Analysing, scoping and delivering a plan to deliver Smart metering solutions to complex meter set-ups.

Working on the UKRP project

I enjoy using my strong analytical skills to understand business needs and implement innovative technology solutions. I have fulfilled a variety of different roles within project teams and proved myself to be very successful in delivering end-to-end solutions, effectively interacting between business and technical functions in all phases of project delivery. These are a list of a few projects I have worked on over this period: Project: nPower.com and Broker Credit Assessment, Solution LeadA phased roll-out of a credit assessment solution to all the different sales channels which will result in all joining customers having a credit search to reduce bad debt.Project: 21 Day Switch Compliance, Business AnalystOne of nPower’s main objectives is to improve its regulatory compliance position, one obligation was the three week switch obligation. I was asked to perform a deep dive and report on what steps were required to achieve this aim. I later worked closely with the business to execute the plan and quickly achieved the highest compliance in nPower history.Project: Extended-Hypercare and Reduction of Late Invoice backlogsIn preparation of the transition of the operational areas to offshore partners any backlogs needed to be cleared. I worked closely with the business to clear down their backlogs, my technical experiences also allowed me to write programs which automated the clearance of the backlogs of exceptions and bills. Project: Automated Processing of Retention Sales, Business Analyst and Solutions ConsultantProposed a strong benefits case to automate a resource intensive process, I worked as the BA and Solution consultant working with key stakeholder to document and design the processing of all retention sales. This is now delivering greater than expected success via the nPower digital journey. During this time I have also been consulting the SMART program, the customer transformation program and a number of other initiatives.

Project:Faster SwitchingTo increase competition in the energy industry, suppliers were requested by the government to reduce customer switching times. A three day faster switching proposal was put forward and approved by the regulator OFGEM. The pressure was on for nPower to deliver the project before the end of the year. As well the three day faster switching project, OFGEM requested nPower to delivery some challenging targets due to its billing backlog, adding to increasing resource constraints.As Solution Lead and Supporting BA, we documented the requirements and impact assessed them against the existing solution and business processes. Once signed off we took them through detailed design and delivery. It was exciting to be involved in every stage of this challenging and high profiled project which influenced every area of the customer acquisition and loss solution. To ensure successful delivery we worked with various partners which included, IBM, AMT Sybex, SAP CDP, RWE Systems, SQS and Capita. Despite all the challenges faced, the project has achieved a successful phase one and delivered a number of additional operational improvements.

Project: HypercareA team of experts mobilised to embed the SAP system into the operational business and work on system stabilisation. The team was responsible for performing a deep dive into the customer acquisition, losses, new connections, ET processes and producing a report of areas of focus. Once the report had been agreed the team was deployed into the business to document operational KPI’s, reporting requirements, prioritisation of defects and supporting the teams in the business to embed the relevant system processes. I supported the business in identifying process improvements, documenting the specifications for any changes and a new reporting suite, and acted as an SME in due to my detailed technical knowledge of the SAP system.In addition, as the system became stable I was asked to assist and support the transition of work offshore, and supported a number of additional projects during this time.

Commissioned by nPower to visit their offshore partners in Bangalore to establish a team of experts who would be responsible for managing and maintaining the operational KPIs. Extensive training and support was given to ensure that the Bangalore team had a deep understanding of the surrounding processes and were able to cleanse accounts and escalate issues.A second team of advisors were trained on the exception resolution processes for the newly launched nPower.com website.

Recruited onto nPower’s SAP transformation program as part of the Sales and Marketing workstream. The team was responsible for the customer acquisition, retention and new connection customer journeys. The customer acquisition journey, as an example, is very complex where a number of messages need to be exchanged between nPower and the customers’ existing supplier in order to set the customer up for billing correctly. This was a steep learning curve for myself as I was new to the energy industry. Relishing at the opportunity to utilise my experience as a Business Analyst this allowed me to make an impact immediately and I quickly learnt the complicated processes allowing me to build a strong reputation at nPower as an SME.As Lead Business Analyst of the external sales channels, I was responsible for managing various processes. I was accountable for the documentation of requirements for the various processes, which consisted of eliciting requirements, validating them, and then modelling them in “Aris”. Gaining a good repertoire with the other teams, I was then asked to assist and support the production of a number of BRS documents which modelled the various processes and then mapped requirements, compliance obligations, user access requirements, exceptions (and resolution steps), risks and controls to each process step of the models. In addition to this, my skills set and experience allowed me to help with the organisational design, user role creation, access definition, test script design, testing, prioritisation of defects, development of training material and providing business “go-live” support.

Technically leading and developing web related projects. Responsible for the delivery of internal and external web sites, the internal and external payments systems, managing PCI compliance strategy & implementation and delivery of the Google Enterprise search.The role also encompassed Project Management (PRINCE 2) and Business Analyst duties.

Given a fantastic opportunity to introduce ASP.net and C# to Yorkshire Water, working on internal and external payment gateways the role involved creating a secure development framework that could be utilised by a growing team of developers and would be rigorously tested in order to ensure strict security guidelines in line with PCI compliance would be met.

Year 1: A six month placement working on the Citrix project to build a new Citrix farm of 13 servers. The remaining six months were spent in the service management team working on first, second and third line support with managerial duties.Year 2: Initially a short graduate placement on the SAP team started by performing HR enhancements, after proving my aptitude the placement was extended so that I could become the technical analyst and developer on a number of “Materials Management” module enhancements, such as the company’s “flooding register” and “tankers and incinerators” waste management solution. During this time I was promoted to IT professional.http://www.yorkshirewater.com/htmlsites/graduates/about/curr_grads_rpatel.html

Web developer using ASP.net, VB.net and SQL Server on the customer portal

Worked in the Service Management area of the IT division. Over the year I gained experience in a number of IT infrastructure Library areas (ITIL, widely accepted IT methodology) the Service Level Management Team (SLM), Change Management Team, Problem Management Team and Platform Integration Management (PIM) Team.