Technical field

The present invention relates to a utility management system - electricity, heat, water and natural gas, telecoms, and others, and will find application in industry and end users, and in particular households, business customers and public institutions.

Background of the invention

One of the main costs for both the family budget of households and businesses is the payment of utility services. Accounting for utilities and accruals has its own characteristics and peculiarities. It can be carried out by both commercial and non-commercial enterprises. With the standard equipment - electricity meters, water meters, heat meters, etc., there is no possibility to read data from the devices remotely and report the consumption of utility services in real time. In these cases, the reporting is carried out by collectors of a certain reporting period. Water meters and heat meters with remote reading are also known, as well as systems for reading data from devices remotely, reporting consumption in real time. An advantage of these devices is that a monthly statement is received regularly, thus avoiding balancing bills.

A large proportion of consumers still use spreadsheets to track energy data, with the data stored in radically different systems for managing utility bills. Manual data entry processes are also still used for energy and corporate sustainability. With the advent of the Internet of Things (loT), the amount of data continues to increase. Optimizing and controlling electricity, water, gas and heat costs requires comprehensive consumption monitoring, flexible reporting solutions and services, energy efficiency, as well as consumption analysis and optimization. No system is known to provide an integrated business solution designed to manage the entire utility delivery lifecycle from order to cash.

Summary of the invention

The task of the invention is to create a utility management system that provides an integrated business solution for managing the supply of utility services, control and automation of the sales process, comprehensive communication with customers, as well as the possibility of inquiries and reports for analysis and optimization of consumption.

The task was solved by creating a utility management system that consists of a switching module for potential customers connected to an enterprise resource management system that is connected to a data flows module and a self- service module. The enterprise resource management system includes a CRM module, which on the one hand is bidirectionally connected to an asset management module and to a financial process management module, and on the other hand is unidirectionally connected to a planning module for sales and revenue. The planning module for sales and revenue is unidirectionally linked to the financial process management module, which in turn is bidirectionally linked to the asset management module. The CRM module, the asset management module and the financial process management module are bidirectionally connected to the data flows module and the self-service module and are unidirectionally connected to the reference and reporting module and to the notification module, which in turn is linked to the self-service module. The switching module for potential customers includes a switching module for household customers and a sales and broker module for business customers that are unidirectionally connected to the CRM module. An advantage of the created system is that it provides an integrated business solution for managing the entire life cycle related to the delivery of utility services. It is also an advantage that the system components are configurable and can be offered both as a complete solution and separately or in combination, and the system modules can also be integrated with other external systems.

Brief description of the drawing

The present invention is illustrated in the accompanying figures, where:

Figure 1 is a schematic functional diagram of a utility management system; and

Figure 2 is a schematic of the technological architecture of the system of Figure 1.

Description of embodiment of the invention

The created utility management system, the basic functional scheme of which is shown in figure 1, consists of a switching module for potential customers 1, connected to an enterprise resource management system 2, which is connected to a data flows module 3 and with self-service module 4. The system components are configurable and can be offered both as a complete integrated solution and individually or in combination and can also be integrated with external systems. All modules of the system are installed and running on workstations or servers, and the technological architecture diagram is shown in figure 2.

Switching module for potential customers 1 includes switching module for household customers 1.1 and sales and broker module for business customers 1.2. The switching module for household customers 1.1 makes it possible to change the current utility provider to a new one. Its main functionalities are input of initial information - address, names of the client; service selection (gas, electricity, other); entering data for current monthly consumption; price comparison with other providers and other. The sales and broker module for business customers 1.2 provides the ability to generate specific offers for each business client. Its main functionalities are offer management and commission configuration; generate a contract and contract management; possibility to upload tariffs based on different criteria - annual consumption, delivery area, contract term and other. Through an automatic process, the data from the two switching modules for household customers 1.1 and sales and broker module for business customers 1.2 are imported into the CRM module 2.1 of the enterprise resource management system 2, validated and recorded in the relevant fields.

The enterprise resource management system 2 is a multifunctional information system driven by an integrated set of software modules that support the main business processes of a company. The enterprise resource management 2 includes a CRM module 2.1, which on the one hand is bidirectionally connected to an asset management module 2.2 and to a financial process management module 2.3, and on the other hand is unidirectionally connected to a planning module for sales and revenue 2.4. The planning module for sales and revenue 2.4 is unidirectionally linked to the financial process management module 2.3, which in turn is bidirectionally linked to the asset management module 2.2. the customer management module 2.1, the asset management module 2.2 and the financial process management module 2.3 are unidirectionally connected to the notification module 2.5 and to the reference and reporting module 2.6.

The CRM module 2.1 is designed to manage potential and current customers, providing the ability to systematize data, structure, manage and automate the sales process, segmentation of potential and current customers, manage marketing campaigns and track their results, manage overall communication with customers and their electronic file, as well as after-sales service. The module 2.1 module is integrated with a service business process management module (BPM module) through which specific customer business processes can be defined and automated. Furthermore, the CRM module 2.1 has integration in place with a client's GIS system and through an interface visualizes the supply network and the points where consumption occurs, providing the ability to search by city, district, street etc.

The asset management module 2.2 is designed to manage assets both related to end customers and the utility company itself (for example, elements of the supply network). The main functionalities of the module are maintenance and manage asset catalogue; planning, management and reporting of asset servicing and maintenance activities; management of consumption measurement and meter reads reporting; ability to generate various predefined reports etc. The module 2.2 has integration in place with a client GIS system, through which a selected element in the module can be positioned and visualized on the geographical map, and a selected element can be located as well.

The financial process management module 2.3 serves to manage the invoicing, payment, and receivables management processes. It is used to carry out the processes of importing data (meter reports) from measuring devices, estimating readings from metering devices in case no self-reading or actual reading is submitted, consumption calculation, invoicing, payment processing and receivables management, generation of excise tax documents, ability to generate various predefined reports etc. The financial process management module 2.3 has integrations in place with client’s accounting systems for exporting invoices and payments data.

The planning module for sales and revenue 2.4 is designed for planning sales, number of users and services, and revenue on monthly basis. Through the module 2.4 plans can be created for various planning horizons. Its main functionalities are automated generation of plan specifications (consumption plans in natural indicators) based on historical data for the previous year; possibility to save the generated quantities or edit them; ability to enter adjustment factors for estimated prices; automated generation of hierarchical plans and save iterations; generating plans by various criteria in a spreadsheet etc.

The notification module 2.5 is designed to configure message templates, generate custom messages, group messages and deliver them to a distribution channel. The module 2.5 provides an option to configure a mail server to send emails to the customers. Its main functionalities are configuring templates for different message categories, ability to atach a file to a message, storage of sent messages etc. The notification module 2.5 is integrated with processes from other modules, from where the sending of the message is triggered, or the content is filled with specific data.

The reference and reporting module 2.6 allows using an external data analysis (Bl) platform to define and configure specific reports, graphs, and dashboards. The module can be integrated with both the enterprise resource management system 2 or the self-service module 4 in case the latter is integrated with other client’s ERP system.

The CRM module 2.1, the asset management module 2.2 and the financial process management module 2.3 are bidirectionally connected to the data flows module 3 and to the self-service module 4.

The data flows module 3 is an automated tool for exchanging information with participants in the supply process of the gas and electricity retail market. File exchange with industry participants takes place throughout the entire process from customer switching, energy procurement, meter reports, etc. The data flows module 3 sends, receives, and validates incoming and outgoing communication flows, ensuring information integrity. The data flows module 3 uses a configurable tool to read and load information from different file types, validating any file, regardless of whether it is generated by the system or received from outside. The self-service module 4 provides an opportunity for customers to access basic information related to their contractual relationship with the utility company. After registration and login in the self-service module 4, the customers have access to the main sections, related to the sites, contracts, meter reads, consumption for past periods, invoices, payments, notifications, and other data.

The self-service module 4 is bidirectionally integrated with the enterprise resource management system platform 2, from where it receives the data to be visualized, as well as back writes to it the data changed by the customer through the module 4 itself. Furthermore, the self-service module 4 can be integrated with an external payment platform; thus, the customer can select a specific invoice/s and pay it.