All the latest from the Datamere team.
Quarterly Round up from the Team
Well the last three months have been a bit of a whirlwind all around!
I’m quite sure that none of us would have thought an almost worldwide lockdown was on the menu for 2020 but Covid-19 has brought about unimaginable changes with every walk of life being affected. Nobody has escaped unscathed and the utility sector is no exception.
Alongside everyone else, Datamere had to adapt to offer our colleagues remote working and thanks to Teams, we’ve been able to keep in touch while working at home.
We’ve even managed Friday afternoon drinks and a general gossip every now and then ☺ We are continuing to offer our team the option to work at home but have also opened the office in Heald Green with a rota in place for those staff who want to come into the office. We’ll continue with this approach until such a time that we are able to review things further. The Worcester office is closed until further notice and re-opening is dependent upon school timetables.
Keeping our team safe and working has to be our top priority but please do let us know if you have any feedback around this approach.
Life in the ‘office’ has carried on at the same momentum; in fact, it has been an exceptionally busy time for our development and managed services team alike with multiple work streams running alongside each other. We’ve overhauled the Advance Billing functionality, building a number of enhancements following customer feedback, migrated one of our long- term clients onto GENUS© Gas & Power following a long development phase, taken on 3 brand new suppliers, are nearing completion of another long- term migration project and continue to focus on accreditation for GENUS© Power. There hasn’t been much breathing space and our development team has been working exceptionally hard to keep us on track.
We’re working with a partner company who is very much focused on the customer experience and how this can make a real difference to any business in terms of customer loyalty, profitability and standing out from the crowd. If this would be of interest with your individual portfolios, please drop me a line – julie@datamere.co.uk
The DMS team has also been busy particularly managing the various Covid-19 measures introduced at short notice by the industry. Most of this work has now been completed but will continue to some degree until the economy is fully restarted. Somehow, amongst all this, Marcia Cox from our Worcester office has found the time to move house and has completed her PRINCE 2 Project Management Foundation course. Congratulations all around!
Finally, a big thank you to all of our Datamere clients. It’s been an unprecedented time and many of us have faced huge challenges both at work and on a personal level. Working with such a nice group of clients certainly helps when the day to day is proving to be tough.
GENUS© Live on the DTN
So, we finally got there…it’s been a long and complex development but GENUS© Power is now live on the DTN! In effect, GENUS© Power is now fully operational and able to create, export and import the necessary flows from electricity industry partners.
It’s been a huge project and we are working with a couple of our supplier partners through a UAT process ensuring that any bugs are ironed out.
The next stage in the process (and which is already underway), is that GENUS© will go through an accreditation process whereby it goes through power accreditation with a partner supplier which normally takes around 6 – 9 months. At the end of this next stage, GENUS© will be a fully accredited Gas & Power software system which is a huge milestone for Datamere.
Whilst the whole of the development team has been involved in the project, a special thanks must go to Paul O’Neill who has been instrumental in getting GENUS© live on the DTN. It’s been a monumental task which Paul has brought to fruition.
Reconciliation Module
One of our next big focus areas for GENUS© will be to look more into reconciliation and how this process will work within the system. It’s a big area to cover off and we’ll be looking into all of the available backing and invoicing data in order to bring this into the system. If you are interested in this functionality and have any feedback or ideas on how it should work please drop me a line – julie@datamere.co.uk so we can take any ideas into consideration.
Industry File Format Changes
Your shippers may have been in touch with details around the Xoserve change pack for June which incorporate a number of changes.
One area which will affect all suppliers is https://www.xoserve.com/change/change-proposals/xrn-4850-notification-of-customer-contact-details-to-transporters/ In essence, customer contact details can now be provided to the transporter direct so that they can be contacted in the case of any planned interruptions.
This can be done via the S66 record which is found in a number of file flows and will involve sending a BRO update. The development for the work is complete and currently undergoing testing and will be available in your next release.
Customer amendment flows (CNC files) containing the BRO cannot currently be sent in bulk but please contact support if you require a bulk update as we may be able to support this via a script.
SwitchStream from Xoserve
In previous communications we’ve discussed the Faster Switching Project and how Datamere is managing this large industry change. We’ve chosen SwitchStream (from Xoserve) to provide the connectivity to the CSS which will be linked into GENUS©.
If you require any information on how SwitchStream works please contact robert.westwood@xoserve.com who will be able to arrange a demonstration.
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