EM - December 2013/January 2014 - (Page 22)

22 BSC AND ELECTRIC IRELAND Switching made simple! 8 Electric Ireland, on October 24th, re-launched its website to make the online switch to Electric Ireland easier. Signing up to any of the range of discounted electricity and gas price plans for both existing and new customers is now simpler and more streamlined. Pictured are (l-r) Tim Wynne, Digital Manager; Charlie Horkan, ESB IT; James Kelliher, Digital Technology Lead; Eilish Logan, Business Lead; Greg Ryan, Digital Team; Emer Keenan, Digital Team; and Martin Higgins Digital Team. THE IMPROVED SWITCHING application is part of an overall digital strategy, to enhance customes' online experience; the changes made are a direct result of carrying out research on customers' online switching experience to help make the online channel better. Making the new switching application happen was a collaborative process; it involved the core Digital team (pictured above) working with teams across Electric The Home Page of New Switching App. Ireland, ESB and external partners to create an easier and improved online switching channel. The Digital Strategy forms part of Electric Ireland's Empower Programme and the project sponsor is Ken McKervey, Commercial Manager, Electric Ireland. Helping the core Digital team to deliver the new Switching App within Electric Ireland were Bernie O'Hanlon and Dave Ledwith from the Pricing team, Margaret The Easy to Understand Savings. Hayden and Cait Murphy from the Sales team, Tom Shiels, Carol Ryan and Susan McGuinness from Customer Operations, Eamonn Walsh, IT Test and Quality, Mischa McInerney, Digital Marketing. Charlie Horkan and Declan Furlong in ESB IT worked very closely with Electric Ireland to help design, build and system test the application before delivering it to the Digital team for UAT. The core team were supported by our contract partners Abtran. External partners Your Price Plan - Your Way. were Arekibo. A new TV and radio advertising campaign aired on October 28th to drive customers to the new online switching app, and for a limited period customers who choose to switch their electricity or dual fuel price plan online will also get an online switching bonus of €30. n Some of the new features of the switching app are: * Clear cash savings and a simple illustration of how these savings are calculated * A new facility for customers to choose their own price plan features thereby selecting their own cash savings * A new web help option to assist customers with their online switch * Clear and simple steps for customers before and after completing their switch online * Social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter give customers the opportunity to share their electric Ireland savings with family and friends Clearer next steps. You can log on to the Switching application at www.electricireland.ie/switch, and whether you're currently a customer of Electric Ireland, or if you're thinking of switching, have a look at the range of savings you could be making on your energy costs. December 2013/January 2014 * www.esb.ie/em ESB ready for SEPA 8 As you may be aware from advertising on newspapers, radio and TV - SEPA is coming and at ESB we are making sure we are ready. A reminder of what is SEPA? The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a mandatory change by the EU, which will standardise the electronic payments process across the 32 signed up countries, including Ireland. Once SEPA migration has been completed, it will be a major step towards a borderless payment system across SEPA countries. Common standards, faster settlement and simplified processing will improve cash flow, reduce costs and facilitate access to new markets. It will be as easy to make payments across the Eurozone as it is to make and receive payments from one Irish account to another. The deadline for compliance with SEPA is February 1st 2014. What changes are required? In Ireland the traditional six-digit sort code and 8 digit account number will no longer be acceptable and will be replaced by a BIC and IBAN. Significant changes will be made to the format of the electronic bulk payment files which are sent to banks, including payroll payments, supplier payments and customer direct debits. What has ESB done to meet the February 1st 2014 deadline? ESB commenced a project in late 2012 to address the challenges of SEPA implementation. The project board consisted of representatives from all the relevant business areas affected by SEPA. After a period of analysis the project identified four key areas for SEPA conversion; supplier payments in the BSC, Electric Ireland, Medical Provident Fund and ESB payroll. SEPA projects in ESB The first project that became fully compliant with SEPA was the supplier payments process. In total ESB receives over 90,000 supplier invoices per annum which are paid by electronic funds transfer via Danske Bank. To become SEPA compliant ESB converted all their supplier bank accounts to BIC and IBAN and the payment transfer instruction files were updated to SEPA XML format. After testing we went live in May 2013 and were one of the earliest adaptors in Ireland for SEPA compliant supplier payments. The project team has also been working since late 2012 in Electric Ireland to facilitate the smooth conversion of direct debit (DD) details to SEPA standard. This allows Electric "It was important for ESB that we were prepared ahead of the February 2014 deadline as we have significant volumes of bulk payments being processed electronically every day" Niall Dineen, Project Sponsor The SEPA Project Group. Front row (l-r): Allison Morris (ITS), Vivienne Walsh (ITS), Angela O'Dea (Payments), Paddy Hogan (Payments) and Emmet Dunleavy (Finance). Back row (l-r): Damian Pacitto (ITS), Stephen Kennedy (ITS), Andrew Fingleton (Payroll), Sharon McDonald (Payments), Michael O' Hara (Treasury) and Pablo Barbero (ITS). "The software changes were complex and we have had IT resources from many areas of expertise within ITS involved" Allison Morris , Project Manager Pictured (l-r) are Carol Ryan, Revenue and Payments Manager; Susan McGuinness, Project Lead SEPA; Elaine McManamon, SEPA Project Team; and Lorraine Daly, SEPA Project Team. Ireland to collect domestic and crossborder direct debits across 32 countries in a single file. It was important for Electric Ireland to be well prepared in advance of February 2014 deadline as we process over 300,000 direct debit transactions electronically per month. This project required significant changes to both business processes and IT systems, particularly those affecting the direct debit process. Extensive changes were required to implement the new direct debit mandate rules and we faced many challenges in this area. The software changes were complex and we used internal IT expertise to work through these issues. Significant training and communication was required within Electric Ireland and their 3rd party service partners to ensure a smooth transition to SEPA, and this was achieved with minimum disruption to our business and residential customers. The ESB Medical Provident Fund team was required to migrate both their bulk credit transfers and also their direct debit collections from customers to the new SEPA format. The existing Medical Provident website (an ITS custom-built website) required extensive updates to facilitate the SEPA migration. In July the MPF team went live with their new SEPA business processes and IT solution and they have been sending and collecting bulk SEPA payments successfully since then. ESB Payroll is the final business area to migrate to transacting in line with the new SEPA regulation. The first of the SEPA payroll runs is planned for the end of November, and all ESB employees' salaries will be paid via SEPA credit transfer once the cutover has taken place. The SEPA project team have been working since August this year preparing for the roll-out of their new SEPA business processes, thoroughly testing payment files with the their bank, AIB, and organising the cutover of the SAP SEPA Payroll solution on the payroll IT systems. Successful implementation of SEPA in ESB On completion of the project Niall Dineen (Project Sponsor) said: "I'd like to thank all the staff who have contributed to the successful implementation of this project; those in the business who have contributed their knowledge and time to attend workshops, testing and implementation; those in ITS who have worked on the complex software and systems issues and our Project Manager Allison Morris who worked tirelessly to get the project in on time. This has been a very successful team effort across businesses in ESB to ensure that we are now SEPA ready". n http://www.esb.ie/em http://www.electricireland.ie/switch

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of EM - December 2013/January 2014

EM - December 2013/January 2014
Contents
News
Innovation
Generation & Wholesale Markets
BSC & Electric Ireland
ESB Networks Ltd
Health & Habitat

EM - December 2013/January 2014