NYC Department of Environmental Protection taps Dynamics 365 for transformation initiative

Before Dynamics 365

The legacy system had served the DEP well in its time. Its limitations became increasingly evident as the decades passed. The changes required to  make as part of their modernization initiative just weren’t feasible on a system that old. Plus, replacing staff who had the expertise to maintain the old COBOL DB2 mainframe system was difficult. 

The DEP knew they needed a more flexible system to implement complex functionality such as multi-rate billing and variable interest rates based on specified criteria—a key part of their goal to equitably meet financial and operational needs as they considered economic impacts to customers. In addition, employees often had to run reports and track account adjustments and other activities manually. Other processes, including violation notices and refund processing, were also very manual and paper-intensive. Customer service representatives often had to sign into multiple systems to help customers with their issues and questions. 

The customer experience also wasn’t ideal. The department’s self-service portal had limited functionality and wasn’t mobile-friendly. Although a mobile app provided access to some account information, it wasn’t accessible to all customers and it was difficult to maintain. 

With all this in mind, the city issued an RFP for a new solution that included nearly 2,000 requirements. Based on its evaluation of functional, technical, and financial fit, the DEP chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and UMAX from Itineris over SAP and Oracle. UMAX, developed specifically for utilities and built on the Dynamics 365 platform, combines the flexibility and power of a modern, configurable CIS, CRM, and asset and field services management solution with specialized capabilities that are tailored to the unique needs and challenges of utility operations. Moreover, the DEP already used Microsoft products, including Dynamics 365 Sales. Their own employees had relevant skill sets to help manage the rollout and ongoing management of the new system. 

With an innovative, cloud-based solution powered by Microsoft and Itineris, the DEP had the ability to modernize and streamline operations while improving customer and employee experiences. By moving to the cloud, they also expected cost savings, more flexibility, and improved security. 

The implementation

The solution covers a broad set of processes that encompass billing, payments, customer self-service, field service, and business intelligence reporting. It was the first implementation in North America of UMAX on Dynamics 365 with significant volume requirements. One of the biggest challenges was the sheer amount of data that had to be migrated. The final size of the database was close to one terabyte, comprising four years of history for more than 850,000 customer accounts. The data had to be migrated from multiple disparate systems, including the legacy CIS and customer portal, the service line protection database, and even manual spreadsheets. To prepare for migration, a data cleansing team started work before the main project began and completed 11 data conversions. 

Altogether, the team built about 25 interfaces between internal and external systems, including banks, payment processors, and other agencies with which the DEP shares data. These complex integrations were necessary to bring all their data into one location to avoid integrity issues they'd had in the past because data was stored in separate systems. With greater data consistency and accuracy, managerial and financial reporting would be easier.   

The analysis and design phases were completed before the global pandemic. The onset of the pandemic forced changes to the plan. With everyone now working remotely, the majority of the implementation and testing was done remotely as well. Some of the training needed to be done in-person, however, so the go-live date slipped a few times. It was finally set for Labor Day weekend in September 2021. In preparation, schedules were aligned with the numerous third parties that had to synchronize integrations, such as the NYC Department of Finance and various financial and payment partners. 

The cutover was scheduled to begin on Wednesday before the holiday weekend. The remnants of Hurricane Ida had other plans. As the storm raged, the DEP facility was flooded with 12 feet of water and lost power and network connectivity. The team was forced to finish the migration from the old system using backup generators that they were able to get up and running within 24 hours. 

Despite the pandemic, technological, and weather challenges, the solution was successfully launched over the holiday weekend. A robust set of applications and features was available after the rollout:

• A new and improved customer self-service Power Pages portal that’s more user-friendly and offers more functionality. Customers can check their water consumption, view their bills (in a new easier-to-read format), and through Paymentus, a third-party processor, even pay their bills.
• Complete field service management using Dynamics 365 and UMAX to create service orders in a third-party system, ServiceLink. Microsoft Azure facilitates communication between the two systems. An operation periodically runs a query to update service orders in the UMAX system. 
• Improved business intelligence and reporting capabilities that are simpler to access and understand. Information from across the ecosystem is combined and displayed in a much more intuitive manner and provides management with more visibility into the business. 
• A cashiering application that powers payment acceptance at the borough offices using Azure to communicate with the Dynamics 365 database. All data for this front-office tool now resides in the same database as the data for the customer self-service portal. 
• A modernized bill format for customers that presents all the important information in an easier-to-read layout.

Benefits and impacts

The Dynamics 365 solution brought immediate benefits to DEP as a whole and to its employees and customers.

For the department, the benefits include:

• The enhanced security of a cloud-based solution: By moving from on-prem to the cloud, the DEP has improved security with a Microsoft infrastructure that was built from the ground up with modern security in mind. 
• Less resource-intensive disaster recovery: With the legacy mainframe solution, the DEP was 100% responsible for recovery. Now disaster recovery is managed by Microsoft since the solution is in the cloud. This reduces the need for maintaining certain skill sets in-house. 
• Simplified financial reporting: Thanks to the streamlined financial management capabilities of Dynamics 365, they’re now able to complete month-end closing processes more quickly. As just one example, the team met their goal to fully process 70,000 bills in five hours in a nightly batch job.
• Cost savings: With the move from the mainframe system to Dynamics 365, the DEP reduced the number of consultants needed to support the in-house IT team by 50%. They also anticipate cost savings from customers using the friendlier interface of the new self-service portal to sign up for paperless billing and make payments online.

For employees and managers, the benefits include:

• Increased efficiency from enhanced usability: Replacing the mainframe and the 1995-era screens that required so many clicks makes their daily work simpler and increases their efficiency. Optimized processes have greatly reduced the handling of paper documents. Employees can now access customer documents, service order status, and worksite photos all in one place, rather than having to sign in to multiple systems to find everything they need. 
• Improved work queue management: With workspaces for groups such as billing and field services, managers can assign work items from queues, replacing the old manual spreadsheets and reports that sometimes resulted in items falling through the cracks. Managers can now track work easily and have much more visibility into the size of the queues.

For customers, the benefits include:

• An expanded, more user-friendly self-service portal: The modernized portal provides more information than in the past and lets customers complete more tasks. It’s also accessible to more customers now that it’s available in a mobile-friendly online version, rather than only as a separate mobile app. 
• More payment methods: The new cashiering module allows the borough offices to accept more payment methods than before. Over time, even more options will be available, including Amazon Pay and PayPal. 
• A more understandable bill: The first bill layout update in years has received positive feedback from customers. 

What’s next?

Moving forward, the team will continue adding features to provide even more impact. They plan to add new payment methods in partnership with Paymentus to provide even more choices for customers. They also plan to fine-tune the system to boost accuracy and processing speed even more, adding capabilities such as alerts and workflows. To help organize employee activities and save time, they'll also implement more workspaces. 

In the longer term, they're planning enhancements for data warehousing and analytics using Azure Data Lake. Once connected to the data lake, they can look forward to being able to discover hidden insights in their data as they continue their modernization journey.