ATS OpenPay: Conversion from Other Vendors

ATS OpenPay:
Conversion from Other Vendors
Blue Ridge EMC’s Experience
SESSION OBJECTIVE
Share Blue Ridge EMC’s
conversion experience from
the Exceleron PAMS system
to ATS’ OpenPay system.
Promote discussion among
the group to assist ATS clients
considering this change.
ATS CLIENTS ON OPENPAY
New Prepaid Programs:
Converted from Exceleron System:
Gulf Coast – August 2014
Laurens – March 2015
Sam Houston – March 2016
South River – July 2015
South Central Indiana – Nov 2015
Cullman – December 2015
Blue Ridge – January 2016
OVERVIEW OF BLUE RIDGE EMC’S
PREPAID PROGRAM
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Program Name = FlexPay
Prepaid Program Started = Fall 2009
Prior Prepaid System = Exceleron’s PAMS (MyUsage.com)
Number of Accounts at Conversion = 4,418 (6% of 74,000 meters)
Average Monthly Notifications
• 21,000 IVR Calls
• 36,000 Text Messages
• 109,000 E-mails
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Cost for Prepaid Account = $10/month additional basic charge
AMI System – Aclara TWACS
Collars NOT installed on each prepaid account
Number of Consumption Monitoring Accounts at Conversion = 5,000
WHY CHANGE?
• Streamline the member experience – one website which meets all their
needs – prepaid balance, make a payment, maintain notifications, etc.
• Lower administrative cost of the prepaid program (software & labor)
• Increase employee efficiencies with one system vs. two
• Elimination of “errors” during setup
• Reduced administrative employee time for maintaining a separate system
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Reconciliation
Holiday setup
Rates (rate changes & seasonal differences)
WPCA adjustments
• Prebilling process to be proactive with issues
GETTING PREPARED FOR
CONVERSION
• Formation of core conversion team – include staff from IT, Accounting, Member
Services, and Marketing/Communications
• Work with ATS to set conversion date (billing dates consideration)
• Plan contract cancellation notification timing with Exceleron
• Plan communication to members – timing and methods
• Plan for document review/updating – update all documents that refer to
“MyUsage.com”
• Plan training for employees (challenge to change terminology)
• Review all current reporting to ensure we can access same data after conversion
• Plan timing of when to stop disconnects in Exceleron & when to begin disconnecting
(manually, then automatically) in ATS
COMMUNICATING TO MEMBERS
• Added “yellow note” banner to top of MyUsage.com giving advance notice
of the website change & “enhancements” to come!
• Sent e-mail “blasts” to current prepaid & consumption monitoring accounts
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Encouraged members to register for OpenAccess if not already registered
Notified members of the elimination of MyUsage.com and date in early Jan
Sent reminder e-mail the week of conversion
Separate “messages” for prepaid & consumption monitoring
• Communicated directly via phone call with members utilizing Exceleron’s twoway SMS feature
• Signs on office front counters & kiosks
• Main member messages – Change in website & Notifications
THE CONVERSION PROCESS:
PREPARING FOR JAN 28, 2016
• Enable OpenUsage & OpenNotify for all members
(November 2015)
• Work with ATS Staff on setup (Nov-Dec 2015)
• Configuration settings
• Notification wordings
• Timing of processes (such as timing for daily billing to run)
• Request test set of data files from Exceleron (December
2015)
• Prepaid Account data
• Prepaid Alert data
• Usage Monitoring Alert data
• Provide training to employees (January 2016)
• Utilized ATS’ documentation and customized for our
employees/program
THE CONVERSION PROCESS:
WEEK OF JANUARY 28, 2016
January 25th:
• Turn off disconnect process in Exceleron
January 28th:
• Remind employees of system downtime & process changes
• Create list of accounts in Exceleron that are disconnected, but not yet final billed
• Request final set of data files from Exceleron & forward to ATS
• Notify vendors (IVR, CRC, etc.) of expected system down-time
• After data conversion, verify sampling of accounts for
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Balance
Debt recovery balances and %s
Alerts (#s, type, timing, no disabled or stopped)
Reconcile A/R in CIS
• Verify that all vendor interfaces are back online
January 29th & ongoing:
• Manually disconnect/final bill accounts that were off in Exceleron and did not make a payment in ATS when they
reach the configured # of days
SAMPLE ACCOUNT AFTER
CONVERSION
WOW – THIS IS GREAT!!
• Add data now in ATS
database
• Reporting within CIS –
easier to report on
statistics by branch!
• Less time spent on
reconciliation & the ability
to be proactive with issues
during the prebilling stage
• Cost savings – we have
since eliminated the $10
extra fee for our members
CHALLENGES
• OpenPay accounts with multiple meters
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Daily billing amounts inaccurate {change made}
Attempting to communicate with the sub-meter {change made}
Sending notifications by meter {change made}
Operation RoundUp charged per meter
• Reconnection of accounts occurs when required balance is met; not when
SO closed {requested RFF – process work around}
• “Tweaking” of notification setting times (10 min interval vs 30 min)
• “Unknown” meter status issues when no collar on the service {working
through}
• Inability to determine who edited a notification (INET)
ENHANCEMENT REQUESTS
• Ability for daily OpenPay billing to accommodate tiered rates
• Ability to limit notification methods by type (i.e. no daily balance for
conventional billed accounts by text)
• Two way SMS option
• Add option to be able to disconnect on weekends
• Easier reporting of unknown status meters and errors that result
• Spanish option for notifications
QUESTIONS?
Amy Crowder, Director of Financial Strategies
Blue Ridge EMC
acrowder@blueridgeemc.com
828-759-8972 (direct line)