Energy distribution and marketing backoffice system and method
A retail energy provider system comprising a market transaction manager, business rules and requirements processor, usage rater, customer analysis and quality control auditor, customer billing processor and collection manager, customer payment processor, third party sales and marketing application programming interface, customer acquisition and residual income interface, having a wholesale forecaster, interactive voice response system, intranet web services, internet web services and network based external customer service and executive management systems and financial services functions, all said functions and systems interacting with a robust SQL database engine for which the novel database schema is taught herein.
1. A computer network comprising:
an application server;
a database server operatively connected to the application server;
a payment processor, operating on the application server;
a treatment processor, operating on the application server;
a customer residual income (CRI) processor operating on the application server;
a database implemented on the database server; and,
a set of instructions, that when executed, cause the application server and the database server of the network to perform operations of:
the application server receiving, from the payment processor according to a first set of relationships, a set of payment information related to an energy customer using a first data table;
wherein the payment processor is connected to an application programming interface (API) to manage the set of payment information;
the application server receiving, from the database through the API according to a second set of relationships, a set of sales information related to a sales agent using a second data table;
the application server receiving, from the database server through the API according to a third set of relationships, a set of energy usage data for the energy customer using a third data table;
the application server deriving, by the treatment processor, a set of bill information, related to the set of energy usage data and the set of payment information;
wherein the set of bill information is stored in a fourth data table and is accessible according to a fourth set of relationships;
the application server deriving, by the CRI processor, a set of commissions, based on the set of payment information, the set of bill information, the set of sales information and the set of energy usage data;
wherein the set of commissions is stored in a fifth data table and is accessible according to a fifth set of relationships;
the application server disconnecting the energy services of the customer with a treatment process performed at least in part by the treatment processor;
the application server updating a disconnect status in a sixth data table, the sixth data table being accessible according to a sixth set of relationships;
the application server determining, by the CRI processor, a set of CRI with a CRI daily calculation process and a seventh data table;
wherein the set of CRI is accessible using a seventh set of relationships; and,
the application server releasing, from the CRI processor through the API according to an eighth set of relationships, the set of CRI with a CRI release process using an eighth data table.
2. The computer network of claim 1 wherein disconnecting the energy services further comprises:
queueing disconnect orders for all customers “in treatment”; and,
a disconnect date has been established, the disconnect date is due, and the customer status is currently connected to the energy services.
3. The computer network of claim 1 wherein determining a set of CRI further comprises:
operating the CRI populating a BillPay table and a BillPayDetail table; and,
data for a current billing month in each of the BillPay table and the BillPayDetail table is reconstructed each time the customer residual income daily calculation process runs.
4. The computer network of claim 1 wherein releasing the set of CRI further comprises:
populating a CRI table, a CRIDetail table, and a CRI Info table;
wherein all data for the current billing month in the CRI table and the CRIDetail table is reconstructed every time that the customer residual income release process runs,
wherein all data for the current billing month in the CRI Info table is repopulated each time the customer residual income release process runs; and,
wherein previous billing month data is left unaltered and in the CRI Info table.
5. The computer network of claim 1 wherein disconnecting the energy services further comprises:
sending a disconnect order according to an Energy Reliability Council of Texas electronic data interchange transaction type 650_01 by a transaction exporter from a daily queue; and,
confirming the disconnect order after a disconnect pending time,
sending an Energy Reliability Council of Texas electronic data interchange transaction type 650_02 to a retail electricity provider connected to the network.
6. The computer network of claim 1 wherein disconnecting the energy services further comprises:
queuing a set of confirmed disconnect orders that have been aged by a predetermined time; and,
sending the confirmed disconnect orders at the same time.