Overview of SAP IS-U CCS modules

The IS-U CCS is a Industry Solution from SAP which address the needs of a
customer oriented utility company. In the next pages we’ll refer to SAP for
Utilities Industry Solution simply as IS-U or CCS.

IS-U comprises the following modules:

Master Data and Basic Functions

Customer Services
Work Management
Device Management
Billing & Invocing
Energy Data Management
Contract Accounts

A complete SAP for Utilities solution should also contain the following SAP
products:
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
BW – Business Warehouse.

The CRM solution is design to cover all the marketing, customer acquisition,
sales and customer services processes of a utility company. It is fully
integrated with the IS-U: CRM works as a front end (contracts, customer
services, market campaigns and IS-U as a backend (billing, payment
processing, work management, etc). For example when using a CRM as a
front end system, a contact created in CRM is replicated automatically in IS-
U where the necessary master data is created automatically using Master
Data Templates.

The Business Warehouse solution is used for reporting. Is comes with a

Business Content which already contains a lot of predefined Info Cubs and
reports.

Where can IS-U be implemented?

The traditional value chain in the energy industry is:
Generation, transmission, Distribution, Supply and Customer Services and
Billing.
The IS-U has been successfully implemented and design for the Distribution,
Supply and Customer Services and Billing. However IS-U (mostly EDM) has
been implemented in Transmission companies as well. Of course with a
few/a lot of developments depending on which of the business processes
were covered in IS-U.

Typical landscape for a SAP for Utility Solution

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SAP R/3 and IS-U can be implemented under the SAP IS-U Client or in different
clients.

Implementing SAP IS-U and SAP R/3 in the same client:

This is the best solution as the interfaces between SAP R/3 and SAP IS-U is native.
IS-U practically extend some of the R/3 functionalities.

Examples:

- an IS-U device is a serial number of a device category. In R/3 a device category is

a material in the Logistics Material Master.

- FI-CA posts closed reconciliation keys in the General Ledger.

- a device location and connection object is a functional location in PM

- a work management order is a PM order.

Implementing SAP IS-U in a different client than SAP R/3:

This is a solution suitable for large implementations with large number of
customers. The interfaces are kept at minimum.

For example:

FI-CA posts reconciliation keys in the local General Ledger. Then the posting in the
local General Ledger needs to be transferred in the R/3 General Ledger using an
interface usually ALE.

The utility company buys new meters. This are managed in SAP R/3 from the
logistic and accounting point of view: purchase order, goods receipt and invoice. But
in the same time a interface (manual / automatic) needs to be established to make
the meters available in IS-U for the device installation process.

There could be other examples as well but these are the ones are most common.

IS-U and R/3 Integration.

Let’s see the integration of IS-U and R/3 in depth detail.

As I already told you, the IS-U is sometimes extending existing R/3 functionalities
to cover the need of the utility business. But of course other functionalities were
newly developed.

Device Management is fully integrated with the PM and MM and AM modules. A

device (e.g.: meter, transformer) is a serial number of a device category and in the
same time a piece of equipment. The device category is defined as a material in the
material master.

Work Management is fully integrated with MM, SD, PM/CS and Controlling
modules. Here the utility company can implement a broad range of billed or non-
billed services offered to the customers. For example a work management order is
an extension of a PM/CS order and can be linked to IS-U objects such as Business
Partner, Contract Account, Connection Object.

Billing & Invoicing is fully integrated with SD. For example we can implement a
process where some services are billed in SD and Invoiced in IS-U.

Contract Accounts is fully integrated with Financial Accounting. CA is a sub-ledger

of General Ledger.

IS-U and external applications integration.

IS-U can be integrated with external applications such as: GIS, SCADA, External
Billing Systems, Automatic Meter Reading Systems, other CRM Systems.

IS-U in deregulation markets.

IS-U has evolved along with the utility market. In the last 10 years the European
market but other markets as well has adopted a new business model. That is the
unbundling of a classic utility company into: generation, transmission, distribution
and supply. The unbundled utility market had several stages such as:

- accounting unbundling – the utility company would present different P&L accounts
for Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Supply

- informational unbundling – accounting unbundling + the prevention of sales

(supply) users to access the distribution data of customers supplied by other
supplier

- legal unbundling – splitting of the utility company in separated legal entities

responsible with generation, transmission, distribution and supply.

The deregulation market model leaded to a lots of changed in a utility company

processes. The most important change was about the data exchange process
between the utility companies. Because a customer has the right to change it’s
utility supplier lead to a process called “Change of Supplier” where the suppliers
and distributor need to exchange data about that customer such as: Billing Tariffs,
Meter Readings, Unpaid bills.

In order to support such processes SAP developed a new module for this called SAP
IDE which supports the following processes:

Change of supplier

Billing of Distribution Services to Supplier

Sending Meter Readings to Distributor / Supplier

 Ram Tiwari

SAP IS-U / CCS Overview

Along with standard SAP R/3, SAP has provided solutions that cater to the special demands of a
particular Industry and are seamlessly integrated with the components of standard SAP. e.g. A
equipment defined in standard SAP R/3 PM can be used while creating a device in SAP IS-U. These
are called Industry Specific solutions.

• SAP IS-U/CCS stands for the Industry Specific Solution for Utilities - Customer
Care & Service

• SAP IS-U/CCS component is a Sales & Information system that supports all
business processes and utility services of a utility company.
Processes related with divisions of a Utility Company e.g. Electricity, Gas, Water, Heating,
Waste Disposal can be handled by SAP IS-U.

• The core IS-U/CCS application is a consumption billing system that valuates

measured and flat rate consumption and services. Though Services ( but not
consumption ) can also be billed and invoiced using standard Sales & Distribution
(SD).
In a utility company, given the size of data processing, Billing is probably the most
challenging and important area for any ERP system considering the processing required for
millions of customers every month-end.

SAP IS-U / CCS - Features - Basic Functions & Master Data

A high level overview of SAP IS-U components is as below:

• Basic Functions:
This component is used to manage addresses and regional structures along with
generating dates and schedule for meter readings, billing and budget billings.
Just for understanding, a over simplified example of regional structure is Country--
>State-->District--> City in the context of India or Country --> County --> City for UK.

• Master Data:
In order to manage data that remains fixed for long period of time and is referenced by
related transactions. In SAP IS-U, this data includes:
○ Business Master Data: as Business Partners, Contract Accounts & Contracts.
To make a perception, master data that is related with participating people ( e.g.
Customers ), organisations and agreements (contract) can be classified as
Business Master Data. A Contract gets created at the time of customer Move-in
(joining) and it also links Business and Technical Master Data.
 ○ Technical Master Data: as Connection Objects ( Buildings & Real estate ) and the
premises, installations and device locations contained within connection object.
PoD - Point of Delivery is the location where utility services are rendered and PoD
id is used to identify it uniquely.
Technical master data is related with identification of the building, delivery point,
devices and its installation.

SAP IS-U / CCS - Features - Billing & Device Management

• Device Management:
This component manages the installations, meter reading, and the certification of all
devices for a utility company. Devices can be a electric meter or Gas meter etc.
Device Management of SAP IS-U is integrated with SAP PM ( Plant Maintenance ). Device is
an instrument to measure consumption, processing data or controlling and protecting
other instruments. Devices are identified using material and srl number and are managed
in PM as pieces of equipment with serial numbers.

• Billing:
This component is used for billing the standard divisions like electricity, gas, water / waste
water, district heating, and multimedia services( e.g. Cable TV )
SAP IS-U billing is integrated with FI-CA, Accounts Receivable & Payable and it manages
postings from billing and budget billing requests.

• Invoicing:
SAP IS-U Invoicing enables grouping of bills before sending it to customer. Also, it handles
extra fee / tax charging requirements.
e.g. If one customer is taking services from both the divisions, electricity as well Gas or
has multiple contracts, then as per the requirement, bills can be grouped into one invoice.

SAP IS-U / CCS - Features - Customer Service

• Customer Service:
This component provides centralized and easy access to customer data, through one
screen, called Customer Interaction Center(CIC) or Front Office. By using CIC / Front
Office, Customer service operator can also start the frequently used business processes at
the request of customer.
 These processes, called a workflow, are generally a sequence of activities with
dependencies and are performed by several people.
e.g. A request by the customer for a new connection will require a series of steps like
creation of business & technical master data and then execution of move-in to create a
contract.

Further, this will be a lot more complex in case of a change of supplier ( not a new
connection ) as a lot of data exchange between the service providers ( winner & looser
suppliers) and Transmission Company is required.

SAP IS-U - Features - IDE

• IDE - Intercompany Data Exchange:

Before deregulation of utilities sector, the companies were used to be vertically Integrated
having �bundled� businesses (i.e. Generation, Transmission, and Distribution) under a
tightly integrated holding company/operating company model. Hence all data from all parts
of the value chain were accessible to all parts of the company.

But after deregulation, companies are now split into individually operating, self accounting
units for generation, transmission, distribution, and supply. So, data that was previously
contained in a single system is now distributed amongst the different operating units in the
value chain. In order to obtain all data needed to complete processing, companies must
share data between systems.

IDE, an add-on to SAP IS-U/CCS provides a mechanism to effectively exchange and control
data between service providers' systems. Actual transfer of data is done through Standard
SAP's EDI / IDOC communication and hence in a sense IDE is a layer above EDI/IDoc
functionality. IDE covers the areas below:

○ Administration of deregulation data:

It includes PoD, Grids, Point of delivery Services and Service Providers.

○ Process Execution - Communication Control

To send and receive data for certain events. It uses PoD to determine the sender,
receiver and the information to be sent along with the required format.

○ Management of Data Exchange Processes