Utility Bill Management resolves visibility issues for a Major Australian Water Authority

Problem

The client’s existing system was putting a strain on their day-to-day reporting, especially their environmental reporting.

Melbourne’s largest retail water utility, that provides essential water and sanitation services to more than 1.8 million people. It has a mixture of large and small electricity sites with a substantial number of unmetered sites totaling 393 NMI accounts.

This large incumbent supplier didn’t have the required level of visibility required into their energy portfolio which was putting a strain on their day-to-day reporting particularly their environmental reporting. Looking to partner with a trusted provider that could provide deep visibility, improved reporting they reached out to Bid after hearing that they were already servicing many similar-sized utility companies.

Solution

Complete visibility of the entire portfolio.

Bid was appointed to implement its RPA automation-driven solution to this large Water Authority. This included the management of all bill receipt, validation, and payment file processing all underpinned by an efficient and experienced level of support.

Key opportunities to improve that were identified:

• Ongoing energy data completeness, visibility and quality control, automated audit & process assurance for Accounts Payable;
• Reporting automation, sophistication, and assurance including NGER Compliant Environmental reporting 

Outcome

Bid deployed its RPA-driven Accounts Payable automation solution that resulted in the automation of their progressive Purchasing contract bill validation.

Now having centralized portfolio management with access to open/closes, site inquiries, alerts & reports.

Other benefits included:

• Ability to avoid late payments with a bill receipt to weekly payment file creation.
• Immediate access via the secure client portal to the full portfolio increasing visibility & control through reporting with payment-grade audit credentials.
• Super-efficient millisecond invoice collection and reading per invoice, including automatic validation of bills against distributor tariffs, DMA’s, and retailer contracts.
• Half-hour receiving and reporting using interval data for treatment plants and other large sites.
• Monthly accruals, budgets, usage reports are all managed through the platform
• Improvements to data completeness and additional integrity achieved through the continuous automated monitoring of monthly invoices, retailer contracts, DMA’s, and interval data
• Ability to prepare and conduct RFP and Tender for SME accounts

Bid is making manual Utility Bill Expense Management a thing of the past, by creating value out of every bill.

Want to see the automated platform in action? Access our free 8-minute product walkthrough here.