Supplier Interface Group Approach to Market Cutover Draft

Supplier Interface Group Approach to Market Cutover - Draft for Discussion Rodney Ballentine Ann Ferguson Joan-Edel Smith Page 1 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Introduction v The Enduring Solution is scheduled to Go Live for NIE and all Suppliers in the NI market on Monday 21 May 2012 v Go Live will include the introduction of: v replacement core systems to support all market facing activities within NIE and NIE ES v the Harmonisation Baseline schema for all market messages for all market participants v The TIBCO market messaging infrastructure to replace the current GEMMA and EMMA applications, again for all market participants v Successful Go Live will require the provision of a common Cutover Window, during which all market participants can complete their cutover activities v The overall approach to Cutover will be similar to that adopted for the NI 2007 Go Live in November of that year v The exact duration of the Cutover Window will be confirmed through detailed cutover planning to be completed by the ES Project team later this year. However, it is currently expected to extend over the weekend prior to Go Live on 21 May 2012 (to be confirmed following cutover rehearsals in early 2012) Page 2 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Preparation for Cutover v The ES Project will appoint a single point of contact who will work closely with the NIE and SI Cutover Managers, and have overall responsibility for liaison with Suppliers up to, and during, the Cutover Window v Prior to this appointment, all matters concerning Supplier Cutover will be managed through the ES Project’s Market Engagement Team (Helen Mounsey and team) v The SI Cutover Manager will be responsible for all matters concerning Cutover planning. This includes the production of the Cutover Approach and Plan, the relevant market-facing sections of which will be shared with Suppliers v Cutover liaison with Suppliers (including creation and review of these documents) will be achieved through: v SIG meetings, including any extra ones as needed v a continuation of the recently-established programme of 121 meetings v Cutover planning will include arrangements for contingency and backout. These will also be captured in the Cutover Approach and Plan Page 3 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Market Arrangements for Cutover v Previous market experience confirmed the importance of reducing the number of transactions in progress during the Cutover Window, and thus the complexity involved in transferring data for ‘in flight’ processes v This will greatly assist in closing down the legacy systems, and in providing a ‘soft landing’ for the Enduring Solution Go Live for both NIE and Suppliers v Individual market processes will be impacted for differing periods of time, depending on their complexity Page 4 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Market Processes – Key Impacts v The following slides set out NIE’s initial thinking on the impact on market processes v Suppliers should note this work is still at an early draft stage, and will form the basis for further discussion v Suppliers will be fully involved in these discussions v In the interests of moving this forward, NIE has looked at a number of key process areas and have documented our thinking Page 5 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Change of Supplier Processes v Change of Supplier registration requests will need to cease for a period in advance of the start of the Cutover Window. The current proposal is for these to cease three weeks in advance (i. e. the last day for receipt of a Co. S N 010 will be Friday 27/04/12) v The number of related sub-processes (e. g. cancellations, objections etc. ) should also be reduced v Co. S Requests initiated prior to the three week period and destined to complete within it will flow to their natural completion v However, any Co. S Requests with a Required Date after Go Live should not be submitted prior to, or during, this period v Any open Co. S at the start of the Cutover Window will be cancelled and the Supplier will be required to submit a new format 010 message after Go Live (taking the new ‘cooling off period’ arrangements into account). It is hoped that these will be minimal Page 6 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group New Connection Processes v Commercial new connection registration requests will need to cease for a period in advance of the start of the Cutover Window. The current proposal is for these to cease one week in advance (i. e. the last day for receipt of a new connection N 010 will be Friday 11/05/12) v Any open commercial new connection registration in progress at the start of the Cutover Window will be cancelled and the Supplier will be required to submit a new format 010 message after the successful Go Live v Interim arrangements, similar to those currently in place, will be made for all domestic new connections which are scheduled to complete within one month of a successful Go Live v After this one month period, all domestic new connection customers must contact a Supplier of their choice to submit a 010 request on their behalf v All domestic new connection customers will be informed of this process via a letter well in advance of Cutover Page 7 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Change of Tenancy Processes v Change of Tenancy requests will be able to be processed up to the start of the Cutover Window v Address changes can be accepted up to the start of the Cutover Window v Change of Usage (N 013) messages will need to cease for a period in advance of the start of the Cutover Window. The current proposal is for these to cease one week in advance (i. e. the last day for receipt of a Co. U N 013 will be Friday 11/05/12) v Should a Co. T require Fieldwork, the Co. T element may be completed, but the Fieldwork element will need to be requested separately via the Enduring Solution after successful Go Live Page 8 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Fieldwork Processes v Fieldwork will not be able to be booked for a date after the start of the Cutover Window, until after a successful Go Live, when all fieldwork requests should be submitted through the Enduring Solution v Fieldwork request market messages (N 031) should cease for a period in advance of the start of the Cutover Window. The current proposal is for these to cease one week in advance (i. e. Friday 11/05/12). Any open fieldwork request at the start of the Cutover Window will be cancelled and should be submitted through the Enduring Solution v The current proposal is that Tuesday 15 th May will be the last date fieldwork appointments will be completed. All fieldwork required after this time should be held until after successful Go Live v Any fieldwork appointments on Monday 14 th and Tuesday 15 th May which are unable to be completed due to non-admittance, will be marked as cancelled and will need to be requested again following a successful Go Live Page 9 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Market Message Handling v During Cutover, EMMA will be replaced by the TIBCO infrastructure. Suppliers will therefore need to release all messages queued in their systems in advance of the start of the Cutover Window. v It will also not be possible to generate messages in the Interim Solution schema from this point forward. The detailed timings of EMMA replacement will be agreed as part of the Cutover Schedule v Workflows in Supplier systems must be completed or cancelled in advance of the start of the Cutover Window if they will result in the creation of market messages in the Interim Solution schema v N 210 market messages will not be processed by NIE after 12: 00 on the day of the start of the Cutover Window (i. e. Friday 18/05/12) Page 10 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Other points v For Data Aggregation, Interval Meter Reading data for a period prior to the start of the Cutover Window (current proposal three to four days) will be sent post successful Go Live by the Enduring Solution in the new 341 MM format v The meter reading programme window will increase to +/- 5 days in April 2012 due to the public holidays at Easter. It is proposed to extend this period through to the start of the Cutover Window i. e. from 27 April to 18 May 2012 v It is possible there will be a period of parallel reporting from the legacy systems and the Enduring Solution post go live to satisfy wholesale market requirements (i. e. in both CSV and MM formats, depending on the time period to which the data relates) v Appropriate contingency arrangements to cover exceptional circumstances will be put in place for any market process during the time it is impacted by ES Cutover and Go Live v For emergency keypad jobs, the Secure Meters Liberty system will be updated as normal over the Cutover Window Page 11 SIG 29 June 2011

Supplier Interface Group Next Steps v Within the ES Project, work on the more detailed Cutover Schedule will commence late summer. Agreement of market facing cutover procedures will form an important input into this document v Next steps for development and agreement of market facing cutover procedures include: v Suppliers are invited to send any comments on the draft proposals discussed today to joan-edel. smith@nie. co. uk, and ann. ferguson@nie. co. uk v The ES Project Team will further update Suppliers at a SIG meeting in August, including any response to initial Supplier comments v Revised proposals will be presented to SIG for consideration in September, to be signed off during October Page 12 SIG 29 June 2011