© 2008 Eventure Events. All rights reserved.

Easy Bill-correction Framework (EBF)Implementation at NYPA

Helen Yang New York Power Authority

Kelly McEnhill SAP

• First successful implementation of SAP IS-U/CCS and Easy Bill-correction Framework (EBF) with legacy billing data migration.

• NYPA case study:– Business Challenge and Requirement– Why EBF – EBF within CCS– How to implement EBF– Benefits– Lessons Learned

• Speakers:– Helen Yang, Director, IT Product Support, NYPA– Kelly McEnhill, Sr. IS-U/CCS Consultant, SAP

Overview

About New York Power Authority

• America's largest state-owned power organization • Provides some of the lowest-cost electricity in

New York State • Operates 18 generating facilities and more than

1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines • Sells power to

– government agencies– community-owned electric systems and rural electric

cooperatives– job-producing companies– private utilities for resale—without profit—to their

customers; and to neighboring states, under federal requirements

SAP IS-U/CCS Implementation

• Consolidated 4 customer billing systems– South East New York (SENY) Customer Billing System

– Wholesale Customer Billing System

– WTC Economic Recovery Customer Billing System

– Loan Ledger System

• Project overview– Timeframe: Oct 2006 – Feb 2008 (16 Months)

– Go-Live: Feb 2008

– Result: Project completed on time within budget

– Post Go-Live: Successfully completed 9 billing cycles from January to October.

Bill Correction Challenges

• South East New York is NYPA’s major customer segment:– 138 customers (e.g., biggest customer, New York City, receives monthly

bill of over $50 million)– Over 12,000 accounts with over 5000 contracts under NYC – Over 15,000 meters and ~28,000 meter readings per month

• SENY customer billing is based on meter readings provided by 3rd party via 21 trip files and other data files (e.g., street lights).

• Challenges:– High volume of prior months meter reading adjustments (6000 to 8000

MR adjustments, 1/3 of total MRs).– Complex adjustment rules and scenarios (e.g., Sandwich Adjustment,

correction of prior period reads with actual reads among months of estimated reads)

– Account for adjustments back to 7 years– No parallel billing with legacy system after go-live– Resource constraint for manual verification of meter readings and bill

corrections

Bill Correction Requirements

• Must be EASY– One place to perform bill correction

– One bill to display adjustments and new balance

• Must be AUTOMATIC– Retrieve and validate historical meter readings for up to 2 years

(95% of all adjustments are within 2-year adjustment window)

– Process bill adjustments

• Must allow for complex Adjustment Rules such as “Sandwich Adjustments”

• Cost-Benefit Approach– Data migration effort (2 vs. 7 years of historical data)

– System performance impact (2 vs. 7 years of historical data)

Why EBF?

• Option 1: Keep legacy system live for bill adjustment– A common practice for most companies– Very time consuming – Redundant processes

• Option 2: Use manual process– Good for small amount of bill corrections– Good for simple bill corrections

• Option 3: Migrate historical data to Business Warehouse or SQL database

– Major development effort– Redundant processes

• Option 4: Adopt Easy Bill-correction Framework– Automation– One billing engine, one bill print, integrated processes– Historical billing data and meter reading data migrated into SAP– Configured historical trip schedules and prices

EBF within CCS EBF Process Flow: Conversion EBF

• Utilizes Standard Migration Object

• Custom Tables: EBF Bill Documents and Display only Original Meter History Table

NYPA specific table

EBF within CCS Automatic Process Flow: Conversion

• Utilizes Standard Migration Objects

• Historical Requirements: Meter History, Pricing and Device Information

EBF within CCS EBF Process Flow: Reversal

EBF Tables

• ERCH and ZEBF tables utilized in EBF cancel document

• Cancel of EBF generates standard Manual Bill document

EBF within CCS Automatic Process Flow: Standard

• Adjusted meter readings billed at historical prices

• New SAP Automatic Billing document for same period

EBF within CCS Process Flow: Results

• Manual bill doc with full negatives from EBF cancel

• SAP Automatic bill doc containing ALL new charges

• Combining at Invoicing gives a DELTA amount.

• Interfacing to FI-CA, BI and Bill Print

Standard SAP Migration Object with Flexibility to include Additional Fields

How to implement EBF? EBF Conversion Strategy

How to implement EBF? Database Structure

• Converted 2 years of historical meter reading data for both active and inactive meters

• Converted 2 years of latest balance/amount ($)

• IMG :

• Basic Setting:

• Definition of

Correction Method:

• Steps & Pre-selection Values:

How to implement EBF? Configuration Elements

• Utilizes Standard Look & Feel w/ Normal Bill

• Monthly EBF Doc per Legacy Bill Doc

• Itemized Lines for Itemized Charges

How to implement EBF? EBF Billing Document

Mass Corrections via Interface with Meter Post via Function Module Call

Individual via Front Office Call

How to implement EBF? Processing Corrections

How to implement EBF? EBF Reversal

• Reverses individual records as Manual Bill Doc

• Posts to Offsetting Sub-transaction

• Opens Meter Read to Post New Read

• Re-bill utilizing Normal Billing Functionality

• Normal Billing Functionality as Adjustment

• Reverses Old and Bills Corrections New

How to implement EBF? Adjusted Billing Document with Multiple Reversals in Legacy Period

EBF Specific Attributes Customizable for Interface Collaboration on Bill Document

• Sub-transactions for FI-CA • Line Item Types for Bill Print • Statistical Groups for Business Warehouse

@ NYPA:

Utilization of Standard Billing Attributes allow Interface Synchronization among EBF & other Functions

How to implement EBF? Impacts on Interface with Other Functions

• Enabled historical bill correction in one place – SAP IS-U/CCS

• Automated complex and high volume billing adjustments

• Retired legacy systems after go-live

• Mitigated risks in business change management

EBF Benefits

• Implementing Easy Bill-correction Framework is not an EASY job.

Lessons Learned

11

Blueprint Configuration

88

Realization Data Cutover for Go-Live

22

33

Normal IS-U/CCS Implementation

Clear define business requirement

Require comprehensive BR Analysis

Evaluate Alternative solutions from different angles

44 POC – take the

first cut to move

55

Determine historical data migration scope

66

Determine integrated data migration approach for both MASTER and EBF data

77

Require Legacy system and data expert to extract, process, and test/verify Data …

Require SAP IS-U/CCS Billing and DM expert to perform EBF configuration, load data, and test/verify data

99

Define integrated Data Migration Schedule with both MASTER and EBF data and take at least one drill before the cutover.

1010

Data cutover must be ACCURATE!!!

Conduct different data runs in different client/sandbox in order to gain time

Questions?

THANK YOU!

谢谢！

© 2008 Eventure Events. All rights reserved.

Helen YangNew York Power Authority

helen.yang@nypa.gov

Kelly McEnhillSAP

Kelly.McEnhill@sap.com