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| Subject: Schlumberger | |
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Author: prepayment tokensSouth Africafor Electricity 1999 |
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Date Posted: 20:32:18 01/17/03 Fri http://www.slb.com/press/newsroom/index.cfm?prid=5081&baid=4 Schlumberger Wins Major IT Service Contract for Electricity Prepayment Scheme in South Africa Covers operational management of prepayment metering for 21,500 domestic electricity users Cape Town, South Africa, December 1, 2000 Schlumberger Resource Management Services has won a major service contract from George Municipality a key local authority in the South Cape Karoo region of South Africa to handle all IT-related aspects of electricity prepayment for its customers. The initial contract is for a three-year period and covers all of George Municipalitys 21,500 prepayment customers, accounting for an annual revenue of approximately $4.5 million. • Printer-friendly version • E-mail to colleagues As a major local authority in this part of the Western Cape, George Municipality is responsible for the provision of all services to residents in the area. The authority has consequently chosen to initiate the implementation of a customised, cutting-edge IT platform that will improve customer service and increase financial and operational efficiency, and at the same time integrate with its existing management and financial systems. This process will also benefit the authoritys preparation for the restructuring of South Africas energy supply market, which is due to take place during 2001. The electricity supply market in South Africa is growing significantly; over 3.6 million electricity prepayment meters (a very popular means of purchasing energy in this part of the world) have been installed since 1992, and a further 1.8 million residential premises are due to be provided with electricity within the next four years. This exceptionally rapid growth means that local authorities throughout the country will face a number of operational management problems when the market restructures, including metering systems that have outgrown the logistics for their management, out-of-date first-generation vending software, and a lack of standardised policies and procedures for handling issues such as loss control and debt recovery. Schlumberger is very actively involved in Africas energy management markets, and in the South Cape Karoo region is collaborating closely with a workgroup specifically tasked with defining best practices for the market. In response to the workgroups forward-thinking requirements, Schlumberger has developed a unique IT-based system infrastructure that embraces techniques such as workflow management, which provides flexible, run-time modelling of the utilitys operational processes. The infrastructure further supports conventional one-way prepayment, where a consumer purchases a numeric, 20-digit token at a vending station, and then transfers this to the electricity meter via a keypad at his premises. The strength of this approach is that a minimal amount of business logic is hard-coded, thereby providing the customisation capabilities and operational flexibility that is needed for efficient long-term revenue management and protection. Furthermore, Schlumberger has ensured that the infrastructure is based entirely on accepted industry standards. The prepayment tokens, for example, comply with the Standard Transfer Specification which means that customers are not locked into proprietary metering technology and all data tables are based on Oracle database technology, whilst the supporting modules use the web-friendly XML data transfer specification. The inherent flexibility of the IT infrastructure was the key reason behind George Municipalitys choice of Schlumberger as its service provider. According to Mr. M. K. Botha, Treasurer of George Municipality, "The service solution that Schlumberger has developed is ideal for our purpose of lessening our dependence on ever-changing information technology. With a common platform of integrated information, we confidently expect to improve our efficiency and offer our customers a better service." -- ends -- Background information for editors: Schlumberger Resource Management Services (RMS) provides professional business services for utilities, energy service providers and industry world-wide. Through consulting, meter deployment and management, data collection and processing, and information analysis, RMS helps clients achieve network optimisation, greater operating efficiency and increased customer loyalty. Active in all utility sectors water, gas, electricity and heat the RMS group is present in more than 30 countries. Schlumberger RMS posted revenues of $1.38 billion in 1999. Schlumberger RMS is a business segment of Schlumberger Limited [NYSE:SLB], a global leader in technical services spanning the oil and gas, utility, semiconductor, smart cards, network and Internet solutions industries. Schlumberger revenue was $8.4 billion in 1999. Additional information is available from Schlumberger Realtime at http://www.slb.com. For further information, contact: Christine Kabalin, Public Relations Manager Schlumberger Resource Management Services +33 1 47 46 60 66 +33 1 47 46 49 61 kabalin@montrouge.rms.slb.com [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |