Santee Cooper

Challenge
The 30-year-old in-house developed system was operating on unsupported technology which was becoming more and more difficult to maintain and enhance. However, it was custom functionality and meet the needs of the end users. Santee Cooper’s IT support was exceptionally responsive and capable.

Solution
TMG was retained to produce an application plan to determine Santee Cooper's alternatives, including migrating their system to a new platform, designing and building a system in-house, or purchasing an off-the-shelf system. The Application Plan assessed every scenario, providing costs, risks, benefits, and constraints. The decision was to replace the legacy billing system with a new CIS product solution.

In 2006 TMG was hired to assist Santee Cooper with their evaluation and selection effort. The team evaluated the CIS vendors based experience with utilities of similar size, and decided to direct its RFP to 4vendors - Harris Cayenta, Indus, SAP and SPL (now Oracle). SAP and SPL were short-listed. Santee Cooper ultimately selected SPL's CC&B system.

Results
The optimal solution was to select and purchase a product solution, and plan an implementation approach to maximize the use of Santee Cooper personnel and assure maximum knowledge transfer. Santee Cooper plans to begin the procurement process in late 2005 using TMG’s selection methodology and services, with the goal of having a new system installed by first quarter 2008.