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SBS
was selected by a nationally recognized Energy Service Company (ESCO) to
design, develop, and maintain an online utility management and bill processing
system. The ESCO needed the ability to capture, verify, pay, and maintain its
customer’s utility bills across all facilities within the organization. The
consumption and cost information would then be presented to the customer
through an easy to use online reporting application. The ESCO had been
processing utility bills for several of its customers, but the process was
paper based, manually intensive, cost prohibitive, and lacked customer
reporting capability. Furthermore, the ESCO wanted the ability to use the
utility bill information to identify and drive their more traditional energy
services such as Energy Efficiency, Tariff Analysis, and Onsite Generation.
Working with several of the ESCO’s key personnel, SBS began an
accelerated effort to develop the business case and high-level systems
requirements. Due to cost and time requirements, SBS designed a multi-phased
project approach, which would allow the ESCO to begin generating additional
revenue while development efforts continued. The business case, system
requirements, and project approach were combined and presented to the ESCO’s
management team for approval. Once approved, SBS performed detailed analysis to
more narrowly define the system requirements. With this, several key features
of the system were identified as follows:
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Security Model – Because users with different functions and privileges would be
using the system, a sophisticated user-based security model was designed. With
this flexibility, web administrators would have the ability to create user
profiles with accurate, secure permissions schemes.
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Administration Site – ESCO staff would have access to a control module section
of the site, to maintain customer information. This would include customer
setup, bill entry and validation, security administration (create/update users
and groups), exception processing and error handling, as well as bill
processing and payment.
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Reporting Structure – A multi-tier hierarchy would determine the customer’s
reporting structure. Grouped to a facility building level, large customers
would be able to tailor reports to view utility information at desired levels,
as well as at grouped levels within the hierarchy.
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Reporting Format – Ease of use and readability were emphasized in the design of
the reports. Taking into account the wide range of customer-users that would
ultimately be viewing the site, the reporting pages were designed to combine
flexibility with functionality. To aid in this, it was decided to incorporate
charting features, along with downloadable and printable formats.
Utilizing
the system requirements and client feedback, SBS developed the detailed design
specifications for Phase 1 of the application. The design included data and
object models, business logic definitions, user interface layouts, and test
plans.
The key component of the application was the ability to capture and
verify utility bills. The design had to be flexible enough to handle bill
formats received from a large volume of energy companies (e.g. LDC, ESP, and
metering agents), multiple commodity types, and the different billing scenarios
(e.g. dual, consolidated) created as a result of deregulation. To handle this,
SBS designed a hierarchal bill structure that provided the maximum amount of
flexibility. The ESCO could capture bills under any possible scenario, and
verify and report against that data accurately and efficiently.
Throughout development, SBS worked closely with the ESCO to ensure
that the design and functionality continued to meet their processing and
interface requirements. Weekly status reports were provided outlining
development progress and issues. SBS delivered the Phase 1 application ahead of
schedule, and has continued to work with the ESCO, which has become the premier
provider of online energy services.
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