Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CC&B Process Areas Reviewed
START/STOP PROCESS DEVICE MANAGEMENT BILLING PROCESS BATCH EXECUTION & TO‐DO CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS CREDIT & COLLECTIONS
(METERS & OTHERS) (RATES, BILL CALCULATIONS, BILL PRINT) MANAGEMENT
New Premise Different Types of Devices Billing Batch Execution SLAs Customer Communication Off for Non‐Pay (ONP)
Start Service System Of record for Schedules/Frequency Batch Issues types Collection Process
Devices Rates Letters
Start @new Premise Batch Scheduler Severance Process
Real time communications
Start @existing Premise Meters Residential
To‐Do’s Management Reconnect Process
Commercial Communications Triggers
Stop Service Other Assets TOU (Time of Use) Write Off Process
Letter Extract Process
Back‐to‐Back Service Device Testing Special (Hourly Billing etc.) Remote
Letter Formatting
Overlap services Long Term Device Bill Determinants Connect/Disconnect
Management Plans Letter Printing
Final invoice Bill Calculations Collection Agencies
Device Inventory Other Communications Interface
Remote Budget Billing
Meter Exchanges Technical: How the current
Connect/Disconnect Unmetered Billing Letter Extract Process is
New Meter Installations Streetlights working
Area Lighting
Manual Billing
Summary Billing
Bill Printing
Extract bill details
Format the bill
Print the bill
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
CC&B Process Areas Reviewed
PAYMENT PROCESSES AND SOURCES SPECIAL PROGRAMS MAIN PAIN POINTS/GAPS
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
CC&B Pain Points and Solution Gaps
START/STOP PROCESS: • Changing a premise from Residential to Commercial or Commercial to Residential
is a long process with 42 manual steps. The manual process needs to be converted
• New Premise setup process CASE is not automatically transitioning to the next into automated or semi‐automated process.
stage in some cases, this is causing the manually pushing the CASE to next stage as
a result delay in the setup completion. • Remote Connect/Disconnect is not working properly in MDM, user manually has to
push the button for each stop or start when the Field Activity is created in CC&B.
• Non‐Service SAs (Service Agreements) also synching with MDM, this is causing Field activity is going to the MDM, but the MDM is not processing them
confusion on the SAs which are synching with MDM, only Service (Metered) SAs automatically as expected.
should be synching with MDM.
• No Business Process Automation (BPA Scripts) for Start/Stop procedures, there are
many steps to start a service or stop a service and CSR needs to collect information DEVICE MANAGEMENT (METERS & OTHER DEVICES)
from multiple areas, which sometimes means manually collecting the information
causing errors in the setup of start or stops. • Meter Exchanges are using generic Field Activity type where all the meter exchange
information comes back as free form text in the comments column (Limited length)
• No Validation on Start/Stop Dates causing issues, sometimes services are stopped then users are manually completing actual meter exchange (linking the meter to
with wrong dates. premise) in CC&B, the system is supposed to take care of this automatically, there is
a high risk of making a mistake that the wrong meter or wrong premise can be
• Deposit Recommendation/Evaluation process needs to be revisited because it is linked. Meter exchanges process should use dedicated meter exchange type Field
currently facing some issues. Activity (FA) and FA completion process that automatically completes logical meter
exchange in CC&B when the FA comes back from the MWM
• Back Dated Stops process is not automatically cancelling the bills if the system
already billed, this means manually tracking these backdated stops and cancelling • CC&B is the system of record for all the meters, but meter test results are not
the bills. The SA completion process is not working as per the design. stored in CC&B, this is a gap in terms of industry standards, best practice is to keep
everything in one place, so that reporting and auditing can be easy.
• F1 Synch is getting struck occasionally, this is causing issues with data not being the
same in CC&B and MDM applications, Business users are manually pushing these
data syncs between the MDM & CC&B.
• SA Activation Process is not handling pending sewer service to active service when
water service is already activated.
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
CC&B Pain Points and Solution Gaps
BILLING PROCESS
• Bill Cycle Schedules are shared with spreadsheets rather than utilizing the CC&B bill cycle calendar, Instead of Spreadsheets we should provide read only access to
ADMIN menu so that all the users can have access to config tables, this read only access to ADMIN menu will help and answer many other questions.
• Budget Billing revaluation and monitoring process is not working properly, all the configurations and business rules needs to be revisited, Budget billing letters are
created manually outside (mail merge) of the system, all the letters related to Budget Billing must be created automatically in CC&B by creating a customer contact
so that everyone can have access to what is being communicated to the customer also cutting down manual work of creating letters.
• Bill Determinants & Reads: during billing process system is bringing all interval reads to CC&B(causing long batch execution time) which means all the interval
reads are stored in two systems, there is no need to bring interval reads to CC&B as MDM is system of record for all the reads, bill Determinants response from
MDM needs to be fixed to send only the data what is required for billing.
• Pending Bills: Business is finding many pending bills hanging without completion after the batch is completed, one day bill cycle may be causing this issue, CC&B
provides an out of box solution to complete off cycle bills call off cycle bill generator to resolve this issue.
• Area Lighting: Area lighting service setup is managed in WAM, there is no communications to CC&B. It is a manual process to identify new Area lighting service
setup in WAM and create them in CC&B. Also, number of lights, changes are not automatically updated in CC&B.
• Old Itron Meter Reads Interfaces, related enhancements & configurations needs to be decommissioned as they are not in use and not required in the future.
CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS
• Letters creation process: majority or all the customer letters are created manually using mail merge outside of CC&B application and adding a customer contact
manually in CC&B recording that FPWC sent letter to customer, Customer contact of letter type and letter extract process is one the key functionality in CC&B is not
currently utilized. CC&B should be sending a letter extract information to 3rd party vendor (bill Print) to format and print the letters instead of user creating each
letter manually using mail merge, long run there will be savings on this process. 4
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
CC&B Pain Points and Solution Gaps
CREDIT & COLLECTION PROCESS
• Credit score calculation rules needs to be revisited and requires some adjustments as current scores are not impacting based on customers activities.
• Reconnect Fee is manually entered into the system currently whereas system can create an adjustment when reconnect Field Activity is completed in
CC&B.
• Disconnect process requires improvements as current disconnect process is not working properly and requires manual touches, sometimes causing
issues with customer service.
• Write Off process requires improvements as current disconnect process is not working properly and requires manual touches.
• Collection Letters are created manually (250/week), these letters must be generated automatically when a credit activity happens in the system.
• Collection Agencies Interfaces are manually created, system should be automatically generating these files.
APPLICATION SECURITY/ACCESS
• Too many user roles: Overall security access needs to be revisited and provide read only access to the ADMIN menu, so that all business users can
access bill cycle calendars and other business rules in the configuration tables.
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
CC&B Quick Wins
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Change/Fix the FA completion process to create automatic Avoid manual errors
1 RECONNECT FEE adjustment for reconnect fee. Charge accurate reconnect fee to the customers
Manual work cost savings on long run
Fix the MDM batch process to send connect/disconnect Long term cost savings
2 REMOTE CONNECT/DISCONNECT commends to head‐end system. Real time connect or disconnect
Better customer service
Activate Off cycle bill generator, so that all the pending bill Long term cost savings on manual work
3 PENDING BILLS
will be completed automatically. On time bills to customers
Provide Read only access for selective ADMIN tables to users Avoid manual spreadsheets
4 BILL CYCLE SCHEDULES ACCESSES
for providing business rules and configurations access Accurate Realtime information available
Fix F1‐Sync gaps to make Sure all the Sync requests between Accurate information available in both MDM &
5 F1‐SYNC ISSUES CC&B and MDM are completed as they occur. CC&B
Long term cost savings on manual work
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
CC&B Process and Solution Optimizations
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Automate Start/Stop process by creating a BPA (Business Process Start/Stop call handling time will be decreased
Automation) script. Avoid manual errors
1 START/STOP PROCESS Consistent process across the organization
Create a warning message on start/stop dates for CSRs to make sure Avoid data errors
they enter correct dates
Create a separate Filed Activity type for Meter Exchanges and Meter Exchanges are automatically completed without
enhance FA completion process in CC&B to complete Meter manual intervention
2 METER EXCHANGES PROCESS Exchange automatically when FA work is completed in the Field. Cost savings on Manual work
Avoid manual errors like attaching the meters to wrong
premises
Change the business process to create a customer contact for each No need to create letters manually using mail merge
letter by users or the system depending on the letter triggers, All the information is available in CC&B for customers
3 LETTERS CREATION IN CC&B Enhance CC&B to create a letter extract file to the vendor to format communication related
and print letters. Cost savings on manual work, depending on the number of
letters savings may increase on the long run
INTERVAL READS IN MULTIPLE Enhance Bill Determinants response process from MDM to remove Increased batch performance
4
SYSTEMS all the interval reads in Usage object. Remove data redundancy
Create an inbound interface to accept NSF file from bank and Avoid manual work
5 NSF PAYMENT PROCESS process in CC&B, process will be cancelling original payment and Consistency on NSF processing
automatically create NSF adjustment. decreases the customer debt collection cycle indirectly
Review CC&B internal credit score configurations and make Better collection process
6 CREDIT SCORE IN CC&B necessary changes to calculate correct credit score for customers. Allow to take correct action on bad customers
Increases collection revenue
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
CC&B Process and Solution Optimizations
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Review and make necessary changes to user profiles and roles for Better SOX controls
7 USER SECURITY ACCESS application access. Avoid audit gaps
Appropriate access to users
Enhance deposit evaluation and monitor process. Proper Deposit calculation
8 DEPOSITS
Improves customer call handling efficiency
Review & Enhance Budget monitoring and reevaluation rules and Better customer service
9 BUDGET BILLING process. Improves revenue
Better decisions on customer unpaid amounts
Make the changes to backdated stops process so that system can Avoid manual errors
10 BACKDATED STOPS automatically cancels the bills which are already created in Accurate billing to the customers
backdated stops scenarios. Manual work cost savings on long run
Review and change the SA activation process to handle all the Avoid manual work for activating sewer services
services activated on turn on dates. Avoid missing revenue due to not able to start sewer
SERVICE AGREEMENT ACTIVATION service on time
11 When the water service is started and Sewer service is planned for
PROCESS
later, this process will make sure that Sewer service is activated on
time.
Area lighting service start process must be interfaces between WAM Avoid the manual work to updated items (lights) in CC&B
and CC&B. On time revenue recording
AREA LIGHTING SETUP NEW
12 Avoid rebilling and cancel/rebill for Area Lighting
CASE Area Lighting changes like number of Bulbs and changes must be
updated in CC&B automated.
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MDM Process Areas Reviewed
DEVICE MANAGEMENT VEE AND VEE EXCEPTIONS DEVICE EVENTS MANAGE BILL SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Manage Service Points Collect and Process Device Manage Events Bill Determinants Net Metering
and Devices Measurements Receiving Device events Billing Frequencies TOU
Device Installation and Meter reading sources Upload Device Events Usage correction process Opower
commissioning Push/Pull from HES Managing outage Events Usage rules/validations
Device De Installation and Channels (UOM, SQI, Sending events to other Usage Extracts (Opower
Decommissioning TOU) systems (i.e. OMS) etc.)
On Demand Read VEE Exceptions
Meter Ping VEE Exceptions
Process for meter Gap fill
commands (SGG)
Managing meter
command exceptions
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MDM Pain Points and Solution Gaps
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MDM Pain Points and Solution Gaps
DEVICE EVENTS
• No device events are stored in the MDM.
BILLING DETERMINANTS
• Currently daily readings (scalar usage) is sent along with bill determinants in the usage object from MDM to CC&B. An additional custom
batch job (in CC&B) was introduced to strip the daily readings (scalar usage) not needed for billing. This process increased the batch window
for billing by approximately 300%.
OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
• Outage communication is a manual process. CSRs are provided a written notice of the outage with the general area to communicate to
customers.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MDM Quick Wins
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Avoid manual errors
Change/Fix the FA completion process to create automatic
1 RECONNECT FEE Charge accurate reconnect fee to the customers
adjustment for reconnect fee.
Manual work cost savings on long run
Long term cost savings
Fix the MDM batch process to send connect/disconnect
2 REMOTE CONNECT/DISCONNECT Real time connect or disconnect
commends to head‐end system.
Better customer service
Activate Off cycle bill generator, so that all the pending bill Long term cost savings on manual work
3 PENDING BILLS
will be completed automatically. On time bills to customers
Provide Read only access for selective ADMIN tables to users Avoid manual spreadsheets
4 BILL CYCLE SCHEDULES ACCESSES
for providing business rules and configurations access Accurate Realtime information available
Accurate information available in both MDM &
Fix F1‐Sync gaps to make Sure all the Sync requests between
5 F1‐SYNC ISSUES CC&B
CC&B and MDM are completed as they occur.
Long term cost savings on manual work
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MDM Process and Solution Optimizations
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Enhance the meter read load to create specific To‐Dos for exceptions.
Reduce manual work related to finding/fixing missing
1 METER READ LOAD
Review the process to automate the retrieval of reads from the head reads and meter read errors
end (on‐demand read) for missing reads.
Revisit process for editing scalar usage in MDM. Maintain consistency of interval/scalar data as presented
to customer
2 EDITING USAGE IN MDM Ensure that the interval values match up to scalar reads when scalar Maintain overall integrity of meter readings
usage is modified in MDM. (interval/Scalar) in MDM
The bill determinant process should not return daily scalar values
from MDM to CC&B. Reduce the time it takes batch to complete for the bill
3 BILL DETERMINANTS determinant batch process
Revisit the billing determinant process and perform a stress test for Optimize the core billing batch schedule
higher volume of TOU billing.
Real time access to meter readings will eliminate the need
The CSR needs access to meter readings in MDM – either through a
4 CSR ACCESS TO MDM for bringing over the usage as part of the usage object
custom UI in CC&B, ePortal, or through direct access to MDM.
during the billing determinant process
Determine which events (for electric and water) need to be stored in Real time outage communication available to CSRs
the MDM. Prevent estimation of meter reads during outages
5 DEVICE EVENTS
Ability to review automation of actions based on specific
Explore providing automated outage communication as an alert in
meter events i.e. leakage, tamper etc.
CC&B.
Automate the meter exchange process and sync to the MDM. Reduce manual work because there is a sync of errors
6 METER EXCHANGE
Maintain consistency between RNI and CCB/MDM
Review sync errors and ON/OFF history mismatches.
Create To‐Dos based on the meter command exceptions. Real time access to To‐Dos that users need to work on
7 METER COMMANDS Utilize base MDM capability relating to 2‐way
Document the process for initiating meter commands from MDM. communication with the meter
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MWM Process Areas Reviewed
MWM BUSINESS PROCESSES
Activity Processing
Additional validations
Pick‐up activities
Dispatch
Scheduling
Alerts/KPIs/To‐Dos
Batch Processing
Deployment
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MWM Pain Points and Solution Gaps
MOBILE DEVICE:
MCP Mobile Application does not handle more than 5 activities at one time. If more than 5 activities are dispatched, the mobile solution hangs
or causes performance issues.
Field Worker does not carry the necessary new meters to install for the late afternoon or evening activities because the mobile device is limited
to only display five activities at one time. The field worker must come to the service shop to pick it up in the middle of his day rather than doing
this job before the start of the day.
DISPATCHERS:
Dispatch rules are to not disconnect any services after 2 pm and the dispatcher must manually remove the disconnect activity off the assignment
list of the field worker in the Gantt Chart.
SCHEDULING:
Scheduling Tool is bypassed by dispatchers to manually dispatch activities. This may be because of poor configuration in the scheduling tool.
OTHER:
Business requires the attachments and activity updates to be sent from mobile device.
Business requires customer signature to be documented for activities.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MWM Quick Wins
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Write a script at “Create Assignment” or “Queued for Dispatch”
status with a logic to end the time of the disconnect activity at 2
1 DISPATCHERS Manual effort saved
pm so that the activity does not dispatch to the device after 2
pm.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
MWM Process and Solution Optimizations
Consider other Mobile Workforce Management applications and compare the business benefits over the Oracle MWM options.
There are several Utility focused products that have been integrated to CC&B that could be considered and may provide overall better benefits and
potential cost savings.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
WAM Process Areas Reviewed
SYSTEM
RESOURCE MAINTENANCE PURCHASING INVENTORY ENTERPRISE CUSTOMER INTERFACES
ADMINISTRATION
Asset Benchmark Change Check‐out Company Customer Accounting EBS (Oracle)
Compatible Work Orders Request Request Organization Service Periods (17)
Units (WO) Cost Stock Check Request Account CC&B (4)
Plant
Document Crew Adjustments Out Structure OBIEE (BIP)
Control Direct Charge Requisition Appl. Security Designer (4)
Employee, PMs Vendor Approval Cascade (4)
Reg. Account, P/R Limit
GIS /
Specs Project/Subpr Auditing Geonexus (2)
Storeroom oject Business
Timekeeping, Rules
WO Code Tables
Work Design FGA
Permits Help
Job Manager
Messages
Pay Periods
Reports
Responsibiliti
es
User Profile
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
WAM Pain Points and Solution Gaps
SERVICE REQUEST:
• Field orders created in CC&B are first received in WAM as a Service Request and are then converted to Work Orders in WAM. These work orders
are manually allocated to field workers via paper or sometimes over the phone. The job details are then written on a piece of paper and then
manually entered in WAM. There is a tendency of human error and fat fingering here so some of the details might be lost. The business would
also like to have mobile integration, so activities are auto dispatched, and details are automatically updated in the system itself.
• Integration improvements
• required to update service points in WAM from CC&B. If a service point is abolished and a new service point has been created, and the
activity is created on the new service point in CC&B, it still creates a work order in WAM with the abolished service point. In this case too,
the integration layer needs to be checked for the proper troubleshooting of this issue.
• When FPWC was transitioning for smart meters, in the conversion process, old service points were abolished and new smart service points
were created in CC&B. Whenever there is a problem in the streetlight and if the customer calls in, the field activity in CC&B was created
against the service point of the customer who called in, but sometimes it is created against the abolished SP which results in the activity
not being sent to WAM.
• Field Activity Details are requested by the FPWC business. Field team would like more details about the last 5 field activities related to a
particular customer in WAM. Currently this is a burdensome process in WAM. For example, when a customer calls to report they have no water
and the crew goes onsite to investigate and finds out that the water was shut off. If the previous details of the field activities were available, it
would be easy to identify and find out the root cause.
• Latency issues occurs because of the integration between WAM and external system. Currently a Service Oriented Architecture is being utilized.
This issue needs to be investigated.
CASCADE:
• Integration issues exist between WAM and Cascade. This started after the Cascade upgrade.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
WAM Pain Points and Solution Gaps
GIS:
• Real‐time integration is required between WAM and GIS so that WAM has up to date Asset information. Currently there is not real time
integration.
GENERIC:
• Performance issues occur even though auditing was turned off, which was helpful for the business to review logs.
• System of Record is not defined for all systems which leads to inconsistencies in data. For example, the Asset information is typically maintained
in CC&B, however WAM has an integration with GIS which also stores asset information. For the same address there are issues where CC&B
might store street address as “Jackson Dr’ whereas the GIS might use “Jackson Ave”.
• Regulatory Compliance differs between the water and electric side of the business. There are different rules data management rules in WAM.
Consolidated business process is not in place.
REPORTS:
• WAM runs on a clustered environment where there are 2 nodes from where they can print out of the box reports. But there is only one node
that works and due to clustering when the print is requested, it always sends to the node which does not work. User manually point to the node
that works and print the reports again which is slow and causes performance issues.
ACCOUNTING:
• Accounting setup limits the ability to use different modules in WAM between water and electric.
PURCHASING:
• Purchase orders are not initiated in WAM due to a duplicate approval process. This has led to the POs being initiated in EBS.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
WAM Quick Wins
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Suggested that an upgrade be made to the online user tool ePortal
FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS where users can login as a guest and enter the service point and To reduce the call volume and manual work
1
view all the history of the field activities performed on that service Service History is available for field team for planning
ORDER HISTORY
point.
21
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
WAM Process and Solution Optimizations
Consider other Work and Asset Management applications and compare the business benefits over the new WAM solution.
Conduct workshops for Fit Gap analysis with Oracle Architect before starting the new WAM implementation. Fit Gap analysis will provide the solution
gaps, opportunities to stay out of box solution and make necessary changes to existing business process.
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Reporting Process Areas Reviewed
During the workshop, FPWC engaged on a comprehensive analytics
roadmap and data governance program, whereby FPWC is looking to
partner with a firm to produce a new analytics and data governance
approach and strategy. After conducting this workshop, the direction is
to architect a new analytics strategy and roadmap. Below is an output
of findings.
The following reporting tools were evaluated and assessed during the
workshop:
NON‐ACTIVE ACTIVE
OWB (MDM)/ OBIEE Reports BI Publisher Reports has one resource managing all the loads.
ODI/Hyperion Reports
SQL PLUS Reports run on External Server because output files are large and cannot
Informatica/ OBIA Reports be handled by BI Publisher reports
APEX Version 18 Reports ‐ e.g. Walking Customer
Legacy (CIS system ‐ PCS) Query system was migrated to CC&B. After the cutoff
date in 2014 reports were migrated to CC&B
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Reporting Pain Points and Solution Gaps
BI Publisher is the only tool currently used to build reports.
• BI Publisher requires reports to be built from scratch the process is cumbersome and takes significant time
• BI Publisher is designed for supplementary reporting only
• BI Publisher is not recommended for historical analytics reports
SQL PLUS is used to build large volume reports and BI Publisher for ad‐hoc reports.
Technology and resource constraints ‐ Too many technologies and resource constraint are key issues.
Lack of data governance strategy ‐ Ownership, accessibility, security, quality, and knowledge base are the five key integrated pieces of a
data governance strategy and these are not fully implemented or followed.
Backlog of reports currently exists.
Historical Data Usage: FPWC has large volume of Historical data that was archived. This data can be effectively used for forecasting and
decision‐making process.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Reporting Quick Wins
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
1 REPORTING Underperforming reports can be fine‐tuned within BI publisher. Improve performance and ROI of BI Publisher
2 REPORTING Tune the existing SQL plus reports Eliminate the bottlenecks and improve performance
Consolidate the reports for each application (CC&B, MWM,
WAM, etc.)
3 REPORTING Ability to produce new report requests
Currently there are 220 reports and the team can’t take new
requests because of resource constraints.
Remove the requirement to build reports from scratch
4 REPORTING Reduce the redundancy in reports.
Insight into current reports before building new reports
Ability to effectively use visualization tools
5 REPORTING Create a data lake to support reports in native format.
Support additional data insights and reports
Improve performance of system
6 REPORTING Do not build reports on top of custom tables in CC&B.
25
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Reporting Process and Solution Optimizations
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
Instead of running multiple BI Publisher reports on same
set of production tables. Users will have direct access to
Create a Data model/ Data lake/DWH connecting to the current their subject areas
1 DUPLICATION OF REPORTS
CC&B, MWM, MDM, etc. Eliminates manual errors
Consistent data across multiple areas with minimum effort
across the organization
Streamlining of all the requirements and report
specifications give quick ROI
2 ANALYTICS AND KPI Minimize the number of tools and silos of information. Eliminates multiple technologies and maintenance and
licensing fees.
Helps to identify the key business needs.
A nightly refresh to a cloned box or additional environment (ex. test
environment).
A nightly refresh to a cloned production box will ease the
REPORTS CREATION FOR CC&B
Extensive use of the Production environment for report building will load on report building
3 DIRECTLY ON PRODUCTION
impact the performance of Report generations. The decision support Cost savings on manual work, depending on the number of
ENVIRONMENTS
system is heavily depending on a single instance of the production letters savings may increase on the long run
environment.
Multiple reports were built with common use cases. This will cause Better control on reporting efforts
duplication of efforts and overload on the Databases. Savings on vendor cost for building the business rules in
vendor application for bill messages
4 BI PUBLISHER REPORTS
Consolidation of reports by defining a Data lake or Data marts with All the business rules are in one system
various perspective to subject areas will give a good insight to Flexibility on how and when FPWC want to add
business. new/change bill messages
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Reporting Process and Solution Optimizations
# PROCESS/SOLUTION AREA RECOMMENDATION BENEFITS
METADATA TO MODEL INTO A BI Build a use‐case based subject areas, models that serves the Eliminates latency in reporting environment
5
TOOL business needs. Easy to build ad‐hoc reports
Implement overall management of quality, usability, availability, Better collection process
7 DATA GOVERNANCE security and consistency of the organization's data to calculate Allows reports to be built faster and easier
correct credit scores for customers. Increases performance
Reduces the approximation in reports
Implement data quality tools that eliminates the duplication of data Clean and quality reports
8 DATA QUALITY TOOLS
and yields single version of truth. Less troubleshooting and data fixes in reporting
environment
Better control
Review and make an inventory of reports to have common focus.
BACKLOG OF REPORTS THAT Easy to Audit
9
NEEDS SUPPORT
Build an application specific stack that profile users need. Meet the business expectations and fulfil the reporting
requirements
Implement STAR data capture. The CDC is in place however the STAR Less volume to deal during nightly batch
10 CHANGE DATA CAPTURE (CDC)
schemas are not used to build the reports. Improves reports efficiency
27
FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
SOA Areas Reviewed
PRODUCTIZED INTEGRATION CUSTOM INTEGRATIONS SMART GRID GATEWAY OTHER
FW PIP EBS – WAM ‐ 17 BPEL integrations Oracle RNI SGG adapter is used for Custom scripting
o The Process Integration Pack for Oracle WAM ‐ Designer ‐ 4 BPEL integrating with RNI Head end (Python)
Utilities Field Work supports the integrations o MDM‐ RNI Read Load
creation and synchronization of field CCB – Custom integrations ‐ 16 o MDM RNI Meter Commands
work records between: BPEL integrations
Oracle Utilities Customer Care Self Service Integrations –
and Billing (CC&B) covering self service functions
Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce from ePortal
Management (MWM)
Oracle Utilities Work and Asset
Management (WAM)
DI (CC&B ‐MDM)
o The direct integration between CC&B
and MDM supports the sync of Master
Data between CC&B and MDM. It also
supports Billing determinant processes
needed for billing in CC&B.
CC&B – EBS PIP
o Supports integration of GL, Invoice and
Payment information between CC&B
and EBS.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
SOA Process & Solution Optimizations
Maintain integrations in line with product
Convert existing XAI Services to IWS. recommendations.
1 XAI TO IWS CONVERSION Testing custom integrations (after XAI‐IWS conversion)
Retest all CC&B integrations utilizing XAI services. will ensure that existing Custom CC&B integrations are
not impacted
PRODUCTIZED INTEGRATIONS (FW Upgrade productized integration to be compatible with product Maintain version levels in line with product
3
PIP, CCB‐MDM, CCB‐EBS, SGG) upgrade and retest. recommendation.
Maintain version levels in line with product
4 CUSTOM WAM INTEGRATIONS Retest WAM integrations after 12c upgrade.
recommendation.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
Technical Applications Footprint Reviewed
SOFTWARE CURRENT PWC VERSION SUPPORTED UPGRADE VERSION TARGET PWC UPGRADE VERSION
version 2.3.1 Service Pack 10
Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing (CC&B) CC&B 2.7 CC&B 2.7 or C2M
version 2.1.0.3
Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management (MDM) MDM 2.3 MDM 2.3
Oracle Utilities Smart Grid Gateway (SGG) version 2.1.0.3
SGG 2.3 SGG 2.3
with Sensus RNI adapter
version 2.1.0.6
Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management (MWM) MWM 2.3 MWM 2.3
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
Technical Footprint Reviewed
SOFTWARE CURRENT PWC VERSION SUPPORTED UPGRADE VERSION TARGET PWC UPGRADE VERSION
6.5+
Operating System – Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.9 7.1
7.x
12.1.0.2
Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 12.2.0.1
12.2.0.1+
12.1.0.2
Oracle Client 12.1.0.2 12.2.0.1
12.2.0.1+
Oracle Utilities Measurements Data Foundation
2.1.0.3 2.2.0.2 2.2.0.2
(MDF)
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
Technical Pain Points and Solution Gaps
SOA ENVIRONMENT MAINTENANCE ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT
• Limited SOA Expertise within FPWC. • The hierarchy of environments now implemented at Fayetteville FPWC is
well suited to supporting production in a steady state situation ‐ it allows
• Some of the integrations at FPWC are SOA‐based. There are two distinct FPWC to develop and test bug fixes and minor enhancements. We heard
instances of Oracle SOA Suite: the “MDM SOA” which hosts the Sensus RNI that creating additional environments, when needed for special projects, is
SGG adapter and the CC&B‐MDM direct integration, and the “Enterprise a problem ‐ it takes a long time. FPWC makes all of their environments a full
SOA” that hosts a number of integrations among E‐Business Suite, GIS, copy of Production, so each additional environment requires significant
MWM and WAM, including the Field Work PIP. The MDM SOA environment additional storage, and significant time to copy the data. This is especially a
is healthy, but the Enterprise SOA has problems ‐ it needs to be bounced problem with MDM, with its much larger volumes of data.
weekly because the SOA composites tend to freeze up.
• It is also hard to limit the proliferation of “special project” environments;
P ATCHING they tend to be reused and expanded and stay in use beyond their initially
planned lifespan.
• While the FPWC team can keep the Oracle Database, WebLogic and other
technology products up to date with patches, they have not had the time to
keep the applications current. The Oracle integrations ‐ the CC&B‐MDM
A RCHITECTURE
direct integration and Field Work PIP ‐ have not been patched. • During the meetings we found that the technical architecture implemented
at FPWC is sound and serves the current needs of the business well. We
B P
ATCH ERFORMANCE AND AILURE ATE F R have not found any major problems that would need to be immediately
addressed. FPWC is facing the decisions on the direction of the Oracle
• The team listed batch performance and batch failure rate as pain points. Utilities application footprint (straight version upgrade for CC&B and MDM,
The batch performance issue meant that batch billing took approximately 4 move to C2M, or move to CCS) and whether to renew the Oracle
hours per night. The batch failure rate issue was about errors encountered technology ULA. These decisions will, in turn, affect what changes will be
during the nightly batch run ‐ errors that did not abort the batch process needed in FPWC’s technical architecture.
but prevented some transactions from being applied in the system.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
Technical Quick Wins
Reduce the nightly batch window by reducing the time taken by the bill calculation process in CC&B. Increase the number
1 IMPROVE BATCH PERFORMANCE
of batch threads for the billing process, add resources to the batch server and database server only if needed.
Bring the Oracle Utilities applications up to date with patches. This may resolve some of the functional issues that the
2 APPLY APPLICATION PATCHES
business is reporting.
During the meetings we learned that sometimes there is a high rate of error in batch billing with random error rates and
some functional problems in CC&B and MDM ‐ specific items that are not working as expected (e.g. disconnect activities
PERFORM A FOCUSED
3 from CC&B are stuck in MDM). PWC may be able to address some of these issues by bringing in a small team (1‐2
TROUBLESHOOTING EXERCISE
consultants with CC&B and MDM expertise) for a short‐term activity (1‐2 weeks) to review the error logs and troubleshoot
the outstanding issues.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Technical Optimizations
PROJECT ENVIRONMENTS FOR MIGRATION OR
UPGRADE
SANDBOX ENVIRONMENTS SHOULD BE USED FOR
PATCHING AND TESTING NOT FOR ‘PLAY’
CONSIDER ORACLE PAAS FOR SHORT‐LIVED
PROJECT ENVIRONMENTS
MAKE ON‐PREMISE DEPLOYMENT CLOUD READY
IMPLEMENT SSL ENCRYPTION
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
SOA Areas Reviewed
PRODUCTIZED INTEGRATION CUSTOM INTEGRATIONS SMART GRID GATEWAY OTHER
FW PIP EBS – WAM ‐ 17 BPEL integrations Oracle RNI SGG adapter is used for Custom scripting
o The Process Integration Pack for Oracle WAM ‐ Designer ‐ 4 BPEL integrating with RNI Head end (Python)
Utilities Field Work supports the integrations o MDM‐ RNI Read Load
creation and synchronization of field CCB – Custom integrations ‐ 16 o MDM RNI Meter Commands
work records between: BPEL integrations
Oracle Utilities Customer Care Self Service Integrations –
and Billing (CC&B) covering self service functions
Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce from ePortal
Management (MWM)
Oracle Utilities Work and Asset
Management (WAM)
DI (CC&B ‐MDM)
o The direct integration between CC&B
and MDM supports the sync of Master
Data between CC&B and MDM. It also
supports Billing determinant processes
needed for billing in CC&B.
CC&B – EBS PIP
o Supports integration of GL, Invoice and
Payment information between CC&B
and EBS.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
SOA Process & Solution Optimizations
Maintain integrations in line with product
Convert existing XAI Services to IWS. recommendations.
1 XAI TO IWS CONVERSION Testing custom integrations (after XAI‐IWS conversion)
Retest all CC&B integrations utilizing XAI services. will ensure that existing Custom CC&B integrations are
not impacted
PRODUCTIZED INTEGRATIONS (FW Upgrade productized integration to be compatible with product Maintain version levels in line with product
3
PIP, CCB‐MDM, CCB‐EBS, SGG) upgrade and retest. recommendation.
Maintain version levels in line with product
4 CUSTOM WAM INTEGRATIONS Retest WAM integrations after 12c upgrade.
recommendation.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Current Testing Overview ‐ Reviewed
REQUIREMENTS: Currently all the requirements are documented as part of the design documents. There doesn’t appear to be a
defined process to develop and manage requirements. There is no dedicated tool where all the detailed requirements are documented and
cross‐checked during testing. Depending on the project or change, sometimes the team is using excel spreadsheets to monitor and verify the
requirements for testing. There is also no Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) to verify the testing against the solution and requirements.
TEST SCRIPT/SCENARIOS: Currently FPWC is using excel spreadsheets to create test scenarios and scripts, there is no
standard test model the team is following. Today this mostly depends on the team and how much time they have available and what
functions they are testing.
REGRESSION TESTING: FPWC currently does not perform full regression testing as there is no regression test scripts available
or identified. When system changes are made the IT team will perform a SMOKE test before they hand it over to the business. During original
implementation, Infosys created approximately 1300+ scripts, but FPWC team did not have an opportunity to go through the original list and
select a set of regression test scripts. There is also an insufficient number of staff members to perform full regression test.
UNIT TESTING: The development team (Vendor) performs unit testing in a development environment for the scenarios
identified during design.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Current Testing Overview ‐ Reviewed
SYSTEM/SYSTEM INTEGRATION TEST: There is no standard model to perform system testing, which results in
environments that are not in synch with latest configurations and data, so most of the functional testing is performed during UAT
TESTING TOOLS:
Testing: OATS
Defect Management: Excel spreadsheets are used to manage defects; no defect management tools are used.
Test Plan/Test Execution: Excel spreadsheets are used to manage; no test management tools are used for end‐to‐end testing.
TESTING TEAM: There is no dedicated testing/QA team. Testing responsibilities are distributed across the functional, business
user, and IT teams. A new QA team is just recently being established for FPWC.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Testing Pain Points and Gaps
R S C :
EGRESSION CRIPTS ATALOG No regression scripts catalog is available. It is important to have set of regression scripts for each
functional area for every application so that they team is clear about what to test when major changes are applied to the system.
SQM (S Q M ) T :
OFTWARE UALITY ANAGEMENT EAM Currently FPWC does not have a dedicated quality assurance
(QA) team who is responsible for the software quality before it is moved into production. Because there is not an SQM team, there is no consistency for
testing across the organization.
E M :
NVIRONMENTS ANAGEMENT FPWC does not have a process or tools to keep all the test environments in synch with
production or latest configurations. This is causing issues for testing and confusion about configurations are in what environment. There is also no
process or tool to copy the sub‐set of customers and their data from one environment to another.
T M T :
EST ANAGEMENT OOL There is no common tool available where all the requirements, test plans, test scenarios, test scripts,
defects can be managed, all these activities or plans are managed using excel spreadsheets.
R A :
ESOURCES VAILABILITY Resource availability is the major challenge across the board and as a result the team is not able to
perform all the required testing activities when changes are made to production applications.
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FPWC PROPRIETARY
FPWC PROPRIETARY
Testing Methodology Recommendations – Approach
TEST ENVIRONMENTS STACKS: TEST SUPPORT TOOLS (CONT’D):
Stack1 : Supports production day‐to‐day fixes and development TEST AUTOMATION: Invest on regression test automation, so that test quality can
be increased and save the manual effort/testing on the long run.
Stack2(Optional): Supports project development/testing stack is an optional AUTOMATION TOOLS: OATS, OUTA (Oracle Utilities Testing accelerator), UFT
stack only required when there is a major project or upgrades are planned. (unified functional test) & Load runner etc.
Test Environment Size Recommendations:
Development/UT (Unit Testing), ST/SIT (System Test) and Master Configuration
environments can be 20% of Production size, no need to have full production size SOFTWARE QUALITY MANAGEMENT (SQM) TEAM
for these environments.
Create a dedicated testing team for the organization who is responsible for
overall quality control for all the application changes.
Only UAT environment needs to be similar size as production where full UAT and
performance test can be performed, also UAT environment should have similar
SQM TEAM RESPONSIBILITIES:
hardware, interface setup like production environment.
Overall testing approach
TEST SUPPORT TOOLS: Create and manage Regression catalog
Create and manage Test Cases/Use Cases
ALM (APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT): One of the testing management Testing scope for each application change
tools that many organizations are using for requirements, test plans, test Manage Test environments
scenarios, test scripting and defect management. Test data for each environment
MERIDIAN INTEGRATION: Meridian is the data and configuration migration tool Create test plan for each project
that most of the Oracle utilities clients are using. Meridian assists with Maintain the test results for Audit/compliance
configuration migration and data copying from one environment to another Educate Organization about testing
environment. Following are advantages with Meridian tool: Maintain common test approach across all applications
Configure migration
Selected customers data extract
Selected customer data load
Supports environment refresh
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