2015 SAP Controlling Conference: Utility-Centric Sessions

Looking ahead to late-September 2015, HPC America will return to the SAP Controlling conference in San Diego. This year, we'll also be moderating two sessions at the event. The first will be a Customer Panel Discussion on modern cost accounting and FERC strategies for utilities on SAP. Key topics will include:

• Best practices for using assessments with overheads to capitalize indirect labor and expenses
• Improving defensibility of FERC accounts through CO documents
• Benefits of using CO for pricing fleet units and applying pricing to work orders

This discussion will include Controllers from RPU and NTUA, both of whom have a extensive real-world experience with SAP Financials for utilities. 

We'll also be hosting an Expert-Led Networking session for utilities and public sector organizations, which will provide attendees an opportunity to discuss budget preparation and experience with SAP and third-party solutions; infrastructure and support sharing across organizations, districts, or governments; meeting internal and external reporting requirements; improving visibility into costs; and other topics unique to utility companies, municipalities, and other public sector entities.

To learn more about HPC's plans for the 2015 SAP Controlling conference, or to request a discounted conference pass, please contact us.

Multi-state electric utility to optimize SAP FERC with HPC America

We're starting 2015 with a terrific long-term project to modernize the SAP Regulatory Reporting (FERC) design of a multi-jurisdictional utility company, including SAP FICO and FERC consulting and the implementation of HPC Utility Financials Accelerator software, which extends the capability of the original FERC module and is certified by SAP as powered by the NetWeaver® technology platform.

Our client is one of the largest electric distribution utilities in the United States, serving six million customers across five states. After having revamped its SAP Financials system in recent years, the utility determined that optimizing SAP Regulatory Reporting is the next step in modernizing its SAP ERP.

Late last year, a joint team of HPC's SAP consultants and the client's subject matter experts identified a number of key regulatory reporting challenges the utility faces. The Rates Department does not have easy, independent access to complete SAP FERC data; cost flows are unusually long and complex; the allocation model is not currently visible to the SAP FERC process; and SAP FERC run times are unusually long and error-prone.

To address these issues, HPC will replace the utility's legacy FI-centric (GL-based) cost model with a modern CO-centric model that traces all primary and secondary costs, eliminates reconciling differences between SAP FI, CO, and FERC, and simplifies cost flow complexity with little disruption to current business processes. Through HPC's system design and Utility Financials Accelerator software, the utility will benefit from a faster monthly FERC close, improved rate case support, and greater end-user self-sufficiency for regulatory reporting activities. The new system is slated to go live in January 2016.

Webinar: Five SAP Controlling Best Practices for Utilities

Please join HPC America and ERP Corp, hosts of the SAP Controlling conference, for a Webinar on Friday, February 20, 2015 from 10:00-11:00am PST. Register online.

Five SAP Controlling Best Practices for Utilities

When utility companies first started to use the SAP ERP in the mid-nineties, cost flows were meant to be simple and system designs were largely FI-centric. 

Much has changed in the last 20 years: cost models have grown more complex; CO documents contain valuable, often untapped, information; and assessments are increasingly used. As a result, good visibility into costs is harder to achieve and defensible regulatory reporting requires more work. Fortunately, this trend can be reversed. 

In this Webinar, you'll learn five SAP Controlling best practices from HPC America to increase reporting clarity and efficiency, eliminate reconciliation issues between CO and FERC, and ultimately strengthen the utility's position in regulatory inquiries and rate cases.

HPC America CEO Jerry Cavalieri will present the Webinar, sharing his 25 years of utility industry experience and most recent expertise in assisting utilities to modernize their SAP Financials. 

Register for the Webinar online.