MED’s $3M bill system

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 30

MED’s $3M bill system

A pioneer relational database/ 4GL utility billing system has gone on-line at the Christchurch MED. The billing system runs on the MED’s VAX 8530 computer, which also supports DECfin (a financial management package) and UGEN (general ledger). The whole system — software and hardware — represents an investment of about $3 million. The 10 man-year development project was begun two years ago. Digital’s software sevices group was commissioned to replace a conventional and ageing com-puter-based billing system with a relational database system. Mr Tim Slack, the MED computer services engineer said one of the key benefits expected was greater efficiency and accuracy

in preparing, dispatching and receiving electricity bills. “We are achieving those goals and as we complete further performance fine-tuning expect to extract significantly greater speed and efficiency,” he said. Five software engineers from Digital’s local Application Development Centre, which moved from Auckland to Christchurch this year, wrote the software using Digital’s Rdb relational database, the Rally fourth-genera-tion language, and Cobol. Dr Jeff Wilkinson, the manager of the Application Development Centre, says the MED now has one of the world’s first successful on-line relational database utility billing systems. "Utility companies receive an enormous volume of cash each

day. The MED, for example, has around 120,000 customers. Every working day up to 3000 payments totalling over $500,000 are received by mail and over the counter at the MED office. “A major task is keeping track of that money as it moves through the system. The new software manages this very successfully. Cash receipting is carried out on-line with files immediately updated and the money tracked from when it arrives in the till through into the general ledger. Reports are given at various stages every day, and, at the end of each day a cash reconciliation compares actual funds received against receipted funds. Since the system went live it has been balancing every day,” Dr Wilkinson said.

Mr Slack said other useful features included bar-code reading of invoices to improve efficiency and accuracy of cash receipting. Electricity bills could now be rendered by mail instead of delivered by the meter reader. Electricity billing and cash flows are integrated with other accounting functions. One of the most interesting aspects of the project had been the decision to use both 3GLs and 4GLs, he said. Some ease of design had been traded off for low-overhead Cobol application performance. The MED, the third largest electrical authority in the country is considering offering a bureau service to smaller authorities.