N-ERGIE (itecPlus)

Formatting as a Central Service for Customers of the Energy Supplier N-ENERGIE
About 65 thousand households in Northern Bavaria are N-ERGIE customers.
They receive an invoice from Nürnberg for power, natural gas, district heating and water. The 100 employees of itecPlus GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of N-ERGIE are responsible for the planning, provision and operations of the information and telecommunications systems within the N-ERGIE group. Since 2002 itecPlus also serves external clients including the Sebaldus publishing group and the Nürnberg municipal transport services.
Introducing SAP Einführung after the Merger
Following the merger of a number of regional energy suppliers in Middle Franconia to form N-ERGIE a company very active in the region, existing SAP R3 systems at EWAG, StWN and FÜW were re-aligned. Since that time SAP R3 has become a standard within the N-ERGIE group.

Speed and Stability 
The change over to SAP R3/AIX at itecPlus was an inducement to look around for a suitable formatting program for forms processing. While forms processing in SAP for complex applications turns out to be difficult, the expectations were accordingly high. In the future, the main bulk of the entire group’s production printing should be done at the Nürnberg site. So the subject of performance was very high on the list of requirements.
After the comparison between the alternatives, the choice fell on DOC1 of Group1. As well as high formatting speed, system stability during the daily routine in the world of printing was also a key criterion for the decision.
The contract to implement and integrate the software into the existing environment was awarded to RASTERPUNKT. The output and DMS specialists from Grafenau in Baden-Württemberg also successfully included additional components for data conversion, postal charge optimization and DP postage.
Says Richard Härtlein, systems engineer at itecPlus: "For an output volume in the region of about 6 million documents per annum everything has to work. Following the development of the forms, we went into production after 6 weeks. We could already print the invoices after the first billing run. I am impressed with the direct contact and the fast competent help in working with the RASTERPUNKT specialists.”

Confirmation in Practice

The typical print job looks as follows: RDI data is created out of SAP and processed in DOC1. This creates a preview of the formatted document as a PDF file. An AFPDS datastream is then created and at the same time archiving data in CPCOLD with AFP2PDF is created in EASY Archive. The document processing and DP postage is done with ICOM. In which the TLE's (AFP Structured Fields) created in DOC1 for printing control are read in.And finally the infoPrint manager is made use of as a centralized spool and pre-processing system to control the single page production printer.Speed is not achieved by magic – what the concept promises is confirmed in practice: as an example a single run to format 21 thousand invoices wit, on average, 2 1/2 pages per consignment. In about 2 minutes the job is completed, which means a formatting rate of about 440 pages a second!RASTERPUNKT: "After we had analyzed the performance of the formatting tool together with itecPlus, the use of DOC1 was decided upon. Performance and stability was good and fulfilled all the tasks required to meet the needs of production, also in economic terms.”Quote:Richard Härtlein, itecPlus“I am impressed with the direct contact and the fast competent help in working with the RASTERPUNKT specialists.”

About N-ERGIE
N-ERGIE is a high powered multi-utility company that offers its 650 thousand customers electricity, natural gas, heat and water as well as services in energy provision.
Founded by the municiple plant in Nürnberg and Thüga AG in Munich by merging the traditional energy suppliers -  EWAG Energie und Wasserversorgung AG, Fränkisches Überlandwerk AG (FÜW) and the MEG Mittelfränkische Erdgas GmbH. The company headquarters are in Nürnberg. The region served by N-ERGIE stretches from the main area of Middle Franconia as well as parts of Lower Franconia, Upper Bavaria, Swabia and Upper Palatinate. The power distribution system is over 25,560 kilometers long, and the district heating network 277 kilometer s long. The natural gas pipe network is 3,960 kilometers long the water network 2,130. Currently the company employs about 2,800 people who generate a turnover of € 1,1 billion.