Flexible configuration of energy supply company and key account contracts with Sopra Steria‘s multicommodity solution
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minute read
Standard software replaces outdated in-house development
E.ON Portfolio Solutions is currently implementing its
digitalisation and cloud strategy. To modernise the systemarchitecture, the company was looking for a suitable billing software, the choice fell on ENER-GX from Sopra Steria. In a joint project, E.ON Portfolio Solutions introduced the software product for billing complex multicommodity contracts. With the flexibility gained and the range of configuration options, the company is now able to manage individual as well as standardised energy supply and entry contracts of diff erent sectors.
By opting for ENER-GX from Sopra Steria, E.ON follows the market trend of replacing outdated in-house developments with standard software. This enables the company to completely focus on its core business, energy trading. In addition, the energy trader is gearing up for future market requirements.
Key points
- Modernised system architecture
- Flexibility and a multitude of configurationoptions
- Individual contract variants
- Processefficiency and low maintenancecosts
One of the key tasks for the project team was to coordinate and manage the E.ON Portfolio Solutions project.E.ON manages multi-commodity contracts in Europe. The company calculates the contracts, prepares the invoices, forwards it and posts it. The spectrum ranges from standardised contracts with little product flexibility to complex individual contracts for major customers. The new solution should cover this diversity through flexible setting options. Further important requirements towards a new billing software were multi-client capability, multicurrency capability and multilingual support for use in international markets.
This requirement profile of E.ON Portfolio Solutions GmbH called for an application with technical flexibility to configure products and achieve top performances in the management of consumption data. On the one hand, the software has to meet all requirements towards complexity and, on the other hand, always be up to date legally and technically through automatic updates from the manufacturer.
Our solution
In a modern project approach using agile methods, billingproducts were set up, individual energy delivery contracts were modelled, and milestones for integration and further developments were planned for E.ON. ENER-GX was seamlessly integrated into the energy company‘s existing system landscape: through imports from trading, communication with balancing group management, imports from market communication and transfer to the company‘s general ledger. In addition, layouts were customised, existing print/mail routes were connected for invoice forwarding, and incoming transport invoices were imported for forwarding to delivery invoices. This allowed the multi-commodity solution to fit smoothly into E.ON‘s software architecture.
ENER-GX meets all required criteria, so that an individual development could be transferred into a standardised software solution. E.ON now relies on a system solution that enables the company to create invoice of complex, individual and trade-related
contracts as well as to flexibly display individual products. The software solution is characterised by
its many configurable settings. ENER-GX also ensures process
efficiency and low maintenance costs. The energy supplier
can thus display new sales segments, markets and commodities
nationally and internationally as required. ENER-GX also
has an integration approach that supports classic and
event-oriented interfaces, including standard template
libraries.
How we worked together
The project has an enormous relevance for E.ON Portfolio Solutions GmbH. The team was correspondinglylarge. Despite the team size, they managed to coordinate closely and work together as equals. A mixture of
waterfall methodology and agile project approaches were used for project implementation: Above all, software
enhancements, infrastructure adaptations and integration into the system landscape were implemented
in the traditional way. The project team took an agile approach to product design and building selected
contract examples. Key users at E.ON were able to work with ENER-GX at an early stage. This enabled the
company to build up know-how already during the configuration.
Results and benefits
With the introduction of ENER-GX, E.ON Energy Germany is now working with state-of-the-art standardsoftware and can configure the complete product range independently. Flexibility in product design and
consumption data management allows product innovations to be billed and easily mapped in the IT system.
The software‘s multi-language and multi-client capabilities enable the company to drive white-label
services. The technology allows the company to concentrate on its core business. The energy supplier can
focus on developing new sales segments, entering new markets and incorporating new commodities.
With ENER-GX, we arenow able to map and
bill our customercontracts in their
entirety. When it comes
to the challenges of new
projects, we always
have a professional
partner at our side in
Sopra Steria, who
always supports us
during implementation
and delivers the optimal
solutions.
Wolfgang Stroh, Head of E2E Operations, E.ON Portfolio Solutions GmbH
About the customer
With approximately 100 employees, E.ON Portfolio Solutions GmbH (EPS) is one of Germany‘s leadingproviders of electricity and gas commodity solutions. EPS customers include several hundred municipal
utilities and regional suppliers as well as large industrial customers. The spectrum of products and services
ranges from standard products, such as schedule deliveries and residual load cover contracts, to portfolio
management services and individual supply concepts. EPS has about 10 locations in Germany, the main
locations are in Dortmund and Essen.
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