Utility companies in England are facing testing times with water deregulation, growing competition and increasing customer. It is more important than ever to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
If you are a multi-site consumer, you can make time and cost savings compared to processing invoice data manually. One way a prospective supplier can make themselves more attractive to new customers is through good quality industry standard EDI billing.
e-Billing Manager Software
e-billing Management Software is a sophisticated; and importantly an easy to implement system that generates an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) customer energy bill from your existing billing system without interfering with its everyday operation. It generates files for electricity, gas and water bills in any desired format, including the current industry standard TRADACOMS 26 v3 as well as xml. Its low implementation cost and short lead time mean it can be put into place quickly and at a fraction of the cost of most market equivalent alternatives. E-billing Manager Software can also mean considerable cost savings to the utility.
Through e-billing management software your organisation will be able to benefit from:

• Quick and Easy to implement - For an effective and flexible off the shelf solution which does not interfere with your existing billing system and can fit around existing billing processes.


• Safe and Secure - uses digital encryption, digital signatures and a common AS1 or AS2 standard between customer and supplier to ensure your complete privacy and data security.


• Cost Reduction - distributing your invoices through email means significantly reduced costs.


• Improved Customer Satisfaction - By reducing the time taken to process and validate billing data e-Billing Software will contribute to reducing your costs as well as eliminate errors by validating bills prior to sending them to customers.
  
• Adaptable - suitable for all utility companies on both half-hourly and non half-hourly electricity data.
  
• Traceable - A tracking log provides proof of the origin and integrity of the data, automatically checks for receipts and re-sends the message if required. You know when the message has been read and your customer knows that the bill has come from their supplier.


• Standardised - the use of standards like TRADACOMS means that consumers can trust invoice data as it is consistent and can be automatically validated. This speeds up the process of invoicing and, more importantly, payment.
  
• Audit Trail - HM Revenue & Customs compatible for the creation of legal paper bills and VAT reports.

How does e-billing software work?

1. An ASCII file generated by your billing system is mapped into a standard EDI format, e.g. Tradacoms or XML.


2. The system secures the message for despatch via common AS1 or AS2 open standards for internet delivery, ie via email.


3. Despatch of the bulk bill is carried out automatically.


4. A full audit trail is provided and message receipts provide proof that invoices have been delivered.