The most advanced utility/energy reporting system in Australia. Rich, visual, highly flexible reporting for major corporate customers, cleverly skinned and re-branded for each of the major energy wholesalers.
The Challenge
SP-Ausnet own and operate the core energy infrastructure in Australia. Data Management Solutions is a sub division of SP-Ausnet that specialises in providing energy reporting and consultancy services to participants (wholesalers and end customers) in the energy marketplace.
In order to establish a competitive, world leading, real time online reporting service, DMS needed a web partner to build the underlying system. DDSN Interactive was selected based on advanced application development experience in projects such as cm3 Acora CMS, NTAA website, and the Good Sports extranet, and our flair for Schmick interface design.
The Solution
In partnership with DMS, we designed and constructed the most advanced utility/energy reporting system in Australia. Processing gigabytes of new data every day - and terabytes overall - the system provides lightning fast access to rich graphical reports with advanced options.
Worthy of note in this project, the interface design challenge was perhaps one of the most difficult to overcome. DDSN and DMS staff contributed to a series of interactive business and design workshops. Together we developed a shared understanding of the complexities of the Australian energy marketplace and the unique issues involved in providing business reports to a diverse range of marketplace stakeholders with differing needs.
The initial project development timeline precluded the option of full end user testing workshops during the design phase, which highlighted the need for special sensitivity toward usability by the design staff. DDSN's final recommendations for the structure and key aspects of the reporting interface were received with delight by the client, and the system has performed extremely well with end customers after deployment.
Highlighted Features
Key components of the software include:
- Australia's only integrated energy reporting system that includes electricity, gas, and water reports for customers attached to all services with a single wholesaler.
- Extremely detailed visual reports - Usage graphs by time, date, region; time of use and tariffs; peak level alerts; CO2 emissions; compare by period; calendar (monthly) and custom views; and more.
- Fully re-brandable interface which is used by the major energy wholesalers (e.g. TruEnergy, AGL, Origin) to provide reporting services to their major corporate customers (e.g. Telstra, Metro, Seven Eleven).
- Direct data imports from Australia's core energy database (operated by SP-Ausnet).
- A rich Web 2.0 style interface which allows users to manage large amounts of data with intuitive grid tools. The grids enable rapid browsing, sorting, and filtering of large data sets.
- Highly visual reports, easy to read graphs in formats that are appropriate for each report, with data mapping keys and relevant tabular data in attractive layouts.
- Full and automatic personalisation and security of reports based on the Australian energy marketplace trading model.
- Detailed customer and user management tools at both the administrator and wholesaler levels.
The Result
The launch of a world class reporting system has allowed SP-Ausnet/DMS to solidify their presence in the highly competitive energy marketplace. An on-going partnership between DMS and DDSN assures constant review and improvement of the reporting systems. New services are launched regularly (at no cost to the end customer), and user feedback is reviewed at each planning interval.