SAP IS-U (Industry Solutions for Utilities)

Basic Overview
Agenda:

 What is SAP?
 SAP Benefits
 SAP Definitions
 What is SAP IS-U?
 Customer Service
 Device Management
 Billing, Invoicing, and Rates
 FICA
SAP Overview
 WHAT IS SAP?
SAP is an Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) package.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
system is a packaged business software
system that enables a company to:
Automate and integrate the majority of its
business processes
Share common data and practices across
the entire enterprise
Produce and access information in a real-
time environment
 What is SAP ?

 SAP is- ‘A business application software system that seamlessly and

efficiently integrates a company’s core business functions’.
 SAP is unique because it is:
• Highly integrated-SAP provides immediate, “real-time” updates of critical
information to all the affected organizational functions so that the entire enterprise
may function as one (e.g., cancel/rebills, meter reading updates, etc.).
• Designed to support many companies and clients diverse business needs.
 Master vs. Transactional Data

 MasterData is generally static data that contains information

about an object (i.e. Address, Person) e.g.:

 Business Partner contains information about someone you

provide business to. It includes information like name,
address, bank account details, credit history

 Transaction data is information about a transaction e.g.:

A service notification for disconnect/reconnect

 Consumption billing
 How SAP Manages Data

Master data:
 Basis of all system
processing
 Stored in a SD
centralized Sales/
database Distribution FI
Financial
 Used by all Master Accnt
modules within MM
Data
SAP Materials
CO
Management
Controlling
Material
Master only

HR
Human
Resources
 How SAP Manages Transactions

Data needs to be entered only once for use among different

transactions. Transactions are the key tools for processing
information in SAP.

Multiple fields make up a screen. Multiple screens make up a

transaction. A series of transactions make up a module.

Create and change transactions update the database, while display

and report transactions display data already in the database. Data
elements (which appear as fields) are shared between screens,
transactions, and modules. 
 SAP Customer Overview Structure
SAP- Customer Overview Structure
Business
Partner
1 – Business Partner - (BP) this is the owner or customer.
Business
2- Contract Account – (AC) is where all the financial data is held and is where the
Master Data Invoicing of the customer is done. This is also the Account number.
Contract
Account
3- Contract - This holds the Business Master Data and this is created by a move in. This
also links the Business Master Data to the Technical Master Data.

Contract 4- Installation – (not to be confused with the installation from Basis) This holds the rates,
read schedule, read validation process, device info (i.e. meter size and number), billing
and service information.
Move-in

5- Premise – This is a subset of the main property. (i.e. apt, flat or house description)

Technical Installation 6- Connection Object –Also known as the service address, main property location.
Master Data

Device
Premise

Device
Location

Connection
Object
 WELCOME TO YOUR NEW
BUSINESS MASTER HOME!! TECHNICAL MASTER
DATA DATA (House Information)
(Customer information) Connection Object
Business Partner
A building or property linked to the
A customer who has a business Apartment Block = Connection Object network (Distribution Company)
relationship with an energy provider.
May be a:
Contract Business Partner
- Billable Customer Premise
Apartment 1 = Premise Apartment
Contact Business Partner A single ‘unit’ (e.g.; an apartment
2
- Contact Person within a building) that is supplied
Prospective Business Partner Installation Device with energy. A residential home
Contract
- Interested Customer Electricity
Electricity Location would be set up as one connection
Meter Hallway Apartment
Business Contract 3
object with one premise.
Contract Account Partner Account
The Contract Account combines all Device
Contract Installation
contracts that have the same Water Water Meter
Location
Inside Wall
Device Location
payment and credit details. Apartment The place within a connection
4 object where devices (a device
may be a meter or a relay) are
installed.
Contract
An agreement between the Move In/Switch/Transfer Installation
customer (a Contract Business A Move In occurs when a customer (or Utility Installation)
Partner) and an energy retailer (Business Partner) moves into a An installation groups together all
to provide a service (eg. premise or switches retailers and is devices of the same division that are
energy). The Contract is supplied with a service. The Move In allocated to a premise. The
created when the customer links the Technical Master Data with installation contains pricing option
requests and is supplied the the Business Master Data by data for billing.
service allocating a contract to an
installation.
 Benefits of SAP

 Integration
 Standardization of business processes
 Common data across business units
 Definitions

 Configuration
 Interfaces
 Landscape
 Miscellaneous Technical Terms
 Configuration

 Configuration is the activity of filling in SAP tables to

structure the system in a way that meets a client’s
business requirements.
 Configuration will be done by Functional Consultants
 Interfaces

 Interfaces are the “bridges” built between existing

systems and SAP to allow mainframe and other systems
to run in parallel during rollout period and to allow
other systems to continue to run after SAP is fully
implemented.
 Landscape

 The landscape is the combination of hardware (servers

and network) that will be required to support the new
software.
 Miscellaneous Technical Terms

 ABAP
 The proprietary programming language
used by SAP to produce custom
reports, interfaces, conversions and
enhancements.
 GUI (Graphic User Interface)
 The “screens” that the user will use to
interact with the SAP System
 Miscellaneous Technical Terms

 Security
 The method used to define roles, user access, and
authentication to SAP applications.
 Workflow
 The method used to direct work to a specific user
to approve, resolve or other activity.
 Portal
 The gateway to SAP applications via a single log in
process.
 Miscellaneous Technical Terms

 Business Warehouse (aka BI)

 A SAP product that provides summary level
detail for ad-hoc reporting.
 Basis (aka Netweaver)
 The process by which the SAP system is tuned
for performance and stability.
 Conversions (aka Data Migration)
 The process by which the data from the
legacy systems is moved to the SAP systems.
 Authorizations

Securityin SAP is based around authorizations and roles

A user may have many different roles

 Fred is a Field Service Technician as well as an Employee, therefore he

has 2 separate “roles”.
Each role will contain many different transactions
 The employee role will include “Create Customer”, “Update Business
Partner”, “Update Customer’s Rate Category”
Each transaction will contain many different fields
 The‘Create Customer’ transaction will include fields for ‘Customer
Name’, ‘Address’, ‘Phone Number’ etc.
Each field will have different authorizations against it
 The ‘Customer Name’ field will have different authorisations for
‘create’, ‘change’, ‘display’ etc.
 SAP Screen Layout

Standard
Toolbar

Menu Bar

Command Minimise,
Field Maximise, Close
Application
Toolbar Title Bar
Work
Area

Status Bar
SAP IS-U Consists of 4 major areas:

•Customer Service
•Device Management
•Billing / Invoicing
•FI-CA
 Customer Service area
 Customer Service
Business Partner
Processes

Customer Information

Customer Contact

Move-in

Move-out

Move-in/out (Transfer)

Disconnect/Reconnect

Owner Allocation

CIC / Front office process

 Customer Service

Typical Processes in Customer service includes:

 Identify/Search Customer Account
 Initial Data creation (like Business partner, addresses etc)
 Move in, Move out and Transfers of service
 Disconnection and Re-connection (of meter)
 And Answering Customer inquiries and request like:
 Account balance
 Change Phone number, mailing address
 Address Usage concerns and send statement
 Invoice complaint or request for a Duplicate invoice
 Answer question related to Disconnection (notice), take
payments
 Accept customer reads
 Technical Master Data
 Connection Object
 Defines the structure where services are to be provided
 Is a physical location

 Premise
 An enclosed unit within the connection object
 Is usually a house or a building
 Has the same physical address as the Connection Object

 Installation
 Groups devices, registers and billing calculation data
 The Rate Category is assigned to the Installation
 An Installation is allocated to a Contract
 An Installation is allocated to a specific Division, which is the type of Service
(e.g., Water, Electricity, Gas, Sewer, etc.)
 An Installation will be tied to a Meter Reading Unit (MRU), which groups
Installations together for billing, usually based on geographical location
 The MRU is tied to a Portion, which is directly tied to when an Installation
is scheduled to Bill
 Technical Master Data
 Device
 Any material (meter) that is used to deliver (measure) service

 Device Location
 Defines the location in the connection object where the device is to be placed
 Customer Service – Business
Master Data

 Business Partner
 A person, organization, group of people/organizations in which a company has
a business interest

 Contract Account
 The Contract Account is where receivable, payable, G/L postings and all
financial information like payment, dunning and credit details are defined.
 Invoicing (and Bill print) is done at the Contract Account level.

 Contract
 Agreement between a business partner and a utility company for a single
service
 Created via the Move-in Process & Closed via the Move-out Process
 Has a one-to-one relationship with an Installation and a Contract Account
 WELCOME TO YOUR NEW
BUSINESS MASTER HOME!! TECHNICAL MASTER
DATA DATA (House Information)
(Customer information) Connection Object
Business Partner
A building or property linked to the
A customer who has a business Apartment Block = Connection Object network (Distribution Company)
relationship with an energy provider.
May be a:
Contract Business Partner
- Billable Customer Premise
Apartment 1 = Premise Apartment
Contact Business Partner A single ‘unit’ (e.g.; an apartment
2
- Contact Person within a building) that is supplied
Prospective Business Partner Installation Device with energy. A residential home
Contract
- Interested Customer Electricity
Electricity Location would be set up as one connection
Meter Hallway Apartment
Business Contract 3
object with one premise.
Contract Account Partner Account
The Contract Account combines all Device
Contract Installation
contracts that have the same Water Water Meter
Location
Inside Wall
Device Location
payment and credit details. Apartment The place within a connection
4 object where devices (a device
may be a meter or a relay) are
installed.
Contract
An agreement between the Move In/Switch/Transfer Installation
customer (a Contract Business A Move In occurs when a customer (or Utility Installation)
Partner) and an energy retailer (Business Partner) moves into a An installation groups together all
to provide a service (eg. premise or switches retailers and is devices of the same division that are
energy). The Contract is supplied with a service. The Move In allocated to a premise. The
created when the customer links the Technical Master Data with installation contains pricing option
requests and is supplied the the Business Master Data by data for billing.
service allocating a contract to an
installation.
Example of the IS-U CIC
 Device Management area
Device Management Overview

 The Device Management area includes activities and

configuration related to:

 Regional Structure
 Technical Master Data
 Connection Objects, Premises, Installations, and
Device Locations
 Devices/Meters
 Meter Readings
 and the Scheduling of Meter Reading & Billing Dates.
Regional Structure

 Organizes the service territory according to the postal

criteria
 Links the different elements of the regional structure
 Has predefined hierarchy levels
 All addresses of IS-U objects are linked to elements of
the Regional Structure
 Central clipboard of city and street names, and also of
the corresponding postal codes, ensures that the syntax
and the structure of the addresses are correct.
 Data relevant to billing, such as temperature area,
pressure area, and meter reading unit, can be stored for
cities and streets
 Technical Master Data
 Connection Object
 Defines the structure where services are to be provided
 Is a physical location

 Premise
 An enclosed unit within the connection object
 Is usually a house or a building
 Has the same physical address as the Connection Object

 Installation
 Groups devices, registers and billing calculation data
 The Rate Category is assigned to the Installation
 An Installation is allocated to a Contract
 An Installation is allocated to a specific Division, which is the type of Service
(e.g., Water, Electricity, Gas, Sewer, etc.)
 An Installation will be tied to a Meter Reading Unit (MRU), which groups
Installations together for billing, usually based on geographical location
 The MRU is tied to a Portion, which is directly tied to when an Installation
is scheduled to Bill
 Technical Master Data
 Device
 Any material (meter) that is used to deliver (measure) service

 Device Location
 Defines the location in the connection object where the device is to be placed
Devices

 Devices are pieces of equipment that registers

consumption
 Rate Types are allocated to a Device’s Register in SAP
 The Rate Type is matched with the Rate Category
(which is allocated to the Installation) to determine
what Rate is to be run on the Installation/Contract
Meter Reading Overview

 Meter Reading Order created, at the same time the

system creates a Billing order
 Meter Reading Order produced (can be printed or
downloaded into devices)
 Meter Reading results are then entered into the system
(usually via interface)
 Meter Reading Results are validated using configured
validation logic
 Plausible results are billed
 Implausible Meter Reading Results are not billable and
must be “released” for billing or manually corrected
 Meter Reading Order – to –
MRO Created MRR entered
Bill Print
Billable MRR Billing Orders

INVOICING Billing Docs Billing

Print Doc FI-CA Docs

Bill Print
 Billing / Invoicing / Rates
 What all is included in Billing
& Invoicing?
Creating billing
document
Rates
Process billing &
Invoicing checks
& validations

Reversals and
Adjustment Reversals

Billing & Billing

Invoicing Simulation

Bill Print

Billing
Maintain Discounts
/surcharges
Invoicing
 Billing Process Overview
Creation of Meter Entry of Meter
Billing Invoicing and Printout
Read Orders Readings

Bill
Meter Read Engine Invoice
Bill Orders
Orders Documents

Valid Bill?
Meter Read
Processing Valid Invoice?

Valid Read?

Bill
Documents

Business
Process
Exceptions
 High Level Billing Tasks

 Process Flow – The Billing Process

 Meter reading results are entered and these results are
converted to consumption or demand in automatic billing
and are valuated with a price.
 Billing documents created automatically and manually are
subjected to customized validations. If they do not meet
the validation requirements, these billing documents are
out sorted.
 All outsorted billing documents are placed on an
Outsorting list, the outsorted billing documents can be
processed and manually released
 Billing Execution

 Individual Billing (EASIBI)

 Individual billing is executed for a contract of an
installation or contract account.
 The appropriate processing level needs to be selected.
 Creating Billing documents only.
 Invoicing of Billing documents only.
 Printing or displaying of the bill only.
 If are no billing orders are created, meter reading results
can be entered by setting the enter MR results indicator.
 Billing Execution

 Parallel Processing (EA38)

 Parallel Processing can be used for the execution of mass
or individual portions.
 The correct billing dates needs to be selected.
 Correct type of billing that needs to be selected should be
selected.
 Billing orders should already exist.
 Billing documents get created and the successful
documents which get processed are displayed in the
application log.
 Billing Rates

Basic Formula A X B = C

Changed for use Consumption X Price = Amount

Assigned Inputs Meter Schedule

Final result 1440 kWh X $.0785 / kWh = $113.04

 Glossary

 Rate category
Classification of an installation for billing purposes.In
conjunction with rate type, the rate category is used
to determine the rate.

 Rate type
Classification of a register, flat rate or reference
value for billing purposes.In conjunction with rate
category, the rate type is used to determine the
rate.

 Price
Historical value to define the unit cost of providing a
particular service. This is attached as facts at rate or
rate category or installation level.
 Glossary

 Price adjustment clause

Control for the price adjustment factor, which is multiplied by
a basic price to obtain a current price

 Price class
Classification of device categories that are treated the same
with respect to price. In conjunction with the price level, the
price class is used to determine the rental price.

 Variant program
Module in rates or schemas that contains a billing rule.

 Operand
Individually determined symbolic name for the assigned values
that are used as input and output parameters in variant
programs. One or more operands are allocated to an operand
category.
 Glossary

 Rate
Billing rule for a register or a reference value that
refers to all the billing-related steps executed during
billing. A rate consists of one or more variant
programs, which are part of the billing schema.

 Schema
Structure that defines the sequence in which variant
programs (calculation/processing steps) must be
executed.

 Rate determination
Defining the rate historically by associating the rate
category with the rate type
 The Invoicing Process

 Invoicing:
 Turns billing document into receivable amounts
 Provides the basis for printing the customer bill
 May invoice several contracts jointly
 Steps in the invoice execution process:
 Ensure that the billing documents have been created with
transaction EA22/EA19
 Enter the required information and execute
 Select the billing documents
 Invoicing Process get completed
 The Invoicing Process
Credit Memos
Print
Back Billings Workbench
Billing
Documents Creation of bill
printout data
- individual
- convergent
- collective
IS-U/CCS Invoicing
- data collection External
Printing Systems
- plausibility checks
- a/r processing
Accounts Receivables
Receivables
Postings $80
Budget Billing
Plans
Accounts
Receivable Items
 Integration
 Invoices can be produced using the following inputs:
 IS-U consumption billing documents
 SD (Sales and Distribution) billing documents
 Billing information from external systems
 IS-U Invoicing process uses the above inputs to create outputs used
by the FI-CA and PWB components
Inputs Outputs
Process

IS-U Billing Doc PWB – Print Doc

IS-U INVOICING
SD Billing Doc

FI-CA Posting Doc

Ext Billing Doc

 FICA area
Main Functions of FICA

 Account Receivables & Reversals

 Consumption charges, miscellaneous posting, interest receivable,
credit memo, etc.

 Receipts & Returns Processing

 Incoming payments via cash desk, payment lot, check lot, credit
card lot
 Returns lot

 Credit Management
 Dunning, installment plans, security deposits, collections etc.

 Reconciliation
 Transfer to General Ledger
Overview of FICA Processes
1. Create Master Data
9. Transfer
To GL
2. Post Charges

8. Transfer
Receivables &
Payables

FI-CA 3. Create Deferral

&
Installment Plans
7. Process
Write Off
& Collection

4. Process
Payments
6. Dunning
5. Process Reversals
&
Refunds
Account Balance Display
 Allows easy view of account related posting for a business
partner

 Configurable:
 Line layout to show the various views
 List type to show the items to be displayed i.e. open items
only, all items, etc.
 Sort variant
 Other user specific selection criteria
 Initial screen default

 Access other transactions via the Environment menu path,

such as document, master data, dunning history, payments,
security deposit, returns history, etc.
Account Balance Display

Five tabs within the account balance screen:

 Receivables
 Display all the items posted to the business
partner
 Down Payments (Security Deposits)
 Totals
 Payment List
 Chronology
Account Balance Display -
Example
In Conclusion…

ISU enables the following:

 Provision of customer services such as Move In/Move
out, Owner Allocations and
Disconnection/Reconnection
 Provision of Customer Self Service (via Interfaces and
IC Web)
 Billing and Invoicing of utilities (consumption/non-
consumption based, Electric, Water, Gas, etc.)
 Credit procedures
 Device procurement, installation, removal
/replacement, and reading
 Management of materials
 The End