Background
In May 2009, the reorganization of CSS forces a renewed attention to documenting the tools and processes used across the organization. Among them is the Billing and Invoicing process.
Near-Term Goals for Billing and Invoicing Analysis
- Understand and document existing conditions, starting from how money arrives in SAP and working backwards to the transactions that prompt it.
- Identify opportunities for a simpler, more coherent, more client-focused system
Components of how this will look...
- Inventory the ways that IS&T charges clients, and how
Software distribution, Help Desk services, Athena membership, etc. - Explore links from transactional systems to billing engine to SAP
- Document / Diagram the locations, paths and processes where data is generated, recorded, reported.
Draw arrows and make labels. - Develop proposals for incremental optimization
Can we issue "statements" to clients that are similar to Verizon bills for their many services?
Can we shift away from the several historical approaches to connecting transactions to SAP billing feeds?
Goals
By the end of FY10 Q1 (end of August 2009) have a comprehensize map of the systems and processes that take money from clients, concentrating on CSS but ideally including OIS as well.
By the end of FY10 Q2 (end of December 2009) explore systems that might ease our pain and identify opportunities - can we get the equivalent of QuickBooks to track client transactions and issue unified bills?
By the end of FY10 Q3 (end of March 2010) pilot some systems to handle transactions in RT leading to money transfers in SAP.
More Details
See the working project notebook in the CSS HQ wiki space.