1. A collaboration of:
Customer Portal Integration with SAP CRB is
Tough! Think Again!
Obaid Khan
Puget Sound Energy
KK Ramamoorthy
Deloitte Consulting LLP

2. Presenting today..
Obaid Khan – Puget Sound Energy
• 18 years of experience in leading teams to develop enterprise-wide
portal strategy, application road maps, and solution delivery
• Leads the Web Development, Enterprise Portal, Quality Assurance,
and EDW teams at Puget Sound Energy
KK Ramamoorthy – Deloitte Consulting
• 15 years of experience in implementing SAP transformation projects
• SAP Mentor and active blogger/contributor to the SAP Community
Network
• Technical Lead for the CIS Project at Puget Sound Energy

3. • How we integrated a customer portal with SAP’s CRB
solution
• How we designed the customer portal for performance
• How we designed the solution for future upgrades
• Best Practices and Observations
• Key Take A Ways
In this session, we will cover..

4. About Puget Sound Energy (PSE)
• Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington
• 1.7 million customers
• 1,000,000 Electric customers
• 700,000 Natural Gas customers
• Strong residential base
• Regulated Utility
• Washington Utilities Commission

5. About Transformation Technology Updates
 Big “S” Program – 3 Critical Systems
 GIS – Geospatial Information System
 OMS – Outage Management System
 CIS – Customer Information System
 July 2011 - RFP for System Integrator
 Sept 2011 - Official Project Kick-off
 Go-Live Date - April 1, 2013 (19 month implementation)

6. CIS Solution Scope
 SAP ECC 6.0; Enhancement Pack 5
 SAP CRM 7.0, Enhancement Pack 1
 SAP BW 7.1
 SAP BOBJ 4.0
 SAP PI 7.3
 SAP Solution Manager
 Document Presentment by OpenText
 Microsoft SharePoint 2010

7. Where we started..
CLX - Mainframe
Biztalk
Customer Portal
Ext.
Vendors
 Customer Portal was based
on .NET 1.1
 Biztalk was used as the
services layer
 Integration with external
vendors for payment
processing

8. We transformed it to..
SAP ECC SAP CRM
SAP PI
SAP BW / SAP BOBJ
Customer Portal
 Customer Portal is based on the
Microsoft SharePoint 2010
platform
 SAP PI used as the enterprise
middleware
 Web-services based integration
 Integration with external vendors
for payment processing
OMS
Ext.
Vendors

9. Business Functions Implemented..
• Account Overview / Profile
Maintenance
• Move-in/Move-out
• Bill Presentment
• Report Outages
• Outage Status
• Installment Plans
• Land-Lord Start/Stop
• Billing History
• Payment History
• Payment setup through 3rd
parties
• Bill Analyser

10. • Use an Outside-in design approach; think like a customer
• Use responsive web design and drive Mobile First thinking
• Involve all the stake holders EARLY and OFTEN in the game; keep them
regularly updated throughout the program (Co-Locate if possible)
• Focus on smaller sprints (where possible) and leverage quick wins for
momentum, team spirit and continued buy-in
• Leverage the power of Social Media effectively to connect with customers
• Test performance, Test Performance, Test Performance…
Best Practices and Observations

11. • Web services can get quite hairy; cache data in the web application layer
where possible and avoid multiple calls for the same data
• Keep the middleware layer light; avoid extensive mapping and complex
business logic in the middleware
• Plan for site usage analytics
• Consider the nuances of SAP’s ISU data model; sometimes it may require
UI changes
Best Practices and Observations - cont’d..

12. • Address validations can be tricky; define a data validation strategy
and use appropriate add-on solutions
• If you are by-passing middleware layer, consider indirect access
license restrictions
• Keep the customer informed constantly; communicate,
communicate, communicate..
Best Practices and Observations - cont’d..

13. Performance Testing
• Plan for multiple cycles of performance testing
• Test with real-life volumes for a baseline and then add some more
• Test using specialized performance testing tools and stress the
system
• Perform end-to-end performance testing; involve all parties
involved
• Test in a production-like environment; infrastructure & data

14. Where are we going..
• Driving to deliver more self service capabilities
• Continue to have a Mobile First approach in design
• Think like a customer – I want to access information “When I want,
Where I want and on What device I want”
• Leverage the power behind SAP to deliver capabilities to our
customers

15. Key Take Away..
• Design Thinking – Think like a customer
• Keep it simple; customers want a functional website
• Performance takes priority over ‘cool’
• Think multiple form factors; focus on responsive design
• Business logic should stay in the backend; not in the UI; not
in the services layer

17. A collaboration of:
Obaid Khan
Puget Sound Energy
Obaid.Khan@pse.com
KK Ramamoorthy
Deloitte Consulting
kramamoorthy@deloitte.com