Selecting a New Billing &
Financial Management System
Kimberly Williams, NISC
678-428-1699
[email protected]
SCAMPS
“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is
the premise of progress, in every society, in every family
.”
Agenda
• Information Gathering
• Formulating a Plan
• Documentation
• Vendor Analysis
• Negotiation
• Commitment
Information Gathering
•
The Big Picture - What are your drivers for change?
•
Lack of automation
•
Technology advances
•
Lack of functionality
•
Lack of vendor support
•
Rising support costs
•
Tools to improve customer service
•
Keeping up with the Jones’
Information Gathering
•
The Details - What are your drivers for change?
•
Departmental or Enterprise focused
•
Process related functionality
•
Must have, nice to have, I wish
Develop a team with a clearly
defined Project Leader that
Information Gathering
• Customer Engagement Apps
• Customer Relationship Management • Billing Management
• Cashiering
• Equipment Management • Service Order Management and
Workflows
• Delinquent and Collections • Account Management • Contract Tracking • Work Management • General Ledger • Bank Reconciliation • Budgeting • Miscellaneous Receivables • Installment Loans • Asset Management • Work Orders • Fleet Management • Purchase Orders • Material Inventory • Accounts Payable
• Payroll / Time Attendance • Employee Self-Serve
• Outage Management Solution • Mapping
• Call Capture IVR
with Secure Payments • Mobile Workforce
• Staking • SmartTrack
• Meter Data Management • PrePay Metering
• Work Management Consulting • ESRI Connectivity and Cleanup
Customer Care & Billing
Accounting & Business
Engineering & Operations
• App Suite
• Web Presentment
(iPAD and Tablet compatible)
• Document Management
• AMS Bill Printing Services
• Payment Gateway
• Technical Services • Disaster Recovery • Hosted Services • Cloud Based Solutions
Integrated Solutions & Services
• VeriFone
• RemitPlus
• SecurePay
• Online Bill Pay Interface (OBI)
• PayNow
• Virtual Terminal
• Kiosks
• MoneyGram
Information Gathering
•
Ask neighboring cities, utilities
•
Who are they using? Are they happy?
•
Did they convert recently? How good
is the support?
•
Schedule Vendor Demonstrations
•
On-site or Remote
•
2 hour overview or a full day
•
Visit Neighboring Cities and Utilities
•
State Associations
•
APPA
Formulate a plan
Implementation
(keep it simple)
YEAR 5 AND BEYOND
•
Implement core
technology
•
Train staff
•
Successfully convert data
•
Manage change
•
Define new processes
•
Adjust existing processes
to avoid custom
modifications
•
Implement non-core
technology (bells & whistles)
•
Refine processes
•
Refresher training
•
Regional & National User
Groups
•
Online Training
•
Identify functional gaps
•
Mobile Devices
•
AMI
•
New, unforeseen
technology advances
•
Paperless
•
Data management
•
Customer retention
•
New services
GO LIVE
Post-live
(Years 2 - 5)
Future focus
(What matters most)
Formulate a plan
Areas of Focus
Weight of
Importance
Technology
5%
Price
5%
Integration
15%
Automation
5%
Support
20%
Vendor stability and background
15%
Departmental functionality requirements
15%
Overall utility requirements
5%
Implementation success
15%
What are your top five or ten or fifteen core objectives both
departmentally and organizationally?
Documentation
•
Questions and Answers by department
•
Include a Critical or Must Have section
•
Weight for more effective evaluation
•
Develop a list of essay questions
Documentation
Detail processes
so vendors can
explain interfaces,
identify gaps and
recommend best
practices
Vendor Analysis
•
Step One
o Develop a list of Vendors that passed your
Initial analysis
o Ask for ballpark pricing based on your current
identified needs
• Step Two
o Drill into the functionality through detailed
analysis
o Revisit sites now that you know more
o Get intimate
Vendor Analysis
•
Demonstration Guidelines
• Provide a list of the most important processes you want
demonstrated
o Ask for exact information and not generalizations
o SHOW THE FUNCTIONALITY
o Ask the vendor to alert you when they are demonstrating
something not included in the price proposal
Vendor Analysis
•
Demonstration Guidelines
• Format
o Review of requested functionality
o Overview of entire solution
o Vendor background
• Understand the vendor’s focus… will
you be a big fish or small fish
?
Functionality is only as good as the
implementation training and the
• Demonstrations
o Vendor background
• Understand the vendor’s focus… will you be a
big fish or small fish
?
o Market focus
o Support and response times
o Implementation and Implementation track record
o Company overview
o Investment in RDQ and R&D roadmap
o Technology
o Pricing – what is and is not included in the
proposal
o Sales to implementation process
o Reference case studies
Vendor Analysis
Hard Questions some vendors don’t want you to ask…
• About the Implementation
o Have you ever failed an install, why and how many?
o Have you ever been sued, why and how many times?
o How many implementations are ongoing currently?
o How many other projects will our project manager manage during our implementation?
o How do you manage the sales to implementation information transfer?
o Do you have a formalized implementation process?
• About the Company
o What is the ratio of your employees to total number of customers?
o Can I attend a regional or national user group prior to signing a contract?
o What is your percentage of staff turnover in the past 3 years, by department?
Vendor Analysis
Hard Questions some vendors don’t want you to ask…
• About Support and R&D
o Do you have a major or minor software rewrite scheduled in the next 5 years?
o Have you been through a major or minor software rewrite in the past 5 years?
o
Is your solution fully integrated… meaning did your company write all the code using a single
methodology and toolset?
o How much and what percent of your annual net revenue is reinvested in RDQ each year for the
past three years?
o What is your current support call backlog? What is your average response time?
o Where is your support call center?
o Do you outsource development, and if so, where?
o How many resources do you have dedicated to Quality Assurance?
• About References
o How many net new customers have you signed in the past 3 years? (no upgrades or sales to
base included). Who was your competition?
o Name the customers you have lost in the past three years, and explain why. What vendor did
they choose?
Negotiation
• Post – Demonstrations and Site Visits
• Evaluate each vendor during and immediately after
their presentations
• Questions back to the vendor
o Ask for narrative clarifications for items still
unclear
o Ask for revised pricing
o Ask for a list of all potential custom
modifications with pricing estimates.
o Ask for a list of all third party applications
required and the relative expenses
o Define integration versus interface methods
within the proposal
• Site visits
o Divide staff into functional areas
o Ask about specific good and bad experiences
o Ask about the biggest challenges during
Negotiation
• Analytic Tools
o Use your rating scales for not
just departmental
functionality compatibility but
also for an overall picture
Critical
Needs
Utility Billing General Finance AP Process HR / Payroll Customer Service Plant accounting Mapping, staking Work Order process 97% match 92% match 89% match 94% match 78% match 96% match NA 89% match 91% matchNegotiation
• Analytic Tools
o Revisit your drivers for change
o Analyze your areas of focus
Vendor 1 Vendor 2 Technology 5% 5% 4% Price 5% 2% 5% Integration 15% 13% 10% Automation 5% 5% 4% Support 20% 20% 15%
Vendor Stability and Background 15% 15% 12%
Departmental Functionality Requirements 15% 14% 13%
Overall Utility Requirements 5% 4% 4%
Implementtion Success 15% 10% 7%
