FERC Reporting Options on SAP

Utilities on SAP, learn everything about FERC reporting options on SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC at next week's SAP for Utilities conference in San Diego. HPC America will share its 25 years of experience in utility accounting and the SAP ERP.

On Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 1:10pm, HPC's customer Salt River Project will present its case study about FERC optimization and preparation for migration to SAP S/4HANA. SRP implemented HPC Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA) in 2018 in order to eliminate reconciliation differences between GAAP and FERC, speed up the monthly trace, and improve other regulatory reporting processes and results. HPC UFA is a NetWeaver-based add-on software solution that eliminates the delivered FERC module's inherent limitations, and runs on both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA. Read the full SRP case study and learn more about HPC UFA.

HPC's latest software innovation is HPC DECIPHER, an add-on regulatory financials solution that is certified by SAP as integrated with SAP S/4HANA. HPC DECIPHER provides real-time reporting and takes full advantage of the line items in S/4HANA's Universal Journal (table ACDOCA). It translates transactions from natural to regulatory accounts as they are posted, eliminating period-end batch processes, and uses dedicated, parallel ledgers for full FERC details. HPC DECIPHER also includes comprehensive functionality for allocations, adjustments, and cost flow forensics directly in the ERP. Learn more about HPC DECIPHER for real-time regulatory (FERC) reporting on SAP S/4HANA.

To schedule a meeting with HPC at the 2019 SAP for Utilities conference, please contact us.

Case Study: Optimizing FERC Accounting for Utilities on SAP

In anticipation of its migration to SAP S/4HANA in 2023, Salt River Project engaged HPC America to evaluate its current SAP Financials processes and results, and to identify areas for improvement that would not only deliver immediate benefits, but also streamline the utility’s eventual transition to S/4HANA.

Hear SRP speak about its FERC optimization project at the 2019 SAP for Utilities conference

One particular area for improvement the team identified was around SRP’s FERC data: it was hard to understand and tie back to participation billing, and did not fully support audit and pricing processes. The data required for external audiences did not reconcile to the operational data used to create internal financial statements, and, as experienced by many utilities running the standard FERC module, the differences were difficult, if not impossible, to explain.

After the assessment, SRP engaged HPC to optimize its FERC model with HPC Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA) add-on software. HPC UFA eliminates the FERC module’s limitations, and runs on both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA. Five months later, SRP was ready to go live with its new FERC design. The project achieved all intended objectives and more: SRP’s balances by FERC account now match exactly—to the penny—its reports by order number, WBS element, cost element, and cost center, thereby making functionalized data far more intuitive for users to analyze.

Download the full SRP case study, hear SRP speak at the 2019 SAP for Utilities conference, and learn more about HPC America's accounting solutions for utilities on SAP.

Continuous Accounting for Utilities on SAP S/4HANA

For too long, utilities have been beholden to batch accounting processes that delay financial analysis, obscure timely visibility into job spend, and hinder proactive mitigation of variances. The “monthly close” is such a foundational element of the business that it’s hard to imagine not relying on it. 

It doesn’t have to be this way, however, and HPC America’s vision for the future is decidedly different. When utilities move to SAP S/4HANA, they have a tremendous opportunity to get more timely, actionable financial information without waiting for period-end, by taking concrete steps towards “continuous accounting.”

Get the Continuous Accounting white paper (PDF)

Why Continuous Accounting Matters
At HPC, we think of “continuous accounting” as embedded, real-time, or otherwise automated processes that replace traditional period-end batch processes. Continuous accounting processes generate valuable financial data on a more regular and frequent basis than the monthly close alone. A utility with a continuous accounting model would enable its analysts and managers to evaluate and take action on operational performance, spend variances, and other business metrics without having to wait for a period-end report.

For example, collecting functionalized cost data in real time would allow analysts to identify and correct mischarged postings before month-end, thereby making the actual closing process less error-prone. Likewise, loading overheads more often than monthly would provide project managers with fully loaded cost views of their projects mid-month, which would in turn enable them to adjust resources proactively in the current period instead of reacting after the period has been closed.

Six Ways to Continuous Accounting on SAP S/4HANA

(1) Functionalize costs at the point of data entry instead of in a batch process at month-end.
Replace the derivation-based FERC solution that’s delivered with S/4HANA with a real time, line item design. There are a number of ways to do this, depending on how much flexibility and control your utility needs. One is to use HPC’s latest add-on software for utility financials on S/4HANA, HPC DECIPHER, which is certified by SAP as integrated with SAP S/4HANA, and eliminates the FERC module that we created 25 years ago.

(2) Minimize cost flow streams...
by reducing (or eliminating) allocations and settlements that only serve to functionalize costs. Streamlining cost flows is an underappreciated but valuable effort, and every utility moving to S/4HANA should consider it carefully. We have great experience and can help.

(3) Activate Functional Areas...
to leverage the Universal Journal’s power to record and report generation, transmission, and distribution costs right from the general ledger (not just from Controlling or the FERC module). We first did this for We Energies in 2012, then again for Cleco on S/4HANA in 2018, and we’ve just started a new Functional Area project for another utility

(4) Collect job costs daily, if not more frequently.
As mobile devices become ubiquitous throughout the enterprise, labor entry should occur in real time when technicians complete their Plant Maintenance tasks, even before they leave a job site.

(5) Run overheads after every pay period, or even more frequently.
In conjunction with more timely direct labor entry, apply your indirect labor and overheads more often, perhaps even weekly. This will fully load costs for job managers, project managers, and program managers to gain insights into total spend much earlier than waiting for the month-end close.  

(6) Modernize the availability and presentation of financial data.
Use Fiori apps to access a P&L statement at any time of the month, from any device, and use nested, real-time drill-down reports to show how job order costs roll up to the income statement. Get multi-dimensional data on the fly in S/4HANA without the need for ETL processes customary with separate OLAP servers like BW or BOBJ.

How to Get Started
To learn more about how your utility can best get closer to continuous accounting—say, starting with a functionalized income statement mid-month—contact HPC for a discussion, or meet us at the 2019 SAP for Utilities conference in San Diego on October 21-23.

2019 SAP for Utilities Conference - Meet HPC America

Meet HPC America at this October's SAP for Utilities conference to learn more about two key subjects for utility company IT, Customer Service, and Finance leaders:

1. Lessons learned from managing the first-ever—and only in-production instance of—SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud (aka, C4C) integrated with on-premises IS-U Billing.


2. FAQ about FERC reporting on SAP S/4HANA. We've got detailed pros and cons of four different options for regulatory accounting on S/4: the delivered FERC module, an optimized FERC module, a basic line item (real-time) model, and an advanced line item model.  

In addition, HPC's customer Salt River Project (SRP) will present our recent optimization of FERC on SAP Suite on HANA utilizing HPC Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA) add-on software (check out SRP's full case study, too). 

We're also going to walk conference attendees through the benefits of our latest regulatory financials solution, HPC DECIPHER, which is certified by SAP as integrated with SAP S/4HANA and helps utilities fully leverage the Universal Journal's capacity for continuous accounting.

Contact HPC America in advance to schedule an appointment with our utility industry experts and SAP solution architects. 

Utilities on SAP: Four Best Practices for Asset Accounting on SAP S/4HANA

During the last 25 years of advising utilities, it was around 2013 that we started to hear customers vent about asset accounting. Some of them used quite strong language, while others were more politic. Over time, we realized that the utilities experiencing the greatest frustration were those that had moved key elements of their financial process outside of their ERP. For them, optimizing SAP Financials to meet today’s more stringent regulatory environment — for example, streamlining their cost flow to improve transparency — was much more challenging because it would entail unwinding complex integration between SAP and another solution. 

Looking ahead, we see at least four best practices around asset accounting that will help utilities get the most out of their investment in SAP S/4HANA by configuring it correctly from the start:

(1) Focus PowerPlan on taxes and retirement unit calculations.

These specialized functions warrant a dedicated tool, and the utilities we’ve worked with largely acknowledge that PowerPlan is a capable one.

(2) Use SAP Controlling (CO) for allocations.

Retaining this function in SAP increases visibility into true costs for comparing job estimates to actuals. The CO module can apply overheads more efficiently than just once a month, even daily if desired. As utilities move towards continuous accounting in the coming years — enabled through mobile devices in the field that capture the cost of work performed — there will be less of need for fully loaded rates. Utilities we’ve worked with that move allocations and settlements outside the ERP often come to regret it because of the added complexity and latency between when direct costs were incurred and when overheads were applied. In contrast, in S/4HANA which brings OLAP and OLTP together, CO can provide more timely and granular data that makes Board reports more meaningful. Utilities will be able to see and correct spending variances earlier.

(3) Use SAP Project Systems and WBS elements for AFUDC.

Utilities turn on interest charges when capital work is in progress, and then turn them off when work is technically complete. Using WBS elements integrated with SAP EAM enables you to see immediately when work status has changed, therefore resulting in a more timely and accurate posting of AFUDC. Calculating AFUDC outside the ERP can often lead to adjustments that would otherwise have been unnecessary, and complicates the process of getting the right charges into the rate base. 

(4) Get visibility into Plant Accounts in your Universal Journal.

Instead of summarizing Plant Account costs to one account - 101, Plant in Service — utilities on SAP S/4HANA have a tremendous opportunity to post all of the rich, line item detail in the Universal Journal. On SAP ECC, this level of detail would be invisible to the FERC module. But on S/4HANA with HPC DECIPHER, our latest add-on solution that is certified by SAP as integrated with S/4HANA, the entire contents of the fixed asset sub-ledger can be laid out as line items in the Universal Journal. DECIPHER will translate your 300-series plant accounts for each capital transaction as PIS to FERC account 101 in the same level of detail as in your fixed asset sub-ledger. DECIPHER can also split plant accounts based on predefined percentages, and then present the data in a separate FERC ledger. As a result, detailed capital costs will be in the same table (ACDOCA) as detailed plant transactions, and they can all be analyzed using the same tool, such as the SAP Analytics Cloud.   

When your utility is evaluating plans for asset accounting on SAP S/4HANA, contact HPC America to talk about strategy for SAP Financials and Work Management for utilities on SAP.

Case study: SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud Integration with IS-U Billing

One week from today, on October 16, 2018, at the SAP for Utilities conference in San Antonio, TX, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and HPC America will present NTUA's case study on SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud integration with the IS-U billing module.

This is the first-ever such integration, and showcases how utilities running on-premises ECC 6.0 can take full advantage of SAP's latest HANA and Cloud technology prior to upgrading their core ERP to S/4HANA. NTUA's Deputy CFO, Gerard Curley, and HPC's CEO, Jerry Cavalieri, will lead the presentation and share their SAP C/4HANA project leadership experience. Learn more about the C/4HANA case study and about HPC's services for implementing C/4HANA.

Contact HPC America with questions about C/4HANA integration with the IS-U, and to schedule a demonstration of SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud at the 2018 SAP for Utilities conference.

SAP® C/4HANA Service Cloud Case Study at the 2018 SAP for Utilities Conference

On Tuesday, October 16 at the 2018 SAP for Utilities conference, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and HPC America will present NTUA’s case study on the first-ever integration of SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud (formerly Hybris Cloud for Customer and SAP C4C) with a utility’s on-premises SAP ECC ERP and IS-U billing module. NTUA’s Deputy CFO, Gerard Curley, and HPC’s CEO, Jerry Cavalieri, will share the project’s strategy, results, and lessons learned.

NTUA had a mandate to implement a new call center to increase operational efficiency and improve customer satisfaction across its 27,000 square mile territory. In April 2017, NTUA made a cutting-edge choice: rather than implement an on-premises CRM that would further stretch its IT resources, the call center would use SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud connected to the utility’s on-prem ECC 6.0/IS-U system via SAP Cloud Platform middleware. Nine months after kickoff, NTUA became the first utility in the U.S. to put such a system into production.

This session at the SAP for Utilities conference will showcase…

• How utilities can benefit from SAP C/4HANA even before upgrading to S/4HANA
• NTUA’s business case for selecting C/4HANA Service Cloud
• Lessons learned from the implementation and subsequent 90-day upgrade cycles
• Results since the January 2018 go-live, since which time NTUA’s customer service representatives have logged more than 15,000 tickets in C/4HANA Service Cloud

NTUA’s HANA-powered, cloud-based CRM now tracks customer interactions in detail, improves responsiveness to payment inquiries, reduces the chance of unnecessary shut-offs, and establishes a mobile-ready foundation for field technicians—all while leveraging NTUA’s existing SAP ERP. NTUA's customer service representatives are no longer dependent on the Customer Interaction Center (CIC0), which is not offered in S/4HANA. The SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud supports NTUA's new call center with a modern, feature-rich CRM to improve customer satisfaction; provides customer-facing team members with a great UX — anywhere, on any device; and, longer term, establishes an infrastructure for NTUA to standardize customer service practices across its headquarters and district locations.

To learn more about SAP C/4HANA Service Cloud integration with the IS-U, register for the 2018 SAP for Utilities conference and attend this unique presentation on Tuesday, October 16 at 2:40pm. Contact HPC America if you'd like to discuss C/4HANA prior to the conference.

Meet HPC at the 2018 SAP SAPPHIRE NOW Conference

HPC America will be exhibiting in Booth #1433A at the 2018 SAPPHIRE NOW - ASUG ANNUAL conference in Orlando, FL from June 5-7, 2018.

We are a team of utility industry experts dedicated to everything touching financial solutions from SAP. Since developing the original IS-U financial solution for utilities 25 years ago, HPC has optimized accounting, billing, CRM, asset management, and regulatory financials for utilities on SAP. See our online resources for utilities on SAP.

Most recently, HPC led the first-ever integration of SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (C4C) with on-premises IS-U via SAP Cloud Platform middleware, including cloud-to-cloud integration of Paymentus.

HPC also has a long track record of developing add-on software for utilities on SAP, including HPC DECIPHER, a line-item financials solution for utility companies on SAP S/4HANA that leverages the Universal Journal to provide total visibility into cost flows, automate mass reversals, and corrections, and strengthen rate case support. HPC offers customers unmatched expertise in utility accounting based on decades of experience as industry insiders.

At the 2018 Sapphire conference, stop by our Booth #1433A to see demonstrations of SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (SAP C4C), HPC DECIPHER, and our other NetWeaver-based solutions for utilities on SAP; and to discuss your utility's SAP ERP strategy and roadmap. Contact us online to schedule a meeting at SAPPHIRE.

2017 SAP for Utilities Conference topics: FERC and C4C

At next month's 2017 SAP for Utilities conference, HPC America will discuss two topics of considerable interest to utility customers:

Real-Time FERC on SAP S/4HANA. Utilities have a number of options for regulatory accounting on S/4HANA. The delivered solution still relies on the legacy FI-RRU (a.k.a., the "FERC module") which uses a derivation-based model to generate regulatory data in batches at period-end. In contrast, S/4HANA is ideally suited to a transaction-based ("real-time") FERC model with line-item granularity. It doesn't, however, deliver such a design out-of-the-box. (Request our FAQ for more info.) At the conference, you can learn from HPC America's 20+ years of subject matter expertise how your utility can realize transaction-based FERC on S/4 either through configuration and/or code block changes, or with our latest add-on solution, HPC DECIPHER, which runs natively on S/4HANA and delivers the most comprehensive functionality for real-time translation, allocations, adjustments, cost flow forensics, and more. Before the conference, you can request our FAQ about FERC on S/4HANA.

SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer. We're currently leading the first Cloud for Service deployment at a utility company in the United States, and will share our SAP C4C implementation and integration experience with conference attendees. SAP C4C is incredibly important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the replacement of transaction CIC0 Customer Interaction Center (CIC) in the legacy IS-U/CCS with the C4C Utilities Contact Center (UCC) connected to the IS-U in the ERP. See a live demo of our system at the conference, and learn from the technical challenges we've surmounted by working closely with SAP Support.

To schedule a meeting with HPC at the 2017 SAP for Utilities conference, please contact us directly.

One SAP Roadmap for Utilities: Wrap SAP Cloud Around On-Prem SAP Financials

Recently we were talking with one of our utility company clients about their SAP roadmap, and how utilities can leverage the latest SAP Cloud-based solutions while maintaining their robust and well-design SAP Financials core.

Our guidance for utilities considering such a direction is to initially wrap Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions around the SAP Financials they already have in place. Integrating third-party or SAP SaaS offerings with SAP Financials will be faster and less costly than a total overhaul, and SAP has great middleware in Hana Cloud Integration (HCI) that runs on the SAP Cloud Platform.

Under this kind of model, a SaaS billing solution, for example, would send APIs to the HCI to message SAP Financials for revenue transactions. The HCI would also be used to connect other SaaS offerings to SAP Financials, such as Fieldglass for contractors, Concur for employee expenses, and Success Factors for HR/payroll.

This strategy of integrating SaaS offerings with on-premise Financials has a number of benefits. First, it provides utilities with access to more modern, user-friendly applications that front-office staff and field operations will appreciate. Second, it safeguards regulatory accounting, overheads and allocations, and even the monthly close itself, which are too important to rip and replace without the utmost care. And third, it creates an opportunity in the future to move to a hybrid solution running SAP S/4HANA in the Cloud. Conversion will be more efficient when some front office and field tech functions have already been moved there, and the primary on-prem system remaining is Financials. Then, once S/4HANA is in place, utilities can build-out analytics on the SAP Business Objects Cloud (BOC) as their repository for all reporting from SAP and other non-SAP apps.

Learn more about HPC's implementation services for a terrific SAP SaaS offering, SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (SAP C4C).

SAP FERC Clearing: Just Get Rid of It

Among a number of challenges that utilities on SAP face, the process of FERC clearing comes up in our conversations with customers from time to time.

Clearing in the FERC post program is an abbreviated form of tracing that our CEO, Jerry Cavalieri, originally created in 1994, when he was an accounting principal at Pacific Gas & Electric leading the development of the SAP FERC module with HPC America. At that time, computing power was not adequate to handle the millions of records PG&E had to process, so FERC clearing was intended to gain much-needed process efficiency.

A great deal has changed since then, and for the last decade HPC has advocated an SAP FERC configuration that does not use clearing. In fact, we urge utilities to get rid of it.

Two years ago, one Fortune 500 utility used clearing groups for Service Company cost allocations and payroll overhead distributions as a means of speeding up the FERC trace. As a result, this utility sacrificed FERC trace accuracy and data granularity—and still had to endure lengthy FERC runs each month.

To eliminate the problems associated with FERC clearing, HPC updated this customer’s regulatory accounting model to support FERC balances with primary and secondary cost data. This modern design not only removed clearing, but also mapped costs across FERC accounts more accurately, increased the transparency of costs from FERC to source objects and accounts, and cut FERC processing time by 50% or more each month.

If you're facing challenges around FERC clearing or other aspects of SAP Financials for utilities, contact HPC to discuss pragmatic, meaningful improvements to your ERP.

Utility Case Study: SAP Financial Reporting Improvements

Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) provides electric, gas, water, wastewater, photovoltaic, and

telecommunication services to 50,000 customers across Arizona and New Mexico. The utility went live on the SAP ERP more than a decade ago, and recently identified an opportunity to improve the efficiency of its financial reporting processes in SAP, which typically required several days to prepare each month's board package.

NTUA engaged longtime consulting partner HPC America to automate manual steps, eliminate the need for extensive data verification and reconciliation, and enable authorized users to generate reports directly from their SAP desktops.

Read the full case study about HPC's financial reporting solution on SAP that cut NTUA's monthly process from three days down to 15 minutes, boosted staff productivity, and created more time for analysis instead of data preparation.

#SAP4UTL Take-Aways About FERC Reporting on SAP S/4HANA

Like some of you attending the 2016 SAP for Utilities conference earlier this week, we had the opportunity to learn and talk about different approaches to regulatory accounting on SAP S/4HANA. FERC reporting has historically been an obscure topic, but it’s getting more airtime as utilities consider carefully the business case for, and impact of, moving to S/4HANA or S/4HANA Finance ("Simple Finance").

In the course of discussing FERC processes and results with #SAP4UTL conference attendees, we validated that HPC’s new design for real-time reporting on S/4HANA will in fact meet the needs of utilities adopting SAP’s in-memory platform. The software solution we introduced at the conference, HPC DECIPHER, has a light architecture: it runs natively on the Universal Journal, and doesn’t entail the use of a second HANA system running in parallel (or any additional hardware for that matter). As well, HPC DECIPHER does not require SLT replication of master data or coding block changes.

Bigger picture, we determined that HPC DECIPHER reinforces — even clinches — the business case for SAP S/4HANA in several ways. 

By making the most of SAP’s new technology, HPC DECIPHER translates GAAP to Regulatory accounts in real-time, directly in your S/4HANA server; eliminates GAAP-FERC reconciliation issues; functionalizes operational costs with the most granular level of detail; allocates common costs by utility code or line of business; generates full Financial Statements with drill down to all regulatory line items; enables easy, controlled reversal and reposting of regulatory data; identifies all cost flows traced from start to finish—and in reverse—with drill-down to details; and translates the fixed asset sub-ledger to regulatory accounts (e.g., the 300 series for FERC) directly in S/4HANA, thereby creating the potential to reduce the use of some costly third-party fixed asset solutions. And HPC DECIPHER does all of this, and more, without the legacy FERC module.

So, if you, too, discussed real-time FERC reporting on S/4HANA at the SAP for Utilities conference, and are now asking questions about regulatory reporting on S/4HANA, please contact HPC to chat about HPC DECIPHER — or to simply pick our brains. As you may already know, we’ve specialized in FERC reporting for utilities on SAP for a long time, since the very beginning, and our unmatched expertise will benefit most utilities transitioning to SAP S/4HANA.

HPC America on Twitter

SAP FICO/FERC professionals at utility companies on SAP can now follow HPC America on Twitter to get our insights, customer case studies, and white papers on SAP Financials, Regulatory Reporting (FERC), and Work Management optimization.

Follow @HPCAmerica

Utility Accounting Controllers Love

In anticipation of the SAP for Utilities conference coming up in two weeks, HPC has been thinking about what makes for truly exceptional utility accounting. After serving utilities on SAP for more than 20 years, we've learned that customers value—dare we say love—the following:

• A complete and accurate functionalized view of their financials
• No reconciliation issues between GAAP and FERC/NARUC/AWWA
• Meaningful data every day, not just at month-end
• Cost flows that are easy to understand and explain
• Financials straight from the ERP, without dependency on (waiting for) third-party solutions
• Field Ops free to focus on their work, not arcane regulatory accounting
• Highly defensible rate case data

To learn more about how HPC delivers utility accounting that Controllers love, look for us at the SAP for Utilities conference (booth #39) or schedule a meeting with us in advance. During the conference, we’ll not only discuss optimization of SAP Financials, Regulatory Reporting, and Work Management on ECC 6.0 systems, but also SAP S/4HANA adoption strategies and HPC's latest innovation for real-time regulatory financials on S/4.

CXO Guide for Utilities on SAP: Four Reasons Not to Charge Cost Centers

HPC's latest CXO Guide for Utilities on SAP discusses four key reasons why charging cost centers is not a best practice for utility accounting. In working closely with utilities over the last 20 years, we've determined that cost centers are useful for summarizing orders, comparing budget to actual, and establishing a framework for accountability. But on the front end, charging them leads to less transparency and greater complexity.

On a related note, we've also found that utilities are often frustrated with reports in SAP that are difficult to understand. We hear the same questions everywhere: Where did these overhead costs come from? How were they calculated? Why do amounts vary inexplicably every month?

If you’re asking these questions, too, then it’s likely that your cost flow model overuses or misuses assessments, which leads to "bucket dumping" costs in order to close the books. Accounting needs to spread overhead each month, but doing so without considering the confusing effects on field operations can defeat the benefits of cost accounting to control spending. HPC helps customers address this challenge with our Cost Flow Streamlining service, which delivers total visibility into both direct and indirect costs, improved spending forecasts, and more efficient separation of costs into the appropriate regulatory categories.

Utility Controllers and FICO/FERC subject matter experts can request their copy of this new CXO Guide here.

SAP for Utilities 2016 Conference

This coming October, HPC America will exhibit at the 2016 SAP for Utilities conference, where

we'll be speaking with utility finance, accounting, rates, and work management professionals about the challenges they face and the benefits that HPC has delivered to utility customers over the last 20+ years.

HPC is an SAP Financials, Regulatory Reporting, and Work Management expert dedicated to utilities since 1994. Our latest innovation for SAP S/4HANA delivers next-generation utility accounting: transaction-based regulatory reporting, automated line-item adjustments, unmatched cost flow transparency, one version of truth between GAAP and FERC/NARUC, and, ultimately, stronger rate case positions.

Learn more about HPC's solutions, services, and SAP-related resources for utilities, and contact us to schedule a meeting prior to the SAP for Utilities conference.

Resources for utilities on SAP®

HPC America is pleased to announce a new repository of resources for utilities on SAP. This page centralizes our variety of customer case studies, solution data sheets, FAQs, white papers, and other resources for utility companies on the SAP ERP.

Whether you're running ECC 6.0 or S/4HANA, these documents will provide insights and real-world examples of SAP Financials and Work Management best practices for utilities on SAP. Visit our new resources page for utilities on SAP.

Analytics best practices from PG&E's Janet Lee Redmond and Ramelle Ruff

Reflecting further on the 2012 SAP for Utilities conference, we enjoyed the presentation by Pacific Gas & Electric's Janet Lee Redmond and Ramelle Ruff on analytics best practices. While the context was HR efficiency, Janet's and Ramelle's points were clearly applicable to many types of operations and projects. Our key take aways included the following:

• Fewer metrics are better; they're more manageable by their owners, and digestible by the intended audience.
• Choose metrics that truly measure the success of key business processes. While some extra data may be nice to have, that can get noisy and obscure what's actually important.
• Pick benchmarks related to your business, but consider those from outside your industry as well.
• Avoid the "we are special" mentality that often leads to exemptions and non-standard measurements. Do this by collaborating across stakeholders and ensuring buy-in from the beginning.
• Assign owners to each metric, to maintain their integrity over time. Good governance is key to enduring value here.
• Define how data will be presented and strive to eliminate manual manipulation, which will lead to additional versions reports and make periodic comparisons or comparisons across departments and users far more difficult.
• Last, define the frequency of evaluations and updates to your metrics. Ad hoc or reactive approaches will just lead to data that can't be properly compared from one period to the next.

New Project: Automated SAP FERC Processing

This week kicks off a new project for another utility company on SAP. We're going to assess the utility's SAP FERC processes, many of which have become manual and are now conducted outside of SAP over the years. Our customer understandably wants to automate these labor-intensive steps, so we'll be considering a number of different ways to optimize their current configuration of the SAP regulatory reporting module and streamline its processes. 

We'll also take into account some related initiatives the company may undertake in the future -- such as leveraging Plant Maintenance further, utilizing the HR module, and migrating to the SAP New General Ledger -- and factor these elements into our FERC automation recommendations.

The net result of HPC's assessment will be a highly actionable report for the utility company. It will lay out several optimization paths to automate currently manual processes and to manage labor, fleet, and cost center costs more effectively within SAP, thereby minimizing the use of external spreadsheets and applications.

In our experience, many utilities that have been running SAP for years benefit from this type of rapid evaluation and action plan. Over time, the configuration of their FERC module and related business processes morph into something less than ideal, and the best way forward is an outsider's fresh look. If your regulatory reporting processes aren't easily managed within SAP, such that management can't get the data it requires quickly and efficiently, contact us to talk about your own assessment. And if you're considering a New GL migration as well, let's talk about prototyping it for you.