How a leading utilities organization improved billing accuracy and reduced their exceptions backlog by 70% in just a week to reach new levels of customer service.

1. About the Customer
Major US utilities
organization reduces
exceptions by 70%…
in a week
How a leading utilities organization improved billing accuracy and
reduced their exceptions backlog by 70% in just a week to reach
new levels of customer service.

2. Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) is the
largest department in Tacoma City
Government. It operates entirely
from sale of services revenues,
delivering power, water and short
haul rail operations.
In addition, TPU
Customer Services bills
for Environmental Service
utilities services (garbage,
sewer and surface water)
for those customers
who live within the city of
Tacoma.
TPU provides
services that are
vital to quality of life.
They are highly active
members in serving -
and giving back to -
their local community
with a real focus on
customer service
excellence.
About the customer

3. About the customer
>200,000
customers across the
Tacoma Public Utilities
divisions system.
$537.5M
operating
revenue
2341
miles of
transmission/
distribution lines
1336
employees
1366
miles of water
mains
Publicly owned
since 1893
$

4. About the customer
Committed to serving their
community, in 2014 TPU…
helped 1336
households
pay their bills
spent 1883 hours
in volunteering to
local non-profit
organisations
gave
$270,000
in cash,
products and
volunteer time

5. The
Challenge

6. The Challenge
TPU’s Customer Services bill some of their
customers for up to five separate utility services.
They implemented SAP CCS in 2004 and over
time found they had a lack of standardization in
how back-office staff utilized the solution. Many
users had received very little formal training and
instead were creating their own ways of working,
resulting in a loss of efficiency.
efficiency

7. The Challenge
Processes became slower and TPU found they
weren’t able to focus on the accuracy of meter
readings, negatively impacting on customer
satisfaction. Overtime, all stages throughout the
meter to billing cycle had become less transparent.
TPU was spending more time on exception handling
than expected, and decided to carry out an analysis
with peers in the industry.
customer
satisfaction

8. The Challenge
Comparably the company had higher average call
handling times and more billing issues. In fact, 11%
of their meter readings were involved in exception
handling at some point in the process; either because
of an error, a missing meter reading, or not fitting
within pre-defined thresholds.
This meant some bills didn’t reach customers in
a timely manner and this resulted in an increased
‘cost of service’ per customer.
11% of meter
readings involved
exception handling!

9. The Challenge
TPU’s commitment to customer service is paramount
and a key component of that commitment is the need to
provide accurate bills which are delivered on time.
They needed a solution to help them:
solve their exception issues
improve process efficiency
ensure accurate and on-time bills.

10. The
Solution
What did Tacoma Public Utilities do?

11. The Solution
TPU implemented a solution to give back-office
staff a quick and easy 360° view of the customer,
with all history of the customer exceptions and any
communication that had already occurred.
360º

12. The Solution
TPU is now looking to establish a realistic KPI of meter to
bill within 3 days, with the meter reading on the 1st day and
exception handling on the 2nd or the 3rd day. This will help
ensure consistently high service levels and reliability for
their customers and avoid incoming calls from late bills.

13. The Solution
TPU has lowered the volume of exceptions requiring
intervention and reduced the amount of standard labor,
and within six months expects to eliminate any overtime
hours, required to carry out this work. As a result, TPU can
look at a better use of their resources and staff can focus
on activities that will be more valuable for – and give more
back to – end customers.
exceptions labor overtime

14. The Solution
TPU now has standardized back-office processes
and has a platform to help train users on how they
should carry out each process, and how work is
expected to be accomplished.
Implementation and staff training has been
straightforward as the solution shows data in
a hierarchy very similar to one that staff were
previously used to seeing.

15. The Solution
TPU benefits from enhanced reporting and
performance metrics and has a better understanding
of average case handling times. The solution’s
comprehensive reporting options allow TPU to drill into
data and give everyone working within the process a
good idea of how they fit in.

16. The Solution
TPU’s solution allows coaching and training
needs to be easily identified, ensuring everyone
has the knowledge they need to work at their
optimal level.

17. What does this mean to
Tacoma Public Utilities?

18. TPU’s goal was to reduce their 11% of meter read
to bill cycles with exceptions, to between 3 or 4% - a
reduction of around 70%. After only a little over a week,
they met that target, even before adding any additional
modifications to the standard implementation.
What does this mean to TPU?
-70%

19. What does this mean to TPU?
TPU is exploring other areas to achieve further
efficiency gains utilizing the solution. Agents
using the solution are providing feedback as to
where they feel enhancements could be made,
and the solutions provider is working with them
to help implement the changes to achieve
further efficiencies.

20. What does this mean to TPU?
95% of invoices are now ready to mail
within 3 days as a direct result of utilizing
the solution.
Through automation, TPU has improved
exception handling times and reduced the
amount of required labor and overtime.
This resource reduction equates to one
full time employee.
improved handling
times
reduced labor
and overtime

21. What does this mean to TPU?
TPU’s management will soon have better
visibility of individual and group performances.
Reports are providing better decision
making and full reporting on a regular basis,
including the percentage of meter to bill
cycles completed within the specified 3 day
window. The TPU executive team dashboard
will provide objective performance and KPI
reporting.

22. What does this mean to TPU?
The reporting has helped TPU identify the number of
meter readings that come in early, on time or late. TPU
is now monitoring this to decide whether they need to
make changes in the processes, or give more resource
to meter reading.

23. What does this mean to TPU?
Reports are now broken down by division
(power/water/environmental services), as
opposed to the previous, simplistic, top-down
only view. This provides real understanding of
the impact of each division individually, as well as
a holistic overview. It gives more transparency
not just to the customer service organization
but to each operating division.

24. How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?

25. How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?
TPU implemented BDEx and Torch from Basis Technologies.
Following rigorous industry benchmarking, TPU put together an RFP
for solutions to their meter to billing cycle challenges. They received
proposals from 8 different suppliers, the majority of which documented
ways to customize SAP to try and meet their challenges. In proposing
their BDEx product, Basis Technologies was the only organization
to suggest an SAP-certified add-on solution, and really stood out in
contrast to the more cumbersome option of customization.

26. “We had seen Basis Technologies and the BDEx
solution previously at conferences, and had been
very impressed. As a result of the RFP response
and our pre-existing awareness, BDEx was
selected as the best way forward.”
Sue Daulton
Tacoma Public Utilities
How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?

27. “Implementation was smooth. On the Friday,
agents were carrying out processes in the old
way. On the following Monday BDEx was in place
and being used. TPU has so far experienced no
glitches or issues with the implementation.”
Sue Daulton
Tacoma Public Utilities
How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?

28. “Not only does it provide user-friendly tools
for your billing agents, it allows transparency
for supervisors and will soon be shared all
the way up to the executive team on KPIs
and dashboards, to allow the process to be
reviewed. If you can measure, monitor and give
people the tools they need to get their work
done you can only get better.”
Sue Daulton
Tacoma Public Utilities
How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?

29. “End users have been overwhelmed with
how well the tool performs and have given
this feedback to the management team.
Using BDEx isn’t just restricted to within
customer service. The management,
executive team and CEO are all interested in
making improvements in this area and this
has been a very visible corporate initiative.
Feedback thus far has been fantastic”
Sue Daulton
Tacoma Public Utilities
How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?

30. When asked about Basis themselves, Sue Daulton of TPU said
“The Basis Technologies team are fantastic. They’re one
of the best consulting firms I’ve ever worked with. They’re
professional, understand the product very well and are
excellent listeners. So when we talk about things that we’d
either like to see or ask “can it do that”, they’re very good at
understanding what we’re asking for and providing relevant,
thought-out solutions. They positively support requests and
ideas from our team – and then run off and do them!”
How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?

31. “We feel valued too. Because we have
been long term SAP customers, we might
ask different questions, and I think Basis
Technologies has found that refreshing, so
overall hopefully we’ve added some value
to the BDEx product for other customers in
the future as well.”
Sue Daulton
Tacoma Public Utilities
How did TPU achieve such
impressive resource savings?

32. About the Customer
BDEx
part of BDiApps
basistechnologies.com

33. About the Customer
basistechnologies.com
Basis Technologies is the leading provider of continuous delivery tools
in the SAP market. Every day we help businesses across the globe to
improve time-to-market whilst maintaining production stability.
Basis Technologies has a proven track record working with utility
organizations that use SAP. Our unique add-on tools help them improve
their customer service and billing solutions, reduce operational costs and
improve user and customer experience.
All Basis Technologies’ DevOps and utility industry products are
SAP-certified and are available as modular, subscription-based,
software-only tools.
About Basis Technologies