PROPOSED CLEANING OF BILLING DATABASE

BACKGROUND

As part of the appraisal process of the ongoing Sage X3 implementation, a joint interdivisional
meeting was held by IT, F&A, Customer Support, Audit and BTS on the optimization of IBEDC
data repository for data exchange among all platforms. It was flagged by the F&A and Customer
Support that authenticity and quality of the data in the present repository require cleansing.
Notably is the fact that enumeration will update the repository, however it will not remove junk
owing to the architecture of the present IBEDC database. Therefore, cleaning of the present
database is required for effective book-keeping of our assets and receivables in the Sage and
other platforms. CIO and CFO suggested that this should be taken as project being a temporary
endeavour, this informs this proposal.

Data cleansing is a form of data management. The current IBEDC database is operating on what
was inherited from the era of PHCN which was characterized by poor data quality. Owing to this
fact, there exist some limitations like incorrect and inaccurate customer data, inconsistent
customer records, duplicate data and other inefficiencies all of which have accumulated over
the years. To provide access to accurate and consistent data, consolidation of different data
representations and elimination of duplicate information from database cleaning become
necessary.

IBEDC billing database is made up of two systems; the Electricity Management System (EMS)
which handles the Post-paid Customers record and the Electricity Control Management
Interface (ECMI) which handles the Pre-Paid Customers record. Based on the current fact and
figures of 3,195,308 from Billing Operations, the EMS, which handles the Post-paid Customers
record is categorized into four classes as defined below:

 Active Account - 39.82%

 Suspended Account - 3.32%
 Inactive Account - 23.30%
 Closed Account - 33.57%

On the other hand, the Electricity Control Management Interface (ECMI) handle the Pre-Paid
Customers record of 387,379 Customers across the franchise.

 Non-MD Customers - 384,964

 MD Customers - 2,415
JUSTIFICATION

Lack of clear and inconsistent data can result to bad business decision as well as significant
effect on business value. Data cleaning ensures that customers information is updated and
verified. Identifying duplication and ensuring cleaning are key to good database management.

This is expected to dovetail to the outcome of Asset and Customer Enumeration exercise across
our business area.

DELIVERABLES

1. Sanitize the database for productivity and ascertaining of actual customer base.
2. Improve application speed, ease and accuracy
3. Improve data quality, reliability for analysis and projection
4. Updating of obsolete data.
5. Improve decision making process
6. Eradicate data duplication for best business practices
7. Increase revenue and productivity

SCOPE OF WORK

The project scope shall include:

1. Extraction and separation of active customers from passive customers

2. Standardization of customers record to meet best practices.
3. Update of incorrect customer information with verified ACE data to include NAC CODE,
CIN, Asset ID, Recommended Tariff and other relevant fields.
4. Define Access level authorization of database management
5. Identification and Removal of all duplicate data from both the ECMI and EMS database
6. Migration of the data from the billing database to a unified data warehouse.
7. Consolidation of similar and bypassed accounts following in depth data audit.

STRATEGY/ACTION PLAN
1. Develop a comprehensive database of MD Customers from multiple data sources:
 EMS
 ECMI
 ACE
 BOCA database
 List in CCO’s Office
 List generated by RHs/BHMs
 Recent list of unmetered customers sent to CCO by BHMs
  Prior Internal Audit Reports

Head of Billing will sort the data using V-Look to eliminate apparent repetitions
and redundancies.

2. Develop a template to capture MD customer information (to be used during verification

exercise). Typical information to be captured are:
 Correct Customer Name
 Correct Customer Address
 Meter Status (Metered or Unmetered)
 Meter Information (Meter Number, Meter Type, etc)
 Contact Person (Name, Telephone Number, Email Address & Birthday)
 Current Tariff Class
 Geo referencing

3. Set up teams across the franchise to physically visit, verify and update information.
Team members to be drawn from:
 Internal Audit
 BOCA Consult
 Contract Staff (to be hired for 2 months, November & December 2019)
 Any other IBEDC Staff with track record of integrity

4. The verified list becomes the authentic MD Customer Database to be used by the
Regional Revenue Protection Team and the newly created MD Customer Unit in the
Commercial Department.

5. All identified unmetered MD customers must be metered on or before 31 December,

2019. Head of Metering must immediately take an inventory of all existing MD Meters in
IBEDC Stores and ensure the right type of meters are available to meet our MD
Metering Objective. If necessary, new MD Meters or accessories should be procured.

6. The newly created MD Customer Unit will manage relationships with MD Customers on
a proactive basis going forward, including updating the database with new customers.
7. The verification exercise will start with Business Hubs with high revenue impact and will
last for 2 months (November – December 2019).

8. Upon conclusion of the verification exercise:

 IBEDC will have a fully sanitized MD Customer database
 Billing to the MD Customer segment will increase, thereby reducing energy
wastages to NMD Customer Segment
  Revenue collection will improve as collection efficiency is historically higher in
the MD Customer Segment (above 95%)
 Overall reduction in ATC&C Loss
 Higher efficiency in bills delivery to MD customers through ebilling (SMS and
email)
 Improved liquidity for IBEDC and better ability to meet market and other
financial obligations

IBEDC MD METERED/UNMETERED CUSTOMER LIST

POSTPAID PREPAID
TOTAL
REGION BHUB POSTPAID METERED UNMETERED METERED
A I S A I S
APATA 88 36 2 14 31 2 79 252
DUGBE 249 51 16 34 45 2 113 510
IBADAN
MOLETE 215 136 3 38 45 8 101 546
SUB-TOTAL 552 223 21 86 121 12 293 1,308
AKANRAN 66 30 0 86 19 4 45 250
MONATAN 83 32 4 34 45 3 79 280
OYO OJOO 72 35 5 25 27 4 34 202
OYO 69 49 4 77 48 6 130 383
SUB-TOTAL 290 146 13 222 139 17 288 1,115
BABOKO 108 70 1 55 48 3 75 360
CHALLENGE 146 81 2 9 50 41 329 658
JEBBA 39 30   14 38 0 48 169
KWARA
OGBOMOSO 18 83 14 2 13 4 232 366
OMUARAN 59 24 2 29 33 0 66 213
SUB-TOTAL 370 288 19 109 182 48 750 1,766
EDE 80 32 1 37 27 0 54 231
IKIRUN 18 37 0 10 15 0 34 114
ILEIFE 48 62 1 4 15 1 69 200
OSUN
ILESHA 54 67 6 11 38 6 60 242
OSOGBO 189 61 2 15 12 0 59 338
SUB-TOTAL 389 259 10 77 107 7 276 1,125
IJEBU 83 56 13 49 16 22 261 500
IJEUN 92 76 34 26 30 33 138 429
OLUMO 49 100 12 29 40 11 68 309
OGUN OTA 145 86 77 43 35 41 152 579
SAGAMU 133 25 47 88 10 42 149 494
SANGO 52 77 14 55 27 20 60 305
SUB-TOTAL 554 420 197 290 158 169 828 2,616
GRAND-TOTAL 2,155 1,336 260 784 707 253 2,435 7,930
SUMMARY
 Postpaid Prepaid
Status Unmetered Total Ratio
(Metered) (Metered)
Active 2,155 2,435 784 5,374 68%
Suspended 260 0 253 513 6%
Inactive 1,336 0 707 2,043 26%
Total 3,751 2,435 1,744 7,930 100%
Suggestion by Akinlabi (Head of Billing)
Appointment of a Project Manager that will take overall responsibility for the successful
initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of the project.
The PM will ensure the following:

 Liaise with Project Sponsor (CBTSO/SAMD) for Project Teams Set-up

 Activity planning for the teams e.g. weekly activities schedule, reports templates
etc.
 Resources planning e.g. MD customer database, vehicles, meter testing tools etc.
 Develop the budget and ensure funds availability for the project teams
 Arrange Kick-off meetings with the Project Sponsors and teams
 Manage communication with all stakeholders i.e. B-hubs, Regions, Customers,
HQ Support teams
 Implementation of Project Teams’ recommendations
 Weekly reports to Project Sponsor(s)
PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS

S/ FUNCTION ROLE
N
1 Project Sponsor Authorize and finance the project
2 Project Management Office Coordinate and manage the project
3 Billing Support IT in Project Execution
4 Information Technology Carry out integration exchange activities
5 Audit and Risk Inspection of data quality residing in the billing database