Quarterly Round Up from the Datamere Team

Autumn 2020 is flying by and it has been a strange 6 months!  Working life has continued at the same pace but I’m sure you’ll all agree that things feel strange and that getting used to the ‘new normal’ isn’t an easy process. Having just reopened both the Cheadle and Worcester offices, a few weeks later we are now back to remote working with skeleton staff in the actual office on a per person rota. We expect to carry on like this well into 2021 but will keep all clients informed of any changes that may affect working patterns.  Please continue to contact us in the normal ways and we will keep you updated. I’ll check back on this edition in 12 months and hopefully we will have returned to a more stable time!

The accreditation project for GENUS© Power has picked up the pace, (following the DTN project) and we are working hard with our supplier partner to ensure we are both ready to meet the project guidelines and pass the accreditation. The end is a way off yet, but at the end of the process GENUS© will be a fully accredited power system which any supplier will be able to use to enter the accreditation and CME process with Elexon, or migrate to, in the case of established suppliers. To have all the functionality under one hood will be a huge benefit to those clients already familiar with the gas side and we of course, hope to attract some new clients.

Development also continues on the gas side of GENUS©. Adam Gordon and Gemma Hull are reviewing the Debtor Manager Module with a view to increasing the automation and user functionality within the module. Gemma having used the module is ideally placed to suggest improvements which Adam is developing and incorporating. What started out as a small review has turned into a much bigger project with the whole module being rewritten but, as a business we thought it better to overhaul it completely rather than doing half a job. We will provide you with more details on this in the next edition.

This month sees the DMS team running a trial of automated hub billing for a client.  This functionality has been developed to allow the hub service to run bills (potentially out of hours) and allow users to address any issues before committing again via the hub services. We hope this should speed the process up and make it a faster and more streamlined process. If you would like any more details about the functionality and perhaps a trial of it then please contact julie@datamere.co.uk and we can look into that for you.

Finally, on the people side, Nikki Lowe who joined the DMS team back near the start of the year has just successfully passed her probation period and has quicky become a valuable member of the Datamere team.  She is now dreaming about mprns and onjobs so has fitted right in! Well done Nikki.

There’s no chance of a Christmas party for the Datamere team this year ☹but we will endeavour to all keep smiling and promise to make up for the lack of socials when we can!  Teams and Zoom does keep us all in touch but we will be saving ourselves for the next ‘Cheers’.

Best wishes to all our clients.

Faster Switching Update

The Faster Switching project continues and we are working hard on the consequential changes in GENUS© with an aim of having the bulk of the work completed by the end of 2020. Additionally, we are working on some documentation which will be ready in the next few weeks designed to take suppliers through the changes.

You will all be aware that we are using the SwitchStream adaptor from Xoserve (Option 2) to facilitate CSS connectivity.  Rob Westwood has recently updated us and I know that many of you have now been in contact and signed the necessary paperwork. Please ensure that you do take the necessary steps; as a software provider we have signed up to the project but the end user (the supplier) will also need to do this. Contact julie@datamere.co.uk if you need contact details or more information.

DMS on the Move

The DMS team are moving offices on Friday 4^th December. Our new location is Office 38, Basepoint Business Centre, Crab Apple Way, Vale Park, Evesham, WR11 1GP.

There will be a short period of downtime on the morning of the 4^th December while we reconfigure the routers and telephone service but we will aim to keep this as minimal as possible. Please allow for this and contact us by email if possible, as the telephone will be unavailable for a short period.

During the former lockdown period, Datamere took  the time to reassess the way our business works and as a result will continue to offer a mix of remote and office working for our team,  aiming to offer a good work/life balance all around.

GENUS© Enhancements

There have been many enhancements made over the past few years so here is a quick reminder of additionally available functionality which may be useful:

·         Advanced Billing

·         Customer Services Screen

·         Debtor Manager

·         Automatic Hub Billing

·         Sales, Brokers and Commissions Module

·         TRAS Reporting

·         Combined Ledger View (Gas & Power)

·         Dual Branding (invoicing)

·         Web Portal for customer use

·         Automatic Welcome Letters

·         Emailing Reads Reminder

For information on any of these options contact julie@datamere.co.uk and we will provide further details and arrange for a trial/test period of the functionality.

Christmas Opening Hours

Yes, it’s a while off but here they are anyway:

24^th December                  9 - 1pm

29^th December                  9 – 4pm

30^th December                  9 – 4pm

31^st December                  9 – 3pm