Agenda - Metering.com Smith_0.pdfBill presentment solution at CLP Power André Blumberg CLP ITG [email protected] 18 Oct 2004

Bill presentment solution at CLP Power

André Blumberg CLP ITG

[email protected]

18 Oct 2004

2 Proprietary and Confidential Copyright of CLP Power HK Ltd

Agenda

v CLP company profile

v The need for improved customer service

v Enabling total bill presentment

v Lessons learned and challenges ahead

v Q&A


Agenda





v Q&A


Status quo in 2001

v Mainframebased “home grown” electricity billing system v Accountcentric rather than customercentric v Rising consumerism and increasing demand for customer services v System costly to run and inflexible to adapt to changing requirements

v Customer service agents not able to view the image of the bill document sent to customers, can only see raw data online

v High maintenance effort for bill format changes (Cobol, hardcoding etc.) v Support for limited number of max. 2 bill inserts v Customer web site stores PDF bill images, rising storage costs v Bill printing was outsourced in line with mainframe exit strategy, but cutting and

insertion done inhouse; decision to bring total bill presentment process back inhouse for strategic reasons and as tool for business communication

v Functional limitations in legacybased systems v Technology obsolescence v Scalability limitations


Customer Care and Marketing System (CCMS)

v Objectives ¬ Enable customercentric view (e.g. maintenance of multiple accounts

under different tariff schemes for the same customer) ¬ Position CLP for future opportunities ¬ Revolutionise customer service ¬ Incorporate industry best practices

v Scope ¬ Customer services functions, call centre integration ¬ Meter reading and meter management ¬ Tariff maintenance, billing ¬ Integrated multichannel bill presentment ¬ Payment collection and credit management ¬ Marketing analysis and campaign management ¬ Account, contact and activities management ¬ Customer Self Services via Internet

v Selected SAP ISU/CCS, CRM, BW as core architecture for CCMS in 2001


Business requirements for bill presentment

v CCMS batch regular bill printing ¬ Average volume 70,000 and peak 120,000 per night

v CCMS batch and online copy bill (viewing, printing, faxing) ¬ Customer service agents process bills decentralised at customer service

centres (customer kiosks), bills labelled as “Copy bill” ¬ Need online access to past 12 months history

v CCMS online bill (viewing, printing, faxing) ¬ Similar to above, but this are original bills not copy bills ¬ Typically for walkin customers to receive final bill “on the spot” upon

account termination, reflect latest account balance status incl. payments v Legacy system (“CISS”) online bill

¬ As above, but for legacy system bills, up to 12 months history ¬ Must be transparent to user, through user interface of new CCMS system

v Copy bill reprint request ¬ CLP customers request for copy bill reprint for past 12 months through

customer service hotline, or IVRS, and receive copy bill through mail v Inclusion of customised bill messages, depending on e.g. customer type


Business requirements (cont’d)

v Customer Self Service via Internet ¬ Customers view, print past 12 months (both CCMS and CISS legacy)

through CLP website ¬ To include both lowbandwidth text version, as well as full bill image in

PDF, bill inserts in PDF v eBill notification

¬ Customers who are registered for eBill receive bill notification email with a URL link to view their bill online via CLP website, no hardcopy bill is sent

v CCMS batch Braille printing ¬ Bills in Braille format for visually impaired customers

v Bill sorting and batching to meet different delivery channels ¬ Delivery by post, by hand through CLP company couriers (e.g. sequencing

by the unit number in the apartment block starting from top floor) ¬ Different bill inserts depending on customer relationship and priority

v Bill layout also needs to support bar charts (consumption history) v Support of barcodes required (payment stub) v Optical Mark Reading (OMR) to determine appropriate bill inserts during

enveloping process


Complexity of bill forms and layouts

v 24 different bill types ¬ Normal, copy, prorata, special, group, Braille, warning,

disconnection, amended, final etc. v 7 different tariff types ¬ Domestic, elderly, bulk, general service, large power, public

lighting, CLP staff v 2 languages ¬ English, Traditional Chinese (Cantonese), some bill types bilingual

v ~ 78 (!) possible combinations in total v Two different types of preprinted paper (blue = normal, red = dunning)

v Results in complex sorting, batching, sequencing criteria; would lead to extensive custom development requirement if done in SAP, hence decided to use standard StreamServe capabilities


Technical requirements

v Easy to use designtime tools / support for layout design v WYSIWYG look & feel, standard SAP Print Workbench too technical v Minimise ongoing support requirements for bill form / layout changes v Overall tight endtoend integration and automation

v Minimise storage requirement; retrieval rate for historical bills ~0.1% only; don’t want to store PDF images of all bills (24M bills, 150KB PDF, ~3.5TB storage just for bill image archiving)

v SAP certified solution for ISU/CCS RDI (Raw Data Interface) v Endtoend status monitoring of print status (SAP BCXOM interface) and e

mail/fax status (SMTP)

v Support costeffective Microsoft Windows / Intel platform v Scalable solution, multiprocessor capable, parallel processing v Support highavailability clustering solution v Able to resume service at secondary DR site within max. 3 hours failover time,

requires data synchronisation from primary to secondary site

v Proven solution (must have reference sites)


Agenda





v Q&A


Implementation project highlights

v Tendered for implementation of bill presentment solution, including production printers, in mid 2002

v Reviewed five different solutions and consortia, shortlisted three v Thorough evaluation across multiple criteria ¬ Product and functionality evaluation (bill presentment capabilities, bill

message / batching / distribution, output management) ¬ Technical evaluation (platform, system architecture, integration with

SAP and archiving solution, scalability, availability) ¬ Implementation requirements (implementation plan, system test

approach, training, warranty and maintenance) ¬ Supplier evaluation (ability to demonstrate relevant expertise, market

position (e.g. Gartner, IDC), vision, financial strength) ¬ 5year total cost of ownership, and cost per bill

v Awarded tender to IBM / StreamServe consortium in Q3/2002 v IXOS chosen for integrated archiving solution v Implementation Q4/2003 – Q2/2004, aligned with CCMS programme v CCMS golive in two phases: July + November 2003


Simplified bill presentment workflow


Detailed bill presentment architecture

Output spool file in RDI or

ASCII

Online printing

bills (1) Preprinted forms

StreamServe Bill

Presentment system (BPS)

Online printers

Customers

SAP WAS Web server(2)

Archive Storage media • Archived CCMS data files • Archived legacy CISS data

SAP GUI (e.g. executing CIC)

Bill (1) printout given to

customer

• View bill (1) – PDF preferred

• Retrieve archived

CCMS data and CISS data

Internet

Call center representative communicates to customer based on what is displayed on the SAP GUI

Customer specific bill (1)

retrieval

IXOS Archive system

• Archive “closed” data once retention

is reached

BPS auto generate bill (1) in PDF format and Web server retrieves the PDF file via HTTP

Request for online bill (1)

CCMS (SAP ISU/CCS 4.64) Win2000, SQL2000

CISS Legacy

(mainframe)

Sequential Tapes

• Retrieve archived CCMS data, archived legacy CISS data

• Retrieve archived CISS bill print list to transfer to BPS for online printing and adhoc PDF generation

Archive CISS Data in print lists and document lists

Archive Legacy Data (archived in tapes) in ASCII flat files

1. Application generates bill 2. Uses “form” within CCS

(via Print Workbench) 3. Prints file in RDI or ASCII

to spool subsystem

Customer calls Call Center e.g. past month high bill complaint

Preprinted forms

IBM batch production printers

Batch printing bills (1)

Mail distribution

to customer

Note: (1) Bills represent both CCMS and CISS bills (2) Web server is part of the CSS component

Microsoft Exchange email server (SMTP)

eBill notification

eBill notification

Call centre representative views

preview and selects to print


Process flow CCMS batch regular bill printing

CCMS (SAP IS U/CCS 4.64)

Win2000, SQL2000

StreamServe Communication

Server IBM Infoprint Manager

Preprinted forms

IBM batch production printer

Nightly batch

RDI files Print status

Print output files

Print status

Print output files

Print status

PreLaserMax

PostLaserM

ax Cutter & Inserter machines

Customers

Mail distribution to customers:

• Delivery by Hong Kong Post

• Other forms of delivery (hand delivery)

Bill Document

Print Document RDI files

• One RDI file can represent 1 bill or many bills.

• The RDI files are ‘dumped’ into SAP spool queue for bill batch printing.

Meter reading data

‘Spliced’ Pre printed forms


Printing room operations


Process flow CCMS online copy bill


Win2000, SQL2000


Server IBM Infoprint Manager

* CLP currently outsources its fax services to PCCW RDI file Print output

files

Print status

Print output file

Print status Customer

at customer service site

SAP GUI (e.g. executing CIC) RDI file

PDF file

Online printer(s) at customer service agent site

Preprinted forms

Microsoft Exchange (SMTP)

Email with PDF file attachment

Fax Completion Notification

Print status or Fax Completion Notification

Fax Server *

Email with PDF file attachment

Fax Completion Notification


Bill samples – English and Chinese versions


Bill samples – bilingual


Process flow Customer Self Service (CISS bill)

Archive Storage media


Server RDI file / ASCII file

Request to view bill

IXOS archive system

SAP WAS Web Server Request to view bill

PDF file

CCMS (SAP ISU/CCS v4.64 & CRM v3.1) Win2000, SQL2000

Request for Legacy (CISS)

ASCII file

Legacy (CISS) ASCII file

PDF file

Send back the bill data for text bill view

Display text bill view

Request to view graphical bill


Customer self service – bill retrieval


Online bill display – text version


Online bill display – graphic version


Online bill display – legacy CISS bill (Chinese)


Online bill display – bill inserts


Process flow CCMS batch Braille printing

Address labels

Braille bill

Customer

Embosser Juliet Pro 60

Print driver Zebra 140xilll Manual

insertion and send to

customers


Win2000, SQL2000 StreamServe Communication Server

Extract & Format Print file

Address in Braille codes

Extract Address labels

IBM Infoprint Manager

Address Labels print file

Print file in Braille codes

Label printer

RDI

Print files for bill and label

Print status

Print status

Documents

Agenda - Metering.com Smith_0.pdfBill presentment solution at CLP Power André Blumberg CLP ITG [email protected] 18 Oct 2004