects of AMI remote readings realization (Advanced Metering Infrastructure). It requires solutions in the pricing systems of the second generation. In order to manage demand and offer new products on the basis of AMI, such as the cost of used energy in the real time, a proper pricing system is required. Such system should be able to collect and transform reading data not in monthly cycles but quasi-online. RTP (Real Time Pricing) and EDM module (Energy Data Management) are the most important functions of the pricing system. Other important functions include: the possibility of transforming and managing analytical aspects of data volumes, managing the process of acquiring such volumes, transforming them and sharing according to TPA requirements.
Modern CIS systems enable using meter data acquired in real time in order to manage and predict work time of the entire distribution system.
Smart Grid concept assumes that CIS systems which are based on second generation pricings with RTP, advanced analytical mechanisms will be a base for its functioning. AMI is also an important tool in this concept; however, AMI's options will never be used without the newest solutions in the CIS area.
Functions of new technologies created within the scope of Smart Grid are, of course, dependent on the physical network which acts as a carrier for certain utilities. Another important aspect is to possess effective EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) systems which base elements are systems enabling management of network exploitation and performing processess of planning and investment realization.
There is no other solution which could combine the activity of a public utility company with the possibilities of Internet in such effective way! SAP for Utilities ensures a great scope of possibilities whether it will be applied in a company providing electric energy, central heating, gas or in municipal services company
- full management of the utility, supervision of economic processes, raporting,
- focus on details and perspective of the solutions – starting from the simplest and crucial in a given phase of the company's development, continuing with more complex solutions and finishing on the most complex ones which are devoted to environments with high competition,
- complex servicing of multi-energetic utilities,
- one shared data base for the entire utility; no limitation on the number of recipients or the character of those
- integration of the entire value chain: signing of the contract, realization of utility services, readings of the measuring devices, pricings, invoicing and managing receivables,
- client oriented architecture,
- additional services – the possibility of performing readings, pricings, invoicing, managing receivables for other companies,
- the use of certain solutions for companies in capital groups
- full service of Euro, multi-currency
- management of all communication channels with the Client
- the Client/Receiver as a business Partner concept- different roles, different scopes of data for example Tenant, Owner, Potential Client
- joining the service for Receivers with the organizational structure of the company
- use of workflow – electronical workflow and document flow for realization of the Client's issues
- history of business objects in the system, for example the subsequent contracts and Receivers connected to a certain area, places of installation and notes regarding the measuring devices: dates, ways, reasons, documents, relations between the Client and the utility
- complex, technical Client's service
- correspondence record
- process integration of Client services with other services in the utility
- logical master data structure including the technical and business part
- unrestricted number of contracts for the Receiver
- the concept of contract pricing enabling for using different procedures of settlement and vindication
- multidimensional hierarchies and segmentations of Clients
- standardized selling scenerios
- service of the full cycle of selling starting from the opportunity, through the offer up to the contract or framework agrement
- management of products and services
- analysis of the sales pipeline
- monitoring of the realization statuses of sales targets
- complex integration with pricing and invoicing
- multidimensional hierarchies and segmentations of Clients
- management of mass offers
- management of contracts/annexes
- management of contract penalties and their immediate calculation
- instant service of new Clients
- instant service of in/out Clients
- complex integration with pricing and invoicing
- readings of use of unrestricted media
- readings of devices based on portal devices; readings books and data transfer from external measuring devices
- creation of flexible reading paths
- defining procedures of accepting the results of readings
- remote readings, co-operation with measuring automatics
- defininf tariff types for different business cases
- different pricing types: periodic, on the Client's demand, backward, final
- validation of documents within the whole pricing process
- pricing simulations
- new types of pricing:
Real Time Pricing – the prognosis of use introduced by the Client is compared with real values; depending on established rules, exceeding of the defined interval o +/- n% causes extra charging - time of use
- new types of pricing:
- settlement of the full set of services and prices
- exchange of data with other sellers and distributors
- invoicing simulation
- the possibility of adjusting a separate pattern of invoice to a group of Clients or even single Key Clients
- the possibility of taking into account unrestricted positions such as discount, extra charge
- addition of leaflets and other information materials
- multi-dimensional defining of the vindication procedure
- management of different categories of issue cases
- integration with external public registries of debtors
- full management of measuring devices, management of supplies, purchase, installation, photos, changes, servicing, different types of devices
- management of legalization: traditional and statistical
- reflection of technical objects on a chosen level of detail- measuring devices, additional devices (transformers, reducers), connections, connectors; connected objects (tenement houses, blocks, institutions) and units (housing units, flats)
- ascription of such objects thanks to administration structure and a dictionary-organized address base: cities, streets, postal codes
- profile and use for service of typing illegal collection
- segmentation for illegal collection
- reports helping to find illegal collection
- technical and trading backup of servicing illegal collection
- after-control and monitoring recommendations
- multidimensional segmentation of Clients
- planning of marketing activities on every level
- full management of marketing campaigns
- analyses of relations with Clients
- analysis of flow on websites
- preparation of different marketing analyses
- management of all services and products
- financial and factual aspect, assignment of resources
- comparison of configurated services and products in an easy way which allows for pricing and specification
- collecting data from readings performed every several minutes, profiles of usage
- use of collected data for real time pricing or the time of use pricing
- use of usage profiles for predicting and balancing
- monitoring of values in different measuring points
- mathematical activity on profiles, for example adding, finding minimum, maximum
- servicing of distributed Clients
- flexible, multidimensional reporting
- necessary reports (for example regulator, government agenda)
One of the crucial elements of our offer is creating solutions in terms of acquiring and transforming measuring data with management function of its sharing; these processes must correspond to TPA regulations, balancing and prognosing of the distribution system, Client profiling, maintaining complex analysis, RTP (Real Time Pricing) function which are built on the basis of EDM module .