Karachi: SSGC has consolidated its position as one of the region’s most IT-enabled utility through continuous induction of best business practices and state-of-the-art technologies, leading to better services for its customers.
SSGC’s Technology Roadmap has provided total solutions in the areas of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Care and Billing (CC&B), Geographical Information System and Business Process Management, among others.
Karachi: SSGC has consolidated its position as one of the region’s most IT-enabled utility through continuous induction of best business practices and state-of-the-art technologies, leading to better services for its customers.
One of the biggest achievements of IT is the totally automated CC&B system, that ensures accurate, online and real time billing and improved customer service. Instead of taking outside help, the Company developed the system totally in-house, thus saving it millions of rupees.
To effectively record and analyze the flow and consumption of gas through SSGC’s Sales Meter Stations (SMSs) and large scale consumers, SSGC has installed smart meters at SMSs and Customer Meter Stations (CMSs), enabling the Company to record data online. The Oracle-driven Meter Data Management (MDM) manages vast quantity of customer consumption data gathered through smart meter deployment.
SSGC has recently launched a Remote Monitoring and Data Acquisition System project to closely monitor daily volume of gas from Point of Delivery and simultaneously monitoring volume consumed by the Company’s Bulk and large industrial customers. This project has helped SSGC in reconciliation of daily gas Sale-Purchase figures and to counter the Company’s UFG. The system promptly identifies incidents of gas theft and meter tampering by detecting abnormalities inside CMCs.
A successful pilot project on Methane Detector devices was recently undertaken that proved to be not just accurate but also helped to quantify the leakages found during meter replacement process. Traditionally, leakages were checked in pipe fittings by means of soap test which is time consuming and less accurate.
A major accomplishment in ERP was successful in-house up gradation of the Oracle 11i e-Business Suite to Oracle R12. The new version which consists of 15 modules was completed in a record time of 5 months and will go live from November 1, 2013. Another totally in-house initiative was the implementation of 9 modules of Oracle Applications at the Company’s subsidiary company SSGC-LPG (Pvt.) Ltd., which went live on October 1, 2013.
By providing state-of-the-art solutions, SSGC is introducing best practices in Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) area of business. This initiative will add value to improving SSGC’s internal control environment. Another noteworthy effort was the implementation of Master Data Management to resolve data quality issues by consolidating and centralizing master data and removing application inconsistencies to ensure that business processes does not break down. SSGC is also in the process of implementing Oracle Policy Automation (OPA) to automate its policies, procedures, business processes and business rules integrated with the Oracle e-Business Suite R12.
The Company’s Geographic Information System (GIS) which was developed in 2006 for better pipeline management and maintenance across its franchise areas of Sindh and Balochistan has been equipped with new features including addition of gas leakage GIS layer.
Another recent notable feat was the implementation of Automated Performance Review system in HR Module (ERP) that enables the line managers to allocate marks to the employees for their performance during the year with departmental head’s approval and consent. Benefits include considerable time savings, greater transparency and automatic updating of records.
SSGC is implementing a web-based Project Portfolio Management for improving overall project and organizational performance that will help to reduce project failure rates, shorten completion time and ensure increased return on investments. The system will guarantee transparency by making progress status available to the senior management at any given time for effective decision making.
As part of its Value Added Services initiative, customers can receive their gas bills in PDF format through e- mail. This service is being offered free-of-cost to the customers who can subscribe to this service simply by providing a valid e-mail address at ebill.ssgc.com.pk. SSGC also recently developed a mobile App to allow its customers with a popular cell phone manufacturer to check billing details. It has also ventured into branchless banking solutions with leading banks and telecom companies to provide customers with electronic bill payment modes. SSGC in partnership with leading banks are providing customers, e-Bill Payment facilitation through Utility Bill Control Switch (UBCS) for real time reporting and funds transfer. This cost effective solution saves SSGC Rs. 6 million approximately yearly and has drastically shifted volumes of manual to online processing.