Ascendancy “Edge · Ascendancy “Edge” your competitive edge Ascendancy “Edge” is a web...
Transcript of Ascendancy “Edge · Ascendancy “Edge” your competitive edge Ascendancy “Edge” is a web...
Ascendancy “Edge” your competitive edge
Ascendancy “Edge” is a web based management solution for retail water suppliers in the UK.
The solution has been designed from first principles to provide a complete “Business in a Box” for both established and
new entrant Licensed Providers.
Edge runs on the Microsoft “Azure” cloud platform, and provides unrivalled flexibility, security and availability.
Ascendancy Water Ltd 50 Richmond St,
Glasgow
G1 1XP
Phone: 0845 838 1979
Fax: 0141 552 3886
Email: [email protected]
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Key Features
Modular Design The Edge Solution is provided in modules, allowing you to select the core features that you need for
your business.
The core Edge modules are as
follows:
Logistics Module
Market Module
Billing Module
Data Quality Module
Metering Module
Settlements Module
Reporting Module
The Edge Modules are described in more detail in the following sections.
The Edge system is also designed to integrate with CRM systems such as MS Dynamics and
SalesForce.
Cloud Deployment The Edge Solution is deployed via the Microsoft Azure Cloud infrastructure.
This provides:
Rapid Deployment
No up-front infrastructure costs / support costs
Maximum system availability (>99.9%)
Secure – robust built in security
Competitive Pricing Model
Scalable volumetrics
System resilience and support from Microsoft
Azure runs on a growing global network of Microsoft-managed datacentres across 13 regions, giving
you a wide range of options for running applications and ensuring your customers always get great
performance. Azure is the first multinational cloud provider in mainland China and is continuing to
expand to new regions around the globe.
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Development Technologies The Edge system has been carefully designed and developed using the very latest tools and
techniques, to ensure that the solution provides the best performance and availability and will
continue to deliver for many years to come.
The core development technologies are:
SQL Server 2014 database
ASP.Net and MVC5 (Model-View – Controller)
jQuery / HTML5 / CSS3
C# 5.0
.Net 4.5.1
Entity Framework 6.0.1
The Edge system will operate with all
mainstream browsers, and will work
seamlessly on PC’s, Macs, Tablets,
Smartphones etc.
Edge is compatible with the latest mainstream
web browsers. However, we recommend the
latest versions of:
Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 11
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
User access security is a primary concern for
users of Edge. Accordingly, we have given
access security the highest priority and have
incorporated bank standard security using SSL
certification from Verisign.
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Modules Logistics Module The Edge Logistics Module provides communications between the Edge solution and the outside
world.
Logistics Module—MDS Loader The module provides a state of the art interface with the CMA Market Data Set, allowing daily uploads
of Market data to the system. The interface is fully automatic and is generally configured to run
overnight.
This daily upload of Market data is used to compare the system “Account” data with the “Market” data
on a real time basis. Any discrepancy between Account and Market data is highlighted immediately,
so that investigation can commence and corrective action implemented before possible adverse
customer impact.
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Logistics Module—Transaction Engine The Logistics Module provides a fully functional Transaction Engine, fully interfaced with the core SQL
Server 2014 database. The Edge Transactions Engine is capable of sending and receiving the
complete suite of Transactions to and from the CMA using the High Volume Interface (HVI). No longer
will your business need to use the Low Volume Interface, with associated manual data entry and
questionable data quality.
The Edge Transaction Engine is dynamic in that it creates the Transactions based upon metadata
contained within the CMA published XSD. The XSD contains a blue print for the relational structure for
all the message types including data types, look up enumerations and validation.
The Edge Transaction engine uses this tree like structure to create SQL data that represents each of
the different message types:
Requests: These are outgoing transactions from us to the CMA such as a T005.1.
Synchronous Responses: These are immediately sent back to us from the CMA when we send
a request.
Notification Responses: These are incoming transactions that can be sent from the CMA to us at
any time, such as T005.2.
Request Messages: A message we send to ask if the CMA has any messages for us.
Asynchronous Request Response: Messages sent from CMA to us after they have done some
processing at their end following a request from us. They can take up to 24 hours to be available.
Handshakes: These are messages we send back with identifiers to let the CMA know we have
received messages they have sent to us. Otherwise they will keep sending them.
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Market Module—Search The Edge Market Module provides a user-friendly view of the CMA Market data, with easy to use
search filters that allow the user to get the data that they need quickly.
Market search criteria include:
SPID
Premise Address
Premise Postcode
Customer Name
Licensed Provider
Search results can be filtered on SPID Status, for example REC, TDISK, PDISC and also Vacancy
Status.
By selecting a SPID from the Search results, the user is able to get a full overview of the SPID, with
Addresses, Customer Name, Services, Meter details etc.
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Market Module—Pricing The Market Module provides a sophisticated Pricing Engine, allowing the user to prepare price
estimates for Market SPID’s based on current Market data and the latest Meter Readings. Groups of
SPID’s can also be priced using the Market Module.
Calculations for both Retail and Wholesale prices are available, using user defined Retail and
Wholesale Tariff data.
Output from the Market Pricing report is fully configurable. As a default, there are two reports, the
“Pricing Summary” and the “Detailed Report”.
Both reports are available to export in .PDF and .XLSX
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Market Module—Transfer The Market Module Search screen can be used as the launch point for the SPID Transfer process.
By selecting the Transfer Button whilst viewing a Market SPID, the Edge SPID Transfer process is
invoked and a new screen is displayed, asking the user for supplementary information.
To transfer the SPID it is necessary to define the Customer to which the SPID is to be transferred. If
the Customer is not already set up on Edge, this must be done before the SPID can be transferred.
The other information required is the SPID Transfer Date.
Once this data has been provided, the SPID Transfer process can proceed, and the Edge system
automatically creates a T003.1 transaction to send to the CMA via the Transaction Engine like the
one below.
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Accounts Module—Our Customers The Accounts Module provides functionality to manage everything to do with Customer Accounts,
including the SPIDs associated with Customer Accounts.
The module also provides an easy path to Customer Billing.
By selecting the Accounts > Customers button, the user is taken to the “Our Customers” screen:
The “Our Customers” screen provides a list of all Customers that have been set up on the Edge
system. Note that the Customer list can be filtered to show “Active”, “Inactive” or “All” Customers, The
default view is for “Active” Customers.
Customer details can be viewed by selecting one of the Customer records, e.g. Zenon Ltd:
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Accounts Module—Customer Details The key data sections provided in the Customer screen are:
Customer Address
Billing Details
Billing Address
Customer Contact Details
Customer Bank Details
Accounting Details—Debits, Credits and Balance
The screen also shows a list of Customer SPIDs.
Accounts Module—Customer Detail Edit The Customer Details screen allows the user to view all Customer Details and provides functionality
to maintain this data.
The key data items that can be maintained are:
Customer Name
Customer Description
Active / Inactive flag
Customer Type—Large / Medium / Small
Start Date—mandatory
End Date—non mandatory
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Accounts Module—Customer Pricing The Customer Details screen provides a Pricing button that allows the user to run a Pricing report.
The Pricing format is the same as that described earlier.
Accounts Module—Notes The Customer Details screen provides a Notes function that allows users to enter and maintain Notes
relating to the Customer. The Notes section is laid out as a Timeline to allow the user to easily see the
sequence of notes and also the person who entered the Notes.
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Accounts Module—Customer SPID Details When the user selects one of the SPIDs from the Customer Details screen, the Customer SPID
screen is displayed. This screen provides all the details of the SPID (Premise):
The Customer SPID screen provides buttons to maintain key data items associated with the SPID
(where these data items are owned by the LP). The data maintenance sections are:
SPID / Premise Address
SPID Services
Premise Billing
SPID Settlement Report
SPID Notes
Where data is updated by the user, the Edge system requests an “Effective Date”. This is an
important component of the systems “bi-temporal” data management processes.
Bi-temporality requires that the system captures two dates for each key data item—the “data effective
date” and the date when the data item change was identified. By tracking these two dates for key data
items the Edge system is able to provide accurate and timely bills, and more importantly, is able to
effect timely and accurate re-billing when data items used in previous bills have changed.
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Accounts Module—Customer Billing Customer Billing can be completed at a SPID level or Customer level (for multi SPID billing). The
process is the same for both.
The Edge system provides a “Bi-Temporal” Billing Engine that is capable of providing accurate and
timely bills, and also accurate re-billing when data items used in previous bills have changed.
The billing process starts with the definition of Customer Billing parameters, entered in the Billing
Details section of the Customer screen.
This data is entered when the Customer is first set up on the Edge system, and provides data entry
fields for:
VAT Rate (%)
Discount Rate (%)
Payment Day
Payment Method e.g. Cheque, Direct Debit etc.
Direct Debit Amount
Billing Frequency—Monthly, Quarterly, Annually
Paperless Billing—Yes / No
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Accounts Module—Bill Creation The Edge system will automatically create Customer Bills based upon the billing parameters defined
for the Customer. The system will obtain the latest Meter Read from the Metering Module, and will
calculate the estimated meter advance to the date of billing.
The system will then create and send the bill to the Customer, using the preferred approach, e.g.
email, paper etc.
The system will also update the Customer Accounting records with a new Debit entry for the value of
the bill.
The bill format from Edge is fully configurable and will be set up by Ascendancy at the commissioning
phase of an implementation project.
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Retail Tariff Management The Edge system has a comprehensive Tariff Management engine, for both Retail and Wholesale
Tariffs. The Tariffs are used in both Market Pricing and Customer Billing modules.
Tariffs are managed under the “Maintenance” section of the Edge system.
The system maintains the bi-temporal principles for Tariff data, maintaining effective dates so that
billing over Tariff change periods is acceptable.
Tariff values and threshold values are easily changed by the user:
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Reporting Module
The Edge system provides a comprehensive reporting capability, supported with the “SQL Server
Reporting Services” (SSRS) reporting engine.
The system provides a Management Dashboard for Key Performance Indicators (KPI) along with a
range of standard and bespoke reports that can be developed during the commissioning phase of an
implementation project.