Project Description
The Bureau of Billings and Client Services at a major city’s Department of Water Management relies upon SDI for on-site technical support for its Customer Information/Billing System (CIS), which provides comprehensive client accounting facilities for the city’s water and sewer services. The CIS maintains records of clients’ premises, services, accounts, meter readings, inventory, and more; and provides the means to record and bill for services in a cost-effective, efficient, and manageable way.
SDI Services
SDI delivers major IT support for the CIS application and associated interfaces, including:
- Initial implementation of the integrated billing, water meter interface, and Customer Information System (CIS)
- Data conversion from existing billing system to CIS
- Management of citywide IT initiatives/projects involving CIS; facilitating requirement gathering sessions with city representatives and outside vendors
- Interface development and support of over 18 interfaces to the CIS System including; meter reading, payment processing, billing, collections, and service order.
- Integration of Department of CIS with other City Systems; system enhancements – design, construct, and implement enhancements to improve system performance
- Quality Assurance testing for modifications and enhancements to the CIS
- On-call technical support and maintenance including database management for over 800 users
Project Results
Currently, the SDI-managed CIS:
- Maintains 600,000+ water/sewer client accounts with over 1.5M services
- Tracks 400,000+ inventory items including water meters, and automated meter reading devices
- Generates 990,000 metered and 670,000 non-metered bills annually
- Generates 1,100,000 delinquency letters annually
- Generates 18,000 coupon booklets (for payment arrangements) annually
- Generates 85,000 letters/pieces of correspondence annually
- Processes $500M in payments from multiple sources including web, currency exchange, lockbox, IVR System, and kiosk/walk-in.
- Generates 220,000 service orders.
SDI continues to update/modify on-site systems that help the department improve customer service and attain maximum profitability by: Reducing overhead costs; achieving a return on certain IT investments as benefits overcoming transition costs; and reaping business value on time and on budget within months from the launch of new and/or modified application functionality. Every day, the SDI staff delivers reliable technology systems and infrastructure support services, allowing the city to deliver nearly a billion gallons of drinking water a day to more than 8 million residents of the city and 124 suburbs.
In addition, SDI completed the following special projects:
- Developed Executive Management Dashboards
- Automated Meter Reading and Installation Project
- MeterSave – Non-Metered to Metered Volunteer Program
- Conducted Full Payment Certification Gap Analysis
- Conducted Billing Process Gap Analysis
- Senior Citizen Exemption Requalification Initiative
- Completed Server Migrations
- Automated Employee Indebtedness
- Rate Overhaul/Configuration
- Expended Collection Agency Referrals
- Automated Customer Refunds
