Utilities Management

Why Choose UC&B?

 

Streamline consumption, reduce costs, and promote sustainability in your operations

content-01

Utilities (Contract & Billing) Management (UC&B) Suite

The Simplicity® Utilities (Contract & Billing) Management (UC&B) Suite is a specialized solution for the management of the life cycle of utility service agreements to tenants, retrieval of meter readings, as well as periodic billing and generation of associated accounting entries.  Simplicity® UC&B covers the management of all types of utilities (including electricity, water, gas, etc.), meter reading, bill generation, arrears, as well as legal contractual clauses.

It consists of four modules – Meter Data Management (MDM), Pricing Management (PRM), Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), and Billing & Accounting (B&A).

Simplicity® UC&B is further supplemented with a comprehensive list of reports.

Meter Data Management (MDM)

The Meter Data Management (MDM) Module provides comprehensive capabilities for the management of utilities meters as well as processing of meter data.  Beyond just processing raw meter data, the Module supports sophisticated analytics by generating 8-day profiles of the customer consumption and allows creation of complex validation rules to trigger alerts whenever the rules are breached.

 

Key Features:

• Device Management

• Define various utility meter types (e.g. electricity, water, gas) and their characteristics;

• Manage the inventory and lifecycle of field meters (including the installation, replacement, relocation, and de-commissioning);

• Link meters to leasable spaces;

• Meter Data Acquisition

• Supports configurable meter reading intervals (e.g. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, monthly);

• Accept data from automated meter reading systems (via DLMS Client) or Excel upload;

• Meter Data Validation and Estimation

• Define rules to validate meter readings and consumption data, e.g. abnormal range vs history or benchmark, negative consumption;

• Perform automated interpolation and extrapolation of consumption;

• Generate industry-specific benchmarks (e.g. typical 5-room apartment consumption rate).

Pricing Management (PRM)

The Pricing Management Module allows you to define tariff structures for utilities as well as discount and promotional plans.

 

Key Features:

• Supports multiple tariff structures (standard, discount vs standard, tiered/ slab, Time-of-Use or combination of the above);
• Design complex discount plans with varying terms and early termination penalties.

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

The Contract Management Module (CLM) provides comprehensive tools for the management of the lifecycle of utilities contracts, from application, maintenance, renewal and termination.  It also allows for creation of validation rules similar to the Meter Data Management (MDM) Module, but focused instead on spending patterns.

 

Key Features:

• Contract Administration

• Support both post-paid and (central walleted) pre-paid contracts;

• Capture comprehensive details of the contract, such as term, tariffs and pricing plans, as well as relevant legal documents;

• Support association with a main lease or license contract to align contract term;

• Supports configurable contract life cycle management processes;

• Perform new contract application, contract variation, contract termination transactions;

• Apply different discount plans and tariff structures across staggered periods;

• Automatically compute required deposit and early termination penalties;

• Perform meter replacements;

• Schedule for utility turn-ons and turn-offs with integration to Maintenance & Field Service Management (WO) Module of the Building Asset & Maintenance Management (BAM) Suite;

• Billing Data Validation and Estimation

• Define various utility meter types (e.g. electricity, water, gas) and their characteristics;

• Define rules to validate consumption and billing data, e.g. abnormal range vs history or benchmark, negative consumption;

• Perform automated interpolation and extrapolation of consumption and billing patterns;

• Contractual Clause Management

• Set up standard agreement templates and classify clauses according to their legal categories;

• Define pre-approved clause variations and approval processes for other clause variations;

• Track clause version histories;

• Automated generation of Utilities Agreement;

• Track and review your utilities retail performance with a comprehensive list of reports on contracts and consumption trends.

Billing & Accounting Management (B&A)

The Billing & Accounting Management (B&A) Module is the financial counterpart to the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) Module (which handles utility contract administration).  The B&A Module performs automated bill and credit note generation, as well as pre-paid meter central wallet administration.

 

Key Features:

• Billing Engine

• Automatically compute and generate periodic invoices according to the contractual schedules for utility consumption and other charges (e.g. administration fee, meter reading fee);

• Automatically compute and generate ad-hoc invoices, credit notes due to contract lifecycle events, such as new contract application, contract variation, contract assignment or novation, contract renewal and contract termination;

• Automatically trigger deposit or credit balance refund process;

• Pre-paid Central Wallet Management

• Maintains central wallet balances for each pre-paid metering account;

• Manage top-ups and automate credit utilization via integration with automated pre-paid metering systems (via DLMS Client);

• Support push notification for low credit warning as well as automated utility cut-off;

• Manage refund of excess credit balance.

Latest Resources