Disconnection Process

5
Scope of Business Functions
Budget Billing Plan

A utility company does not always bill its services until the end of a supply period, as is the case in annual consumption billing, for example. Therefore, throughout the current period it charges budget billing amounts instead of the amount the customer is expected to owe, so that the utilitys liquidity is maintained. The budget billing plan sets the due dates and the budget billing amounts and is, therefore, the basis for budget billing collection. Generally, the system automatically creates budget billing plans during invoicing or move-in processing. However, you can create them manually. Contracts that have to be invoiced together are assigned a common budget billing plan. All other contracts in the contract account can have their own separate budget billing plan.
Fig. 5-21: Budget Billing Procedures Supported by IS-U/CCS
Budget billing amounts can be stored either as down payments (statistical receivables) or as partial bills (debit entries) in Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable and are therefore subject to all dunning and payment procedures. IS-U/CCS also supports average monthly billing and budget billing as special budget billing procedures applicable to North America. They are discussed more fully below.
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In budget billing, an average amount is determined either through simulation or manually. The customer pays that average amount for a period of 12 months. At the same time, the customers actual consumption is billed, and the results are printed on the bill. In addition, the difference between the customers actual consumption and the average amount is calculated, updated monthly, and printed on the bill. In the last month of the meter reading period, the actual amount and the accumulated difference are billed. In average monthly billing or equalized billing, the customer is charged an average amount based on billings over the last x months (you define the number of months, including minimum and maximum number of months, in Customizing). In addition, the customers actual consumption is billed, and the results are printed on the bill. The amounts due for later months are calculated using the average of the previous monthly bills, the current bill and the accumulated difference. That difference is updated monthly and is printed on the bill. The due dates for the budget billing amounts are calculated directly from the portion applicable to the contract and from the parameter record. The following data is defined: u The length of the budget billing period (a number of months or a year) u The budget billing cycle, meaning the equal distribution of dates over the period (one or more months) However, you can override the preset values from the portion either in the budget billing plan itself or in a contract. While changes made in the budget billing plan take effect immediately, entries made in the contract do not take effect until the budget billing plan is created again. The system calculates the budget billing amount on the basis of the expected meter reading results. The section Device Reading describes the extrapolation of meter reading results. Extrapolation can be based on the following information: u Amounts from the last bill The extrapolation lines for the budget billing amounts are generated automatically during periodic billing. u Periodic consumption u Reference value in the rate u Manual specification of the budget billing amounts The following functions are also available for calculating the budget billing amount: u In the case of an interim billing, you can specify whether the remaining budget billing amounts are to be adjusted. u In the case of budget billing, you can also perform mass changes. Mass changes are necessary when there are changes to prices, fees, or taxes.
Budget Billing (North America)
Average Monthly Billing/ Equalized Billing (North America)
Budget Billing Amount Due Dates
Budget Billing Amount Calculation
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Budget Billing Request
Direct debit customers receive budget billing requests as a notification about when the amounts due will be debited. Cash payers receive budget billing requests as payment forms, which can be sent out in a variety of ways (for example, all payment forms included with the bill or one separate payment form on each due date).
Fig. 5-22 Printout of Budget Billing Forms
Including External Billing Documents in Invoicing

You can invoice billing documents from IS-U/CCS together with documents from the billing component of the Sales and Distribution component, and in Release 4.51 you will be able to invoice billing documents together with documents from nonSAP systems, such as heating costs billing or telecommunications. To transfer billing documents from non-SAP systems, you need a suitable interface program. The purpose of that interface program is to create standardized IS-U/CCS billing documents from the billing documents of the non-SAP system so that they can then be processed in IS-U/CCS invoicing.
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Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable

Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable (FI-CA) is a form of subledger accounting designed for industries that typically deal with large numbers of business partners and large volumes of documents. In IS-U/CCS, the large numbers of postings from billings and budget billing requests are managed in Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable instead of in the general ledger. Each individual business transaction, that is, each posting and each document for a given customer, is stored in order to guarantee itemization. These FI-CA documents are cumulated and transferred at certain intervals to the general ledger of the Financial Accounting component or to a non-SAP system. When an FI-CA document is posted, general ledger account determination automatically occurs for the General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL) component. The system automatically determines all receivables, payables, revenue, and expense accounts based on account assignment details in the line items. A standard interface between Sales and Distribution and FI-CA ensures the complete integration of service invoices in FI-CA. This means that you can combine consumption and service billings into a single bill, invoice them jointly, post them to a customer account, and print them out.
Basic Functions
Postings are always stored as documents. The document, the smallest unit in financial accounting, constitutes the proof of a business transaction. It can only be posted if the balance of the items contained in it is zero. In FI-CA, a document consists of a header and various line items: u The document header contains data that is applicable to all the document lines, such as document date, posting date, and document type. The document type classifies documents according to specific business transactions. u Receivables lines (reconciliation lines) contain all the data relevant to payment transactions, dunning, and the receivables account (reconciliation account) to which debits and credits are posted. u Revenue lines contain the data for the profit and loss statement and the sales tax data. u Budget billing plans and installment plans are stored as repetition items in order to save memory. However, in a contract account display, repetition items appear as normal items and can be processed as such. A document does not have to contain all these lines. For example, with normal payments that result in the complete clearing of the receivables lines concerned, the system only creates a new document header for the payment because it can derive the data relevant to account assignment from the receivables lines. In addition to line items that are created in association with bills, payments, or credit memos and are updated in the general ledger, you can also post statistical line items, which are merely recorded in the contract account, or subledger. You can use statistical postings to post budget billing requests or dunning costs. Statistical postings can serve as noted items or, in the case of a payment, they can be converted to actual postings.
Postings and Documents
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In addition, documents can be posted to multiple company codes. This enables you to perform convergent billing. For more information on this topic, please refer to the section titled Business Services for Other Utilities.
Budget Billings
Budget billings can be stored in FI-CA either as down payments (statistical postings) or as partial billings (debit positions) and are therefore subject to all dunning and payment procedures. Budget billing requests are shown in the document as repetition lines. For more information on budget billings, please refer to the section titled Budget Billing Plan under Invoicing. You can reverse documents if a customer complains about a bill. You can execute a reversal for a document or for a collective bill. The system generates a reversal document, which together with the reversed document has a zero balance. During reversal these two documents are linked to each other. You can use reversals with the following posting transactions: u Incoming or outgoing payments When reversing payments, the allocated item (meaning the receivable or credit memo) is identified as open again. This means that, in terms of its due dates, and payment and dunning data, it is returned to the status it had before the incoming or outgoing payment. u Receivables or credits With regard to receivables or credits, the system distinguishes between the reversal of consumption billing documents and the reversal of other items. In the case of billing documents, the system distinguishes between a full reversal and an invoicing reversal. Full reversal reverses the billing documents in addition to the invoicing document. u Settlement or write off The reversal process for settlement and write off is similar to the reversal process for payments. u Interest The original receivables on which interest was calculated are also adjusted in addition to the reversal of the actual interest item. In most cases, the system automatically enters documents. However, you can also enter receivables and credit memos manually. You do this by entering a predefined process for each business transaction. This predefined process then automatically determines the general ledger accounts or tax accounts and notes them in the receivables and revenue lines. The documents are classified based on the document type entered. The system automatically determines the due date using the payment conditions in the contract account. Receivables and credit memos can be cleared immediately or in increments over time. By specifying a start date, receivables lines with different due dates can be repeated at monthly or daily intervals, for example in the case of budget billing or installment plans.
Reversal
Manual Document Entry
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Open items are uncompleted transactions. An unpaid billing line item, for example, is managed as an open item in the contract account until it has been paid and cleared. This allows you to check which receivables or payables are still outstanding. The open items in an account can be cleared immediately or in increments over time. With incremental clearing, the item is divided into a cleared item in the amount of the cleared part and an open item containing the remaining amount. Open items can be cleared in the following ways: u Posting documents u Account maintenance u Posting payment lots u Payment programs u Reversing documents u Clearing budget billing payments made as part of annual consumption billing The system can automatically create correspondence for a business transaction. Examples include documents for automatic payment settlement (checks and bank transfers) and customer notifications. The following notifications can be created automatically or manually depending on the business transaction involved: u Account statements contain a list of a customers open items and the total receivables amount. u Dunning notices contain a list of a customers overdue open items and their total amount. u Notifications about agreements for payment by installment contain the individual installment amounts for the installment agreement entered into with the customer, including the amounts and due dates. u Notifications about budget billing requests contain information on set budget billing amounts and due dates in the event that a new budget billing plan was created or an existing one was altered. u Notifications about deferral agreements contain information on payment deferral agreements. u Returns notifications contain information on the event initiating a return and a listing of the items affected. u Mutual help requests, which are sent to another utility company, contain a request for mutual help (see section titled Mutual Help). u Interest notifications contain a listing of the items on which interest has been calculated and an overview of interest calculation.
Open Items
Correspondence
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Business Transactions
The processing of business transactions in FI-CA is largely automated. You define how processing is controlled in Customizing. The business transactions are described briefly below.
Payments
In most cases, the system settles payments automatically. However, you can also enter them manually, for example, for individual incoming or outgoing payments made at the cash desk.
Fig. 5-23: Overview of Payments Processing
Automatic payment settlement refers to the automated execution of postings for incoming payments, outgoing payments, and settlements. It is used in the following cases: u Automatic incoming payments In this case, incoming payment data from legacy systems, financial institutions, or agencies is processed. The system creates a payment posting for the relevant business partner and allocates the payments to one or more receivables items. Any credit items that have been released for settlement are also taken into account. In exceptional cases it may not be possible to allocate an incoming payment to an item. That payment may then be posted on account at the contract account level and subsequently processed manually. u Collection procedure Payments via collection or direct debiting by financial institutions are processed and the corresponding output media are created. u Credit refunds Credits via check, bank transfer, or postal remittance are refunded automatically, and the corresponding output media are created. Payment settlement can be executed at the following levels: u Business partner u Contract account u Item u Collective bill
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Depending on the type of payment, payments may be processed via the cash desk or by means of payment lots. In the case of cash desk processing, the cash payment made by a customer is entered in the system and processed individually. Payment lots group together payments to be processed jointly. You create them by manually entering data from checks or payment orders or automatically transferring the data from account statements using data medium exchange (DME). Payments are allocated to the open items according to industry-specific rules. The system then automatically clears the allocated items. Overpayments can be posted on account, and underpayments can be posted as partial payment. You can create incoming and outgoing payments using the payment program. The payment program executes the following steps: 1. It determines the open items to be settled using the selection criteria that were entered for the payment run and the due dates of the open items. 2. It combines the due items as payments or debit memos in accordance with industry-specific or customer-specific rules. Credits and receivables are settled if no payment methods are set at the document level. 3. It selects payment methods and bank details. 4. It posts payment documents and clears open items. 5. It provides data for the payment media. 6. It creates the data media (currently for the Austrian DME format only).
Processing of Payments
Creation of Payments
Fig. 5-24: Creating Payments using the Payment Program
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The system supports the most common payment procedures direct debit, debit memo collection, bank transfer, and check as well as internal direct debit from a deposit account. With minimum amount limits, you can avoid settling very small amounts.
Returns
Returns may occur as: u Payments returned by financial institutions as a part of the debit memo and collection procedure u Incoming checks returned due to insufficient funds or incorrect data u Undeliverable postal remittances Returns are combined to form returns lots. You can create these lots manually using returns slips, or the system can create them automatically by using the returns data from the financial institution. The system automatically processes returns in the following manner: u Payment settlement is canceled. The receivables or payables cleared by the debit memo revert to being managed as open items. u A return document is created containing the offsetting entries for the items in the payment document. u Other postings required in relation to taxes, expenses, or charges are created. The system automatically calculates bank charges and posts them to the general ledger. You can bill the business partner for the bank charges and your own charges. This may be a statistical posting or a posting to general ledger. u Follow-up actions are initiated. Examples include customer notification, the setting of a deferral date, and a payment or dunning block. Follow-up actions depend on the creditworthiness of the business partner and the frequency of returns. Returns can, in turn, affect the creditworthiness of the business partner.
Fig. 5-25: Processing a Return
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A down payment is made in anticipation of a bill that has not yet been invoiced. Down payments may be either budget billing payments for energy consumption or down payments for services, such as the installation of a service connection. For certain services, the system uses a workflow link for incoming payments that result from a down payment request, for example, for notifications to field service employees. When they are made, all down payments are initially payables with respect to the customer. They are automatically processed when the bill is invoiced, meaning they are transferred and offset. You can apply special conditions to customers with bad payment histories or bad creditworthiness: u Advance payments as part of a budget billing plan Advance payments can be requested only as part of a budget billing plan. The budget billing requests are due before or at the beginning of the actual consumption period instead of in the middle or toward the end of the period. The budget billing payment is thus made before the energy is consumed. u Security deposits The system distinguishes between cash deposits and noncash deposits: r Cash security deposits Cash deposits are usually requested at the beginning of a utility service relationship and can be charged automatically when a customer move-in is processed. You agree upon the amount of cash deposit with the customer, or you calculate it according to an extrapolation formula, which you can define. Cash deposit requests and payments are posted for a contract account or for a specific contract. Cash deposit payments are retained until the customer has developed a positive payment history over an extended period of time or until the contractual relationship with the customer comes to an end. They are refunded as part of a final billing. Cash deposits or interest on cash deposits can also be refunded, settled or offset for periods of less than one year. The system calculates interest for the entire period if desired or if required by law. r Noncash security deposits Noncash deposits may, for example, include savings books or guarantees of payment. You enter a business partner as the guarantor. Payment reminders, or dunning notices, remind business partners of overdue payables. The dunning program monitors the payment history of the customer and, where appropriate, automatically initiates a dunning run. The dunning procedure concerned plays a central role. The utility company defines the number of dunning levels for each dunning procedure and how they are determined. The dunning level is stored in each open item and incremented with each dunning notice.
Down Payments
Advance Payments and Security Deposits
Dunning
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You can combine the items in freely definable dunning groups and group them by business partner, contract, or division. This allows you to send a business partner a separate dunning notice for each division. A dunning activity is initiated relative to the highest dunning level of all the items in the dunning group. The dunning history, such as the last dunning date, is also taken into account. You can also define dunning activities. A dunning letter is printed in most cases. However, you can also create a workflow for a device disconnection or for starting legal dunning proceedings. A dunning run determines the following: u The contract account to be dunned and its open items u The dunning level of the items in a dunning group u The dunning activities based on the dunning level concerned
Fig. 5-26: Determination of Dunning Level and Dunning Activity
In addition, dunning offers the following functions: u Dunning charges The system can calculate dunning charges for each dunning notice, subject to the dunning level of the open items and the creditworthiness of the business partner. You can elect to post dunning charges to general ledger or as a statistical document. u Dunning of budget billing requests u Dunning of installment plans You can define that the system automatically deactivates an installment plan or initiates an alternative dunning procedure (such as immediate disconnection) when a certain dunning level is reached.
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u Interest calculation You can call interest calculation for the items subject to dunning from the dunning run. u Reversal You can reverse the last dunning. You can reverse either a complete dunning run (for example, if the dunning notices have not yet been printed) or individual dunning notices (for example, if a business partner submits a complaint). u Dunning history The dunning history contains the dunning data for each dunned item, such as the dunning level of the processed items and the dunning amount. This ensures that you have a log of the dunning activities that were carried out. u Maximum and minimum amounts With maximum and minimum amounts, you avoid dunning for very small amounts. u Dunning block You can exclude individual items or contract accounts from dunning. With regard to the contract account, you can also impose a time limit on that block. You can calculate interest on individual items both debit and credit items for the contract accounts of a business partner. This allows you to assess debit interest for bad payment patterns and to reward good payment patterns with credit interest. During the interest run, the system calculates and posts interest, and the data required for a customer notification is made available. The system can only calculate interest if it can identify an interest key. The interest key controls interest calculation and can be assigned to contract accounts, individual items, or dunning levels. You can calculate interest on the following items: u Open or cleared debit items and budget billing requests u Installment plans u Cash security deposits u Credit items, such as credit memos u Yearly advance payments on a budget billing plan You can credit a business partner with a yearly advance payment bonus for paying in advance the total amount due under a budget billing plan (Release 4.51). That bonus is calculated as part of interest calculation. You can calculate interest on debit items using the following functions: u Individual processing Interest is calculated on the items of a business partner or of a contract account. u Initiation from invoicing or dunning run Interest calculation for cash security deposits in particular can be initiated from invoicing. The interest is printed on the bill or the dunning notice. u Mass interest calculation As of Release 4.51, you can call interest calculation from a mass run. In this case, interest notifications are created.
Interest Calculation for Individual Items
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For credit items, you can calculate interest only with individual processing. Interest calculation also supports the following functions: u Maximum and minimum amounts allow you to avoid billing a business partner for very small amounts. u Interests blocks allow you to exclude items or specific business transactions (such as reversals) from interest calculation. u You can maintain individual interest rates for business partners or business transactions. u You can post interest to the general ledger and post debit interest as a statistical posting. u The interest supplement records how the interest amount was determined. u The interest history records the interest calculation period for each item. This ensures that interest on an item is calculated once only in any given period. If a customer is unable to meet payment obligations, you can set up an installment agreement or a deferred payment agreement for one or more receivables. In an installment plan, you define the number of installments, the individual amounts of the installments, and their due dates. The system uses the individual installments for dunning purposes or for a payment run instead of the original receivable. When the customer pays the final installment, the system automatically deactivates the installment plan. However, you can also deactivate an installment plan manually, in which case the original receivable is again used in payment settlement and dunning. The functions available with the installment plan include the following: u You can create customer notifications. u You can delete installments that are still outstanding, change amounts and due dates, and create installments. u You can accept partial payments toward installments. u The dunning run can deactivate an installment plan when a specific dunning level is reached. If you want to defer an open item, you can enter a date that is different from the actual due date. The item is then given this deferral due date. As a result, that item is neither dunned nor are payments collected. If the deferral date is exceeded, the item continues to be dunned relative to the original due date, and the bank collection process resumes. Uncollectible receivables are written off. Credits can also be written off. It is planned to support these functions as of Release 4.51. Authorization control is used to define what an employee is allowed to write off: u Receivables u Credits and receivables u Receivables without final billing
Deferral and Installment Plan
Write Offs
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Additionally, you can automatically write off credits and receivables of little value as small amounts. You can define separate amount limits for writing off small amounts for debits and credits. Collective bills enable you to send documents relating to different contract accounts or business partners jointly to a single collective bill recipient, who is responsible for making payments. The individual documents are grouped together under a collective bill document number, which is used to identify all the individual documents. Collective bills are used, for example, for property management companies, municipal authorities, and large companies. Collective bills may be used for the following functions: u Invoicing or joint bills (cover sheet) u Payment settlement u Dunning u Reversal u Returns In the collective bill contract account, the recipient and the payment and dunning procedures are defined for all contract accounts that belong to that collective bill. You can display not only the collective billing documents, but also the individual documents. You can view individual items in the contract accounts of the relevant business partner, and the total amount of a collective bill in the collective bill contract account.
Collective Bill
Business Services for Other Utilities

In a later release, two utility companies will be able to establish a mutual help service, which will allow them to demand payment of outstanding bills by customers who have relocated to the service area of the other utility. If a utility company requests mutual help, a letter to the partner utility containing an account statement for the relevant customer account is created. This process does not change the actual items in the customer account. If a utility company provides mutual help, a corresponding contract account has to be created. A statistical item equal to the amount being requested can be posted to that contract account. A subsequent incoming payment is then posted as an open credit and can be transferred to the requesting utility as an outgoing payment. In intercompany invoicing, one company is responsible for billing and collecting payments for other independent companies. These companies generally present themselves to the customer as a single unit. The customer receives a bill with general ledger account assignments affecting more than one company code. Intercompany invoicing requires that the contracts be allocated to the relevant independent accounting units (company codes). You must specify a managing company code for any shared accounts, such as cash clearing accounts.
Mutual Help
Intercompany Invoicing
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Intercompany invoicing has an effect in the following cases: u Consolidated balance sheets A corporate group bills its subsidiaries using various company codes. Those company codes are then consolidated in the balance sheet. u Convergent billing Convergent billing allows a utility to manage the services of other utility companies and to include the billing amounts on its own bill. Examples include waste disposal charges for city sanitation departments, cable charges for telecommunications companies, and drainage charges for local-government water alliances. Convergent billing is employed, in particular in deregulated utility scenarios, when a company (generally the distribution company, the energy sales company, or a billing service company) invoices individual billing line items (in addition to its own) or all the billing line items and carries out collection for a third party. The customer receives a joint bill for orders to the utility company, service provider, and third party. The utility company handles open-item processing for the services of the third party and forwards information and payments to the appropriate third party. The contract being processed for a third party is managed under a separate company code, which is not reflected in the utility companys balance sheet. The postings managed in that company code are of an informational nature with regard to the third party.
Integration with the General Ledger

Because of the large volume of documents, posting in FI-CA does not entail immediate updating of transaction figures in the general ledger. The FI-CA documents are instead transferred in summary form to the general ledger of the Financial Accounting component or to a non-SAP system. This improves performance and limits the volume of documents in the general ledger. As a result, when FI-CA documents are posted, special FI-CA documents, known as totals records, are updated. The totals records are formed from the individual FI-CA documents if permitted by the account assignment and posting data. All the usual account assignments can be used in the FI-CA line item, for example, from: u G/L accounting (company code, business area, and G/L account number) u Overhead cost management u Profitability analysis (for example, cost center, order, and project) The totals records are allocated to a user-defined reconciliation key. You must specify the reconciliation key if you are posting manually. In mass processing, the system creates it automatically and stores it in the document header of the FI-CA document.
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Fig. 5-27: Transfer of FI-CA Documents to the General Ledger
When a reconciliation key is closed, it is blocked for further postings. This means that no other FI-CA documents can be entered in the totals records. A closed totals record can be transferred to general ledger and posted there as an accounting document. Since the reconciliation key is recorded in those Financial Accounting documents, a link is created between FI-CA documents and FI documents. Consequently, you can itemize the totals posted in general ledger and reconcile FI-CA and the general ledger. If a document is posted for a customer in FI-CA, automatic account determination determines the reconciliation account, the associated offsetting account, and one or more tax accounts, and enters them in the document. These accounts correspond to the G/L accounts to be posted in the general ledger. During year-end closing, it is necessary to create an itemized list at the customer level for the G/L accounts to which postings were made from FI-CA. This list is created as notes to the balance sheet, which provide an explanation of the balances on the basis of the associated individual documents. The balances for the general ledger accounts therefore need to be reconciled regularly with the balances from the individual documents in FI-CA. Reconciliation between FI-CA and the general ledger analyzes all the open item documents that belong to a totals record and forms the corresponding totals. Any differences are logged and must be investigated. A posting in FI-CA causes an immediate (synchronous) posting in R/3 Treasurys Cash Management (TR-CM) component. The liquidity forecast and the cash position of the cash management function are therefore always current.
Account Determination
Reconciliation
Cash Management
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Controlling
Documents that are generated in General Ledger Accounting when totals records are posted are not different from normal Financial Accounting documents, and, therefore, also result automatically in the updating of other ledgers and of Controlling.
Fig. 5-28: Integration with General Ledger, Controlling, and Cash Management
Closing Operations
Foreign Currency Valuation
Foreign currency valuation recalculates the value of the current assets and payables that were posted in a foreign currency. This means that the receivables and payables accounts are corrected for balance sheet preparation. Generally, foreign currency valuation operates on the items open on the key date, that is, it uses single valuation. If this is not possible, the account balance is valuated. You can run foreign currency valuation in the local currency and in any parallel currencies being maintained, such as the group currency or hard currency.
Doubtful Receivables
Receivables valuation is an accounting procedure designed to recognize that the posted value of a receivable may be different from the actual value of that receivable. This function is planned for Release 4.51. Receivables are divided into three groups: u Correct receivables Valuation adjustment is not necessary for correct receivables. u Doubtful receivables Doubtful receivables are entered in accounting as doubtful and, if necessary, are adjusted individually by the probable lost amount of the receivable. No document is created. Instead, the open item is identified as doubtful in IS-U/ CCS and the posting is forwarded to the general ledger. You can access information on doubtful receivables and individual valuation adjustments via contract account information. If the valuation of an item is adjusted individually first, then the full amount is automatically classified as doubtful. u Uncollectible receivables (see also Business Transactions/Write Offs) Uncollectible receivables are written off in their full amounts. Any sales tax is automatically adjusted. Statistical items, such as dunning costs, can also be written off.
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Information System
Account display gives the user an overview of the debit and credit items for a business partner or contract account. Selection criteria (for example, cleared items only or statistical items only) allow you to limit the selection of items to be displayed. The following configuration variants control how the items are displayed: u Variants for open items determine which information is displayed. u Totals variants determine the criteria for the cumulation of individual items. u Sorting variants determine the sequence in which the items are displayed. From the account display you can branch to the following areas: u Business partner, contract account, and contract u Dunning, returns, and clearing histories u Payment usage u Installment and budget billing plans u Original receivable of an installment plan
Account Display
Fig. 5-29: Account Display
The following analyses in FI-CA are planned for Release 4.51: u Lists for notes on the balance sheet: m List of open items based on key date Open items are calculated and shown by customer and G/L account for a key date (end of month, quarter, or fiscal year). The system also displays the balance carried forward as of the last key date.
Analyses
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m Document aging structure list A list of items open on the key date is created based on the due date. This list is the basis for write offs and valuation adjustments as of the balance sheet key date. m Customers with credit balances Customers with credit balances are identified for each receivables account. This list is the basis for transfer postings to the payables account. u Analyses of the days business It is important for the days business in FI-CA to analyze the document volume of the open items according to special criteria (such as overdue receivables). This allows you to initiate additional actions with regard to the customer (such as manual disconnection).
Customer Service
As energy markets undergo liberalization, the fast and efficient processing of customer inquiries becomes a decisive competitive advantage. The essential ingredients here are quick access to all the important customer data and an efficient user interface that incorporates the latest technologies. The most important component of customer service is the Customer Interaction Center (CIC), the work environment in IS-U/CCS for employees in the front office or call center.
Customer Interaction Center (CIC)

You can control all the business processes in the front office via the CIC of IS-U/ CCS. The CIC gives you the capability to access almost all the important business data and processes of your utility company, in particular the data and processes that you manage in direct contact with the customer. From the CIC you can carry out the following processes of customer contact management: u Identification For example, searching for a customer, prospective customer, connection object, or premise u Information or consulting For example, information about payments, billing dates, contacts, and orders u Immediate execution of simple business processes For example, creating an installment plan, entering a fault report u Start of a workflow For example, setting up a service connection, including the creation of a quotation Because front-office employees usually handle customer contact by phone, you increase their efficiency in customer contact management enormously by integrating telephone functions. Using an interactive user interface designed specially for call center operations, CIC serves in IS-U/CCS as a router to all information and process handling functions. CIC also has an HTML-based customer overview, which you can configure freely according to your own requirements within the preset categories.
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IS-U/CCS/CCS is shipped with several standard configurations, which you can also configure according to your own needs.
Call State Data Finder Business Data
User-Definable Customer Overview
Action Box
Fig. 5-30: The CIC Interface
The Call State component displays the current status of each caller. This gives you constant control over which caller is active, which caller is participating in a conference call, and which caller is on hold. It can also identify the number called (for example, the technical fault report or energy consulting department). If the CTI middleware provides the callers number, the system can identify the caller, and display information (like the name) in the Call State display. Occasionally, the system cannot identify the caller because the caller may be calling from a different phone than the one listed in the system or because the caller is a new customer who has not yet been entered into the customer file. In these cases, you can use the Data Finder component. The Data Finder is a tool for searching for IS-U data objects, such as business partners and connection objects. The Data Finder uses powerful search functions across a large number of selection fields to identify objects. Consequently, you can search according to the following criteria: u Name and address of the customer u Address of the connection object or premise u Customer number u Social security number
Call State
Data Finder
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In addition, you can: u Add any number of fields to the Data Finder (such as for a device number) u Combine search criteria as needed u Search with incomplete criteria (for instance, all names beginning with Ma) u Limit the search to specific objects (such as just the electricity division) u Conduct the search according to a search log
Example
The Data Finder allows you, for example, to search for all customers who: Live on Main Street in a specific city and have a nonresidential contract Live at 32 Schiller Street on the third floor and receive water service
Business Data Display
User-Definable Customer Overview
The Business Data Display is the memory area for managing all the business objects (the callers customer or reporting data, service reports, sales order) and data that has already been collected during the current customer contact. The Business Data Display allows you to display at any time the details of various objects or to use those objects to execute further actions. The customer overview currently provides you with information about a customers data at the following levels: u Customer u Contract account u Premises u Contracts Below those levels, you can decide yourself which detailed information you need, and you can make the corresponding settings in Customizing. Depending on the settings you make in Customizing, you can obtain information on the following: u Bills u Rates u Balances u Budget billing plans u Consumption history u Customer contacts u Service reports or service orders This new customer overview provides extremely flexible options for tailoring the presentation of the relevant data on a customer to your needs. Your individually designed HTML pages can be stored in the R/3 Web Repository and then enriched with current R/3 data at runtime. The finished pages are displayed in an HTML browser control. This allows you to use all the design options provided by HTML 4.0 for creating your own screens. In addition, all the displayable R/3 data from the customer environment are available as JavaScript objects. You can therefore embed active components (like Java applets and ActiveX controls) in an HTML page and supply them with R/3 data. The JavaScript library shipped with CIC offers tools that display internal R/3 tables as HTML tables and implement HTML hyperlinks, which allow you to navigate in R/3 business object methods. You can, of course, also construct links to any other links to any Web pages in an intranet or the Internet.
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The action box gives you access to all the transactions you need for your daily work. This may be in the form of either information views, change actions, frontoffice processes, or workflows that are executed or initiated from CIC. (For more information, see the section on Front-Office Processes and Workflows). You add the data for the customer or other object to the action. You do this either by searching for a new object or by selecting an object that has already been edited from the business data display. You can also configure an action in such a way that you process data from the fields of the Data Finder. This capability is particularly useful if you have added your own fields to the Data Finder. The actions are organized by means of a register; you assign actions to different registers in Customizing, for example, the information or change register. Front-office processes allow you to model all the most common business processes. Front-office processes are tailored exactly to the processing of specific business transactions. All the important information and entry fields are displayed in just a few screens. A front-office process is a freely definable sequence of individual actions in which data is passed on from step to step. These processes also accommodate a certain degree of repetition and conditional processing. Among the front-office processes and workflows covering the most common business processes that are shipped in the standard configuration are: u Change customer data u Move-in and move-out u Interim bill u Technical initial data creation u Budget billing adjustment u Complaint about a bill (workflow) u Laying a service connection (a workflow with optional quotation creation) u Disconnection or reconnection (a workflow at request of customer) More complex business processes that are run with time delay or are subsequently processed by more than one employee in the back office can be controlled with SAP business workflows. Using the standard R/3 Systems Workflow Management (BC-BEW-WFM), you can apply and create workflows. Depending on the workflow, the process is executed with time delay (after the necessary events have occurred) and by various employees. For more information on these workflows, please refer to the section titled Business Processes. Future releases of IS-U/CCS will support additional workflows. The major differences between front-office processes and workflows are: u Front-office processes are not persistent, that is, their lifetime is limited to the life of the calling front-office session. This reduces administration overhead and improves runtime performance. u All the steps in a front-office process are executed by precisely one employee the owner of the calling front-office session. This removes the need for the clerk determination that is normal in the case of a workflow step.
Action Box
Front-Office Processes and Workflows
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However, a front-office process can also initiate a workflow to take over the subsequent processing of the business transaction. If an employee is not responsible for processing a particular customer request, the employee can also generate a follow-up for the appropriate clerk, taking information that is then passed on as reference information.
Integration of External Call Center Systems
Integration with external systems allows call center functions to be supported in CIC. The following functionality is available in addition to the CIC functionality: u Computer telephony integration (CTI) The connection to appropriate CTI middleware allows not only incoming customer calls, but also calls from the computer to be made u Intelligent voice response (IVR) Through the use of IVR software, you can either answer inquiries directly, or connect the customer to the appropriate person. u Automatic number identification (ANI) and caller line identification (CLI) The connection to CTI middleware allows you to identify incoming calls automatically. These call center functions are considerably enhanced when implemented together with SAPphone, which enables conference calls, call forwarding, consultation calls, and call back.
Fig. 5-31: Connecting CIC to Additional Technologies
Customizing
You can use Customizing to integrate additional information views in CIC and to define your own front-office processes and workflows. You can combine the steps shipped by SAP and the steps that you develop in-house. You can adapt the CIC with a variety of configurations to the usage site concerned, such as a different CIC for customer window and field service. This means that you can handle a business transaction in the front office or the back office where enhanced processing options may be available. Depending on the organizational
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structure of your company, various scenarios can be implemented for processing business transactions: u Parking in the front office, processing in the back office u Entering and processing simple transactions in the front office, processing large transactions in the back office u Entering and processing in the back office
Customer Environment
You can use the CIC action box to call up a graphical display of the environment for a particular customer. Overviews provide you with all the data on a customer or a connection object. Environments show which installations, contracts, budget-billing plans, and so on are allocated to a customer, connection object, or device. You can branch from those information screens to other views that give detailed information about individual subareas. With the IS-U/CCS Navigator (see section titled Information System), you can create environments for additional objects and determine how finely segmented the displays for any given environment will be.
Fig. 5-32: The Environment of a Business Partner
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Business Processes
Predefined business processes allow you to process with a high level efficiency those customer-related actions that occur most frequently in a utility company. The following business processes can be integrated in the front office and called from there: u Initial data creation for a premise u Move-in and move-out u Customer consolidation u Disconnection and reconnection u Rate maintenance For a detailed description, please refer to the section titled Business Processes.
Customer Contacts
IS-U/CCS can automatically log customer contacts. This applies equally to contacts originated by the customer like phone calls and to contacts initiated by the utility company like written notifications or dunning notices. The generation of customer contacts usually takes place automatically within an action.
Fig. 5-33: Classification of Customer Contacts into Contact Classes and Contact Action
While dealing with a customer, you can create a reference to data objects. For example, a complaint about a bill can contain a reference to that bill. You can use the note function to enter notes on a customer contact, such as the reason for a budget-billing adjustment.
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In order to classify customer contacts, you can define various contact classes (such as complaints or service) in Customizing. You can also assign various contact types to those classes to define actual processes, such as budget billing changed, installment plan created, or information provided. Customer contacts can be listed according to contact class and time period. Analysis of customer contacts provides information about the efficiency of the business processes and the capacity utilization of the customer service representative.
Marketing
Starting with Release 4.51, IS-U/CCS will offer marketing functions in connection with the integration of functions from the standard R/3 System. These functions are based on the storage of customer or prospective customer (customer with no contract accounts or contracts) information that is relevant to marketing. This information can be collected during customer contacts in customer service offices or during field service work (for example, for customers with outdated heating systems) or derived from existing contracts (for all customers in gas service territories who do not use that type of service). SAP also plans to connect IS-U/CCS to the SAP Marketing component. The important characteristics of this system support for marketing are: u Additional fields in business data Information on the targeted market segment of a company is often very industry specific. Therefore, a system that is supposed to support a market strategy must be very flexible when collecting and organizing market data. In addition to the designated information and attributes for sales support, you can also collect customer-specific data in the following relevant entities of IS-U/CCS: r Business partner r Contract account r Premise r Individual rate category u Customer contact management Customer contact management supports marketing by collecting and analyzing customer-specific information that may be relevant to expansion of the business relationship. Relevant information about a potential need for supply or other services can be recorded in sales call reports and analyzed specifically according to various criteria. u Active marketing Marketing activities are actively supported by the system starting with Release 4.51. This is largely achieved by utilizing the Sales Support (SD-CAS) component in IS-U/CCS. As a result, you can execute mailing and telemarketing campaigns for selected target customers or prospects. You can also monitor the response to mailing campaigns.
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u Products and product catalog (Release 4.51 and higher) You can model your companys services as products that are collected together in a product catalog. If a customer wants to change a service or use a new service or product, you can select the appropriate product, and the system then automatically initiates all the actions, changes, and subsequent transactions. This makes customer processing resulting from changes in service simple and efficient.
Product Catalog Example
For example, suppose a customer wants to change from a single-rate meter to a double-rate meter. You select the appropriate product, the system automatically generates a service order for reading and dismantling the old meter and for installing the new meter. It also changes the service contract, assigns a new rate, and initiates a confirmation letter. u Analyses and data extracts Through the IS-U/CCS Information System, you can create the necessary analyses for sales support. It allows you to edit data for sales employees according to such criteria as divisions, regions, and so on and to download that information to non-SAP systems.
Work Management
In a utility company, large numbers of work orders are received, planned, costed, executed, and in some cases, billed to the customer. To manage those orders, ISU/CCS uses existing functions from various components of the standard R/3 System. These functions are combined in Work Management to form IS-U/CCSspecific business processes, to which industry-specific functions are then added. Work Management uses an especially large number of functions from the Plant Maintenance and Service Management component. For a detailed description of those functions, refer to the application help documentation for Plant Maintenance.
Work Orders
There are two types of work orders, external work orders, which relate to the customer (services), and internal work orders. External work orders are generated upon customer request or as the result of contracts concluded with customers. They are modeled using service orders from the Service Management component. Examples of external work orders are: u Creation and amplification of service connections u Energy consulting u Unplanned meter readings u Meter or device replacement upon customer request u Disconnection and reconnection (electricity, gas) u Services resulting from customers maintenance contracts (for example, preventive maintenance of a gas plant)
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Internal work orders relate to the utility company itself and are modeled using maintenance orders from the Maintenance Order Management (PM-WOC) component. Examples include: u Internal maintenance tasks u Repairs u Installation, modification, or removal of technical equipment belonging to a utility company (for example, a warehouse) Both types of work orders are referred to below simply as orders. To create an order efficiently, IS-U/CCS uses.
Fig. 5-34: Interaction of the Work Management Components
The following components from the standard system are used in work management: u Plant Maintenance and Service Management r Planning, control, and processing of preventive maintenance and inspection r Maintenance and service management of technical systems and installations delivered to customers u Sales and Distribution r Sales activities through flexible functions for pricing, quotation processing, order processing, and on-time delivery r Direct link to profitability analysis
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u Project System (PS) Coordination and control of all phases of a project from quotation to planning and approval, to resource management and billing in conjunction with Purchasing and Controlling u Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable r Subledger accounting for managing the large number of customer accounts r Periodic transfer of posting transactions to the general ledger u Asset Accounting Integrated system of planning, controlling, and monitoring instruments applied to a companys internal processes and capital investment measures
Interfaces
The openness of the R/3 System also enables you to incorporate non-SAP systems into the business processes:
Geographical information systems (GIS)

An interface in the Plant Maintenance and Service Management component enables you to exchange data between a geographical information system (GIS) and technical objects (equipment and functional locations). Business and technical data is managed in the Plant Maintenance component, while graphical and geographical data is managed in the GIS. This means that in the area of energy distribution you can couple connection objects and connections with a GIS. In the area of energy transmission, transformer plants, transformer stations or line segments, for example, can be linked to an object in a GIS. You can find a list of the GIS providers and GIS systems currently authorized for these interfaces in SAPNet.
Scheduling and Dispatching Systems (CADS Systems)

You can use non-SAP systems to schedule large numbers of short-term orders (such as aperiodic meter reading, disconnection, or meter replacement). These external systems computer-aided dispatching and scheduling systems or CADS systems schedule the orders and allocate them to work groups. Orders are often downloaded to mobile data appliances, such as handheld devices or laptops). The CADS system carries out detailed planning and distribution of orders on the basis of certain criteria. These criteria include: u Required skills u Distance between the location of the employee and the site u Priorities u Fixed deadlines
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The interface to a CADS system consists of: u The transfer of the order data from the R/3 System to the CADS system u The transfer of confirmation information (such as time or material) and of status information from the CADS system to the R/3 System u Information on the current processing status of an object in either direction.
Outage Management Systems (OMS)

An outage management system (OMS) analyzes customer-reported outages in the supply grid. When it detects an accumulation of outages in a given segment of the grid, it determines whether the cause is a central outage (such as a transformer failure). The OMS can manage the correction of an outage and identify all the customers affected. It does this using the connectivity model, which is the model of all the connections or operational conditions in the supply grid. The interfaces to an OMS are based on those used with a CADS system. In addition, the following functions are included: u The return of the outage data for the object concerned u A list of customers affected by the outage It may also be important to transfer data about customers and their devices from the R/3 System to the OMS.
Master Data
Service territory data is needed for the planning, executing, and billing orders. It is stored in the postal regional structure. In addition to geographical data, service territory data also includes institutional and billing-related data. Examples of service territory data include: u Soil condition u Approval data u Building authorities u Construction cost subsidies You usually access service territory data using an address. You can integrate company-specific data using a simple extension concept. A compatible unit is used as a simplified means of creating frequently recurring orders, such as laying a service connection. The compatible unit is modeled in work management by a configurable task list (or more precisely a general maintenance task list in Plant Maintenance). Once it is configured, the task list is included in the order, which means that all the data belonging to the task list is then available in the order. A compatible unit consists of: u A description of the compatible unit u A list of operations u A list of materials and production resources u A schedule for the installation, modification, or replacement of a compatible unit u Billing information u A list of required documents
Service Territory Data
Compatible Units
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Service Product
Service products describe a service that is offered to customers. A service (material) master record describes the service and also contains price information. Since the service has to be either provided by the utility itself or purchased from a third party, a configurable task list is assigned to the service master record. Starting from a manageable number of standardized products, the service is configured to the requirements of each individual customer. The characteristics of the configuration define the service product and also specify exactly how the task list is converted to a work order.
Product Configuration
Fig. 5-35: Service Product and Configuration for a Service Connection
Order Processing
Order Creation
As soon as the data for the order description has been entered, order creation runs largely automatically. To do this, the system uses, among other data, the information stored in the service territory data and compatible units. The configuration of the task list allows you broad flexibility when you create the order. It therefore represents the compatible unit in concrete form. A configuration is made up of a number of characteristics, such as the length of the connection or the meter. You either provide these manually, or the system provides them automatically. When you generate orders, automatic characteristic value assignment enables you to transfer data from non-SAP systems via standard interfaces without changing the program. Relationships between the individual elements of the compatible unit are described by object dependencies (for example, between the soil condition and the type of cable).
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The following options are supported for order creation: u Order with customer reference You can directly enter an order for a sales order item. The system uses the configuration in the sales order item to create the order automatically. In this process, you can use all the functions of the Sales Order (SD-SLS-SO) component. This makes it possible to create several orders simultaneously for a given customer. u Technical reference objects You can assign a technical reference object to certain orders. The system can use the configuration data of the technical object to describe the order. You can also create a new technical object via an order. u Order hierarchies The system can generate order hierarchies in order to model more complex orders. This can be done by using a multilevel configuration to evaluate nested compatible units and to incorporate them into the orders. You can estimate the costs of a sales order. First, you create a customer quotation. Then the system calculates the costs of the service order and transfers them to the customer quotation. In customer quotation costing, a quotation for the relevant service is created for the customer. The system can derive the quotation price from the configuration of the product (flat-rate processing). Alternatively, it can calculate the price by individual costing of the work order and then transfer it to the quotation. The system determines the default values for the account assignment of an order and enters them in the order. Examples of account determination keys include: u Order type u Technical reference object u Service territory u Division The Task Lists (PM-PRM-TL) component primarily supports orders with relatively long runtimes, such as laying a service connection, or installation extension of an installation. The worklist of preplanned orders is scheduled for work groups or individuals. To do this, the work scheduler uses the planning board, which is in the form of a table or graphic. The flexible layout of the planning table allows you to display the contents in detailed or compressed form and to enter additional data for each user. Scheduling for the large numbers of short-term orders is handled via a link to non-SAP systems. (For more information, see Interfaces). Once the work is completed, you can bill the customer. You can create the bill either in reference to the sales order or to the quotation (flat-rate processing) or, to reflect actual expenses, on the basis of the consumed resources in the work order. The functions used are those from billing in the Sales and Distribution component.
Estimated Costs Customer Quotation Costing
Account Assignment
Work Scheduling
Billing
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Other Functions
Work Management supports the subsequent allocation of construction cost subsidies to the customer. Construction cost subsidies are shown on quotations and bills and posted to the relevant accounts when payment is received. To process subsequent allocations, the system stores the awarded construction cost subsidies for a given supply area and takes account of them when creating new connections. In the utilities industry, a number of processes must be handled separately. Subsequent processes cannot be executed without them. Such processes include: u Approvals Before an order can be executed, it may be necessary to obtain approvals from authorities or other institutions or companies. As soon as all the approvals have been obtained, work can begin. u Traffic flow operations Certain orders require temporary changes in traffic flow operations. In such cases, not only do approvals have to be obtained from the appropriate authorities, but additional work, such as closing a road, is also required. u Mark-outs When work is done on a section of street, digging may affect the transmission lines of other companies. Those lines are marked on the surface of the street. Mark-outs may be carried out by the utility company itself or requested by other companies. The data for these processes is once again provided by the compatible units and service territory data.
Waste Management
A waste disposal company provides various types of waste management services. The spectrum of services includes periodic services, such as the regular collection of waste from containers, and also aperiodic services, such as on-call collection requests. These business processes are implemented in the R/3 System using the Waste Management (IS-U-WA) component of IS-U/CCS. This component also uses functions from the Service Management component. For a detailed description of those functions, refer to the brochures for Service Management and Plant Maintenance.
Service Orders
All aperiodic services are modeled by service orders. Examples include: u On-call collection of waste from a container u Delivery of an empty container and the simultaneous removal of a full container u Delivery of a new container u Removal of a container when service is terminated
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Once an order has been created, the necessary resources, such as vehicles, drivers and containers, can be transferred to an external scheduling and dispatching system. This is a non-SAP system that is linked by interfaces to Waste Management, and that enables the assignment of orders to vehicles, plus scheduling and route planning for those orders. Since geographical factors play an important role in cost optimization, a link to an external geographical information system is also provided for as of Release 4.51.
Fig. 5-36: Interaction of the Waste Management Components
The following standard R/3 components are used in Waste Management: u Service Management r Planning and processing services r Maintenance and service management for special purpose containers u Sales and Distribution r Sales activities through flexible functions for pricing, order processing, and on-time delivery r Direct link to Profitability Analysis u Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable r Subledger accounting for the management of a large number of customer accounts r Periodic transfer of posting transactions to the general ledger
Service Contracts
Periodic services for commercial customers are modeled by service contracts. Examples include: u Periodic collection on fixed dates of waste from a container u Periodic replacement of a full container with an empty container The service contract data relevant to planning, such as service, service address, and service day, is transferred to an external route planning program that creates an optimum route.
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You can combine service contracts with aperiodic services from service orders. The resulting order data is forwarded via interfaces to external route planning and scheduling systems.
IS-U/CCS Contracts
Periodic services for residential customers are modeled by IS-U/CCS contracts. An example of this is periodic collection on fixed dates of waste from a container. The IS-U/CCS contract and its associated objects are particularly well suited to modeling simple contract conditions as a result of the lean data storage in the R/ 3 System. This means that high-performance processing is possible even with large amounts of customer master data. As of Release 4.51 you can forward the resulting order data via interfaces to external route planning and scheduling systems.
Interfaces
To achieve efficient route planning, it is necessary to link to external geographical information systems and planning systems (Release 4.51). u Geographical information systems A waste management interface allows service address data to be forwarded to an external GIS. The scheduling and dispatching system uses the geo-coordinates to determine the routes. u Scheduling and dispatching systems These non-SAP systems are used to plan aperiodic orders and to execute route planning for periodic orders. Orders are scheduled according to criteria and resources, including the following r Available resources, such as vehicles, drivers, and containers r Required skills r Distance between service address, garbage dump address, and vehicle location r Priorities r Fixed deadlines
Master Data
Container Data
The resources necessary for the optimization process are stored in the R/3 System. Examples of container data include: u Maximum load volume and weight u Dimensions u Compaction factor of compactor You can integrate company-specific data by using a simple extension concept.
Vehicle Data
The resources necessary for the optimization process are stored in the R/3 System. Vehicle data constitutes a particular restriction with regard to the ability to meet the deadlines of an order.
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Examples of vehicle data include: u Use u Maximum load weight and volume u Dimensions You can integrate company-specific data by using a simple extension concept. A person can be defined as a driver or co-driver. Using skills data, the system can automatically identify suitable individuals for specific orders. The scheduling and dispatching system actually selects and assigns individuals to vehicles. Examples of personal data include: u Working hours u Skills u Identification data The term service frequency refers to the regularity with which a service (such as collection of waste from a container) takes place. SAP has developed a new transaction that allows management of the service data at the container level so you can model service dates for the containers. You can maintain the service frequency either for an installation of the division category waste management or for a service order from the Sales and Distribution and Plant Maintenance and Service Management application components. Before you can create the service frequency, you must allocate containers either to the installation or to the service contract. You can transfer the dates resulting from the various service frequencies to the scheduling and dispatching system for optimal resource and route planning purposes. Service products describe a service that is offered to the customer. A material master record is defined, which describes the service and also contains price information. Typical services are, for example, waste collection from a certain type of container or from a specific container. The service product describes the actual service. If that service references a specific object, such as a special purpose container, that reference object is specified separately in the order.
Personal Data
Service Frequency
Service Products
Order Processing
For aperiodic service requests, you enter individual orders. The service to be provided is assigned as a material, and appropriate vehicles can be assigned in the order. Once the order data has been entered, it is forwarded directly or at regular intervals to the external scheduling and dispatching system. The external system determines the available resources from the R/3 System and executes the scheduling of the order. Periodic service requests are modeled in the R/3 System as service contracts or ISU/CCS contracts. The service to be provided is also assigned to the contract as a material or reference value. At the same time, service days are assigned to the service product. This data is forwarded at regular intervals to the scheduling and dispatching system. The external system determines the available resources from the R/3 System and executes the route planning for identical service requests.
Aperiodic Service Requests
Periodic Service Requests
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Information System
IS-U/CCS maintains statistics on the master data and the most important processes and therefore provides fast access to all the relevant data of a utility company. This data can be analyzed and displayed graphically. IS-U/CCS provides you with stock statistics, transaction statistics, and sales statistics. The data needed for the individual statistical analyses is stored in separate files; the sales statistics are integrated with the Logistics Information System (LIS) component. You can use LIS analysis tools in the evaluation of any of the three types of statistics. You can even use non-SAP programs (such as Microsoft Excel) for analysis purposes. In addition, user exits are available for enriching the statistics with information from other applications and data editing operations in the utility company. Integration with the SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) component is planned for a later release.
Statistics
Stock Statistics
Stock statistics reflect the current stock of master data in IS-U/CCS. The system also maintains other statistics (for example, devices or reference values). In the case of master data managed with histories, the current time slices are always determinative. You can list the current stock of utility installations with a given installation status for a company code and division. You can also list stock according to political areas of the regional structure. Transaction statistics are updated on a monthly basis, with the execution date (current date) of the transaction or process being the determining date. Statistics are managed for such activities as: u Master data u Move-in and move-out u Initial data creation u Bank and dunning data u Installation and removal u Billing
Example of Stock Statistics Transaction Statistics
Example of Move-In Determination Sales Statistics
You can determine the number of move-ins entered in a given month differentiated according to company code, billing class, rate category, and political regional structure. You use sales statistics to create the necessary analyses, required statistics, and statements for associations and organizations, showing the quantities sold and the resulting sales revenues. These statistics are based on the billing documents that are created in billing and then invoiced. The following information is covered: u Billed quantities and amounts u Discounts
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u Surcharges u Price components that are not posted separately (for example, franchise fees in Germany) u Original quantities (for example, before conversion from operating cubic meters to standard cubic meters for gas) This ensures that the quantities and amounts used in billing are also included in the sales statistics. The data is reduced to its statistically relevant parts and transferred to the Logistics Information System. From this data, the relevant information is compiled and summarized for the analyses in question. Since requirements vary from utility company to utility company, IS-U/CCS contains a number of sample statistical reports. Additional statistical analyses are easy to design to meet individual company needs. The analyses are based on, for example, the following key fields or characteristics: u Company code u Division u Rate u Price u Industry
Planning
Planning is expected to be available with Release 4.51. It contains functions for forecasting and unbilled revenue reporting. Unbilled revenue reporting determines expected sales revenue for a closing balance period. In addition to quantities and sales revenues already billed, you can calculate quantities and sales revenues that have not yet been billed. This kind of reporting is very important, especially in rolling annual billing.
Reporting
IS-U/CCS reporting provides standard reports in ready-made format for all functional areas. Availability of this function is planned for Release 4.51. The reports are based on selection parameters that retrieve the data in a predefined sequence and with specific information content according to the functional area or related topics. The system supports further selections made on the basis of these data extracts. A number of standard reports are already available. These include monitoring billing orders, an open item list (with the option of sorting by due date), and a periodic replacement list. However, you can also create customized reports, queries, and ad hoc reports in IS-U/CCS using ABAP/Query and Report Writer. For information on ABAP/Query and Report Writer, refer to the documentation for the R/3 Basis Services/Communication Interfaces (BC-SRV) component.
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FERC Reporting
FERC reporting simplifies the reporting process in the US for reports to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
IS-U/CCS Navigator
The IS-U/CCS Navigator allows you to obtain a quick overview of the data environment of any given IS-U/CCS object by graphically displaying the interrelationships between the individual data objects. To review an example, refer to the section Customer Service/Customer Information. Among other things, the Navigator can display: u All the contract accounts, contracts, utility installations, and devices belonging to a customer u All the premises in a connection object, with the associated installations and customers You can use each data object displayed as a starting point to navigate further. As a result, you obtain an overview of the data objects environment. This means that you can start from a customer associated with a specific premise and determine what other premises that customer has. Starting from any given entry point, you can navigate through the entire data environment.
Tools
Print Workbench
The Print Workbench enables you to print not only letters that have a simple logical structure, but also forms constructed on the basis of a complex data hierarchy. On the one hand, it is very flexible and meets a wide range of needs. But on the other hand, it is also a high-performance tool that supports the mass printing of forms. The flexibility of the Print Workbench is based on the following elements: u Form classes Form classes are data structures that are preset for specific applications. They contain all the data that can be used in the application forms that are associated with them. Bills, welcome letters, and meter reading documents are examples of form classes. Form classes are shipped as a part of IS-U/CCS. However, you can also create your own form classes if you have experience with ABAP and relational database technology. u Application forms Application forms are created on the basis of form classes. You can define more than one application form for each form class, for example, different bills for residential customers, nonresidential customers, and employees. ISU/CCS contains a number of sample forms that you can use as models for your own application forms. User exits allow you to adapt application forms to meet your needs.
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u Print action records You can use print action records to add to your notifications without having to make changes to the application forms. If you want to send additional information to certain customers, or if you want to insert flyers as part of a promotion, you can use print action records. They contain information specifying which text or which flyer is to be printed and how many times. The Print Workbench uses the word processing functions of SAPscript to print application forms. SAPscript either edits the data itself and sends it to the printer, or it transfers the data to the raw data interface. In that case, a non-SAP system handles layout and printing. The print manager is used to manage (combine, delay, and cancel) print requests. It should be fully available with Release 4.51.
Migration
The first-time transfer of master and transaction data, that is, migration, from your old system to IS-U/CCS takes place via an open interface. Migration is performed according to the requirements of IS-U/CCS, which means that neither the data model nor the functional concept of the old system are needed or used. To guarantee data consistency following migration, the data is grouped according to business process criteria to form migration objects and then transferred to ISU/CCS. Object-oriented transfer of data is made possible by the service function modules of the IS-U/CCS business objects. These are modules that use direct input, thereby avoiding the performance disadvantages of batch input.
Fig. 5-37: Migration to IS-U/CCS
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Structures are assigned to a migration object. The structural organization of the migration objects is defined in IS-U/CCS. Since the structures are located in the Data Dictionary, customer enhancements can be processed. Because IS-U/CCS does not understand the data model of your old system, you need a program to extract data from the legacy system. That program does not have to edit the data in accordance with the IS-U/CCS data model; it simply needs to make it available with the correct type parameters (for example, INT with length 10). You define the layout of the data records in the migration workbench. SAP programs are available for extracting data from RIVA. The following functions support migration: u Test functions Transferred data is first tested using a small number of data records. To do this, you create new data records so that you do not need any data from your old system. As soon as the data has been transferred with no errors, you develop the program for extracting the data from your old system. u Documentation The structural form of the migration objects is documented in detail and can also be displayed as a list. You can print out the list and the documentation and export it to other programs, like Microsoft Excel. In addition to the normal field documentation, there is migration-related documentation of the fields in the migration objects. This documentation tells you, for example, which fields must be supplied with data and which fields do not require data. u Status information You can obtain information about the status of the migration and find out, for example, which data has already been successfully transferred.
Tabs
Tabs simplify screen configuration. They allow you to define which entry fields you want to display on the screen and in what sequence. There are tabs for such objects as the following: u Contract u Device category u Meter reading order u Move-in A tab contains a number of pages that themselves contain field groups. You can assemble different pages together to make views. You can then easily switch from one view to another.
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The assignment of the input fields to the field groups is preset. You can set anything else either in Customizing or via the IS-U/CCS menu.
Fig. 5-38: Hierarchy of a Tab
Notes
Notes are used to record non-standardized additional information on individual IS-U/CCS entities, such as utility installation, contract, or premise. In notes you can record actions that have to be performed for a future event or information that has to be transferred to the next employee. Notes are edited using SAPscript. You can define the number and type of notes per entity in Customizing.
History
You can use the history function to maintain various statuses of certain IS-U/CCS entities (such as installations) in the system. These statuses are valid for a certain time slice so that you can recover the status of a given entity at a selected time. This way, you can enter changes to entities that will apply in the future. The history function also enables you to correctly manage in the system information that became known late. In order to manage historical data for entities, the system stores the date as of which and the date until which the stored status is valid. The change date is also stored for information purposes. However, a new time slice is not created for every change. For each entity type, the system specifies which field changes generate new time slices. However, changes made to entities or fields can be recorded in change documents even if those changes do not result in a new time slice.
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Logs
IS-U/CCS distinguishes between errors that occur in individual processing and those that occur in mass processing. If an error occurs in individual processing, the procedure is terminated, and the system displays an error message. If an error occurs in mass processing, the procedure is only terminated if the error is serious. In all other cases, the entity with the error is skipped and the next entity is processed. The errors that occur are logged.
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Disconnection Process

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5

Scope of Business Functions

Budget Billing Plan

Fig. 5-21: Budget Billing Procedures Supported by IS-U/CCS

Scope of Business Functions

Budget Billing (North America)

Average Monthly Billing/ Equalized Billing (North America)

Budget Billing Amount Due Dates

Budget Billing Amount Calculation

Scope of Business Functions

Budget Billing Request

Fig. 5-22 Printout of Budget Billing Forms

Including External Billing Documents in Invoicing

Scope of Business Functions

Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable

Postings and Documents

Scope of Business Functions

Manual Document Entry

Scope of Business Functions

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-23: Overview of Payments Processing

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-24: Creating Payments using the Payment Program

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-25: Processing a Return

Scope of Business Functions

Advance Payments and Security Deposits

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-26: Determination of Dunning Level and Dunning Activity

Scope of Business Functions

Interest Calculation for Individual Items

Scope of Business Functions

Deferral and Installment Plan

Scope of Business Functions

Business Services for Other Utilities

Scope of Business Functions

Integration with the General Ledger

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-27: Transfer of FI-CA Documents to the General Ledger

Scope of Business Functions

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-29: Account Display

Scope of Business Functions

Customer Interaction Center (CIC)

Scope of Business Functions

Call State Data Finder Business Data

User-Definable Customer Overview

Fig. 5-30: The CIC Interface

Scope of Business Functions

Business Data Display

User-Definable Customer Overview

Scope of Business Functions

Front-Office Processes and Workflows

Scope of Business Functions

Integration of External Call Center Systems

Fig. 5-31: Connecting CIC to Additional Technologies

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-32: The Environment of a Business Partner

Scope of Business Functions

Scope of Business Functions

Scope of Business Functions

Product Catalog Example

Scope of Business Functions

Fig. 5-34: Interaction of the Work Management Components