← All marketsProblem- Billing system complexity makes billing errors likely
- Changes in rate structures and rate plan assignments require additional quality assurance checks
- Need to quickly check bills before sending
- Need to reconcile billing input values against source meter data
Solution- Delivered parallel billing system to check system-of-record billing system
- Reconciled every line item of every bill before being sent to customer
- Rate editor enables real-time changes to rate structures and rate plans
- Billing inputs reconciled against source meter data and any discrepancies flagged
- Rate assignments on every account checked to insure that account qualifies for that rate
Impact- Eliminated need for $35 million billing system rewrite
Why Fractal- Delivered parallel solution with Fractal Programming
- Parallel application ran over 1,000 times faster, reduced storage 90%, and eliminated billing errors
- Utility is able to update rate models in minutes
- Utility now has an independent way of checking billing and meter data
Problem- Multiple sources of meter data can lead to inconsistencies
- Customers need to see a consistent data view
- Billing calculations must produce matching results regardless of meter data source
- Meter communication issues create data issues
Solution- Delivered parallel meter data management system to check system-of-record
- Reconciled all interval data against all daily data
- Reconciled all meter data against billing system data
- Machine learning module to identify unusual consumption patterns
Impact- Eliminated need for $10 million meter data management system re-write
Why Fractal- Delivered parallel meter data management system to check system-of-record
- Parallel application run over 1,000 times faster, reduced storage 90%, and eliminated meter data errors
- Utility is able to bill with confidence that meter data is correct
- Utility now has an independent way of checking billing and meter data
Problem- Need to analyze aggregate behavior by customer groups
- Need a flexible/easy way to define customer groups
- Need to correlate behavior with weather, program participation, and other non-billing attributes
- Need to aggregate at the scale of entire customer base
Solution- Virtual meter capability enables easy definition of customer groups
- Aggregation performed on all meter data
- Aggregation by rate class, demographics, consumption patterns, program participation, on premise equipment, and building type
- Analyze group response to events such as demand response, weather changes, etc.
Impact- Deeper insight into customer behavior
- Deeper insight into customer program results
Why Fractal- Fractal Programming enables virtual meters that aggregate millions of individual meters
- Virtual meter definitions are easy to create and edit
- Fractal Programming performance enables real-time analysis
- Utility can now do more sophisticated analysis by grouping / aggregating customer base many different ways
Problem- Effectiveness of utility program difficult to measure and analyze
- The scale of large programs make data processing difficult
- Need to analyze sub-groups within programs
- Need to adjust group definitions based on changing conditions
Solution- Virtual meters defined for program participants to analyze aggregate behavior
- Each individual customer's behavior also analyzed
- Virtual meters defined for each sub-group within the program
- Virtual meters also defined for reference groups that do not participate in the program
Impact- Programs can be analyzed at overall program level and sub-groups to identify where program is most effective
- Program resources can be allocated based on effectiveness to maximize program impact and results
Why Fractal- Fractal Programming enables virtual meters that aggregate millions of individual meters
- Virtual meter definitions are easy to create and edit
- Fractal Programming performance enables real-time analysis
- Utility can now accurately measure and analyze program participation and effectiveness
Problem- Forecasting system must run in less than 12 hours
- Using major data center, legacy system did not always finish in time
- Utility also needed to increase system size and capacity
- Utility needed to accurately bid in futures market
Solution- Fractal Programming enabled new demand forecasting system to be written and deployed in a single business quarter
- Dramatically increased accuracy and number of scenarios that can be run
- Uses full customer data set instead of just a data sub-set
- System runs in minutes instead of hours
Impact- Added accuracy of forecasting 100% of the data, not samples, impacts millions of dollars of futures contracts each year
Why Fractal- Fractal Programming enabled the development of a demand forecasting application that runs over 1,000 times faster than the legacy application
- Forecasting system was delivered in a single business quarter and is more accurate than legacy system
Problem- Key customer relationship are not always obvious – especially when customers have a portfolio of locations and multiple billable entities
- Ownership of commercial properties frequently via special purpose vehicles, making it unclear who the portfolio customer relationship is with
- Qualification for key account status based on spending levels and program participation can be complicated to identify and track
Solution- Implement qualification rules for key accounts
- Implement aggregation rules to identify portfolio relationships
- Classify every customer at both individual account and aggregate customer portfolio level
- Enable profitability analysis by key account relationship
Impact- Identify key account customers by evaluating total portfolio consumption and behavior
- Enables more focused programs by identifying impactful portfolio level decision makers in customer base
Why Fractal- Fractal Programming enables flexible rules for assigning accounts to a customer based on multiple attributes
- Application performance enables rule sets to be applied to entire customer base to identify key account relationships
- Automatic assignment of key account status based on qualification rules
- Both metered and non-metered attributes incorporated into rules
Problem- Key customer insight data is often located outside of systems-of-record
- Valuable customer information is located department-level computers or desktop spreadsheets that are not accessible by systems-of-record
- Customer entered and customer maintained data needs to be incorporated into customer insight apps
- Public domain information (eg. tax records) must be incorporated into customer insights
Solution- Implement continuous real-time data import from systems-of-record
- Implement continuous real-time data import from department-level computers and desktop applications
- Implement continuous real-time data import from public domain sources
- Implement continuous real-time data import directly from customers
Impact- Deeper key customer insight
- Enables all customer information, regardless of where it resides, to be incorporated into 360 degree view of customer relationship and customer activities
Why Fractal- Fractal Programming enables continuous real-time data import
- Data import tools work with internal and external data sources, including public domain data
- Data import tools work with desktop resources such as spreadsheets and text files in addition to data exports from systems-of-record
- Customer data entry / import supported
Problem- Assigning rates to accounts can be time consuming and error prone
- Qualification requirements for rates change over time requiring reassessment of all customer accounts
Solution- Implement qualification rules for each rate class
- Test every rate on every customer account
- Enable “what if” scenario analysis for key account customers for qualification for different rate
- Forecast customer budget impact and utility revenue changes for new rate assignments
- Enable utility profitability analysis by rate plan
Impact- Saved half a million dollars in consulting fees for validating rate assignments
- 100% of customers on correct rate plans
Why Fractal- Fractal Programming enables flexible rules for checking rate assignments
- Application performance enables 100% of customer accounts to be validated for correct rate assignment
- Automatic assignment of correct rates
- Automated customer notification of new rate assignments along with explanation
Problem- Need to plan different rates across millions of customers every year
- Costs millions of dollars to simulate rates, create financial forecasts, and estimate customer impact
- Customers may get billing surprises when rates structures change
Solution- Implement real time rate planning engine
- Test every rate, across every customer, using previous bills
- Forecast annual revenue to the penny
- Eliminate all new rate surprises
- Enable utility profitability analysis by rate plan
Impact- Saved $2 million paid to rate consultants for single rate plan
- Saved $8 million for subsequent rate planning
Why Fractal- Fractal Programming enables flexible real-time creation of rate plans
- Application performance enables rate plans to be run against 100% of customers for dozens (multiple years) of billing cycles in minutes
- Utility eliminates all new rate surprises for customers
- Utility has highly accurate financial forecasts for itself and its customers
Problem- Data provider service level agreements can be challenging to monitor, analyze and manage
- Meter data service level shortfalls can lead to billing problems with customers
- Quick early detection of data provider problems is needed to prevent downstream issues
Solution- Parallel meter data management system
- Analyze all interval and daily data to locate any missing data elements and test against service level agreement metrics
- Reconcile all meter data to check for consistency
- Machine learning module to identify unusual consumption patterns that can indicate meter reading issues
Impact- Increase in bill quality
- Reduction is customer billing complaints and issues
Why Fractal- Delivered parallel meter data management system (MDMS) with Fractal Programming
- Parallel MDMS application identifies all missing data and meter reading errors
- Automatic alerting and alarming of failures to meet data service level agreement metrics
- Utility is able to bill with confidence that meter data is correct
Problem- Contact information for notification of outages or other problems can be different than billing contact
- The scale of customer base can make data management and automated communication challenging
- Customers need to be able to update contact information and preferences to track changes in their internal organization
Solution- Customer portal that enables customers to update their contact information and preferences
- Internal support portal for use by call center and key accounts team to track and update customer contact information
- Identification and classification of critical, priority, and key accounts loads for real-time detection of site-specific outages and other issues
Impact- Customers proactively notified and updated on issues
- Organizational and contact changes continuously tracked and updated
Why Fractal- Fractal enables data portals to be easily built for both internal and external customer use
- Flexible database definitions enable easy addition of attributes for tracking critical, priority and key accounts
- Native email, text and voicemail communication for alerting and alarming
- Solution scalability for entire customer base
Problem- Customers want access to energy and billing data on digital devices
- Customers want to do scenario analysis for rate plans
- Customers want budget forecasts
- Customer want to supplement their data
Solution- Parallel customer care and billing system that is accessible from customer's digital devices
- Instant customer visibility to their real time bill
- Customer can test different rate plans in real time
- Customers have easy access to budget forecasts
- Customers can self-service their data needs which frees up key account and call center resources
Impact- $10 million development cost savings and customer support cost reduction for customer information portal
Why Fractal- Delivered a parallel customer care and billing system in 90 days with 90% less cost than legacy system
- Application provides customer rate plan scenario analysis, budget forecasts, green energy metrics, and enables customer to enter supplemental information about energy efficiency projects
- Customers can self-service their information needs on web portal from their digital devices
Problem- Customers increasingly requesting programmatic access to their data
- Large customers want convenient access to their entire portfolio of accounts and associated information
- An API is necessary in order to make many third party services available to customers
Solution- Web services API's are exposed as components of parallel systems for managing meter data, billing, and customer information
- Customers can access the data both via interactive web portals and via programmatic APIs
- Multiple data format supported (JSON, XML, CSV) as well as custom data formats
Impact- Increased customer satisfaction
- No additional load on IT resources
- Third party services easier to enable for customers
Why Fractal- Delivered parallel data management system with Fractal Programming
- Make metering, billing, weather, and other customer data available without imposing any load on legacy systems-of-record
- Consistent interface and interaction for customers across all data types and data requests
Problem- Weather data is required for many business functions and applications
- Consistent weather assumptions must be made across multiple business processes and applications
- Required weather data may need to be integrated from multiple data sources
Solution- Weather data management system
- Integrates data from multiple data sources
- Provides data at multiple levels of time granularity (5-minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly)
- Data accessible via interactive graphical user interface(s) as well as application programming interface(s) API
Impact- Increased consistency across business processes
- Increased quality and consistency in analysis and forecasting processes and applications
Why Fractal- Delivered weather data management system with Fractal Programming
- Integrates data from multiple data sources and reconciles the sources for a consistent data view
- Data accessible both interactively and programmatically via web APIs
- Insures consistent weather assumptions across business processes and applications
Problem- Billing system too complex to easily modify
- Needed 360 view of major corporate customers
- Give customers ability to self-service their data needs
- Check each bill for 100% accuracy before sending
- Give key account team flexible customer info
Solution- Delivered parallel customer care and billing system costing 90% less than legacy system
- Reconciled every bill before being sent to customer
- Delivered customer data portal to all customers
- Entire solution in production in 90 days
- Gained deeper understanding of largest customers
- Key accounts team and call center increased customer satisfaction
Impact- Eliminated need for $35 million billing system rewrite
Why Fractal- Delivered parallel solution with Fractal Programming
- Parallel application ran over 1,000 times faster, reduced storage 90%, and eliminated billing errors
- Able to add new features in hours and days rather than months
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