UBB – Enter and Update Meter Reads and Consolidated Counters Enhancement (Doc ID 2240752.1)

Last updated on SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

Applies to:

Purpose

This note provides a description of usage enhancement for entry and update of meter reads and OKL uptake of consolidated counters.  The enhancements contain:

• Added additional functionality and attributes for user to enter and update meter reads for a contract
• Added additional fields for uptake of Consolidated counters
• Added additional entity called “Allowance” for capturing allowance for counters

Business Background

Usage based business is a growing trend in today’s business environment due to the emergence of a subscription, or “pay per use”, economy. Customers are becoming more aware of the cost of doing business, particularly with the regards to the costs paid to acquire, operate and maintain equipment, and are seeking ways to reduce costs and make it easier to move from one supplier to another or to make a more immediate change in their asset mix. As this trend emerges, customers are looking to be serviced by suppliers who can combine the acquisition, operation and maintenance of asset costs into a simplified billing structure, often based upon usage.

In cases where usage of the equipment can be used as the basis for billing the customer, meters or counters are used to track the usage output. This usage information can also be valuable in understanding the customers’ use of the equipment and used to determine recommendations about changes in asset mix and optimal services to provide. However, capturing, managing and reporting metered usage can be cumbersome and tedious. Therefore, vendors and lessors are increasingly seeking more support for usage based business and to automate, streamline and simplify the capturing of metered usage. One such measure towards improving the operational efficiency and streamlining of usage based business is the creation and capture of consolidated counters which is addressed as part of this beta release.

Scope

The scope of the planned enhancement includes the following:

• Enter meter reads for meter usage service
  • Added additional functionality for user to Enter Meter Reads
  • Added additional attributes to allow users to enter and update readings for meters/counters for usage periods
  • PLSQL API hook provided for open usage period calculation
• Other enhancements
  • Capture “Allowance” for the individual counters and consolidated counters
  • Capture information needed to create consolidated counters and automatically assign the counters to the group
  • Display consolidated counter name and allowance details on the Usage search screen
  • Billing the usage amounts with consolidated counters, allowances, rollovers and finally adjustments for quantity

Details

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