Case Studies
Large Customer Bill Generator
Customer Business
The client is a large utility company in the Midwest and Eastern region with power generation and distribution in the regulated and open markets.
Business Domain and Problem Description
Our client generated and sent its electronic billing with a legacy product. The problem was that its utility customers were mostly large businesses and government agencies that have very intricate billing requirements. The legacy bill generator was not sufficiently customizable for those customers and several necessary enhancements had not been implemented due to its limitations. Lastly, it failed the compatibility tests for operating system upgrades and the only option available was to upgrade the product, a process quoted over US$ 1 Million by the software company who supported it.
720 Worldwide Solution Overview
Our approach to the challenge started with an initial research to properly enlist the requirements that the new product would need to fulfill, alongside a documentation of the client’s business flow. A dedicated staff from their team participated in that endeavor, ensuring we had complete accuracy. One of the most important aspects was that the solution needed to be managed with low overhead cost.
We created a .NET based system that provided that, as the client’s in-house support staff was able to fully operate it. In addition, we collaborated closely with the client’s architecture team in order to craft the product’s design, security compliance and custom software. Additionally, our carefully chosen approach avoided all the risks associated with the legacy product and design software.
Business Results
The sunset plan was deployed and went online in parallel to the legacy product. For one month, each bill on both platforms was verified before it was sent out. The new system did not produce a single error. Interestingly, many discrepancies with the legacy product came to surface with this research, emphasizing even more the importance of our work.
The total cost of the custom billing generator was less than half of the quoted price from the vendor. It saved a significant amount compared to the upgrade cost and ongoing annual license cost to the client, making this project a huge success!
The project team delivered exactly what we were looking for within the budget and time commitments. The project team also included the support/maintenance organization to ensure that what was delivered was supportable. Great work all around.
Weekly meetings and status reports kept me well informed of progress. Interaction with my team was frequent and productive. All-in-all, excellent execution.
Very confident in the team because they demonstrated great planning abilities that kept the project on track. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to another project.