Complex Bill Automation

Speakers: Stephanie Busch & Renee Wagner

CS Week May 2018

• Holding Company serving eight states

• 2M Electric Customers

• 530K Gas Customers

• 1.5M Combination E&G Customers

• 5.6M Total Meters

• #1 Utility wind provider for over a

decade

Xcel Energy, Inc.

2

• Stephanie Busch:

• Xcel Energy Employee for 30 years

• Current Position: Functional Consultant

• Primary Areas of Focus: Customer Systems & Integration

• IT Expert for Xcel Energy Complex Billing System Implementation

Who Are We?

3

• Renee Wagner:

• Xcel Energy Employee for 30 years

• Current Position: Director, Billing Services & Operations

• Primary Areas of Focus: Retail billing and cash processing

• Sponsor for Xcel Energy Complex Billing Project

Who Are We?

4

• Why We Need Automation: Business Drivers

• Business Case and Success Criteria

• Key Business Assumptions, Dependencies, and Constraints

• System Integration, Requirements, and Testing

• Business Benefits and Lessons Learned to Date

What Will We Talk About Today?

5

What is a permutation?

Pop Quiz

6

Xcel Energy – Always Delivering…

7

https://youtu.be/xjTDLLNjXtU

Why do we need it… Wind Farms

8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnc4M6vZTFY

Why do we need it… Solar Farms:

9

10

Why do we need it… Standby

• Business Drivers

• Customer Choice Rate Options

• Extensive Rate Complexities

• Saturated Customer System Capabilities

• Exhausted Managing of System Automation Scripts

Business Drivers

11

• Xcel Energy

• Business Systems

• Customer Care – Billing Services & Operations

• Account Management

• Accenture

• IT Account Management

• IT Customer Application Support

• IT Programming and Implementation

• Hansen

• Customer Application Owner

• IT Application Coding

Who is involved?

12

Xcel Energy Systems Big Picture

Enerlink

Customer Address/Tax ValidationGroup 1 / Code 1 / GeoTax

GENTRAN

FiServ

Direct Debit/

Wells Fargo

Wausau

Salesforce.com

SAM Yukon

Exact Target

ICS/Equifax

Call Center Technology

Marketing

Metering Cash/

Remittance

Collection Agencies

Via XcelEnergy.com

OCS

Fulfillment

Brouchures

NOAA

Global Connect

DST

Print

GIS

NMS

Advantex

Data WarehouseTeraData

Gas SCADA

JDEC

CAD

Field Operations

Gas

Management

System

GOLD

AFS Services

Customer

Web PortalMy Account

Open Text/Vignette

WI Web Services

Complex

Billing

Avaya CMS

Avaya IQVerint

Workforce Mgr

Avaya

Communications

Manager

Avaya IVR

Voice Portal

Voice Portal Applications

InboundVolume High Call Volume

Proactive Contact

Nuance

Speech

MaritzCX

Verint Call

Recorders

Verint Speech

Analytics

Verint

Scorecard &

Dashboard

Verint

eLearning

IEE 8.2 MRAS

IEE 4.X

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters Meter Reader

Hand

HeldsFCS

Update Meter

Model Client App

MDMS

IEH

RMS

ARCS

MV90xi Gas

Manual Metering

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters

AMR Metering

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters

Remote Meters

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters

Cellnet Meters

Gas

MetersElectric

Meters

SmartGrid Meters

Cellnet

Xcelenergy.com

EA Portal

WI Web ServicesXpressNet

DSM

Dashboard

ReportingBusiness Objects

Power Billing

System

ISOC

Yukon

Google

Analytics Prm

DSMore 2008

and 2014Sprinklr

Adobe Incopy

Possible Now

Energy Orbit

Yukon

Load Mgmt

Sertifi

(e-signature)

West

TFCC SMS

HomeSmart

FastApp

PowerSource

Opower

Renewables

Administration

Customer Resource System (CRS)

Peace Energy 7.1, Hansen Technologies

· Billing and Payment

· Credit and Collections

· Customer Service

· Field Orders

· Rates Administration

CRS API LayerCallidus

Cloud

DSM Product

Administration

Salesforce.com

for DG, FastApp,

HomeSmart, DSM

PFRSperformance fctr

review system m/f

SAP

ISMMobile Collectors

MV90 Electric

Cu

sto

me

r S

yste

ms A

pp

lica

tio

n L

an

dsca

pe

Customer Business Process Landscape

Enerlink

Customer Address/Tax ValidationGroup 1 / Code 1 / GeoTax

Payment

Transmission

FiServ CC

Payments

Direct Debit/

Wells Fargo

Payment

Processing

SaversSwitch

Administration

Exact Target

Call Center Technology

Marketing

Metering

Cash/

Remittance

Collection Agencies

Via

XcelEnergy.com

Brochure

Fulfillment

Weather Data

Global Connect

Bill and Letter

Print

Print

GeoSpacial

Premise/

Address Feed

Outage

Management

Administration

Data WarehouseTeraData

Gas SCADA

JDEC

New Premise

Design Work

Field Operations

Gas

Management

System

Non-commodity

Bill Calculation

Customer

& Vendor

Partner

Web

Portals

Complex

Billing

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters

Manual Metering

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters

AMR Metering

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters

Remote Meters

Gas

Meters

Electric

Meters

Cellnet Meters

Gas

MetersElectric

Meters

SmartGrid Meters

Xcelenergy.com Energy

Assistance Portal

Knowledge Mgmt

CCQR

DSM

Performance

Dashboard

ReportingBusiness Objects

Complex Billing

DSMore 2008

and 2014

Customer

Preference Center

DSM Calculators

Load Mgmt

Administration

(e-signature)

Administration

HomeSmart

Administration

PowerSource

Call

Management

Call

Monitoring

Call Routing

Builders PortalWI Web

Services

HomeSmart My Account

Employee

Web Portal

Employee Info

XpressNet

Revenue

Protection

Social Listening/

Admin

Outage

Comminications

Order DispatchOrder

Scheduling

Product

Development

Campaign

Management

DSM Rebate

Operations

Customer

Account Mgmt

Sales Cycle &

Forecasting

Read

Acquisition &

Storage

Read Mgmt

Meter

Reading

Work

Management Meter Management

He

ad

En

d S

yste

m(s

)

CRS

Payment

Tax

Securities/

Guarantors

Rates

Rates

Administration

Tax

Certificates

Billing

Bill Calc and

Validation

Bill

Estimation

Billing

Exception

Mgmt

Commodity & Non-Commodity

Billing

Meter Read

Requests

Quality

Assurance

Credit &

Collections

Energy

Assistance

Pay

Arrangements

Credit

Routing

Skip Tracing

Disconnect

Notices

Credit 3rd

Party

Administration

Customer

Service

Customer

Event Mgmt

Premise

Administration

Start/Stop

Service

Customer

Pgm Mgmt

Customer

Acct Mgmt

Service

Orders

Reporting &

Analytics

Work

Management

Meter Testing

Field & Shop

Meter Device

Inventory

Meter Device

Maintenance

Device and

Location

History

Tax and

Addressing

Tax Admin

Rates

Administration

Payment

Posting

Billing

Determinants

Reporting &

Analytics

Meter Read

Security

Exception

Handling

Manage

Read

Requests

Route Mgmt/

Optimization

Demand

Response

Management

CRM

Product

Management

Customer

Analytics &

Segmentation

Web AnalyticsOpower

Customer Energy

Customer

Analytics

Call Logging

Skills Routing

Inbound Call

Volume

Interactive

Voice Resp

In/Outbound

Call

Management

Workforce

Management

Workforce

Management MaritzCX

Reporting

and Analytics

Real-Time

Reporting

Workforce

Scheduling

Workforce

Adherence

Regulatory

Reporting

Agent Perf

Reporting Fullfillment

CX

Management

CC Problem

Management

Outage

Management

CX

Management

SAP GL, WAM

Cu

rre

nt

• Calculate charges and readings to invoice transactions to

customer

• Implement a system alongside the current customer system

to handle complex bill automation at Xcel Energy, for

contract management, interval data processing, and the

necessary billing calculations for the following group of

customers

Business Case – Business Need

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• Automation of current manual billed

customers

• Reduction of manual work performed by

Billing Services

• Recognized reduction of time to

process complex bill customers

• System exception processing utilized to

bill all Retail customers

Success Criteria

16

• Reduction in Current Customer System custom

automation scripting

• Decommissioning of Current low-utilized bill system

• In-house Complex Bill Design, Build, Test, and Execute

Success Criteria

17

• Assumptions

• Dependencies

• Constraints

Key Business Assumptions, Dependencies, and

Constraints

18

System Integration, Requirements, and Testing

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• System Integration

• System Requirements

• System Testing

• Backfilling of data processes

• Big bang testing – full end to end with limited unit testing

• Focus on new system capabilities verses full end to end

testing

• Availability of limited and shared testing environments

• Lack of fulltime dedicated project resources

• Logistics of project resources being utilized

Project Processes and Risks

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• Multiple assumptions on part of vendors

and utility

• Original scoping and rate complexity

• Defining contractual cost elements

Project Gaps

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• Requirements methodology

• Complexity in identifying read source due

to agnostic billing engines

• Data requirements of CIS system vs new

billing engine

Project Gaps

22

• Phase I – 2017 – Quarter 4

• 10 Rates ~ electric meters/services

• Phase 2 – 2018 – Quarter 2

• 20 Rates ~ remaining electric meters/services

• Phase 3 – 2018 – Quarter 4

• 15 Rates ~ gas meters/services

• Daily Gas

• Transportation Gas

• Steam

• Chilled

Go-Live Phases – Original Scope

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• Phase I – Nov 13, 2017

• 5 Rates ~ electric meters/services

• 507 services were converted successfully

• 486 successfully invoices on cycle

• Phase IB – 2018 – Quarter 1

• 5 Rates ~ removed from Phase I scope

• Phase 2 – 2018 – Quarter 2

• 20 Rates ~ remaining scoped ~ electric meters/services

• Phase 3 – 2018 – Quarter 4

• Steam Billing

Go-Live Phases – New Scope

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• Permutation: In mathematics, the notion of permutation

relates to the act of arranging all the members of a set into

some sequence or order, or if the set is already ordered,

rearranging (reordering) its elements, a process called

permuting. These differ from combinations, which are

selections of some members of a set where order is

disregarded.

Pop Quiz – Answer

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• Understand exactly “how” the vendor programming

determinants are established, assessed, and then

essentially contractually billed

• Need to also understand the proliferation of the peculiarities

in the permutations.

• Programming complex bill customers by the number of

permutations greatly exceeds programming by the

number of rates or line items on a bill.

Lesson Learned

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• Business Benefits

• Extends Enterprise Functional and Operational Billing

Capability

• Strategic Alignment for an Enterprise Customer Billing

Solution

• Reduction in IT System Maintenance and Business

Operating Cost

Business Benefits

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Biggest Benefit – Time Savings

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• Vendor “we can do it” attitude doesn’t mean

they can correctly without a lot of assistance

• Business due-diligence needed in support of

clean-up, validation, tariff interpretation, and

reporting prior to requirements

• Business subject matter experts need to

“grow-into” the new system in order to

individually set-up new manual bills

• Dedicated resources from all sides would

have increased success

Lessons Learned to Date

29

• CIS Vendor may not be able to naturally

integrate their other systems to their system

already in-house

• CIS Vendor project programmers may not

have any knowledge of their current in-

house system

• Xcel Energy Big Picture middleware testing

requirements and scripts

• In-house middleware utilization may not

provide sufficient response times

Lessons Learned to Date

30

Speakers:

Stephanie Busch & Renee Wagner