Utility Billing

[Gavin Mabie]

Hi

 

Is it possible to use OfBiz for utility billing.  The requirement would be
that a large number of customers are billed monthly for utilities such as
water, electricity gas etc, based on consumption obtained through
meter-readings.  Can ofbiz address this need and how could existing
artefacts in the framework be used to achieve this?

 

Thanks

[BJ Freeman]

look at the profession services product.
then you can make something similar to the hhfacilities for order entry
so they can fill in using a pda/cellphone with webrowser as they read
the meters.

Gavin Mabie sent the following on 6/17/2009 7:43 AM:

> Hi
>
>  
>
> Is it possible to use OfBiz for utility billing.  The requirement would be
> that a large number of customers are billed monthly for utilities such as
> water, electricity gas etc, based on consumption obtained through
> meter-readings.  Can ofbiz address this need and how could existing
> artefacts in the framework be used to achieve this?
>
>  
>
> Thanks
>
>

--
BJ Freeman
http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation
http://bjfreeman.elance.com
http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=1237480&locale=en_US&trk=tab_pro
Systems Integrator.

[Ruth Hoffman-2]

Hi Gavin:
I did something similar to utility billing as you describe below -
billing for telephone services - a few years ago with OFBiz. The usage
data for a customer's bill came from another system accessed using some
SOAP based services. I would think that meter readings using PDAs, cell
phones or other devices that support a browser could be easily
integrated as BJ suggests. Building the screens to allow remote entry of
usage data via a small screen browser is easy enough. In another project
- as a prototype - I was easily able to integrate an SMS server with
OFBiz so that field technicians could send OFBiz messages (in this case
service related status messages) using SMS and a cellphone (vs. a
browser). That is another option.

Managing the recurring billing was handled using an OFBiz recurring
service that I wrote (but was managed by the OFBiz Service Engine). The
original order as placed using the eCommerce component  or Order Entry
component was the basis for the customer's billing rate, frequency and
payment method and...let me see, what else? Then I built a self-service
portal similar to what is now being advertised as the "myPortal" feature
to allow customer's to view and update current service parameters,  view
past and current usage and bills and pay online.

There was no need for me to add any Entities - although OFBiz makes that
so easy it's not funny. OFBiz pretty much had everything I needed to put
this together.

Hope that helps.
Ruth


BJ Freeman wrote:

> look at the profession services product.
> then you can make something similar to the hhfacilities for order entry
> so they can fill in using a pda/cellphone with webrowser as they read
> the meters.
>
> Gavin Mabie sent the following on 6/17/2009 7:43 AM:
>  
>> Hi
>>
>>  
>>
>> Is it possible to use OfBiz for utility billing.  The requirement would be
>> that a large number of customers are billed monthly for utilities such as
>> water, electricity gas etc, based on consumption obtained through
>> meter-readings.  Can ofbiz address this need and how could existing
>> artefacts in the framework be used to achieve this?
>>
>>  
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>>    
>
>  

[Gavin Mabie]

Thanks Ruth.

Additionally - how would you go about dealing with stepped pricing:
Once you Ofbiz receives consumption numbers - how can pricing be configured
to deal with
Eg. 0 USD for the first 500 units;
        5 USD for the next 1000 units
        3 UDS for every unit above that.

Thanks for your assistance.

Gavin



-----Original Message-----
From: Ruth Hoffman [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: 17 June 2009 06:09 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Utility Billing

Hi Gavin:
I did something similar to utility billing as you describe below -
billing for telephone services - a few years ago with OFBiz. The usage
data for a customer's bill came from another system accessed using some
SOAP based services. I would think that meter readings using PDAs, cell
phones or other devices that support a browser could be easily
integrated as BJ suggests. Building the screens to allow remote entry of
usage data via a small screen browser is easy enough. In another project
- as a prototype - I was easily able to integrate an SMS server with
OFBiz so that field technicians could send OFBiz messages (in this case
service related status messages) using SMS and a cellphone (vs. a
browser). That is another option.

Managing the recurring billing was handled using an OFBiz recurring
service that I wrote (but was managed by the OFBiz Service Engine). The
original order as placed using the eCommerce component  or Order Entry
component was the basis for the customer's billing rate, frequency and
payment method and...let me see, what else? Then I built a self-service
portal similar to what is now being advertised as the "myPortal" feature
to allow customer's to view and update current service parameters,  view
past and current usage and bills and pay online.

There was no need for me to add any Entities - although OFBiz makes that
so easy it's not funny. OFBiz pretty much had everything I needed to put
this together.

Hope that helps.
Ruth


BJ Freeman wrote:

> look at the profession services product.
> then you can make something similar to the hhfacilities for order entry
> so they can fill in using a pda/cellphone with webrowser as they read
> the meters.
>
> Gavin Mabie sent the following on 6/17/2009 7:43 AM:
>  
>> Hi
>>
>>  
>>
>> Is it possible to use OfBiz for utility billing.  The requirement would

be

>> that a large number of customers are billed monthly for utilities such as
>> water, electricity gas etc, based on consumption obtained through
>> meter-readings.  Can ofbiz address this need and how could existing
>> artefacts in the framework be used to achieve this?
>>
>>  
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>>    
>
>  

[Ruth Hoffman-2]

Hi Gavin:
For the project I worked on they had not thought about having pricing
schemes as you describe. All charges were based on fixed rates
regardless of the levels of consumption.  Maybe someone on the list has
some ideas about the best way to do this. For starters, I'd say you
could build some price rules per product [where the product is the
service you are metering] with varying charges based on consumption. You
could  use the Catalog Manager's price rules engine to build and persist
the rules. And then, when you go to reconcile the bill, just consult the
pricing rule(s) - since they are now associated with the product/service
- for resolving the billing charge. As I think on this, the good news is
that there are probably ten different ways to solve this problem. Maybe
someone on the list has done this already and can advise.

Hope this helps.
Ruth
Gavin Mabie wrote:

> Thanks Ruth.
>
> Additionally - how would you go about dealing with stepped pricing:
> Once you Ofbiz receives consumption numbers - how can pricing be configured
> to deal with
> Eg. 0 USD for the first 500 units;
> 5 USD for the next 1000 units
> 3 UDS for every unit above that.
>
> Thanks for your assistance.
>
> Gavin
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ruth Hoffman [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: 17 June 2009 06:09 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: Utility Billing
>
> Hi Gavin:
> I did something similar to utility billing as you describe below -
> billing for telephone services - a few years ago with OFBiz. The usage
> data for a customer's bill came from another system accessed using some
> SOAP based services. I would think that meter readings using PDAs, cell
> phones or other devices that support a browser could be easily
> integrated as BJ suggests. Building the screens to allow remote entry of
> usage data via a small screen browser is easy enough. In another project
> - as a prototype - I was easily able to integrate an SMS server with
> OFBiz so that field technicians could send OFBiz messages (in this case
> service related status messages) using SMS and a cellphone (vs. a
> browser). That is another option.
>
> Managing the recurring billing was handled using an OFBiz recurring
> service that I wrote (but was managed by the OFBiz Service Engine). The
> original order as placed using the eCommerce component  or Order Entry
> component was the basis for the customer's billing rate, frequency and
> payment method and...let me see, what else? Then I built a self-service
> portal similar to what is now being advertised as the "myPortal" feature
> to allow customer's to view and update current service parameters,  view
> past and current usage and bills and pay online.
>
> There was no need for me to add any Entities - although OFBiz makes that
> so easy it's not funny. OFBiz pretty much had everything I needed to put
> this together.
>
> Hope that helps.
> Ruth
>
>
> BJ Freeman wrote:
>  
>> look at the profession services product.
>> then you can make something similar to the hhfacilities for order entry
>> so they can fill in using a pda/cellphone with webrowser as they read
>> the meters.
>>
>> Gavin Mabie sent the following on 6/17/2009 7:43 AM:
>>  
>>    
>>> Hi
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Is it possible to use OfBiz for utility billing.  The requirement would
>>>      
> be
>  
>>> that a large number of customers are billed monthly for utilities such as
>>> water, electricity gas etc, based on consumption obtained through
>>> meter-readings.  Can ofbiz address this need and how could existing
>>> artefacts in the framework be used to achieve this?
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>>
>>>    
>>>      
>>  
>>    
>
>
>
>
>