Bilateral Transactions Programme

July 2020 update to Ofwat & Trading Parties

Approved by MOSL Board, 4 August 2020

 Bilateral Transactions Programme
Bi-monthly update to 4 July 2020
Last update: 27 May 2020

 Business case
Following the approval of the Outline Business Case (OBC) on 27 May 2020, work has now begun on
developing the Full Business Case (FBC), which is due to be considered by the MOSL Board on 30 September.
At the OBC stage all five assessment criteria were forecast as positive, with a positive case evidenced for the
Strategic, Commercial and Delivery criteria. The FBC will provide a final analysis of the business case for the
programme as a whole, with particular focus on the remaining Economic and Funding cases.
In approving the OBC, the MOSL Board asked the Programme team to ensure that the customer benefits were
amplified in the FBC and to consider trading parties’ integration costs in considering the Economic Case, albeit
Trading Parties’ costs will vary considerably from company to company.
The MOSL Board also challenged the Programme Team to accelerate delivery so that the first process begins
implementation in the Autumn of this year.

 Proposed funding model

In the May update we provided guidance to Trading Parties that the development of a technical solution and
ongoing support and maintenance will require funding of between circa £2.0m and £3.2m over five years,
excluding participants’ own costs.
MOSL is conscious of Trading Parties’ desire to know more about the funding model (particularly elements that
may not have been part of previously agreed budgets) and timing for their own planning and budgeting.
The recommended funding route and timetable for the Bilateral Transactions Programme were discussed at
the Bilaterals Steering group on 15 July and an update shared with Trading Parties at the July User Forum for
information/feedback. The proposals will now be presented to the MOSL Board on 4 August.
Subject to approval the proposed funding route will be incorporated into the Full Business Case for
consideration by Panel and Board on 29 and 30 September respectively.

 MOSL team and resourcing

Since the last update the MOSL Programme Team has expanded and a number of additional roles added:
• Spencer Mattia has joined MOSL as Programme Manager
• Mayuresh Tamboli has been appointed ‘Technical Product Owner’ and
• Emma Whitcroft has been appointed ‘Scrum Master’
All three are full-time employees. MOSL is currently in the process of appointing a ‘Business Product Owner’ to
lead on determining process priorities and functionality on behalf of Trading Parties. In July MOSL extended
CGI’s existing contract to support the in-house team’s preparations.

Bilateral Transactions Programme bi-monthly update

Approved 4 July 2020
  Process prioritisation and delivery
MOSL issued a ‘first cut’ of the process priority list, i.e. the top 15 priority processes on 22 June, following
input from members of the Operational Advisory Group (OAG).
Of the 68 bilateral processes, 15 represent the vast majority of processes in terms of both volume and
importance. The top eight processes, which account for approximately 80% of the most important processes,
will be delivered to ‘minimum viable product’ (MVP) standard by the end of March 2021.
Following feedback from trading parties, the first priority list was reviewed and a revised list issued on 24 July
2020. The priority process remains ‘Meter Verification (C1)’, which is being used as the Pilot process.
However, following the review, the second process to be addressed will be ‘Repair or replacement of fault
meter (B5)’ instead of ‘Gap Site Identification (C2).’ ‘Non-household Customer Complaints (F5)’ was also
moved to fifth place instead of ninth. The updated list and rationale for the changes is on the MOSL website.
Since the last update, MOSL has begun defining and testing its assumptions with trading parties regarding the
MVP for the hub as a whole and each individual process. We are aiming to demonstrate progress of the pilot
process at the CEO Forum in October.

 Trading Party engagement

MOSL recognises the importance of effective, regular communication in the successful delivery of the
bilaterals programme.
The MOSL website plays a central role in the programme and has been updated with key information that
trading parties need, including lists of events, announcements, meeting minutes/outputs and so on. Additional
pages are being prepared to support the implementation phase(s).
The advisory groups with which we work are core to MOSL’s engagement with the industry. The Operational
Advisory Group (OAG) now meets on a weekly basis on bilateral-related matters. We also have the Code
Advisory Group (CAG) and Technical Advisory Group (TAG).
A second bilateral webinar is scheduled for Thursday 30 July from 15:00 to 16:00.

END

Bilateral Transactions Programme bi-monthly update

Approved 4 July 2020