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.

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/regions/

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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.

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