Tata Power Reduces Collection Cost by 91% by Automating and Mobilizing SAP-based Billing System Using Liquid UI


Background

Tata Power, a top power company in India, is meeting the unending challenges of transmitting and distributing electricity to retail and industrial consumers. This 100-year-old power utility company also branches out its operations to Fuel Logistics, Power Generation, and Power Transmission. It is now spreading its wings across areas like Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Netherlands, Bhutan, Nepal, Africa and the Middle East.


Challenge

  • Outdated and complicated process affected the efficiency of the system.
    • Cause: The prevailing process was obsolete as users had to manually transfer payment details from paper to SAP. Personnel collected cash and gave the consumer a handwritten receipt. Later, system entry was done based on handwritten receipt at the facility.
    • Effect: The unavailability of SAP system to Tata Power´s field users prompted them to touch the data twice and made the process redundant. The task took more time than required which impacted the productivity.
  • Unavailability of updated records made the accuracy of data dubious.
    • Cause: The unavailability of the updated data perplexed the field workers and made the bill payment collection from the doorstep of their consumers impractical. Furthermore, the field workers gave a manual receipt to the consumers when cash was collected for bill payment, which created second paper records.
    • Effect: The identical records caused confusion in instances where conflicting records (i.e. the payment details) existed for the same customer. This made the data unreliable which slowed down the system, making it inefficient.
  • Lack of automatic and centralized strategy affected their customer service.
    • Cause: As the strategy employed was non-automatic and the users had to transfer the data in SAP manually which gave rise to inconsistent data.
    • Effect: Non-automatic modus operandi hindered the efficiency of the CSRs as the inconsistent payment data led to incorrect notifications which increased the number of consumer complaints.
  • Need to enter redundant data on multiple occasions.
    • Cause: On-the-spot collection process involved generating handwritten receipt and giving it to their customer as payment confirmation.
    • Effect: The process forced field executives to enter redundant data on multiple occasions thereby jeopardizing the reliability of the data.


Solution

  • Improved data quality and regulated processes enhanced the efficiency of the business processes.
  • Liquid UI for Android simplified the entire gamut of Tata Power´s day to day billing activities. Now, field personnel have real-time access to SAP because of this they can enter the details in SAP, automate data entries using barcode scanning, and generate receipts using Bluetooth printer without hassle.
  • Facility of barcode scanning reduced the chances of human error.
  • With Liquid UI’s barcode scanning feature, there is a less human intervention which subsequently decreased data entry errors. This resulted in zero number of complaints regarding the payment in the last 11 months.
  • Single version of central master data
  • Liquid UI for Android improved the quality of bill generation data by enabling a single version of central master data. This terminated the scope of errors and resulted in more accurate reporting of billing activities. This further enhanced business processes all throughout the organization.
  • The billing system is streamlined, and data is easy to access.
  • With Liquid UI, maintenance and validation of the SAP-based billing system with the sequence of activities became effortless. Also, connectivity to SAP from mobile devices from any location became possible, and data became accessible to users fingertips seamlessly.
  • Spot collection made easy with print capability via Bluetooth.
  • With Liquid UI, Tata Power personnel were provided with one SAP solution for all purposes. It reduces the time taken for the spot collection process and man hours spent on data entry. Workers could handle data with ease and also take print receipts with a Bluetooth printer and give them to their end users. With barcode scanning, the manual work of the users decreased, and the reliability of the data improves significantly.


Results

  • 91% reduction in collection cost.
  • 66% improvement in operation efficiency.
  • Availability of real-time SAP data for field users on Android devices.
  • Automated data entries using App´s barcode scanning feature.
  • Generated receipts using App´s Bluetooth printer connectivity.

Next Steps

Liquid UI drives your workforce by providing instant mobile access, without the need to redevelop z* transactions or recreate them in Fiori. With Liquid UI, you can also customize transaction screens on iOS / Android as per your business needs.

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