Have You Prepared with the Coming Holidays?

Time goes fast. This is what I like about September. In near time, we will have holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas and New Year. Well, you might think that I am too excited talking about these topics now. But, it is better to prepared ahead right? At least I won’t be bothered in the next months for all my online bookings and online shopping. You now how difficult it is to book near holidays and how the prices will go up for shopping.

So, start from know. Make your own wish list. Tell you family to make their own as well. Browse in your leisure time for some deals of your list. You can have great BestBuy coupons to get more discounted on your wish list products.

Do not forget to have your selected Food & Wine for your stocks. I would like to get on My Wines Direct coupons. Make this year holidays memorable for you and your family. Reward yourself for the fantastic works that you have been done for the past year. This will boost your morale for the next year to achieve higher goals.

I personally like to reward myself for new computer related stuffs. I have been checking on the products from Dell coupons. For traveling, I am still undecided on where to go so far. Hope that in next week I will start booking.

Why we called it Project? What differs Project with Operation?

Many of us have heard about the term “project”, even during our college days we often heard “mid-term project” or “final term project”. Project involves organization of people and other resources to perform work. But what makes it different with Operation? As we know that operation also involves people and resources to perform work. The main differences can bee noticed because projects are:
• Temporary
• Resulting a unique product or service

“Temporary” means that the project has a definite start time and finish time. The project starts when the initiation process has been launched. The project finishes when the project’s objectives have been achieved. The project duration can be short like matter of days. On the other hand, the project can take years as well. Take note that even the project can take year, this is because the scope of the project is huge. Small scope of the project should not take time to manage. If the project keeps on deviating from the objective or having delays in most of the time, then, the project management should think and act if the project should be terminated.

Even tough the project is temporary, the end result are mostly a permanent product. For example: project of implementing new customer information system for electricity company. The project itself is temporary to implement new system. When the project’s objective is achieved and the project closes, the system is going to be used by the company in permanent basis. The work will then become an operation work.

“Resulting a unique product or services” means that the project carries out a unique product or services. Let us continue the example of implementing customer information system for Electricity Company. One may say that the customer information system is not unique. It is a common system used by many electricity companies. So what makes it unique? The one that make it unique is because the project is implemented by different vendor. It is unique because the electricity company that is going to be implemented the system is different. It is unique because the customization of the customer information system for that electricity company is different. And many more but I think you get my point already.

As the project results into a unique product or service, the characteristics of the product or services should be defined clearly in the project scope. This is usually clearly stated in the contract if the project involves other party outside the company.

1 Month signed in PPP

I have been blogging for a quite sometime now. But I just joined last month to PayPerPost (PPP) using this blog. PPP is a place where a blogger like me can grab an opportunity given by the advertisers to review their site. In return, I get paid for the sponsored content.

Since my blog is just new and has limited visitors, google still does not give me any enough Page Rank. If you do not know what PR is.. better googling about it fist. PR0 limits me to grab many opportunity in PPP. There are still some, but I get choosy sometime on the topic because I do not want to review the site if I am not knowledgeable enough for the topic. Even for these selected opportunities that I grab, I managed to earn around $50 for the first month. Well, not bad considering how new my blog is and how choosy I am in taking the opportunity.

The good thing about PPP is that I have an option to donate my earnings to non-profit organizations. But so far, I would like to donate them myself because I have some non-profits organization near my house that really need some donations. I am glad that I can donate some of my earnings from PPP to those organizations.

Aside from the monetary values, I get some new bloggers friends as well. I am becoming frequent visitor of blogs that I found in PPP. I like to read their blogs and also noticing the different writing styles that they used to post blogs.

Impacts of Implementing New Customer Information (Billing) System Into Utility Company’s Human Resources

The implementation of any system means some changes in company management and is it necessary to take into account the motivation of personnel because they will be the final users and they are very important “assets” of company.

A critical factor for implementation is the participation of company’s management during all process of definition of changes and the implementation of changes to ensure the fulfillment of the planned goals. Also, the management is very important for providing direction and in transmission of information to the horizontal and vertical company structure.

Another very important activity is the organization of campaign for propaganda (publicity) of the changes that must be made in the organizational area. The objective of this will be to inform company personnel about the effects of the changes and to explain the new scope and the basic functions which will be assigned to each organizational unit and each position in unit. It will be also necessary to clarify and explain the new role of the payment point that it will have the separated functions as a delivery point for invoices and also as a collection point for payments.

From user’s training point of view, is will be necessary to give the training for each group of users on the correct usage of the functions that system will provide and relate this with the new functions of each unit until the personnel level. That it, the implementation of new processes will be incorporated in training. For some of the users will be very important learn to be confident to start working with computers because up to now their activities were done manually.

With regards to manpower, it may be necessary adjust the existing number of personnel. Initially, we can make the following deductions:
• It will probably be necessary to have more persons for customer services in Commercial office where all front office activities will be done for the following reasons: first is that these personnel will do more activities than how much they do now and second is to respond to the increasing number of clients.
• It may also be necessary to increase the number of personnel in the Call Center when the company will want to give more services to the clients by phone.
• It will be possible to eliminate the number of readers because of change in number of days for reading and the consequent re-distribution of meter reading workload. When company will start to read daily (for residential clients), that means 20 working days per month, the number of meter readers can be reduced significantly.
• It will also be necessary to have persons for the administration of system. This group of personnel must be comprised of IT personnel and commercial area personnel. It is recommended that the administration of system will be assigned to some or all COMPANY personnel who are currently working in the project.
• The necessity to have personnel that will have the responsibilities related to the resolution of anomalies of the system can be covered by personnel who are currently responsible for some billing activities which will be automated when the system is implemented.
• It will probably be necessary to have some personnel who will manage the technical center (planning of work orders, assignment of work orders, and monitoring of completion and resolution of work orders, and updating of information in the system). This group may be comprised of those who are currently managing the similar works but without the support of a computerized system.
• Temporarily, it will be necessary to have additional personnel for technical activities like operators of batch process running and monitoring of Customer Information System. The personnel that maintain the existing systems which will be replaced by the CIS may be transferred to other functions after the CIS is implemented.

Another important factor will be the availability of the personnel. Upon the Customer Information System implementation, there will be functions that must be carried out outside the regular working hours. This is related to the batch operator who can start his tasks only when the users finish their on-line activities. This will also be the case when updates of the system will be implemented. Personnel from System Administration Unit must have shifts (distributed working time) that will cover the daily operation period which may be longer than the official working time of an employee per day.

Why PMBOK is commonly used in project management?

In implementing a new system to a company, project management is the key in planning, staffing, executing and monitoring the whole process. Project implementors often use different approach to make sure that the system can be implemented with minimal risk. In general, this methodology for project management can be generalized into several steps. Most well known project management is PMBOK.

PMBOK stands for Project Management Body of Knowledge. It is combination of knowledge in the area of project management. It becomes a standard of project management because it has been proven in many project managements. It is a practice or methodology that is generally accepted. Generally accepted means that it could be applied to any projects in general. However, generally accepted means as well that in some of the projects, some methodologies are not obligatory.

PMBOK can be used by anyone interested in the project management, namely:
• Project managers
• Project team members
• Managers of project manager
• Customer of the project or project’s stockholder
• Consultant involved in the project management
• Trainers or educator in the area of project management

PMBOK can be summarized into 5 general processes:
1. Initiating Processes – in first step is to recognize that the project should begin. Commitment from all parties should be available to initiate the project.
2. Planning Processes – the process should define a workable scheme to achieve the goal of the project.
3. Executing Processes – in this process, the available human resources and other resources should be coordinated to carry out the plan.
4. Controlling Processes – measurement to detect any deviation from the goal and plan should be implemented. Necessary corrective action should be imposed to align the project into the plan.
5. Closing Processes – the project should end and acceptable by all parties. This step is related to formalize the closing of the project.

In next posts/articles, I will discuss in details about each processes and everything related to project management to ensure you do not miss the concepts of it. Make sure you sign up in our mailing list (you can find on upper left of the site) to be notified for any new post related to project management.

Organization Aspects in Utility Company

The organizational structure of each company should be created in accordance with the resources that have already been assigned to the commercial areas for realization of the basic commercial processes with the goal to obtain the satisfactory results. These satisfactory results are:
- to the clients – providing high quality level of services
- to the own company – obtain good economic (financial) results
- to the own personnel – through motivation.

Organizational strategy should be developed in consideration of these three elements (client, company, personnel) to satisfy the expectation for each of them.


Orientation to the clients

The whole organization of company should be created with the client in mind and this aspect should follow in the company’s organizational development. The organizational strategy should be oriented towards obtaining a good reaction from the client and to present the best image of the company.
The company should develop these processes which allow it to satisfy the client’s needs using the different possibilities available in the market and adhere to the high quality of these processes during implementation.
Also, based on information gathered from the client, it may be necessary to adjust or modify the commercial procedures to improve the quality of services provided.


Orientation to the results

It is true that the company cannot exist without its clients. On the other hand, it is also true that the company’s resources to realize its activities are limited. Priority should be to satisfy the clients but it is necessary to study the financial costs and gains of these activities. It is not possible to spend resources without obtaining good financial results.

A process should be established to permit management to identify and evaluate the participation of each organizational unit in the fulfillment of these goals. These organizational units should participate and be responsible for accomplishing the results set by the company. Similarly, it is necessary to do this each position in the organizational units. A balance should exist between the results which the person/position must obtain and the resources that are assigned to it.

Orientation to the processes

The company’s resources should concentrate on the basics – key processes in commercial area which generate high added value. On other side, it is necessary to eliminate processes which do not generate any added value and processes which produce only losses.
Basic commercial processes should be defined. The inputs, outputs, responsibilities and activities within in each process should be made clear. If it is possible, some criteria for measuring and evaluating the costs of different activities and the financial gains should be established.

Bypass Meter - You want to know how to bypass meter?

With the electricity tariff hikes, many customers of utility company is trying to bypass the meter. In this case, I will be specific in Electricity Meter. The most common meter bypass that is done by customer is by putting a jumper in meter terminal. You can see the picture of meter by pass here. This kind of meter bypass can be easily noticed by reader when they go regular reading of your meters.

Another type of meter bypass is by removing external potential copper on the terminal. This kind of fraud is hardly noticed because the reader will not pay attention on the terminal copper when doing the reading. See the picture of by passing meter using external potential open.

Double feeding can also be a type of meter by pass as it will not register the whole consumption of electricity. If you meter cable is over the ground, than it will be easy to do. However, it is one of the easiest one to notice. Unless the cables in your area is so crowded that it is difficult to notice which one is legal and which one is not. If the cable is under ground, it is difficult to tamper but when it is done, you are less likely to get caught in near future. Readers seldom check the underground connection unless there are troubles. See double feeding here.

Customers are encouraged to do meter bypass because it seems common to them. They see neighbors are doing that, why should not I? Especially when they encounter that the personnel from electricity company is offering that services for some dollars.

Nevertheless, in most countries, doing meter by pass IS A CRIME! So think twice or even a thousand times before doing it. You are not only cheating to the electricity company, but also you are cheating the community.
- When you steal the electricity by bypassing meter, you increase the commercial loss of the electricity company. In the end, the company needs to raise the tariff to cover all the commercial losses that it encountered.
- When you steal the electricity by bypassing meter, you increase the load of transformer and cables in your area. Electricity company has a reason to put a breaker near cables and transformers. This is to ensure that the load will not over the planned load by the company. Increasing load to the cable can cause sparks and will lead to fire. Increasing load to the transformer can cause the transformer to shut down for protection. This will shut down the whole electricity in your area.

In conclusion, it is nice to know how the meter is bypassed. But DO NOT do it. Warn your neighbors who are doing it!