Enhancements in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing
This section describes new and enhanced features in this release of Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, including enhancements in the following functional areas:
Note: The Steps To Enable, Tips and Considerations, Key Resources, and Role Information sections provide guidelines for enabling each feature, where applicable.
Batch Processing
This section describes the new and enhanced batch processing features in this release, including:
Batch Controls - Increased Batch Commit Frequency
The frequency for committing processed records to the database has been increased for specific background processes.
• Account Debt Monitor, Minimum Days Review (ADM2)
• Activate Auto-pay (ACTVTAPY)
• Analyze SA Relationship (ANLYZSAR)
• Assign Balance Control ID to FTs (BCASSIGN)
• Automatic Dispatch of FA's (FOD)
• Balance Autopay Control Tables (C1-BLAPC)
• Balance Tender Controls (C1-PEPL3)
• Capital Credit Allocation (CPCRALOC)
• Capital Credit Retirement (CPCRRETR)
• Case Status Automatic Transition Process (CASETRAN)
• Create Autopay for NBB's (NBBAPAY)
• Create Autopay on Extract Date (APAYCRET)
• Create Autopay Tender Controls (BALAPY)
• Create Customer Contact for Expiring SA Char (CAREPROG)
• Create GL Download Staging (GLS)
• Create MR Download Staging (MDS)
• Create MR Schedule Routes (MSR)
• Create Statements (STMPRD)
• Create/Validate Balance Control Snapshot (BCGSNAP)
• Close Expired Quotes (CLOSEQTE)
• Completes a WF Event in Waiting State (WAITCOM)
• Complete FA using a Recent MR (FANRMRCO
• Conversion-clear Balance Control ID (CNV-BCG)
• Conversion-create ADM Triggers (CNV-ADM)
• Conversion-tidy Balances (CNV-BAL)
• Deposit Interest Refund (DEPINTRF)
• Deposit Refund (DEPRFND)
• Deposit Review (DEPRVW)
• Distribute and Freeze Autopay (APAYDSFR)
• Download Statements (STMDWLD)
• Execute MR Remark Algorithms (MRRA)
• Field Activity Completion (FACOMPL)
• Field Activity Remark Activation (FACT)
• Field Order Download Staging (FDS)
• Find Read for SA/SP (SASP)
• Generate Autopay for Pay Plans (PPAPAY)
• Mass Bill Cancellation (MASSCNCL)
• Mass Re-open of Bills (MASSROBL
• Meter Read Upload 1 - Populate Meter Config ID (MUP1)
• Meter Read Upload 2 - Populate Meter Read (MUP2)
• Overdue and Cut Event Manager (C1-ODET)
• Pay Plan Monitor (PPM)
• Pay Service Provider (PAYSPR)
• Payment Event Upload Stage 1 (C1-PEPL1)
• Payment Event Upload Stage 2 (C1-PEPL2)
• Payment Upload (PUPL)
• Payment Upload Balance Control Tables (C1-PUBAL)
• Pending SA/SP Monitor (PSASPM)
• Process NBB Scheduled Payments (NBBPS)
• Purge Billable Charge Upload (BCUP-PRG)
• Purge Completed FA Upload (FAUP-PRG)
• Purge Completed MR Upload (MRUP-PRG)
• Purge Completed Payment Upload (PYUP-PRG)
• Purge Completed To Do Entries (TD-PURGE)
• Register Constant Validation (REGCNST)
• Renew Service Agreement (SARENEW)
• Resolve Payments in Error (PY-RPE)
• Stop Expired SAs (SAEXPIRE)
• To Do for Account without a Bill Cycle (TD-NOBC)
• To Do for Batch Errors (TD-BTERR)
• To Do for Billable Charge in Error (TD-BCUPL)
• To Do for Bills in Error (TD-BIERR)
• To Do for Callback Orders (TD-ECBK)
• To Do for Customer Contact (TD-CCCB)
• To Do for C&C Events (TD-CEVT)
• To Do for Deposit/Tender Upload Error (TD-DTCST)
• To Do for Field Activity Remark Exception (TD-FACT)
• To Do for Field Activity Upload in Error (TD-FAUPL)
• To Do for Meter Read High/Low Errors (TD-HILO)
• To Do for Meter Read Remarks in Error (TD-MRRER)
• To Do for Meter Read Upload in Error (TD-MRUPL)
• To Do for Non Cash Deposit (TD-NCDEX)
• To Do for Notification Upload in Error (TD-NTUPL)
• To Do for NT Download in Error (TD-NTDWN)
• To Do for Old Pending Start/Stops (TD-SSFTL)
• To Do for Open-Dispute Match Event (TD-MODTL)
• To Do for Open/non-Dispute Match Event (TD-MONTL)
• To Do for Payment Staging Error (TD-PYUPL)
• To Do for Payments in Error/Unfrozen (TD-PYERR)
• To Do for Pending Orders (TD-EPND)
• To Do for Severance Events (TD-SEVT)
• To Do for Severance Processes (TD-SPRO)
• To Do for SP Without Meter Read Cycle (TD-NOMR)
• To Do for Unbalanced Pay Event (TD-UNBAL)
• To Do for Workflow Events in Error (TD-WEXTL)
• To Do for Write-Off Events (TD-WOEVT)
• True Up Budgets (BUDTRUP)
• Update Old FT's as Redundant (REDSAAMT)
• Validate Account (VAL-ACCT)
• Validate Billable Charge (VAL-BCHG)
• Validate Collection Process (VAL-COLL)
• Validate Contract Option Event (VAL-CEVT)
• Validate Contract Option (VAL-COP)
• Validate Field Activity (VAL-FA)
• Validate Field Order (VAL-FO)
• Validate Interval Data Set (VAL-IDS)
• Validate Interval Profile (VAL-INPF)
• Validate Interval Register Data Set (VAL-IRDS)
• Validate Interval Value Set (VAL-IVS)
• Validate Items (VAL-ITEM)
• Validate Landlord (VAL-LL)
• Validate Meter (VAL-MTR)
• Validate Meter Configuration (VAL-CFG)
• Validate Person (VAL-PER)
• Validate Premise (VAL-PREM)
• Validate SA Relationships (VAL-SARL)
• Validate Service Agreement (VAL-SA)
• Validate Severance Process (VAL-SEVP)
• Validate Service Point (VAL-SP)
• Validate TOU Data Set (VAL-TDS)
• Validate TOU Map (VAL-TMAP)
• Validate Workflow Process (VAL-WFP)
• Validate Write Off Process (VAL-WOP)
• Wait for field Actv Completion (WAITFA)
• Wait for Notification Response (WAITNT)
• Workflow Event Trigger (WFET)
• Workflow Event Trigger - Batch Scheduler (C1-WFSUB)
• Workflow Process Initiation (WFPRINIT)
• Workflow Timeout Manual Wait (WAITMAN)
• YTD Charitable Contributions (REACH)
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Support for Encrypted Files and Digital Signatures
Exchanging and signing encrypted files requires the sender and recipient to share keys. In a previous release, the batch processing framework was enhanced to implement file encryption and decryption using PGP standards. Digital signatures are also supported, using the standard 'Sign' option.
New batch parameters have been introduced to the following batch controls to specify the external and internal keys to be used for encrypting and/or signing outbound files and decrypting and/or verifying the signatures of inbound files. The file adapter automatically encrypts, decrypts, signs, and/or verifies the file data based on the existence of these parameters:
• Auto Pay Extract - ACH (APAYACH)
• Auto Pay Extract - ACH with Offset Days Parameter (C1-APACH)
• Download Collection Agency Ref (DWLDCOLL)
• Download Consumption (DWLDCONS)
• Fax Routing (FAXROUT)
• Field Order Download Extract (FODL)
• GL Download Extract (GLDL)
• Notif Download Staging Extract (NDSXTR)
• Postal Bill Routing (POSTROUT)
• Quote Routing (QUOTROUT)
• Download Statements (STMDWLD)
• Conversion-tidy Balances (CNV-BAL)
Refer to each batch control's parameter descriptions for further information. This helps protect the contents of a file from being read by anyone who doesn't have the encryption key.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Parameters Supplied To Background Processes of the Framework Administrative User Guide for more information.
Tips and Considerations
If not performed already, system administrators should set/grant users/grant access to the following application services:
• F1-EXTENCRYPTKEYBOAS
• F1-EXTENCRYPTADDKEY
• F1-INTKEYENCRBOAS
Contextual Insights
This section describes the new and enhanced contextual insights features in this release, including:
Insight Types - Account Overview
You can use the following insight types to surface contextual insights for a customer's account in Oracle Customer Experience for Utilities:
• Account Past Due Card (C1-ACCT-PASTDUE-CARD)
• Unpaid Account for Person Card (C1-PER-NONPAY-CARD)
These insights can help elevate customer service interactions by providing additional information about the customer in the most appropriate screens.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Insight Groups section of the Administrative User Guide for more information.
Insight Types - Unpaid Account for Person Details Capped
You can use the Unpaid Account for Person Details Capped (C1-PER-NONPAY-CARD-DET) insight type to display a non-payment details contextual insight for a customer in Oracle Customer Experience for Utilities.
This helps elevate customer service interactions by providing additional information about the customer in the most appropriate screens.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Insight Groups section of the Administrative User Guide for more information.
Insight Types - Premise-related
These insight types allow you to surface contextual insights for a customer in Oracle Customer Experience for Utilities:
• Premise Severance Activity (C1-PREM-SEV): Provides a high level insight as to whether active severance activity exists for the premise and whether it involves a disconnected service for non-payment.
• Premise Disconnect Service Information (C1-PREM-SVC): Provides a high level insight as to whether service is disconnected or device is turned off for a premise.
• Premise Past Due Information (C1-PREM-PASTDUE): Provides a high level insight into the oldest past due debt for any of the premise's active accounts.
This helps elevate customer service interactions by providing additional information about the customer in the most appropriate screens.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Insight Groups section of the Administrative User Guide for more information.
Insight Types - Prepaid Billing Enrollment
You can use the Prepaid Billing Enrollment (C1-PBILLENRL-LIST) insight type to surface a prepaid billing enrollment contextual insight for a customer in Oracle Customer Experience for Utilities.
This helps elevate customer service interactions by providing additional information about the customer in the most appropriate screens.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Insight Groups section of the Administrative User Guide for more information.
Credit and Collections
This section describes the new and enhanced credit and collections features in this release, including:
Severance Process - Near Real-Time Service Reconnection
When a severance process is cancelled, an algorithm based on the application-owned Severance Process Template – Post Cancel algorithm type, SEV POST CAN (Reconnect service if service is cut and cust. Pays), is called if plugged in and checks to see if the severance process has a completed ‘disconnect’ severance event. If so, it creates a "reconnection" severance process using the Reconnect Severance Process Template defined in the algorithm parameter. This typically occurs because outstanding debt has been paid and the related service agreement is no longer eligible to be on the severance process.
In this release, the application can now initiate a near real-time service reconnection following the cancellation of a disconnection-related severance process. The updated SEV POST CAN (Reconnect Service if Service is Cut and Cust. Pays) algorithm type includes an additional parameter that enables you to define if a batch process should be submitted for each newly created reconnection severance process to activate all severance events whose trigger date is on or before the supplied business date. The submitted batch process is based on the new Trigger Severance Events for a Severance Process (C1-SESP) batch control.
Previously, the application called a SEV POST CAN-based algorithm when a severance process was cancelled to determine whether the process has a completed disconnect severance event. If the event existed, the application created a reconnection severance process using the Reconnect Severance Process Template defined in the algorithm parameter. The creation of the reconnection severance process typically occurred when the outstanding debt had been paid and the related service agreement was no longer eligible to be included in the severance process.
This improves customer satisfaction by initiating prompt service reconnection following payment of a customer's outstanding debt.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, complete these steps:
1. Create or update the applicable post-cancel algorithm(s) based on the SEV POST CAN algorithm type and set the Trigger Reconnect Process Events algorithm parameter set to Y.
2. Configure or update the applicable disconnect severance process templates with the applicable post-cancel algorithm(s).
3. Configure or schedule the Trigger Severance Events for a Severance Process (C1-SESP) batch control to run at an implementation-defined intervals on your batch schedule to initiate near real-time service reconnections.
Tips and Considerations
A new To Do Type, Trigger Severance Events for a Severance Process Errors (C1-SETSP), is provided to create To Do Entries for object-specific errors detected by the above batch process.
Arrears History
The application captures a history of arrears (amount owed) for accounts under an active collection activity – those with an active collection, severance, or overdue process. An arrears history record is created upon the respective process’s creation and a subsequent record created each time there is a change in the amount owed or other relevant data captured for that active collection activity’s account, until the collection activity becomes inactive.
The key information captured is the amount still owed for the collection activity, the cancellation threshold amount, the amount owed before being adjusted by future payments, and the reason the arrears history record was created.
There are a number of plugin spots responsible for capturing arrears history. These are called when the collection activity processes that collect on debt are created, system processes that monitor ongoing collection of debt, and by some system events such as payments or other credit financial transactions, creation of pay plans, and so on. These plugin spots include:
• Debt Class - Collection Process Cancellation
• Debt Class - Severance Process Cancellation
• Collection Process Template - Cancel Criteria
• Severance Process Template - Cancel Criteria
• Overdue Process Template - Cancel Criteria
The system uses child maintenance objects that extend their parent object to capture arrears history records for an active collection activity. Arrears history records are stored in the following tables:
• Collection Process Arrears History (C1_COLL_PROC_ARS_HIST)
• Collection Process SA Arrears History (C1_COLL_PROC_SA_ARS_HIST) (used when system is configured to use service agreement-oriented cancel criteria)
• Severance Process Arrears History (C1_SEV_PROC_ARS_HIST)
• Overdue Process Arrears History (C1_OD_PROC_ARS_HIST)
Note: Currently, there is no user interface to view arrears history records. Rather, these are stored in the system so these can be retrieved by other processes and APIs.
This feature will enable efficient inquires of debt under collection for a person or business, and also support utilities who want to analyze payment patterns for debt under collection.
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Tips and Considerations
Update implementation-specific algorithm types for these system events to leverage new inputs and populate outputs to create Arrears History records:
• Debt Class – Collection Process Cancellation
• Output: Unadjusted Arrears Amount
• Debt Class – Severance Process Cancellation
• Input: Calculate-Only Switch
• Output:
• Unadjusted Arrears Amount
• Cancellation Threshold Amount
• Collection Process Template – Cancel Criteria
• Output: Cancellation Threshold Amount
• Severance Process Template – Cancel Criteria
• Output: Cancellation Threshold Amount
• Overdue Process Template – Cancel Criteria
• Output:
• Arrears Amount
• Cancellation Threshold Amount
• Arrears Amount Indeterminant Switch
Run these background processes (batch controls) to create the initial Arrears History records for active processes:
• Collection Process Monitor (CPM)
• Create Severance Process Arrears History Records (C1-UPSAH)
• Overdue and Event Cut Manager (C1-ODET)
Customer Information
This section describes the new and enhanced customer information features in this release, including:
Service Point Page - Install Date Renamed
The In Service Date label replaces the Install Date label in the Main tab of the Service Point page.
This provides a more intuitive label to describe the service point’s availability for service.
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Customer Interactions
This section describes the new and enhanced customer interaction features in this release, including:
Customer 360 Portal - Customer Activity History Zone Updates
The Customer Activity History zone on the Customer 360 portal now includes reported outage calls in the list of account-related events to provide a more comprehensive view of your customer's activity.
Additionally, uou can now exclude specific activity types from the list of account-related events to display for a customer. The activity types to exclude can be configured in the Activity History Configuration master configuration.
This helps to reduce call handling times and allows common account queries to be handled more efficiently.
Steps to Enable
To enable this feature, complete these steps:
1. Select Admin, select General, and select Master Configuration.
2. Create or edit the Activity History Configuration master configuration.
3. Add the account activity types to exclude in the Exclude Activity Types section.
4. Save the changes.
Initiating Digital Communications for Recipients Without an Account
You can now create template-based notifications that can be sent to individuals or businesses a without related account.This is useful, for example, for sending digital confirmations associated with requests for new service or outages in public locations.
Note that these template-based notifications only apply to the following application-owned business objects:
• Template-Based Parent Push Notification Type (C1-NotifTypeTmplParentPush)
• Template-Based Individual Push Notification Type (C1-NotifTypeTmplIndividualPush)
• Template-Based Subscription Notification Type (C1-NotifTypeTmplSubscription)
Steps to Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Tips and Considerations
The following plug-in spots still require an account ID:
• Suppression Criteria for notification types based on the Template-Based Parent Push Notification Type (C1-NotifTypeTmplParentPush) or Template-Based Subscription Notification Type (C1-NotifTypeTmplSubscription) business object.
• Override Delivery Info for notification types based on the Template-Based Individual Push Notification Type (C1-NotifTypeTmplIndividualPush) or Template-Based Subscription Notification Type (C1-NotifTypeTmplSubscription) business object.
Customer Contact Improvements
You can now update the Customer Contact Type on an existing customer contact record in edit mode. The change in Customer Contact Type is only supported when the original and new type both reference the same business object. In addition, you will not be able to select a Customer Contact Type that meets any of the following criteria:
• Is associated with a Letter Template where the Special Extract checkbox is selected. This type of letter should only be created via a system-generated event, such as a collection notice.
• Has its Contact Action configuration option set to record a notification. Customer contacts of this type should only be created via a system-generated event.
In addition to the above, you can now add tags to classify a customer contact. Tag values are captured as characteristics where the Characteristic Type has the characteristic entity set to both Characteristic Tag and Customer Contact. On a customer contact, these tag values are displayed and maintained in the new Tag section, while other customer contact-related characteristics will continue to be displayed and maintained in the Characteristics section.
Steps to Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Tips and Considerations
If an implementation wishes to prevent users from changing the Customer Contact Type on existing customer contact records, you can configure the Prevent Customer Contact Type Change feature option to Y on the Customer Information Options related feature configuration.
DataConnect
This section describes the new and enhanced DataConnect features in this release, including:
Bill Identifier in DataConnect’s Billing-related Data Extracts
The Bill Segment Lines and Bill Segment SQ data extracts now include the Bill Identifier for each record.
The data in these billing-related extracts can now be easily matched or correlated with data in other billing-related extracts.
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Tips and Considerations
If your implementation uses these extracts to integrate to other solutions or applications, consider modifying your data mapping or ingest capabilities to take into account the new data.
Digital Self Service Integration
This section describes the new and enhanced Digital Self Service Integration features in this release, including:
Questions and Response Processing for Start/Stop/Transfer Service Requests
The Question tab of the Customer Service Request Type portal enables you to define one or more questions to appear during the flow of self-service initiated start, stop, and transfer service request processing based on the applicability to the customer and/or services being started/stopped. You can also group questions based on where they appear on the user interface. For example, you can distinguish questions for starting service from questions for stopping service when processing a transfer service request.
The responses to these questions can be inputs to service eligibility criteria processing that determines one or more of the following:
• Eligibility of service point-based service agreements for starting or stopping service
• Eligible start options
• Additional non-service point-based service agreements to start or stop
You can also configure the questions to update specific fields or entities on applicable master records (for example, Person, Account, and more) with the captured responses during the processing or completion of a self-service initiated start, stop, or transfer service request.
Note: This feature is currently not leveraged by agent-assisted initiated process flows for start, stop, and transfer service requests.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Questions and Response Processing section of the Administrative User Guide for more information.
Self-Service Initiated Start/Stop/Transfer Service Request Processing
New and enhanced entities are available for self-service initiated start, stop, and transfer service requests, which adds greater flexibility for:
• Third-party ID or credit check integration
• Duplicate customer prevention
• Co-applicant processing
• Individual start service selection
• Questions and answers administration and processing
• Deposit assessment
The following were added to support self-service initiated requests:
• Business Objects for Action Method, Customer Service Request Type, Self-service Task, and Self-service Task Type that define specific configuration and/or behavior for processing service request transactions.
• Algorithms and Algorithm Types to define and apply specific business rules during the processing of service request transactions.
• Inbound Web Services (incoming message objects) to provide for the initiation and processing of New Service, Add Service, Stop Service, and Transfer Service request transactions.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Self-Service Start/Stop/Transfer Overview and Self-Service Start/Stop/Transfer sections of the Administrative User Guide for more information.
Payment Processing
This section describes the new and enhanced Payment Processing features in this release, including:
Validating New Bank Accounts for Automated Clearing House Electronic Payments
You can choose to validate all your customers’ new bank account details prior to their first use for automated clearing house electronic payments using NACHA. This is regardless of whether the bank account details are entered via self-service activities, agent-assisted manual one-time payments, or added to the Account - Automatic Payment (CI_ACCT_APAY) table via the application.
Previously, Web Debit Account Validation functionality was provided to support validating a customer's bank accounts entered through the following means:
• Self-service activities
• Automatic Payment Setup
• Make One Time Payment
• Manage Payment Options (wallet)
• Agent-assisted manual one-time payments via the alternative Payment Event pop-up window
To support bank account validation when details are added to the Account - Automatic Payment (CI_ACCT_APAY) table, the following updates have been made:
• Updated the processing associated with the Account - Automatic Payment (CI_ACCT_APAY) table to trigger bank account validation when a customer's bank savings/checking account is entered via the application. The validation is managed by a service task based on the Bank Account Auto Pay Setup Task (C1-BankAcctApaySetupTask) business object. If there is a subsequent attempt to add or change an account's automatic payment bank details and validation is still in progress, you will be notified through an informational message displayed on the Account - Auto Pay page.
• The Validate state in the business object invokes the account validation processing that is configured on Auto Pay Route Type (or CIS Division, if the override configuration exists). It also creates a customer contact. The Customer Contact Class and Customer Contact Type for the customer contact are retrieved from the service task type based on the new Bank Account Auto Pay Setup Task Type (C1-BankAcctApaySetupTaskType) business object.
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Web Debit Account Validation section in the Administrative User Guide for more information.
Rating and Billing
This section describes the new and enhanced rate and billing features in this release, including:
Improved Usage Allocation from Shared Service Point
The Use Percent field on the SA / SP tab indicates the percentage of a metered service point's consumption that is to be billed under that service agreement. This field now provides a consumption percentage accuracy of up to two decimal places.
This improves the allocation of usage to a service agreement, from a shared service point or points, enabling more accurate billing of usage-related charges.
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Additional Date Break Information on Usage Request for Improved Billing Calculations
The Rate Engine Configuration master configuration enables you to instruct the application to evaluate Rate Schedule, Bill Factor, and/or Seasonal breaks, for when pricing changes, to determine the date break information to stamp onto a service agreement's related usage request. Additional date break information will allow usage calculation rules to derive more precise billing determinants to enable bills to be calculated more accurately.
Note: The Build Usage Request Date Breaks (C1-BLDDATEBR) business object pre-processing algorithm on the MDM Usage Request (C1-UsageRequest) business object contains the logic to build the above date break list.
Steps to Enable
To enable this feature, complete these steps:
1. Select Admin, General, and Master Configuration.
2. Create or find the Rate Engine Configuration master configuration.
3. Select the application break options in the Usage Request Date Breaks section.
4. Save the changes.
Tips and Considerations
This only applies to calculation rule-based Rate Schedules and supports the following types of rate calculation rules:
• Service Quantity - based on the C1-ServiceQuantity business object
• Stepped Service Quantity - based on the C1-SteppedSQ business object
Online Bill - Assigning Alternative Bill Identifier
The Alternative Bill ID is assigned to newly created and completed online bills after the processing of post-completion algorithms.
This aligns the process of assigning an Alternative Bill ID to an online bill with that of batch billing.
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Rate Schedule - Detailed Description
The Detailed Description field allows you to add more descriptive text to a rate schedule. For example, a detailed description to explain the structure of the rate and provide a high-level summary of calculations without having to look into the calculation rules.
This enables you to provide more user-friendly information to help understand the rate.
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Background Processes to Perform Billing Functions on Individual Bills
These new batch controls enable you to perform specific billing-related transactions via background processing:
• Generate Single Bill (C1-GENBL)
• Freeze Single Bill (C1-FRZBL)
• Cancel Frozen Bill Segments (C1-CFRBL)
• Reopen Single Bill (C1-OPNBL)
• Delete Single Bill (C1-DELBL) batch control enables purging of a pending bill when:
• The bill is not a credit or correction note.
• The bill is not assigned a document number or sequential bill number.
• The statuses of all its bill segments are Incomplete, Freezable, or Error.
The updated Complete Single Bill (C1-CPLBL) batch control aligns the conditions to complete a bill with the online function for bills whose accounts have a small number of service agreements. Refer to the Detailed Descriptions associated with the Select Records and Process Records algorithms for more information.
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Stepped Service Quantity Rate Calculation Rule - Negative Steps Support
You can now configure the Stepped Service Quantity rate calculation rule with negative steps where the step configuration can be from high to low. For example, you can configure a 0 to -200 step, -200 to -400 step, and so on.
Additionally, these updates to the creation and maintenance of stepped service quantity rate calculation rules improves the user experience:
• Added "Sequence" to optionally identify step levels.
• Renamed the Low Value label to Step Start.
• Renamed the High Value label to Step End.
This reduces the effort to configure and maintain rates schedules for calculating charges for solar generation customers (prosumers).
Steps To Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Defining Calculation Rules section of the Business User Guide for more information.
Rate Check Support for Multi-Items
The enhanced Rate Check portal can retrieve and use multi-item details for rate calculation purposes. Details may be retrieved from a related bill segment or from service points linked to a service agreement. Item details are populated in the Items section with the following information:
• Item Type
• Start Date
• End Date
• Item Count
For a service agreement’s type where bill determinants are required, the Items subsection appears in the Usage Periods section for each respective usage period. This may be automatically populated as follows depending on the selected Usage Request Method:
• If Existing Usage is selected and a bill segment is specified, effective item details are retrieved for the bill segment for each respective usage period.
• If New Usage is selected, effective item details are retrieved from the service points linked to the specified service agreement for each respective usage period.
For a service agreement's type that does not require bill determinants, an Items section appears for the entire bill segment period. This may be automatically populated as follows:
• If a bill segment is specified, effective item details are retrieved for the bill segment.
• If a bill segment is not specified, effective item details are retrieved from the service points linked to the specified service agreement for the given period.
In both scenarios or if no service agreement is specified, you can manually override or populate the item details if required for your specific rate calculation scenario.
In addition to the above, the Rate Check – Main tab includes the following improvements:
• A new Clear button to clear the contents on the portal
• Service Quantities and Characteristics sections are now optionally collapsible
Steps To Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Start/Stop/Transfer Service Request Processing
This section describes the new and enhanced start, stop, and transfer service request processing features in this release, including:
Multi-Jurisdiction Support
Start and transfer service requests submitted through agent-assisted process flows, based on the Start Service Request Process (C1-STARTSERVICEREQUEST) and Transfer Service Request Process (C1-TRANSFERSERVICEREQUEST) process flow types, now support CIS Division processing.
Additionally, Customer Service Request Types based on the Start Service Request Type (C1-StartServiceRequestType) and Transfer Service Request Type (C1-TransferServiceRequestType) business objects instruct the application to issue a warning of any mismatch between the customer service request type's CIS Division and other CIS Division-related configurations when the CIS Division value is not null or empty.
Start Service Request
If the Control by CIS Division configuration option on Installation Options is set to ‘Yes’, the application prompts you for a premise via the new Move-to Premise dialog box when the Start Service link is clicked (for example, from the Premise Tree sidebar portal zone). Once a premise is selected, a process flow and related parent customer service request are initiated based on the configuration defined on the start service-related Action Method for the premise's CIS Division (if configured).
On initiated process flows, the following updates have been made to specific panels:
• Move-to Premise panel
• The application disables the Premise ID field and Search button as a premise has been selected prior to the initiation of the start service request process flow.
• Customer Identification panel
• In the Create New Customer and Customer Identification sections, the CIS Division is defaulted to the premise’s CIS Division (if specified) when a new account is to be created. If not specified, the CIS Division from the customer service request’s Customer Service Request Type is defaulted.
• For existing customers, eligible accounts are the ones where their CIS Division matches the defaulted CIS Division on the process flow.
Note: The defaulted CIS Division appears in "display-only" mode when its Restrict to Account CIS Division configuration option is set to ‘Restricted’.
• Services to Start panel
• The application assigns the CIS Division based on the following conditions:
• If the account's CIS Division is specified, this becomes the assigned value.
• If the account's CIS Division is not specified, the premise's CIS Division becomes the assigned value.
• If both the account's and premise's CIS Division are not specified, the CIS Division from the customer service request's Customer Service Request Type becomes the assigned value.
• If the account's, premise's, and customer service request’s Customer Service Request Type CIS Division are not specified, the application assigns a null or empty value.
• The application processes the default deposit and additional services for the assigned CIS Division based on the following conditions:
• If the CIS Division's Restrict to Account CIS Division configuration option is set to ‘Restricted’, the application retrieves the applicable SA Types from the customer service request’s Customer Service Request Type to process the deposit and additional services. If there are no applicable SA Types for the CIS Division, the application skips the service agreement processing for deposit and / or additional services.
• If the CIS Division's Restrict to Account CIS Division configuration option is set to ‘Not Restricted’, the application retrieves all CIS Division and SA Type combinations from the customer service request’s Customer Service Request Type to process the deposit and / or additional services.
Transfer Service Request
On the initiated process flows, the following updates have been made to specific panels:
• Move-to Premise Address panel
• If the account’s CIS Division has it’s Restrict to Account CIS Division configuration option set to ‘Restricted’, the premise search will return premises belonging to that CIS Division and those with no CIS Division specified.
• Service to Start panel
• The application processes the default deposit and additional services for the assigned CIS Division based on the following conditions:
• If the CIS Division's Restrict to Account CIS Division configuration option is set to ‘Restricted’, the application retrieves the applicable SA Types from the customer service request’s Customer Service Request Type to process the deposit and additional services. If there are no applicable SA Types for the CIS Division, the application skips the service agreement processing for deposit and / or additional services.
• If the CIS Division's Restrict to Account CIS Division configuration option is set to ‘Not Restricted’, the application retrieves all CIS Division and SA Type combinations from the customer service request’s Customer Service Request Type to process the deposit and / or additional services..
Steps to Enable
To enable this feature, complete these steps:
1. Click Admin, General, and Installation Options.
2. On the Main tab, select Yes from the Control By CIS Division drop-down list.
3. Optionally, click Admin, General, and CIS Division.
4. For applicable CIS Divisions, select Restricted from the Restrict to Account CIS Division drop-down list.
5. Click Admin, Customer, and Customer Service Request Type.
6. Create or update the applicable Customer Service Request Types with the applicable CIS Division.
7. Update the start service-related and transfer service-related Action Methods with the applicable override configuration settings.
User Interface Experience
This section describes the new and enhanced user interface experience features in this release, including:
Unified Search Improvements
The toolbar search box allows you to easily search and retrieve Premise records using a wider range of address-related information (for example, apartment number in a complex). The address search now queries by:
• Address Lines
• Address Lines and Postal
• Address Lines, City, and Postal
• Address Lines, City, and State
• Address Lines, City, State, and Postal
Additionally, the search results from a unified search, when an address filter is applied, now displays customer accounts at a location with active service agreements first, followed by accounts with inactive service agreements. The application populates the area below the toolbar search box with search results matching your criteria. A service agreement is considered active if it has an "Active" or "Pending Stop" status.
This reduces call handling times and provides efficient handling of common account queries.
Steps to Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Calculation Rule Portal View Rules Link
The Calculation Rule portal has a View Rules link that allows you to view all rules in the same group in a new zone.
This replaces the rules-related Sidebar portal zones and therefore frees up space on the Sidebar portal to more consistently display critical customer information and reduce the need for scrolling.
Steps to Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Web Services
This section describes the new and enhanced web services features in this release, including:
Additional and Updated REST APIs
These new REST API Inbound Web Services expose various customer-related entities and data, and provide the capability to create, manage, and view that data:
• Business Person Queries (C1-PersonQueries): Returns summary information for the provided Person. This summary is intended for business persons that may have multiple active billing accounts and premise service locations. It also lists top 10 persons with the highest overdue amount from a list of person IDs.
• Entity References (C1-EntityReferences): Provides summary information for a selected list of entities captured as external references on Oracle Customer Experience for Utilities records, including hierarchical relationship information for presentation purposes.
• Service Point Search (C1-ServicePointSearch): Enables paginated search by premise, account, or person and also provides the following search filters:
• Address Constituents
• Service Type
• Service Points Common (C1-ServicePointCommon): Returns summary information for a provided service point.
• Rates (C1-Rates): Retrieves a list of rate schedules for a service agreement type and CIS Division.
• Premise Activity History (C1-PremiseActivityHistory): Retrieves historical premise activity records and navigation details for activity types including cases, field activities, service orders, customer contacts, and severance or cut processes.
• Person Financial Data (C1-PersonData): Retrieves debt details for a single customer, including list of billing accounts in collections and collections details.
The following updated REST API Inbound Web Services also expose various customer-related entities and data, and allow you to manage that data:
• Billing Context (C1-BillingContext):
• The updated Get Person Accounts operation now indicates whether the persons returned are a Person or Business
• The updated Search Account Premise can query by Account ID or Person ID (main customer for an account) and optionally filter by Address Constituents.
• The Get Billing Account Context operation returns billing account information, including related persons and their relationship to the account, and related premise information.
• The updated Search Account Premises operation returns additional information related to a premise such as service type(s) supplied to a premise, number of service points, and life support information.
• The updated Search Person Accounts operation optionally, returns "inactive' accounts", that is accounts with service agreements, but all service agreements are either canceled or closed.
• The Premise Customer History operation retrieves account information of current and past customers who paid for services at a premise.
• The enhanced Get Person Accounts operation provides a person or business indicator for each returned person and a list of service types associated with an account.
• Person (C1-Person): A new Person Search operation to perform a capped (non-paginated) search based on specific criteria.
• Person Search (C1-PersonSearch): The updated Person Search operation:
• Adds support for a Legacy Account Number filter that returns all persons associated with accounts that are linked to service agreements stamped with a specific legacy account number. For active service agreements, related premise information is also returned.
• Indicates if a returned person is the Main Customer for an account.
• Returns vacant premises (not linked to active service agreements) if Geographic-related filters are used.
• SA Data (C1-SAData): The updated SA UOMs and Financial Statistics operation to include granularity level of usage data available for a service agreement, frequency of the current rate schedule, and number of linked service points.
• To Do Entry (F1-ToDoEntry): The Assign Next To Do Entry operation allocates the next applicable To Do entry for the current user based on custom business rules.
• Work Queue (C1-WorkQueue): The enhanced Get Work Queue operation returns the account identifier and main person name for to do entries.
• Premise (C1-Premise): New and enhanced operations.
• The Search Premises operation performs a capped query based on an address or meter badge number.
• The updated Get Premise operation returns the service types supplied to a premise.
• Service Agreement (C1-ServiceAgreement)
• The updated Search SA for Account operation excludes cancelled service agreements when returning inactive service agreements, and an additional option to only return closed service agreements.
• The SA Search operation searches by account or premise.
• The updated Get Service Agreement operation returns a service agreement's status.
• Financial Data for Accounts (C1-AccountData):
• The updated Get Account Financial Details operation returns specific information for inactive billing accounts such as the most recent end date from an account's closed service agreements.
• The Get Account Collection Details operation retrieves high-level information about an account's active collections situation.
• Includes the current balance and total balance for each account through the enhanced Multi-Account Billing Statistics operation.
• Account (C1-Account):
• New operations to create and delete Account Person records as well as get and update Account Person information.
• New operations to create, manage, and show an account's autopay record.
• The Get Account Alerts operation retrieves an account's alerts.
• The Get Account Credit History Rating operation retrieves an account's credit rating history.
• Notification Preferences for Accounts (C1-NotificationPreferencesForAccounts): Filters and retrieves accounts without active notification preferences for specific notification types.
• Bill Segment (C1-Bill Segment): Includes the CIS Division Description in the responses.
• Customer Activity History (C1-CustomerActivityHistory):
• The Get Customer Activity History operation retrieves specific types of historical customer activity records and navigation details for activity types including customer contacts, bills, payments, field activities, service orders, and service tasks. It is also possible to exclude activity types through configuration of a new Activity History Configuration master configuration.
• Premise (C1-Premise): The Premise Statistics Service operation retrieves the average billing amounts for services linked to a premise.
• Bill (C1-Bill):
• New operations to create, manage, and show bill routing records for a bill.
• The enhanced Get Bill operation provide an option to include the Online Bill URL link to the image of a bill.
• Budget (C1-Budget): The enhanced Get Budget operation retrieves additional information for each eligible service agreement (for example, CIS Division, CIS Division Description, Service Agreement Type, Service Agreement Type Description, and Service Type).
• Usage Data from Bills (C1-BilledUsageData): The enhanced Billed Usage for SA operation retrieves usage related highlights (for example, average bill period usage, average daily usage, bill segment based on lowest usage, and bill segment based on highest usage).
• Outage Event Snapshot (C1-OutageEventNotifications): Receives an input list of outage event notifications to store the latest information about customers impacted by outages. Outage information can be integrated from an external system such as Oracle Utilities Network Management System. This integration leverages outage event information shared for notification purposes and will be used to enable insights and portals in future releases.
Steps to Enable
To enable this feature, refer to the Oracle Utilities REST API for Metering and Customer Information documentation.
Miscellaneous
This section describes the new and enhanced miscellaneous features in this release, including:
Enabling Implementation-Specific Values for Payment Method
The Payment Method (PYMNT_METHOD_FLG) lookup now allows implementations to add implementation-specific values.
This allows alternative methods to be defined for reimbursing a customer (for example, via electronic funds transfer or credit card).
Steps to Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Enabling Implementation-Specific Payment Selection Statuses for A/P Requests
The Payment Selection Status (PYMNT_SEL_STAT_FLG) lookup now enables you to add implementation-specific values.
This enables additional statuses to be defined and used when reimbursing a customer via an A/P Request (adjustment).
Steps to Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.
Updated Application Services on Administration Records
The following business objects have had their application services updated to specific application-owned values where the Application Service ID was previously set to the generic F1-DFLTS application service:
• C1ContractOptionPhysical
• C1PersonPhysical
• C1MeterConfigurationPhysical
• C1LeadPhysical
• C1ItemPhysical
• C1-IssuingCenterPhysicalBO
• C1SCMPhysical
• C1LeadEventPhysical
• C1-ApprovalRequestPhysicalBO
• C1ServicePointPhysical
• C1StatementConstructPhysical
• C1MeterReadPhysical
• C1MeterPhysical
• C1FieldActivityPhysical
• C1-BalCtrlGrpPhysical
• C1TermsOfServicePhysical
• C1-NonBilledBudgetPhysicalBO
• C1RebateClaimLinePhysical
• C1CasePhysical
• C1UmbrellaAgreementPhysical
• C1TrendPhysical
• C1PremisePhysical
• C1LandlordAgreementPhysical
• C1RebateClaimPhysical
• C1AccountPhysical
• C1-SARelationshipPhysicalBO
• C1OffCycleBillGenPhysical
• C1ServiceAgreementPhysical
• C1FieldOrderPhysical
The C1-CustSvcRqstPhysicalBO business object's application service was updated to C1-CSREQ where the Application Service ID was previously set to C1-CSR.
These service program application services were updated as follows:
• CILCARQP: From F1-DFLTS to C1-APPRREQ.
• C1-CALCLINECAT: From C1CALCAT to C1-CL-CAT.
Steps to Enable
No steps are required to enable this feature.