Managing change: a break-through in billing.

• Author: Schwass, Gary L.
• Position: Includes related article on improving organizational performance

The finance group at Duquesne Light increased revenues by reducing its billing time. in the process it learned how to break through resistance to change.

With the deregulation of the utility industry by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the consumer's increasing demand for a higher quality of power, the public utility environment has become highly competitive over the last several years. To keep pace with competition, the finance group at Duquesne Light had to identify ways to contribute to the company's revenue enhancement and productivity improvement efforts.

One of the key areas for improvement was the billing lag-the time it takes to read the customer's meter and put the bill in the mail. Duquesne's billing lag was five days, longer than for most other utilities in Pennsylvania. We realized that, if we handled it properly, reduction in the billing lag could produce three important benefits for the finance group and for the company: (1) boost financial performance and improve cash flow, (2) improve customer service by reducing complaints about the accuracy of meter reading, and (3) change the finance group's attitude about managing improvement.

In the current competitive environment, utilities must be able not only to conduct their operations efficiently and provide better service, but they must do so with fewer employees. To accomplish these objectives, close cooperation between functions and clearly defined accountabilities are essential. The problem is that close cooperation and clearly defined accountabilities have been the exception at Duquesne-they have happened only in times of crisis. So, to reduce Duquesne's billing lag, we had to tackle a much larger problem: changing employees' attitudes.

An initial attempt:

We decided to begin with a study of existing procedures to identify opportunities for improvement, and came up with a number of suggestions. But, except for the recommendation that meter readers use hand-held meter-reading computers, every other opportunity to accelerate the billing process was met by objections and reasons why it was impractical or could not be done both from within the finance group and from other departments involved in the billing process.

We knew that, while the hand-held computers would help, they would not eliminate the lag. What the finance group needed, we realized, was a different strategy-one that involved all the people concerned as active collaborators in developing solutions. We...