Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Budget billing amounts can be stored either as down payments (statistical receivables) or as partial bills (debit entries) in Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable
and are therefore subject to all dunning and payment procedures.
IS-U/CCS also supports average monthly billing and budget billing as special
budget billing procedures applicable to North America. They are discussed more
fully below.
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Budget Billing
(North America)
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Direct debit customers receive budget billing requests as a notification about when
the amounts due will be debited. Cash payers receive budget billing requests as
payment forms, which can be sent out in a variety of ways (for example, all payment forms included with the bill or one separate payment form on each due date).
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Basic Functions
Postings are always stored as documents. The document, the smallest unit in financial accounting, constitutes the proof of a business transaction. It can only be
posted if the balance of the items contained in it is zero.
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Budget Billings
Budget billings can be stored in FI-CA either as down payments (statistical postings) or as partial billings (debit positions) and are therefore subject to all dunning
and payment procedures. Budget billing requests are shown in the document as
repetition lines. For more information on budget billings, please refer to the section titled Budget Billing Plan under Invoicing.
Reversal
You can reverse documents if a customer complains about a bill. You can execute
a reversal for a document or for a collective bill. The system generates a reversal
document, which together with the reversed document has a zero balance. During reversal these two documents are linked to each other.
You can use reversals with the following posting transactions:
Incoming or outgoing payments
When reversing payments, the allocated item (meaning the receivable or credit memo) is identified as open again. This means that, in terms of its due dates,
and payment and dunning data, it is returned to the status it had before the
incoming or outgoing payment.
Receivables or credits
With regard to receivables or credits, the system distinguishes between the
reversal of consumption billing documents and the reversal of other items. In
the case of billing documents, the system distinguishes between a full reversal
and an invoicing reversal. Full reversal reverses the billing documents in addition to the invoicing document.
Settlement or write off
The reversal process for settlement and write off is similar to the reversal process for payments.
Interest
The original receivables on which interest was calculated are also adjusted in
addition to the reversal of the actual interest item.
In most cases, the system automatically enters documents. However, you can also
enter receivables and credit memos manually. You do this by entering a predefined
process for each business transaction. This predefined process then automatically
determines the general ledger accounts or tax accounts and notes them in the
receivables and revenue lines.
The documents are classified based on the document type entered. The system
automatically determines the due date using the payment conditions in the contract
account. Receivables and credit memos can be cleared immediately or in increments over time.
By specifying a start date, receivables lines with different due dates can be repeated at monthly or daily intervals, for example in the case of budget billing or installment plans.
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Open items are uncompleted transactions. An unpaid billing line item, for example, is managed as an open item in the contract account until it has been paid and
cleared. This allows you to check which receivables or payables are still outstanding. The open items in an account can be cleared immediately or in increments
over time. With incremental clearing, the item is divided into a cleared item in the
amount of the cleared part and an open item containing the remaining amount.
Open Items
Correspondence
Account statements contain a list of a customers open items and the total
receivables amount.
Dunning notices contain a list of a customers overdue open items and their
total amount.
Notifications about agreements for payment by installment contain the individual installment amounts for the installment agreement entered into with
the customer, including the amounts and due dates.
Notifications about budget billing requests contain information on set budget billing amounts and due dates in the event that a new budget billing plan
was created or an existing one was altered.
Notifications about deferral agreements contain information on payment deferral agreements.
Returns notifications contain information on the event initiating a return and
a listing of the items affected.
Mutual help requests, which are sent to another utility company, contain a
request for mutual help (see section titled Mutual Help).
Interest notifications contain a listing of the items on which interest has been
calculated and an overview of interest calculation.
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Business Transactions
The processing of business transactions in FI-CA is largely automated. You define
how processing is controlled in Customizing. The business transactions are described briefly below.
Payments
In most cases, the system settles payments automatically. However, you can also
enter them manually, for example, for individual incoming or outgoing payments
made at the cash desk.
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Depending on the type of payment, payments may be processed via the cash desk
or by means of payment lots. In the case of cash desk processing, the cash payment made by a customer is entered in the system and processed individually.
Processing of Payments
Payment lots group together payments to be processed jointly. You create them by
manually entering data from checks or payment orders or automatically transferring the data from account statements using data medium exchange (DME).
Payments are allocated to the open items according to industry-specific rules. The
system then automatically clears the allocated items. Overpayments can be posted on account, and underpayments can be posted as partial payment.
You can create incoming and outgoing payments using the payment program.
The payment program executes the following steps:
Creation of Payments
1. It determines the open items to be settled using the selection criteria that were
entered for the payment run and the due dates of the open items.
2. It combines the due items as payments or debit memos in accordance with
industry-specific or customer-specific rules.
Credits and receivables are settled if no payment methods are set at the document
level.
3. It selects payment methods and bank details.
4. It posts payment documents and clears open items.
5. It provides data for the payment media.
6. It creates the data media (currently for the Austrian DME format only).
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The system supports the most common payment procedures direct debit, debit memo
collection, bank transfer, and check as well as internal direct debit from a deposit
account. With minimum amount limits, you can avoid settling very small amounts.
Returns
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A down payment is made in anticipation of a bill that has not yet been invoiced.
Down payments may be either budget billing payments for energy consumption
or down payments for services, such as the installation of a service connection.
Down Payments
For certain services, the system uses a workflow link for incoming payments that
result from a down payment request, for example, for notifications to field service
employees.
When they are made, all down payments are initially payables with respect to the
customer. They are automatically processed when the bill is invoiced, meaning
they are transferred and offset.
You can apply special conditions to customers with bad payment histories or bad
creditworthiness:
Dunning
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You can combine the items in freely definable dunning groups and group them by
business partner, contract, or division. This allows you to send a business partner
a separate dunning notice for each division.
A dunning activity is initiated relative to the highest dunning level of all the items
in the dunning group. The dunning history, such as the last dunning date, is also
taken into account. You can also define dunning activities. A dunning letter is
printed in most cases. However, you can also create a workflow for a device disconnection or for starting legal dunning proceedings.
A dunning run determines the following:
The contract account to be dunned and its open items
The dunning level of the items in a dunning group
The dunning activities based on the dunning level concerned
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Interest calculation
You can call interest calculation for the items subject to dunning from the dunning run.
Reversal
You can reverse the last dunning. You can reverse either a complete dunning
run (for example, if the dunning notices have not yet been printed) or individual dunning notices (for example, if a business partner submits a complaint).
Dunning history
The dunning history contains the dunning data for each dunned item, such as
the dunning level of the processed items and the dunning amount. This ensures that you have a log of the dunning activities that were carried out.
Maximum and minimum amounts
With maximum and minimum amounts, you avoid dunning for very small
amounts.
Dunning block
You can exclude individual items or contract accounts from dunning. With
regard to the contract account, you can also impose a time limit on that block.
You can calculate interest on individual items both debit and credit items for
the contract accounts of a business partner. This allows you to assess debit interest
for bad payment patterns and to reward good payment patterns with credit interest.
Interest Calculation
for Individual Items
During the interest run, the system calculates and posts interest, and the data
required for a customer notification is made available. The system can only calculate interest if it can identify an interest key. The interest key controls interest calculation and can be assigned to contract accounts, individual items, or dunning
levels.
You can calculate interest on the following items:
Open or cleared debit items and budget billing requests
Installment plans
Cash security deposits
Credit items, such as credit memos
Yearly advance payments on a budget billing plan
You can credit a business partner with a yearly advance payment bonus for paying in advance the total amount due under a budget billing plan (Release 4.51).
That bonus is calculated as part of interest calculation.
You can calculate interest on debit items using the following functions:
Individual processing
Interest is calculated on the items of a business partner or of a contract account.
Initiation from invoicing or dunning run
Interest calculation for cash security deposits in particular can be initiated
from invoicing. The interest is printed on the bill or the dunning notice.
Mass interest calculation
As of Release 4.51, you can call interest calculation from a mass run. In this
case, interest notifications are created.
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For credit items, you can calculate interest only with individual processing.
Interest calculation also supports the following functions:
Maximum and minimum amounts allow you to avoid billing a business partner for very small amounts.
Interests blocks allow you to exclude items or specific business transactions
(such as reversals) from interest calculation.
You can maintain individual interest rates for business partners or business
transactions.
You can post interest to the general ledger and post debit interest as a statistical posting.
The interest supplement records how the interest amount was determined.
The interest history records the interest calculation period for each item. This
ensures that interest on an item is calculated once only in any given period.
If a customer is unable to meet payment obligations, you can set up an installment
agreement or a deferred payment agreement for one or more receivables.
In an installment plan, you define the number of installments, the individual
amounts of the installments, and their due dates. The system uses the individual
installments for dunning purposes or for a payment run instead of the original
receivable. When the customer pays the final installment, the system automatically deactivates the installment plan. However, you can also deactivate an installment plan manually, in which case the original receivable is again used in payment settlement and dunning.
The functions available with the installment plan include the following:
You can create customer notifications.
You can delete installments that are still outstanding, change amounts and
due dates, and create installments.
You can accept partial payments toward installments.
The dunning run can deactivate an installment plan when a specific dunning
level is reached.
Write Offs
If you want to defer an open item, you can enter a date that is different from the
actual due date. The item is then given this deferral due date. As a result, that item
is neither dunned nor are payments collected. If the deferral date is exceeded, the
item continues to be dunned relative to the original due date, and the bank collection process resumes.
Uncollectible receivables are written off. Credits can also be written off. It is planned
to support these functions as of Release 4.51.
Authorization control is used to define what an employee is allowed to write off:
Receivables
Credits and receivables
Receivables without final billing
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Additionally, you can automatically write off credits and receivables of little value
as small amounts. You can define separate amount limits for writing off small
amounts for debits and credits.
Collective bills enable you to send documents relating to different contract accounts or business partners jointly to a single collective bill recipient, who is responsible for making payments. The individual documents are grouped together
under a collective bill document number, which is used to identify all the individual documents. Collective bills are used, for example, for property management
companies, municipal authorities, and large companies.
Collective Bill
Mutual Help
If a utility company requests mutual help, a letter to the partner utility containing
an account statement for the relevant customer account is created. This process
does not change the actual items in the customer account.
If a utility company provides mutual help, a corresponding contract account has
to be created. A statistical item equal to the amount being requested can be posted
to that contract account. A subsequent incoming payment is then posted as an
open credit and can be transferred to the requesting utility as an outgoing payment.
In intercompany invoicing, one company is responsible for billing and collecting
payments for other independent companies. These companies generally present
themselves to the customer as a single unit. The customer receives a bill with
general ledger account assignments affecting more than one company code.
Intercompany Invoicing
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When a reconciliation key is closed, it is blocked for further postings. This means
that no other FI-CA documents can be entered in the totals records. A closed totals
record can be transferred to general ledger and posted there as an accounting
document. Since the reconciliation key is recorded in those Financial Accounting
documents, a link is created between FI-CA documents and FI documents. Consequently, you can itemize the totals posted in general ledger and reconcile FI-CA
and the general ledger.
If a document is posted for a customer in FI-CA, automatic account determination
determines the reconciliation account, the associated offsetting account, and one
or more tax accounts, and enters them in the document. These accounts correspond to the G/L accounts to be posted in the general ledger.
During year-end closing, it is necessary to create an itemized list at the customer
level for the G/L accounts to which postings were made from FI-CA. This list is
created as notes to the balance sheet, which provide an explanation of the balances on the basis of the associated individual documents. The balances for the general ledger accounts therefore need to be reconciled regularly with the balances
from the individual documents in FI-CA. Reconciliation between FI-CA and the
general ledger analyzes all the open item documents that belong to a totals record
and forms the corresponding totals. Any differences are logged and must be investigated.
A posting in FI-CA causes an immediate (synchronous) posting in R/3 Treasurys
Cash Management (TR-CM) component. The liquidity forecast and the cash position of the cash management function are therefore always current.
Account Determination
Reconciliation
Cash Management
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Controlling
Documents that are generated in General Ledger Accounting when totals records are
posted are not different from normal Financial Accounting documents, and, therefore,
also result automatically in the updating of other ledgers and of Controlling.
Fig. 5-28: Integration with General Ledger, Controlling, and Cash Management
Closing Operations
Foreign Currency Valuation
Foreign currency valuation recalculates the value of the current assets and payables
that were posted in a foreign currency. This means that the receivables and payables
accounts are corrected for balance sheet preparation.
Generally, foreign currency valuation operates on the items open on the key date,
that is, it uses single valuation. If this is not possible, the account balance is valuated.
You can run foreign currency valuation in the local currency and in any parallel currencies being maintained, such as the group currency or hard currency.
Doubtful Receivables
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Information System
Account display gives the user an overview of the debit and credit items for a
business partner or contract account. Selection criteria (for example, cleared items
only or statistical items only) allow you to limit the selection of items to be displayed.
Account Display
The following configuration variants control how the items are displayed:
Variants for open items determine which information is displayed.
Totals variants determine the criteria for the cumulation of individual items.
Sorting variants determine the sequence in which the items are displayed.
From the account display you can branch to the following areas:
Business partner, contract account, and contract
Dunning, returns, and clearing histories
Payment usage
Installment and budget billing plans
Original receivable of an installment plan
Analyses
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Customer Service
As energy markets undergo liberalization, the fast and efficient processing of customer inquiries becomes a decisive competitive advantage. The essential ingredients here are quick access to all the important customer data and an efficient user
interface that incorporates the latest technologies.
The most important component of customer service is the Customer Interaction
Center (CIC), the work environment in IS-U/CCS for employees in the front office or call center.
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Call State
Data Finder
Business Data
User-Definable
Customer
Overview
Action Box
The Call State component displays the current status of each caller. This gives you
constant control over which caller is active, which caller is participating in a conference call, and which caller is on hold.
Call State
It can also identify the number called (for example, the technical fault report or
energy consulting department). If the CTI middleware provides the callers number, the system can identify the caller, and display information (like the name) in
the Call State display.
Occasionally, the system cannot identify the caller because the caller may be calling from a different phone than the one listed in the system or because the caller is
a new customer who has not yet been entered into the customer file. In these
cases, you can use the Data Finder component. The Data Finder is a tool for searching for IS-U data objects, such as business partners and connection objects.
Data Finder
The Data Finder uses powerful search functions across a large number of selection
fields to identify objects.
Consequently, you can search according to the following criteria:
Name and address of the customer
Address of the connection object or premise
Customer number
Social security number
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Example
User-Definable Customer
Overview
The Data Finder allows you, for example, to search for all customers who:
-
Live at 32 Schiller Street on the third floor and receive water service
The Business Data Display is the memory area for managing all the business objects
(the callers customer or reporting data, service reports, sales order) and data that
has already been collected during the current customer contact. The Business Data
Display allows you to display at any time the details of various objects or to use
those objects to execute further actions.
The customer overview currently provides you with information about a customers data at the following levels:
Customer
Contract account
Premises
Contracts
Below those levels, you can decide yourself which detailed information you need,
and you can make the corresponding settings in Customizing. Depending on the
settings you make in Customizing, you can obtain information on the following:
Bills
Rates
Balances
Budget billing plans
Consumption history
Customer contacts
Service reports or service orders
This new customer overview provides extremely flexible options for tailoring the
presentation of the relevant data on a customer to your needs. Your individually
designed HTML pages can be stored in the R/3 Web Repository and then enriched with current R/3 data at runtime. The finished pages are displayed in an
HTML browser control. This allows you to use all the design options provided by
HTML 4.0 for creating your own screens.
In addition, all the displayable R/3 data from the customer environment are available as JavaScript objects. You can therefore embed active components (like Java
applets and ActiveX controls) in an HTML page and supply them with R/3 data.
The JavaScript library shipped with CIC offers tools that display internal R/3
tables as HTML tables and implement HTML hyperlinks, which allow you to navigate in R/3 business object methods. You can, of course, also construct links to
any other links to any Web pages in an intranet or the Internet.
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The action box gives you access to all the transactions you need for your daily
work. This may be in the form of either information views, change actions, frontoffice processes, or workflows that are executed or initiated from CIC. (For more
information, see the section on Front-Office Processes and Workflows).
Action Box
You add the data for the customer or other object to the action. You do this either
by searching for a new object or by selecting an object that has already been edited
from the business data display. You can also configure an action in such a way that
you process data from the fields of the Data Finder. This capability is particularly
useful if you have added your own fields to the Data Finder.
The actions are organized by means of a register; you assign actions to different
registers in Customizing, for example, the information or change register.
Front-office processes allow you to model all the most common business processes. Front-office processes are tailored exactly to the processing of specific business
transactions. All the important information and entry fields are displayed in just a
few screens.
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However, a front-office process can also initiate a workflow to take over the subsequent processing of the business transaction. If an employee is not responsible
for processing a particular customer request, the employee can also generate a
follow-up for the appropriate clerk, taking information that is then passed on as
reference information.
Customizing
You can use Customizing to integrate additional information views in CIC and to
define your own front-office processes and workflows. You can combine the steps
shipped by SAP and the steps that you develop in-house.
You can adapt the CIC with a variety of configurations to the usage site concerned,
such as a different CIC for customer window and field service. This means that
you can handle a business transaction in the front office or the back office where
enhanced processing options may be available. Depending on the organizational
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Customer Environment
You can use the CIC action box to call up a graphical display of the environment
for a particular customer.
Overviews provide you with all the data on a customer or a connection object.
Environments show which installations, contracts, budget-billing plans, and so
on are allocated to a customer, connection object, or device. You can branch from
those information screens to other views that give detailed information about individual subareas.
With the IS-U/CCS Navigator (see section titled Information System), you can create environments for additional objects and determine how finely segmented the
displays for any given environment will be.
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Business Processes
Predefined business processes allow you to process with a high level efficiency
those customer-related actions that occur most frequently in a utility company.
The following business processes can be integrated in the front office and called
from there:
Initial data creation for a premise
Move-in and move-out
Customer consolidation
Disconnection and reconnection
Rate maintenance
For a detailed description, please refer to the section titled Business Processes.
Customer Contacts
IS-U/CCS can automatically log customer contacts. This applies equally to contacts originated by the customer like phone calls and to contacts initiated by
the utility company like written notifications or dunning notices. The generation of customer contacts usually takes place automatically within an action.
Fig. 5-33: Classification of Customer Contacts into Contact Classes and Contact Action
While dealing with a customer, you can create a reference to data objects. For
example, a complaint about a bill can contain a reference to that bill. You can use
the note function to enter notes on a customer contact, such as the reason for a
budget-billing adjustment.
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In order to classify customer contacts, you can define various contact classes (such
as complaints or service) in Customizing. You can also assign various contact types
to those classes to define actual processes, such as budget billing changed, installment plan created, or information provided.
Customer contacts can be listed according to contact class and time period. Analysis of customer contacts provides information about the efficiency of the business
processes and the capacity utilization of the customer service representative.
Marketing
Starting with Release 4.51, IS-U/CCS will offer marketing functions in connection
with the integration of functions from the standard R/3 System. These functions
are based on the storage of customer or prospective customer (customer with no
contract accounts or contracts) information that is relevant to marketing. This information can be collected during customer contacts in customer service offices or
during field service work (for example, for customers with outdated heating systems) or derived from existing contracts (for all customers in gas service territories who do not use that type of service). SAP also plans to connect IS-U/CCS to
the SAP Marketing component.
The important characteristics of this system support for marketing are:
Additional fields in business data
Information on the targeted market segment of a company is often very industry specific. Therefore, a system that is supposed to support a market strategy must be very flexible when collecting and organizing market data.
In addition to the designated information and attributes for sales support,
you can also collect customer-specific data in the following relevant entities of
IS-U/CCS:
Business partner
Contract account
Premise
Individual rate category
Customer contact management
Customer contact management supports marketing by collecting and analyzing customer-specific information that may be relevant to expansion of the
business relationship. Relevant information about a potential need for supply
or other services can be recorded in sales call reports and analyzed specifically
according to various criteria.
Active marketing
Marketing activities are actively supported by the system starting with Release 4.51. This is largely achieved by utilizing the Sales Support (SD-CAS) component in IS-U/CCS. As a result, you can execute mailing and telemarketing
campaigns for selected target customers or prospects. You can also monitor
the response to mailing campaigns.
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Work Management
In a utility company, large numbers of work orders are received, planned, costed,
executed, and in some cases, billed to the customer. To manage those orders, ISU/CCS uses existing functions from various components of the standard R/3
System. These functions are combined in Work Management to form IS-U/CCSspecific business processes, to which industry-specific functions are then added.
Work Management uses an especially large number of functions from the Plant
Maintenance and Service Management component. For a detailed description of those
functions, refer to the application help documentation for Plant Maintenance.
Work Orders
There are two types of work orders, external work orders, which relate to the
customer (services), and internal work orders.
External work orders are generated upon customer request or as the result of contracts concluded with customers. They are modeled using service orders from the
Service Management component. Examples of external work orders are:
Creation and amplification of service connections
Energy consulting
Unplanned meter readings
Meter or device replacement upon customer request
Disconnection and reconnection (electricity, gas)
Services resulting from customers maintenance contracts (for example, preventive maintenance of a gas plant)
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Internal work orders relate to the utility company itself and are modeled using
maintenance orders from the Maintenance Order Management (PM-WOC) component. Examples include:
Internal maintenance tasks
Repairs
Installation, modification, or removal of technical equipment belonging to a
utility company (for example, a warehouse)
Both types of work orders are referred to below simply as orders.
To create an order efficiently, IS-U/CCS uses.
The following components from the standard system are used in work management:
Plant Maintenance and Service Management
Planning, control, and processing of preventive maintenance and inspection
Maintenance and service management of technical systems and installations delivered to customers
Sales and Distribution
Sales activities through flexible functions for pricing, quotation processing,
order processing, and on-time delivery
Direct link to profitability analysis
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Interfaces
The openness of the R/3 System also enables you to incorporate non-SAP systems
into the business processes:
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Master Data
Service territory data is needed for the planning, executing, and billing orders. It
is stored in the postal regional structure. In addition to geographical data, service
territory data also includes institutional and billing-related data.
Examples of service territory data include:
Soil condition
Approval data
Building authorities
Construction cost subsidies
You usually access service territory data using an address. You can integrate company-specific data using a simple extension concept.
A compatible unit is used as a simplified means of creating frequently recurring orders, such as laying a service connection. The compatible unit is modeled in work
management by a configurable task list (or more precisely a general maintenance task
list in Plant Maintenance). Once it is configured, the task list is included in the order,
which means that all the data belonging to the task list is then available in the order.
A compatible unit consists of:
Compatible Units
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Service Product
Service products describe a service that is offered to customers. A service (material) master record describes the service and also contains price information. Since
the service has to be either provided by the utility itself or purchased from a third
party, a configurable task list is assigned to the service master record.
Product Configuration
Starting from a manageable number of standardized products, the service is configured to the requirements of each individual customer. The characteristics of the
configuration define the service product and also specify exactly how the task list
is converted to a work order.
Order Processing
Order Creation
As soon as the data for the order description has been entered, order creation runs
largely automatically. To do this, the system uses, among other data, the information stored in the service territory data and compatible units.
The configuration of the task list allows you broad flexibility when you create the
order. It therefore represents the compatible unit in concrete form.
A configuration is made up of a number of characteristics, such as the length of
the connection or the meter. You either provide these manually, or the system
provides them automatically. When you generate orders, automatic characteristic
value assignment enables you to transfer data from non-SAP systems via standard interfaces without changing the program.
Relationships between the individual elements of the compatible unit are described
by object dependencies (for example, between the soil condition and the type of
cable).
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Estimated Costs
In customer quotation costing, a quotation for the relevant service is created for
the customer. The system can derive the quotation price from the configuration of
the product (flat-rate processing). Alternatively, it can calculate the price by individual costing of the work order and then transfer it to the quotation.
The system determines the default values for the account assignment of an order
and enters them in the order. Examples of account determination keys include:
Account Assignment
Order type
Technical reference object
Service territory
Division
The Task Lists (PM-PRM-TL) component primarily supports orders with relatively long runtimes, such as laying a service connection, or installation extension of
an installation. The worklist of preplanned orders is scheduled for work groups
or individuals. To do this, the work scheduler uses the planning board, which is in
the form of a table or graphic. The flexible layout of the planning table allows you
to display the contents in detailed or compressed form and to enter additional
data for each user.
Work Scheduling
Scheduling for the large numbers of short-term orders is handled via a link to
non-SAP systems. (For more information, see Interfaces).
Once the work is completed, you can bill the customer. You can create the bill
either in reference to the sales order or to the quotation (flat-rate processing) or, to
reflect actual expenses, on the basis of the consumed resources in the work order.
The functions used are those from billing in the Sales and Distribution component.
Billing
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Other Functions
Work Management supports the subsequent allocation of construction cost subsidies to the customer. Construction cost subsidies are shown on quotations and bills
and posted to the relevant accounts when payment is received. To process subsequent allocations, the system stores the awarded construction cost subsidies for a
given supply area and takes account of them when creating new connections.
In the utilities industry, a number of processes must be handled separately. Subsequent processes cannot be executed without them. Such processes include:
Approvals
Before an order can be executed, it may be necessary to obtain approvals from
authorities or other institutions or companies. As soon as all the approvals
have been obtained, work can begin.
Traffic flow operations
Certain orders require temporary changes in traffic flow operations. In such
cases, not only do approvals have to be obtained from the appropriate authorities, but additional work, such as closing a road, is also required.
Mark-outs
When work is done on a section of street, digging may affect the transmission
lines of other companies. Those lines are marked on the surface of the street.
Mark-outs may be carried out by the utility company itself or requested by
other companies.
The data for these processes is once again provided by the compatible units and
service territory data.
Waste Management
A waste disposal company provides various types of waste management services.
The spectrum of services includes periodic services, such as the regular collection
of waste from containers, and also aperiodic services, such as on-call collection
requests.
These business processes are implemented in the R/3 System using the Waste
Management (IS-U-WA) component of IS-U/CCS. This component also uses functions from the Service Management component. For a detailed description of those
functions, refer to the brochures for Service Management and Plant Maintenance.
Service Orders
All aperiodic services are modeled by service orders.
Examples include:
On-call collection of waste from a container
Delivery of an empty container and the simultaneous removal of a full container
Delivery of a new container
Removal of a container when service is terminated
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Once an order has been created, the necessary resources, such as vehicles, drivers
and containers, can be transferred to an external scheduling and dispatching system. This is a non-SAP system that is linked by interfaces to Waste Management,
and that enables the assignment of orders to vehicles, plus scheduling and route
planning for those orders. Since geographical factors play an important role in
cost optimization, a link to an external geographical information system is also
provided for as of Release 4.51.
Service Contracts
Periodic services for commercial customers are modeled by service contracts. Examples include:
Periodic collection on fixed dates of waste from a container
Periodic replacement of a full container with an empty container
The service contract data relevant to planning, such as service, service address,
and service day, is transferred to an external route planning program that creates
an optimum route.
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You can combine service contracts with aperiodic services from service orders.
The resulting order data is forwarded via interfaces to external route planning
and scheduling systems.
IS-U/CCS Contracts
Periodic services for residential customers are modeled by IS-U/CCS contracts.
An example of this is periodic collection on fixed dates of waste from a container.
The IS-U/CCS contract and its associated objects are particularly well suited to
modeling simple contract conditions as a result of the lean data storage in the R/
3 System. This means that high-performance processing is possible even with large
amounts of customer master data.
As of Release 4.51 you can forward the resulting order data via interfaces to external route planning and scheduling systems.
Interfaces
To achieve efficient route planning, it is necessary to link to external geographical
information systems and planning systems (Release 4.51).
Geographical information systems
A waste management interface allows service address data to be forwarded to
an external GIS. The scheduling and dispatching system uses the geo-coordinates to determine the routes.
Scheduling and dispatching systems
These non-SAP systems are used to plan aperiodic orders and to execute route
planning for periodic orders. Orders are scheduled according to criteria and
resources, including the following
Available resources, such as vehicles, drivers, and containers
Required skills
Distance between service address, garbage dump address, and vehicle location
Priorities
Fixed deadlines
Master Data
Container Data
The resources necessary for the optimization process are stored in the R/3 System. Examples of container data include:
Maximum load volume and weight
Dimensions
Compaction factor of compactor
You can integrate company-specific data by using a simple extension concept.
Vehicle Data
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The resources necessary for the optimization process are stored in the R/3 System. Vehicle data constitutes a particular restriction with regard to the ability to
meet the deadlines of an order.
Personal Data
Working hours
Skills
Identification data
The term service frequency refers to the regularity with which a service (such as
collection of waste from a container) takes place. SAP has developed a new transaction that allows management of the service data at the container level so you
can model service dates for the containers.
Service Frequency
You can maintain the service frequency either for an installation of the division
category waste management or for a service order from the Sales and Distribution
and Plant Maintenance and Service Management application components. Before you
can create the service frequency, you must allocate containers either to the installation or to the service contract.
You can transfer the dates resulting from the various service frequencies to the scheduling and dispatching system for optimal resource and route planning purposes.
Service products describe a service that is offered to the customer. A material master
record is defined, which describes the service and also contains price information.
Service Products
Typical services are, for example, waste collection from a certain type of container
or from a specific container. The service product describes the actual service. If
that service references a specific object, such as a special purpose container, that
reference object is specified separately in the order.
Order Processing
For aperiodic service requests, you enter individual orders. The service to be provided is assigned as a material, and appropriate vehicles can be assigned in the
order. Once the order data has been entered, it is forwarded directly or at regular
intervals to the external scheduling and dispatching system. The external system
determines the available resources from the R/3 System and executes the scheduling of the order.
Periodic service requests are modeled in the R/3 System as service contracts or ISU/CCS contracts. The service to be provided is also assigned to the contract as a
material or reference value. At the same time, service days are assigned to the
service product. This data is forwarded at regular intervals to the scheduling and
dispatching system.
The external system determines the available resources from the R/3 System and
executes the route planning for identical service requests.
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Information System
IS-U/CCS maintains statistics on the master data and the most important processes and therefore provides fast access to all the relevant data of a utility company. This data can be analyzed and displayed graphically.
IS-U/CCS provides you with stock statistics, transaction statistics, and sales statistics. The data needed for the individual statistical analyses is stored in separate
files; the sales statistics are integrated with the Logistics Information System (LIS)
component.
You can use LIS analysis tools in the evaluation of any of the three types of statistics. You can even use non-SAP programs (such as Microsoft Excel) for analysis
purposes. In addition, user exits are available for enriching the statistics with information from other applications and data editing operations in the utility company. Integration with the SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) component is planned
for a later release.
Statistics
Stock Statistics
Stock statistics reflect the current stock of master data in IS-U/CCS. The system
also maintains other statistics (for example, devices or reference values). In the
case of master data managed with histories, the current time slices are always
determinative.
You can list the current stock of utility installations with a given installation status
for a company code and division. You can also list stock according to political
areas of the regional structure.
Transaction Statistics
Transaction statistics are updated on a monthly basis, with the execution date
(current date) of the transaction or process being the determining date. Statistics
are managed for such activities as:
Master data
Move-in and move-out
Initial data creation
Bank and dunning data
Installation and removal
Billing
Example of Move-In
Determination
You can determine the number of move-ins entered in a given month differentiated according to company code, billing class, rate category, and political regional
structure.
Sales Statistics
You use sales statistics to create the necessary analyses, required statistics, and
statements for associations and organizations, showing the quantities sold and
the resulting sales revenues. These statistics are based on the billing documents
that are created in billing and then invoiced.
The following information is covered:
Billed quantities and amounts
Discounts
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Surcharges
Price components that are not posted separately (for example, franchise fees
in Germany)
Original quantities (for example, before conversion from operating cubic meters
to standard cubic meters for gas)
This ensures that the quantities and amounts used in billing are also included in
the sales statistics.
The data is reduced to its statistically relevant parts and transferred to the Logistics Information System. From this data, the relevant information is compiled and
summarized for the analyses in question.
Since requirements vary from utility company to utility company, IS-U/CCS contains a number of sample statistical reports. Additional statistical analyses are
easy to design to meet individual company needs.
The analyses are based on, for example, the following key fields or characteristics:
Company code
Division
Rate
Price
Industry
Planning
Planning is expected to be available with Release 4.51. It contains functions for
forecasting and unbilled revenue reporting.
Unbilled revenue reporting determines expected sales revenue for a closing balance period. In addition to quantities and sales revenues already billed, you can
calculate quantities and sales revenues that have not yet been billed. This kind of
reporting is very important, especially in rolling annual billing.
Reporting
IS-U/CCS reporting provides standard reports in ready-made format for all functional areas. Availability of this function is planned for Release 4.51. The reports
are based on selection parameters that retrieve the data in a predefined sequence
and with specific information content according to the functional area or related
topics. The system supports further selections made on the basis of these data
extracts.
A number of standard reports are already available. These include monitoring
billing orders, an open item list (with the option of sorting by due date), and a
periodic replacement list.
However, you can also create customized reports, queries, and ad hoc reports in
IS-U/CCS using ABAP/Query and Report Writer.
For information on ABAP/Query and Report Writer, refer to the documentation
for the R/3 Basis Services/Communication Interfaces (BC-SRV) component.
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FERC Reporting
FERC reporting simplifies the reporting process in the US for reports to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
IS-U/CCS Navigator
The IS-U/CCS Navigator allows you to obtain a quick overview of the data environment of any given IS-U/CCS object by graphically displaying the interrelationships between the individual data objects. To review an example, refer to the
section Customer Service/Customer Information.
Among other things, the Navigator can display:
All the contract accounts, contracts, utility installations, and devices belonging to a customer
All the premises in a connection object, with the associated installations and
customers
You can use each data object displayed as a starting point to navigate further. As a
result, you obtain an overview of the data objects environment. This means that
you can start from a customer associated with a specific premise and determine
what other premises that customer has. Starting from any given entry point, you
can navigate through the entire data environment.
Tools
Print Workbench
The Print Workbench enables you to print not only letters that have a simple logical
structure, but also forms constructed on the basis of a complex data hierarchy. On
the one hand, it is very flexible and meets a wide range of needs. But on the other
hand, it is also a high-performance tool that supports the mass printing of forms.
The flexibility of the Print Workbench is based on the following elements:
Form classes
Form classes are data structures that are preset for specific applications. They
contain all the data that can be used in the application forms that are associated with them. Bills, welcome letters, and meter reading documents are examples of form classes.
Form classes are shipped as a part of IS-U/CCS. However, you can also create
your own form classes if you have experience with ABAP and relational database technology.
Application forms
Application forms are created on the basis of form classes. You can define
more than one application form for each form class, for example, different
bills for residential customers, nonresidential customers, and employees. ISU/CCS contains a number of sample forms that you can use as models for
your own application forms. User exits allow you to adapt application forms
to meet your needs.
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Migration
The first-time transfer of master and transaction data, that is, migration, from
your old system to IS-U/CCS takes place via an open interface. Migration is performed according to the requirements of IS-U/CCS, which means that neither the
data model nor the functional concept of the old system are needed or used.
To guarantee data consistency following migration, the data is grouped according
to business process criteria to form migration objects and then transferred to ISU/CCS. Object-oriented transfer of data is made possible by the service function
modules of the IS-U/CCS business objects. These are modules that use direct input, thereby avoiding the performance disadvantages of batch input.
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Tabs
Tabs simplify screen configuration. They allow you to define which entry fields
you want to display on the screen and in what sequence. There are tabs for such
objects as the following:
Contract
Device category
Meter reading order
Move-in
A tab contains a number of pages that themselves contain field groups. You can
assemble different pages together to make views. You can then easily switch from
one view to another.
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The assignment of the input fields to the field groups is preset. You can set anything else either in Customizing or via the IS-U/CCS menu.
Notes
Notes are used to record non-standardized additional information on individual
IS-U/CCS entities, such as utility installation, contract, or premise. In notes you
can record actions that have to be performed for a future event or information that
has to be transferred to the next employee.
Notes are edited using SAPscript. You can define the number and type of notes
per entity in Customizing.
History
You can use the history function to maintain various statuses of certain IS-U/CCS
entities (such as installations) in the system. These statuses are valid for a certain
time slice so that you can recover the status of a given entity at a selected time.
This way, you can enter changes to entities that will apply in the future. The history function also enables you to correctly manage in the system information that
became known late.
In order to manage historical data for entities, the system stores the date as of
which and the date until which the stored status is valid. The change date is also
stored for information purposes.
However, a new time slice is not created for every change. For each entity type,
the system specifies which field changes generate new time slices. However, changes made to entities or fields can be recorded in change documents even if those
changes do not result in a new time slice.
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Logs
IS-U/CCS distinguishes between errors that occur in individual processing and
those that occur in mass processing. If an error occurs in individual processing,
the procedure is terminated, and the system displays an error message. If an error
occurs in mass processing, the procedure is only terminated if the error is serious.
In all other cases, the entity with the error is skipped and the next entity is processed. The errors that occur are logged.
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