Efficient and flexible Enterprise Application Suite (EAS) solutions for Utility Providers | SIVECO Romania
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Efficient and flexible Enterprise Application Suite (EAS) solutions for Utility Providers

Background

New requirements in the field of sustainable development have determined countries worldwide to address the problem of increasing the efficiency of the utilities sector, being aware of its influence on the citizens’ quality of life. As part of the European Union, Romania considering the option to promote a competitive environment that aims at reducing costs while providing quality services at reasonable prices, with an eye on economic efficiency and environment protection.

Moreover, Romania adopted a policy for the utilities sector consisting of investments, reorganisation and restructuring, so that the privatisation of the Romanian public utilities became a source of competition in this sector by following superior management criteria and modern technologies.

Therefore, the utilities sector in Romania is aware of the need for instruments that will increase the efficiency, productivity, quality and safety of the services provided. As the quality and transparency of services become increasingly important, utilities providers in Romania take more and more into account the customers’ requests and their increasing exigency,

In this context, IT based solutions for managing and increasing the efficiency of this sector’s specific activity become vital for aligning to European standards and norms, but also for meeting customers’ requirements regarding the services’ price-quality ratio.

SIVECO Romania’s Expertise in the Utilities Field

SIVECO Romania has continuously developed its solutions, adjusting them to the specific activities that utilities suppliers (gas, drinking water, hot water, heating and electrical energy) provide to domestic consumers, consumers’ associations and legal entities. SIVECO Romania provides utility providers with a full package of integrated solutions, ensuring the optimal planning of resources, increasing productivity, competitiveness, legal compliance, while offering stable control and easy real time communication.

In order to meet the specific requirements of this sector, SIVECO Romania developed a dedicated application for managing Utilities Billing, with the main objective of increasing the efficiency of recordkeeping activities for invoicing and collections, for a very large number of customers.

Various private and public providers of gas, drinking water, hot water, electric energy or heating - have chosen the SIVECO Applications integrated information package.

Among these there are:

  • ACET Suceava
  • APA SERV Jiu Valley Petroşani
  • Brăila Public Utility Company
  • Congaz Constanţa
  • Gaz Sud Bucureşti
  • Development Group Networks Bucureşti
  • URBAN București
  • Colterm Timișoara
  • ELCEN București
  • ELCEN București, Constanţa Subsidiary
  • Energy Complex Hunedoara SA - Electrocentrale Paroșeni
  • ENET Focșani
  • HIDROELECTRICA-SERV, Subsidiary for repairs and services, Haţeg
  • HIDROELECTRICA-SERV, Subsidiary for repairs and services, Porţile de Fier
  • Termoelectrica Bucureşti, Brăila Subsidiary

Why Utility Providers Choose the SIVECO Applications Integrated System 

Complete solutions for specific needs

Utility companies are characterized by a large number of customers, locations with a large territorial spread and different ways of invoicing and tax collection for the services delivered. Thus, the quality of delivered services directly depends on the efficiency of internal resources and has an immediate effect on  the company’s image among individual and corporate consumers.

SIVECO Applications is an integrated system that dynamically manages the specific processes of utilities providers, providing total control and real-time access to current and correct information, in order to increase their performance and efficiency.

Advantages of using SIVECO Applications

  • Standardising work procedures
  • Consolidating data structures
  • Reducing bureaucracy and increasing efficiency
  • Access to information in a direct, rapid and secure way
  • Generating a very large number of invoices (tens and hundreds of thousands) and fast printing
  • Introducing or modifying the formulas used for the consumption calculation directly in the interface, by the end-user
  • Calculation of penalties, automatic recording and printing of explanations
  • Possibility of outsourcing the printing and collection of invoices
  • Automatic collection of gratuities, immediately after issuing the invoices
  • Monitoring consumptions, managing costs and setting up budgets
  • Keeping track of each customer’s consumption for each location
  • Management of breakdown situations and monitoring interventions
  • Fast and interactive solving of customer requests
  • Efficient management of service contracts
  • Optimisation of resources and actual reduction of internal costs
  • Providing a full history of the provider – customer relationship, with details regarding meter readings, calculated consumptions, applied tariffs, invoices issued, collections performed, complaints received
  • Integration with GIS systems
  • Integration with SCADA systems
  • Integration with the SIVADOC document management  system
  • Automatic notification of users, via e-mail, regarding due dates or other information of interest
  • Increasing the trust of individual customers in utilities providers

Components of the Information System Dedicated to the Utilities Sector

Various projects developed by SIVECO Romania in the utilities sector led to developing a standard solution package, acquired by most of its beneficiaries:

  • Financial Management
  • Fixed Assets
  • Budgets
  • Human Resources Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Procurement
  • Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management
  • Utilities Billing
  • Contracts
  • Cost Accounting
  • Investment Management
  • Cash Management
  • Litigations Management
  • Geographic Information System - SIVGIS
  • SIVECO Business Analyzer – Dashboard

Successful Projects

Congaz Constanţa

Project description: Implementation of an Integrated Information System to uniformly manage all data and information categories in the company, to meet the requirements defined by departments, to ensure the correct, complete informing of decision factors in due time and to carry out a good provider-customer relationship.

Implemented components: Utilities Billing , Financial Management, Fixed, Cost Accounting, Human Resources and Payroll Management, Budgets, Investment Management, Inventory Management, Procurement, Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management, Transportation Management, Contracts, Cash Management, SIVECO Business Analyzer, Document & Workflow Management – SIVADOC.

Results achieved through the implementation of the SIVECO Applications Integrated Information System:

  • Achieving one of the main organizational objectives:  increasing the efficiency of activities within the institution, with effects on increasing the quality of services dedicated to citizens as well as commercial companies
  • Efficient management of the financial – accounting activity, control over fixed assets and inventory objects, over stocks and procurement
  • Evaluation and control of activities, setting policies and strategies through the SIVECO Business Analyzer component dedicated to management
  • Managing and monitoring data regarding customers, from requests for subscription up to connections to the gas pipeline, the setting into operation of the connecting pipe and the actual supplying of gas
  • Managing and monitoring technical data for each connecting pipe owned by a customer, the notices necessary for carrying out the connection, as well as the chronological data regarding the status of a connecting pipe
  • Managing and monitoring data referring to companies delivering connection services, as well as their correspondence with customers for which these services have been performed
  • Configuring and printing documents such as contracts with customers, notices, notifications, sheets, based on data recorded in the application
  • Automatic takeover of the common data from one type of contract to another one for the same client

Urban SA București

Project description: The process of modernization of the company URBAN SA started at the same time with the implementation of an integrated management system certified by TÜV Rheinland Berlin Brandenburg Romania, member of the prestigious German company TÜV Rheinland Berlin Brandenburg, and continued with the implementation of the SIVECO Applications integrated information system.

Implemented components: the standard package for utilities was developed, with the addition of the Manufacturing, Utilities Billing and Transportation Management components.

The resulting package presents numerous specific functionalities, such as:

  • Elaboration and management of pre-set service programs, based on contractual provisions
  • Elaboration and management of servicing programs, based on customer orders
  • Generation of daily working programs and of work sheets for assets
  • Generation and execution of confirmation vouchers and of containers movement records
  • Record of activities for street sector services, both for services performed continuouslyand for those performed occasionally
  • Record of activities for the green spots service and the sorting – recycling service
  • Record of the centralized reporting situations and ofthe production indicators achieved

SC ACET SA Suceava

Project description: At the same time with organizational changes and a need for increasing the efficiency of the activities within SC ACET SA, for fulfilling customer requirements and complying with legal regulations, the implementation of an Integrated Information System became vital. The system’s aim is to uniquely manage all data and information categories existing in the company, in order to meet departmental requirements for productivity and performance, to ensure the correct, complete informing, in due time, of the decision making factors and to contribute to accomplishing a very good supplier-customer relationship.

Implemented components: Contracts , Utilities Billing, Human Resources and Payroll Management, Inventory and Procurement Management, Investment Management, Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management, Fixed Assets Management, Financial Management, SIVECO Business Analyzer – Information Management System, Budgets Management and Litigations Management.

Results achieved:

  • Ordering and maintaining the pace of activity, increasing data coherence and correctness
  • Efficient monitoring, with the possibility of continuous control of the water consumption, invoices and collections for contracts with beneficiaries;
  • Gaining the customers’ trust regarding the accuracy of the invoices issued
  • Activity control and substantiating  decisions at management level based on analysis indicators
  • Cost control, leading to areduction in non-productive expenses and taking efficient measures in due time
  • Obtaining synthetic and operational reporting situations, through flexible reporting mechanisms

APA SERV Jiu Valley Petroşani

Project description: Following the Romanian Government’s and Hunedoara City Council’s request, EBRD support was granted for carrying out an investment program aiming at the rehabilitation and modernization of the water supply and sewage system in Valea Jiului. 

APA SERV Valea Jiului Petroşani, with a central role in the water supply and sewage of the entire Jiu Valley, has introduced IT into its activity by implementing all the 15 components of the SIVECO Applications integrated information system dedicated to utilities companies, including SIVECO Business Analyzer – Dashboard.

Results achieved:

  • integration with the SCADA system
  • increasing the efficiency of the activities within the organisation, with a direct positive impact on its image among customers
  • reducing the volume of manual work necessary for performing accounting records and issuing documents by 25%
  • reducing the time necessary for inventory records, through a superior organization of the stores and including storehouse keepers among system end users
  • increasing the efficiency of the customer management within the commercial activity, with the problem solving time halved through the IT based management of contracts

The company’s image in the relationship with its customers and business partners has gained a lot through the use of modern solutions: an integrated information system, portable – pocket size IT systems (palmtops), integration with a data acquisition system (SCADA) and with the GIS system for geographical information management.

ELCEN Bucureşti, Constanţa Subsidiary

Project description: The company aimed to obtain the IT support necessary for increasing the efficiency of its activity, and opted for SIVECO’s standard components package.

The collaboration between the two project teams, ( of the provider and of the beneficiary), was among the most fruitful, with the management constantly encouraging employee involvement throughout the entire duration of the implementation project.

Energy Complex Hunedoara SA - Electrocentrale Paroşeni

Project description: In 2003 the foundation was laid for a complex project to introduce IT into the activity of SE Paroșeni, by acquiring and implementing the Financial Management, Fixed Assets Management, Budgets Management and Payroll Management integrated components. The end users were trained so that, after the completion  of  the implementation, all functionalities of the applications could be exploited to the benefit of the company.

Noticing a real improvement in performance indicators, the management of SE Paroșeni decided in 2005 to extend the IT system, -with the Inventory Management, Procurement Management and Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management.

The value of the information system was reconfirmed in 2011, when SE Paroşeni witnessed a large scale metamorphosis: the closure of its former subsidiary SE Paroşeni, followed by the setting up of a new company - Electrocentrale Paroşeni – and its merger with the former TERMOSERV Petroşani, all these done in a single day. The organizational changes were extremely demanding for all the functional compartments in the company, but the SIVECO Applications system was a considerable part of their successful management, due to its capacity to support such major changes.

ENET Focşani

Project description: Implementing applications for the management of the financial – accounting activity, of the fixed assets, of inventory and procurement within the company through implementating the Financial Management, Inventory Management, Fixed Assets Management and Procurement Management components. avourable results obtained lead to the company acquiring the  Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management component, the project being successfully completed.

The company’s management opted for a five-year maintenance contract, aiming for the optimal exploitation of all the functionalities of the implemented integrated system.

Colterm Timișoara

Project description: Former SE unit (Electrocentrale Subsidiary), Colterm Timișoara is now successfully using the integrated information system composed of the following specific applications: Financial Management, Fixed Assets and Management, Procurement Management, Inventory Management, Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management, Budgets Management, Human Resources and Payroll Management.

Through integrating all the components in a flexible and modern information system, the company now benefits from a quick and controlled access to information, as well as an easy and coherent management of its activities and resources.

The merger with Calor Timișoara, distributor of thermal energy,  imposed specific flows, and the appearance of new activities within the company. The SIVECO Applications integrated information system meets in an optimal manner the extended company’s requirements, regarding technical and economic developments.

Termoelectrica Bucureşti, Brăila Subsidiary

Project description: Termoelectrica Bucureşti – Brăila Subsidiary, opted for the standard applications package. The challenge for this project, which was successfully completed, was implementing the Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management component, which had to meet all the specific requirements of the equipment maintenance specialists within the subsidiary.

Results achieved: Users obtained a system covering the company’s processes in depth, thus generating an increase in efficacy and efficiency in its coverage areas.

During over 10 years of using the SIVECO Applications system, the company encountered major changes, with which the system coped with successfully:

  • Moving the repairs and maintenance staff to a new company, TERMOSERV, situation in which the system was divided and adjusted to the requirements of the resulting company, now operating in each of these;
  • The TERMOSERV takeover by the subsidiary, which lead to adjusting the information system to new requirements resulted from the merger of the two companies.

HIDROELECTRICA-SERV Haţeg and Porţile de Fier, Subsidiary for repairs and services

Project description: Separated from Hidroelectrica at the same time with the outsourcing of the maintenance and repair services for hydro-energy equipments, HIDROELECTRICA-SERV Haţeg and HIDROELECTRICA-SERV Porţile de Fier opted for the resource management software solutions developed by SIVECO Romania.

The first HIDROELECTRICA-SERV unit approached was the one in Haţeg, as the project aimed to introduce IT into financial- accounting activities, procurement activities, maintenance and inventory management, as well as HR and payroll management, through the integrated components within SIVECO Applications. Subsequently, the unit opted also for the implementation of the components Contracts Management, Cost Accounting and SIVECO Business Analyzer.

Results achieved:

  • The efficient management of contracts for the delivery of repair works and maintenance;
  • Strict cost and revenue analysis ;
  • The Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management application was developed to ensure the transfer of costs into revenue, with equipment repair and maintenance activities registered as costs, but in the present case leading to obtaining income for the company.

The proper IT training and maximal involvement of users within HIDROELECTRICA-SERV Haţeg contributed to the project’s success.

Following the project, the beneficiaries - provider relationship maintained its good quality, with the HIDROELECTRICA-SERV management frequently present at seminars organized by SIVECO Romania, both due to a constant interest in the latest novelties in the field, but also from a desire to certify, through their own experience, the quality of the implemented solutions.

Conclusions

„The new system proposed and implemented by SIVECO Romania substantially helps the management team. We receive the data much faster, we got rid of confusion, both for us and for our colleagues in charge with data collection and processing. Moreover, the data is up-to-date, ready to be used promptly without delays, it covers a wider area and values representing various activities can be correlated. All these facilities help the management in taking optimal decisions. The system’s extension with analysis modules allows the management to study and analyze various alternatives and scenarios, based on the existing information”, concludes Ioan Soloi, Technical Manager HIDROELECTRICA-SERV Haţeg.

„Our area of expertise in the utilities sector is expanding, SC URBAN SA being the most important sanitation operator, providing services at European standards. This proves the flexibility of the SIVECO Applications integrated solution, which can adjust to the requirements of any type of organization and industry”, underlines Irina Socol, CEO of SIVECO Romania.

"The successful implementations carried out by SIVECO Romania at ACET Suceava, ENET Focşani, S.C. Congaz S.A. Constanţa,  HIDROELECTRICA-SERV Haţeg, COLTERM Timişoara, Electrocentrale Paroşeni – and we have mentioned just a few of our customers in the public utilities sector  - certifies SIVECO’s expertise in solutions dedicated to this field ", has stated Sorin Dimofte, manager Sales and Consultancy in Information Systems within SIVECO Romania.  

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