Understanding Service Order Management

At a high level, service order management handles requests for service as follows:

Receive / Create Service Order Request

A service order request is created and/or received. This can be as a result of a customer requesting a change to their service such as enabling or disabling service when moving into or out of a residence, but can also be the result of other business processes, such as a request to cut service due to non-payment.

Regardless of the origin of the request, a service order request is created in a customer information system (CIS) such as Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing), which in turn is sent to Service Order Management.

Create Service Order Activity

When Service Order Management receives the service order request, it creates a service order activity. This activity will manage and orchestrate any/all other activities needed to fulfill the original service request.

Evaluate Service Point and/or Meter

The service order activity then evaluates the current state of the service point, meter, or item, and determines the appropriate action(s) to take to fulfill the service request.

Create Activities as Needed / Appropriate

Based on the evaluation of the service point/meter/item, the service order activity creates one or more activities as needed.

  • Service order field activities involve sending workers into the field to perform service. This can include meter installation, meter replacement, and other activities.

  • Command activities are smart meter commands used to remotely change the state of the meter. This can include connect, disconnect, checking the device status (ping), or requesting an on-demand reading.

Following each of activities, the orchestration activity re-evaluates the state of the service point/ meter/item to determine the next appropriate action(s) required to fulfill the original service request.

For example, when enabling service at a service point with a smart scalar meter, a typical scenario might involve the following:

  1. Service Order Field Activity - Install Meter

  2. Command Activity: Commission Device

  3. Command Activity: Remote Connect

  4. Command Activity: On Demand Read - Scalar

Update Requesting System

When the service order activity determines that everything necessary to satisfy the service order request is ready, the service order activity will inform the requester and complete the original request.

Send Notification to Subscribing Systems

The service order activity can also be configured to send notifications to other subscribing systems regarding the status of the service point/meter/item.