utility bill collection system means the computerization of these bill collections and ...... double-clicking the Network Connections icon in the Control Panel.
Automation of Utility Bill Collection System
B.Sc. THESIS By
MD. HASANUL FERDAUS STUDENT NO: 9805010
Department of Computer Science and Engineering Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka-1000,Bangladesh. October,2004
Automation of Utility Bill Collection System Submitted by
Md. Hasanul Ferdaus STUDENT NO: 9805010
Supervised by
Dr. Md. Mostofa Akbar Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Submitted To Department of Computer Science and Engineering Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering
October, 2004
i
Certification This is to certify that the work presented in this thesis is the outcome and investigation carried out by the candidates under the supervision of Dr. Md. Mostofa Akbar, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka. It is also declared that, this thesis embodies own research work and is composed by authors. Where appropriate, acknowledgement to the work of other has been made.
_______________________
___________________
Signature of the Supervisor
Md. Hasanul Ferdaus
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Acknowledgement First of all, we would like to express our profound gratitude to our supervisor, Dr. Mohammad Mostofa Akbar, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, for his constant monitoring and guidance, helpful advice, constructive suggestions, invaluable assistance, and endless patience throughout the progress of the work. Without his support, we would not have probably undertaken the amount of work we did.
We also thank our teacher S. M. Forhad, Lecturer, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology for his helpful advice and for sharing his valuable time with us.
We would like to thank our parents for providing a cooperative and stimulating environment during the progress of this work.
We also acknowledge with thanks the cooperation of all our teachers and classmates of Computer Science & Engineering Department and my other friends, whose cooperation enabled me to bring out this work into attainment.
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Abstract Utility services mean the different types of services we use in our day-to-day life from different service providers for various utilities such as electricity, water, gas etc. The service providers bill the customers for consumption of these utilities. The consumers pay these bills to some particular banks and the banks notify the service providers about the payment. Automation of utility bill collection system means the computerization of these bill collections and notification process so that the full process can be carried out automatically. This thesis gives a detailed study of currently existing system of bill collection and notification process and suggested a fully automated process for the same. Here we have suggested introduction of bar code in the traditional bill paper from which billing information can be read by bar code scanners. A comparison of different bar code printing techniques is also studied. Two different techniques for the communication of the billing information from the bank to service provider are also suggested. We also suggested necessary changes in the bank-end software and the service provider-end software. We also designed and implemented two programs, one for the bank and one for the service provider. Due to complexity, time limitation and other shortcomings, a completely reliable system could not be implemented at this stage, but the approach was constructive for future research. A guideline for future development of full automation of utility bill collection process has also been presented.
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Table of Contents Certificate………………………………………………………………………………………....i Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………………...ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...iii Table of Contents….……………………………………………………………………………..iv List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………vii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………viii Glossary of Terms………………………………………………………………………………...ix
Chapter 1 – Introduction……………………….………………….........………………………1 1.1 Motivation………………………………….………………………………………………1 1.2 Problem Definition…………………………………………………………………………3 1.3 Scope and Focus………………………………………………………………………...…3 1.4 Outline of Other Chapters……………………………………………………………….…4 Chapter 2 – Current Practices of Utility Services and Utility Bill Collection System.............5 2.1 Utility and Utility Companies……………………………………………………………..5 2.2 Units of Service……………………………………………………………………………5 2.3 Metering System…………………………………………………………………………..6 2.4 Bill Preparation…………………………………………………………………………....6 2.5 Bill Payment System……………………………………………………………………....7 2.6 Bill Defaulters and Actions Taken on Them…………………………………………...…7
v Chapter 3 – Bill Generation and Collection System in DESA………………………………...9
3.1 About DESA………………………………………………………………………………9 3.2 Bill generation and Collection System in DESA………………………………………...10 3.3 Existing Procedure of Payment and Notification………………………………………...12 3.4 Bottlenecks of Existing Procedure of Payment and Notification…………………..........14 3.5 Problem of Delayed Bill…………………………………………………………………15 3.6 Bill Correction in the Existing system…………………………………………………..16 3.7 Problem in Decision Making…………………………………………………………….17 Chapter 4 – Proposed System of Payment and Notification………………………………....18 4.1 Suggested Billing Format………………………………………………………………..19 4.2 Suggested Bill Generation System……………………………………………………….20 4.3 Suggested Changes in Data Communication System …………………………………...21 4.3.1 Dial-up Connection through Telephone Network………………………………….21 4.3.2 SMS Communication through GSM Network……………………………………..22 4.3.3 Comparison between Dial-up and XML-SMS-GSM Technique…………………..24 4.3.4 On Line Versus Off Line Posting………………………………………………….25 4.4 Changing The Billing Software………………………………………………………….25 4.5 New Modules in the Billing Software………………………………………………..….25 4.5.1 Corrected Bill Generation and Notification of Correction Module……………..…26 4.5.2 Checking Payment Posting……………………………………………………...…28 4.5.3 Protocol Handlers for Message Passing ………………………………………...…30 4.6 New Software in the Bank…………………………………………………………….…30 4.7 Oracle Licensing Fee…………………………………………………………………….31 4.8 Issues in Bill Collection……………………………………………………….…………31 4.9 Proposed Communication between the Bank and Computer Center……………….……32
vi Chapter 5 – Prototype Implementation of Automatic Utility Bill Collection System……...33 5.1 Suggested Bar Code Incorporation in Bill Paper………………………………………...33 5.2 Bill Collection Software in the Bank………………………………………………….…35 5.2.1 Bill Reader Module……………………………………………………………...…35 5.2.2 Bill Sender Module……………………………………………………………...…36 5.3 Bill Payment Information Receiving Software in the Service Provider…………………38 5.4 Dial-up Connection through Telephone Network………………………………………..38 5.4.1 Dial-in Server Setup in the Service Provider Computer………………………..….39 5.4.2 Dial-up Client Setup in the Bank Computer…………………………………….... 41
Chapter 6–Estimated Cost for Automated Bill Collection System………………………… 44 6.1 Computer Hardware Cost for Data Entry in each Branch……………………………….45 6.2 Computer Hardware Cost in each S & D Office…………………………………………45 6.3 Communication Hardware Cost …………………………………………………………46 6.4 Hardware Cost in the Computer Center…………………………………………….……46 6.5 Running Communication Cost per Month……………………………………………….47 6.6 Software Development Cost for Data Entry System……………………………….……47 6.7 Software Installing, Licensing and Maintenance Cost…………………………………. 48 6.8 Network Software……………………………………………………………………..…48 6.9 Software Development Cost in the DESA Billing Software………………………...…..49 6.10 Other Software Cost in the DESA Billing Software…………………………………... 49 6.11 Stationary Cost……………………………………………………………………….....50 6.12 Total Cost……………………………………………………………………………….50 Chapter 7 – Vision for Future – Billing Data Collection Automation………………………52 7.1 Use of Digital Meters to Automate Meter Reading……………………………….......…52 7.2 Use of GSM Network for Reading the Power Usage……………………………………53 7.3 Automation by Ethernet oven Power (PLC)……………………………………….…….53
vii 7.4 Automation by IPV6……………………………………………………………………..54 7.4.1 The Proposed Model……………………………………………………………….54 7.4.2 The Architecture………………………………………………………………...…55 7.4.3 The Protocol……………………………………………………………………….55 7.4.4 Consumption Metering…………………………………………………………….56 7.4.5 Pilferage Control of Electronic Consumption………………………………….….56 7.4.6 Problems and Suggestion………………………………………………….………57 7.5 Courier Service for Sending the Bills…………………………………………………...58 7.6 Introducing World Wide Web for Automation………………………………………….58 7.7 Automation of Bill Payment and Money Collection………………………………...….59 7.7.1 Prepaid Payment…………………………………………………………………..59 7.7.2 Bill Payment through ATM Card………………………………………………….60 7.7.3 Bill Payment through Internet Account……………………………………….…..60 7.7.4 Bill Payment through Credit Card…………………………………………………61 7.8 Concluding Remarks…………………………………………………………………....61 Appendix … ……………………………………………………………………………………..53 Reference………………………………………………………………………………………...75
viii
List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Outline of the Thesis Paper……………………………………………………………4 Figure 3.1 Use Case Diagram of DESA Billing System………………………………………...11 Figure 3.2 Flow chart of existing process of payment and notification………………………….13 Figure 4.4 Data Communication between Bank and DESA (Dial-up Connection)……………..22 Figure 4.5 Data Communication between Bank and DESA (XML-SMS-GSM way)…………. 23 Figure 4.6 Data Flow of the bill correction and notification procedure…………………………27 Figure 5.1 Screenshot of Bank end Bill Reader Module……………………………………...…36 Figure 5.2 Screenshot of Bank end Bill Sender Module………………………………………...37
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List of Tables
Table 3.1 Use Case Diagram of DESA Billing System……………………………………….…12 Table 4.1 Comparative advantage and disadvantage of Line Matrix Printer and Laser Printer…20 Table 4.2 Comparison chart for Dial-up data and GSM-SMS Data Communication…………...24 Table 4.3 Comparison between Radio Link and Broad Band…………………………………...29 Table 5.1 UPC character set……………………………………………………………………...34 Table 5.2 An example Bar Code in 1’s and 0’s………………………………………….………34 Table 6.1 Cost chart of Computer Hardware for Data Entry in Each Branch……………...……45 Table 6.2 Cost chart of Computer Hardware in each S &D Office………………………….…..45 Table 6.3 Cost chart of Communication Hardware…………………………………………..….46 Table 6.4 Cost chart of Hardware in the Computer Center………………………………..…….46 Table 6.5 Cost chart of Running Communication per Month……………………………...……47 Table 6.6. Cost chart of Software Development for Data Entry System………………..……….47 Table 6.7 Cost chart of Software Installation, Licensing and Maintenance……………………..48 Table 6.8 Cost chart of Networking Software …………………………………………...……..48 Table 6.9 Cost chart of Software Development in the DESA Billing Software…………………49 Table 6.10 Cost chart of other Software in the DESA Billing Software………………...………49 Table 6.11 Cost chart of Stationary…………………………………………………………...…50 Table 6.12 Table cost chart………………………………………………………………………50
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Glossary of Terms ATM
Automatic Teller Machine
S&D
Sales and Distribution
GSM
Global System for Mobile Communication
SMS
Short Message Service
XML
Extendable Markup Language
ISP
Internet Service Provider
CC
Computer Center
VPN
Virtual Private Network
DBMS
DataBase Management System
SQL
Structured Query Language
ACK
Acknowledgement
NACK
Negative Acknowledgement
UPC
Universal Product Coding
GUI
Graphical User Interface
QoS
Quality of Service
DHCP
Universal Product Coding
ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network
IPV6
Internet Protocol Version 6
EPROM
Electrically Erasable Read Only Memory
T&T
Telephone and Telegraph
BTTB
Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board
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Chapter 1
Introduction
The use of utility is present in everywhere in the world, for example electricity, water, gas, sewerage supply. There utility services are provided by Utility Services Provider Organizations. And as a return of the usage of the utility services, the consumers have to pay the bills to the Utility Service Providers. The current system involves Banks to take the payment from the consumers and send the payment and billing information to the Service Providers. The manual process of Bill Collection and Notification process is troublesome, time consuming and costly. Automating the Utility Bill Collection System introduces full or semi computerized automation of the utility bill collection from the Consumers by the Banks and notification process of the Banks to notify the Service Provider about the billing information.
1.1
Motivation
The current process of utility bill collection and notification process in our country is manual. The bill paper is in black and white that the paper has a particular format and the billing information is entered by hand for each bill. This process of bill paper preparation involves a great deal of work. Again when the consumers goes to the bank to pay the bill, all the information of payment is entered in lager by hand by the bank officer. This increases the delays of the consumer in the queue in the bank when they goes to pay the bill. It is also a troublesome and error prone job for the bank officers to enter all the information
2 for each bill by hand . To transfer the bill payment information from the Banks to the Service Provider, the bank officer fills up a form supplied by the Service Provider with the payment information. This is also an error prone boring job for anybody. The currently existing system is not an efficient one because we have to enter the same data twice. The way data in entered takes time as well. The problem of delayed bill and problem of decision making is also present in the current system.
By automating the Bill Collection and Notification the work of the Bank Officer can be reduced by a great amount by introducing the Bar Code to carry the billing information and reading the Bar Code by Bar Code scanner. This also reduces the possible error introduced by the Bank Officer. As the bill collection process will be fast, so the consumers will not need to wait for long in the queue. By automating the Data Communication Process from the Bank to the Service Provider, the job of the Banks are reduced much. By introducing electric mean to transfer bill payment information, the difficulty and error possibility of transferring the information from the Bank to the Service Provider is reduced great deal. It will also reduce the work of entering the bill payment information in the Service Provider Database. It will also reduce the possibility of error occurring. Automation of the Bill Collection and Notification Process will also reduce the problems of delayed bill and will also promote the decision making process. It will reduce the over all cost of Bill Collection and Notification Process. In an word, automating the Bill Collection and Notification Process will speed up the revenue collection and improves customer services.
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1.2
Problem Definition
The problems of utility bill processing and collection are enormous and are increasing day by day. This thesis has been prepared for automation of bill collection in the context of massive penetration of Information Technology, in particular, Internet Technology. To transmit the information of payment posting, electric measure is introduced. Here mainly three points of automation is discussed. One problem is the collection of bills from the consumers and update of the Bank Database. Currently this process is completely manual. This area will be discussed with semi-automation of this process. The second problem is the payment information transmission from the Bank to the Service Provider. This area will be discussed with full-automation by electric means. The last point of problem is the updating of the Service Provider Database. The new proposed software fully automates this job.
1.3
Scope and Focus
The area of automation of the Utility Billing System is broad enough to analyze in a single thesis. Only a limited area of the System is discussed here. The areas of scope and focus are discussed below. 1. This document is an informative one. It does not dig into technical details of any possible implementation. Yet it gives a prototype implementation of the possible solution. The prototype discusses the possible automatic utility bill collection system between Banks and Utility Service Provider and Utility Service Provider‟s bill generation and collection system. 2. It suggests outline and compares them with each other in technical, financial and usage perspectives. 3. This will give philosophical guidelines and qualitative information on relevant matters. Once options have been selected detailed analysis of relevant matters should be performed before embarking upon a project.
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1.4
Outline of Other Chapters
This thesis paper is organized in seven chapter as shown in the figure. Chapter 1: Introduction Motivation, problem definition scope and focus of the thesis
Chapter 2: Current aspects of utility systems Current utility services and utility companies Utility metering system Current Billing system
Chapter 3: Billing system in DESA Bill Generation and Collection system in DESA Existing procedure of payment and notification Bottlenecks of current system
Chapter 4: Proposed system of payment and notification Suggested bill format Suggested bill generation system Suggested data communication system Suggested changes in billing software
Chapter 5: prototype implementation of Bill Collection System Prototype Bill format Prototype Bill Collection software Prototype software for the Service Provider Prototype data communication system
Chapter 6: Estimated software and hardware cost of the suggested system
Chapter 7: Future Improvements and conclusion
Figure 1.1 Outline of the Thesis Paper
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Chapter 2 Current Practices of Utility Services and Utility Bill Collection System
2.1 Utility and Utility Companies Utility is some kind of product or service that are provided to the customers by the utility provider. Customers for their day-to-day life use this utility. For example, utility may electricity, water, gas or telephone services. These companies provide these products or services and in return the customers pay bills for these utility according to their usage. The currently well-known utility companies in our country are
1. Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA). 2. Titas Gas Transmission & Distribution Company Limited. 3. Dhaka Water Supply & Sewerage Authority. 4. Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board.
2.2 Units of Service The amount of services provided to the customers is measured in some unit for the particular service. For each utility there is a unit. For electric bill the unit is
6 Kilowatt-Hour (KWH), for telephone bill it is measured in no of calls, for water supply the unit is liter. For gas supply there is no such unit , a monthly payment basis is the current system.
2.3 Metering System For each utility there is specific meter that is used to keep records of the amount of utility consumed. The meter may belong to the service provider or may belong to the consumer but the controlling of the meter belongs to the service provider. For example , in electric and water billing the meter belongs to the customer and meter reader comes to take record of the current meter reading each month. In the case of telephone system, the meter belongs to the service provider (e.g. BTTB) and they compute the amount from it. Again in the case of gas supply system, there is no meter and the customer has to pay in a monthly charge basis.
2.4 Bill Preparation For the usage of the utility by the customers they have to pay bills. The bills are prepared by the service provider and sent to the respective customers. In systems that uses the postpaid billing system has a particular line rent, that is a fixed charged for each month basis. There is a fixed amount of charge for each unit of utility consumed. The total bill is just the multiplication of the charge per unit with the number of units consumed by the customer plus the line rent charge. The final bill amount also includes the service charge and Value Added Tax (VAT).
In case of Electric Bill there are some components of the bill. They are Electricity Charge, Demand Charge, Minimum Charge and Service Charge. Summing all these components the Principle Amount is computed. Then VAT is computed on
7 the Principle Amount. Then the VAT is added to the Principle Amount and the total sum is called Bill Month Total.
In the case of Gas Supply there is no such amount basis charge but rather there is a fixed amount of charge for each month and surcharge is added to it and finally total amount is computed.
2.5 Bill Payment System After getting the bill from the service provider, the customer has to pay for the bill. Generally the bill is paid through bank. The banks keep account for the bill receiving purpose and the account is solely used for this purpose. There are some limited number of bank in any city that can receive bills from customers and these banks cover a limited area of the city or district. The customers of the area must pay their bill charges through the particular banks. The banks are contracted with the service provider to receive the bill charges and keep the records. The banks send the charge received and the records to the service providers by a month basis. The bill charges may be paid through cash, pay order, demand draft, ATM card or ready cash card.
2.6 Bill Defaulters and Actions Taken on Them The service provider fixes a due date for the bill payment by the customers. If customers fail to pay bill within the due date they become defaulter and necessary actions are taken on them.
For example, in case of Electricity supply if bill is not paid in due date, the supply line of the customer is cut off. The line is reestablished only by giving the due bill charge and reinstallation fee.
8 In case of water and sewerage supply, customers are billed after every two months for the current charge along with the due charge. If bill is not paid within due date, a surcharge is included at a specific rate on the total due charge.
In case of telephone system, if bill is not paid with in due date, the telephone line is cut off. If the customer pays the bill within seven days of the cut off, the reinstallation fee is exempted. But if he fails to pay within seven days he must pay reinstallation fee with the due charge.
In case of Gas supply, the must be paid by the third week of the current month. If bill is not paid by this time, a surcharge is included in rate. If bill is not paid within tenth week of the bill posting, the gas line is cut off and the contract is dismissed.
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Chapter 3 Bill Generation and Collection System in DESA
3.1 About DESA Currently there are different utility service providers in our country. Each one has their own system of bill collection, bill processing and bill posting system. In our country, DESA (Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority) is an important organization which supply electricity in the capital Dhaka.
In years prior to 1982 electricity bill used to be prepared at the customer's residence. This resulted in erroneous billing and bills did not reach the customers in time. As a result hundred of millions of Taka was left uncollected. In order to prepare bills in time and correctly Bangladesh Power development Board (BPDB) decided to establish a computer center. Initially bills were prepared at the Computer Center of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Along with the development of Information Technology BPDB and DESA undertook a project named Financial Management Upgrade (FMU) with the help of Asian Development Bank. It was decided to keep ledger, add outstanding bills to the current bill, and prepare different MIS reports using computers. As a result BEXIMCO Computers Limited PA Consultant developed the billing software with the help of BPDB and DESA officials. In the first phase of the FMU, computerized ledger and billing incorporating outstanding bills were
10 developed for 20,000 customers. After successful implementation of the first phase Asian Development Bank gave loans to DESA for implementation of its second phase. For computerization of DESA BEXIMCO Computers Limited and Price Water Cooper Development Associates won the Work Order. Under this Work Order billing software as well as software for 14 non-billing modules was developed. RS/6000 server was supplied as part of the contract. Now billing and MIS for 460,383 customers are being prepared by the Computer Section of DESA. Now MIS and Computer department have 4 servers: NT server (Netinfinity), SMP Server RS/6000 570 Model, SMP Server RS/6000 Model 50 and BULL Escala PL800R Server. Oracle 7.3.4 is being used as RDBMS under AIX 4.3(back end), Windows 95(front end) and Windows NT (for file server).
The following sections gives a detailed description of the currently running system in DESA.
3.2 Bill generation and Collection System in DESA From the supply of utility (that is electricity) to the bill generation and collection, DESA has a number of departments. In the currently running system DESA involves some Banks to collect the bill from the Subscribers. The Subscribers gets connection from the DESA Engineering Department for the use of electricity. DESA Meter Reading Department maintains the meter reading and meter maintaining job. They provide the meter reading information to the DESA Billing Department. The whole tasks of generating bill and distributing the billing information to the Subscribers is performed by the DESA Billing Department. After getting the bill paper, the Subscribers pays the bills to the Bill Collecting Banks and DESA Accounting Department maintains the bill collection and notification procedure from the Bill Collecting Banks. The Use Case Diagram of the whole running system in DESA is shown below.
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Figure 3.1: Use Case Diagram of DESA Billing System
A description of the steps involved in the Billing system of DESA is shown below in a tabular form. The table also shows the current status of processing and out scope of the analysis of each steps of the Billing system.
12 Step
Description
Status
Comments
1
Connection to Subscriber
NA
Out of Scope
2
Electricity usage by subscriber. Data from
NA
Out of Scope
connection is used in Billing purpose in step 4 2a
Electric meter gets updated on usage
Automatic
Point of Pilferage
3
Meter Reader collects meter reading
Manual
Point of Pilferage
3a
Collected reading is used in Bill generation
Manual
Point of Pilferage
step 4 4
DESA generates bill of usage
Automatic
Through Software
5
DESA sends the bill subscriber receives the
Manual
Point of Bottleneck
bills 5a
Payment is done or verified against the bill
Manual
Out of Scope
6
Subscriber pays the billed amount
Manual
Point of Bottleneck
7
Bank collects the payment
Manual
Point of Bottleneck
8
DESA receives payment notification by
Manual
Point of Bottleneck
bank
Table 3.1 : Billing Steps Discussion
3.3 Existing Procedure of Payment and Notification In the currently existing system the consumers come to the bank with the bill. They pay the total amount in the bill collection counter and get the consumer‟s part of the bill with a valid seal and signature. The bank officer writes the bill number and the paid amount in the register. At the end of the day the bank officer fills up a form supplied by the DESA Sales Authority where he or she has to write the bill number and amount in the specified format.
13 The payment statements are collected by the DESA Sales Authority and sent to the DESA Computer Center. In the Computer Center the operators enter the bill number one by one. Each data is entered by two operators for validation of the data.
The flow chart of all these actions is shown below. Consumers pay the bill in the bank
Bank officer takes the money and writes the bill number and paid amount in register
Bank officer fills up form supplied by DESA Sales Authority at the end of day
DESA Sales Authority collects and sends the payment statements to the DESA Computer Center.
Operators in the DESA Computer Center enters the bill number one by one
Figure 3.2 Flow chart of existing process of payment and notification
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3.4 Bottlenecks of Existing Procedure of Payment and Notification As all works through the bill collection and notification process are manual and there is no opportunity of its automation in the currently running process, it is much error prone, needs much time and needs much work. The main points of problems are given below.
1. In the bill collection process the bank officer has to write the bill number and paid amount in the register. The bank officer has to put the record for each bill brought by each consumer. This is completely a manual process. So, it is possible for the bank officer to make mistakes in writing. Also it needs much hard working.
2. At the end of the days when the bank officer fills up the form supplied by the DESA Sales Authority, he is in a chance to make error. This is also a boring job for anybody.
3. These payment statements are collected by DESA Computer Center. This is also a manual process of information collection.
4. In the DESA Computer Center the operators enter the bill number one by one. This is also a manual process. So error is possible here due to illegible handwriting. Further, this same information is written by bank officer in the bank. So in the currently existing process same data is entered twice – once in bank by the bank officer and again in the DESA Computer Center by the operators. So, this process is not an efficient one.
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3.5 Problem of Delayed Bill The due date of the bill payment of previous month (for example January) is generated at the end of current month (for example February 25th to 27th). The issue date written on the bill is February 5. The Computer Center fails to deliver the bill in due time because of the following reasons:
1. The notification of the previous month does not reach the Computer Center before the first week of February.
2. It takes rigorous labor of another week by the operators of the Computer Center for posting all the payments.
3. Computer Center can print the bill when the entire posting is ready. Generally the bill is sent to the S & D at the middle of the month.
4. The meter readers deliver the bill to the consumers just 5 days before the due date.
Following are the consequences of delayed bill:
1. Meter readers visit the subscribers only once although it is their duty to collect the meter readings (end of the month) and deliver bills (when it is ready) in two different days.
2. Subscribers have to face a long queue in the bank. They have to waste their valuable time in unbearably long queues.
16 3. The bank officers have to take high load at he end of the month. Sometimes it hampers the customer service of a n bank although the banks do not earn any money from this service.
4. Sometimes the subscribers pay the bill after the due date but they find the amount as a due amount in the received in the next month. Actually Computer Center cannot update all the subscribers‟ payment status and that is why the subscribers find the paid bills as dues in the next bill. This is one kind of injustice to the subscribers.
3.6 Bill Correction in the Existing system The subscribers are not allowed to pay less than the amount mentioned in the bill. If there is any error in the bill needs to be corrected. Following are the reasons for bill correction: 1. If a subscriber‟s payment is not posted before the bill printing the subscriber comes to the S & D with the bank‟s receipt of the payment and requests for changing the bill.
2. A dishonest meter reader my put a fictitious meter reading, which might cause a huge bill. The subscriber can apply for reconsidering the bill.
3. A subscriber may apply for paying part of the bill.
The authorized officer in the S & D office overwrites the bill and writes the new amount to be paid. The bank does not accept an over written bill without authorized signature one. This is just estimation. Any due or overdue is adjusted
17 in the next bill. Only the correction in the meter reading is notified to the computer center through proper format. Final correction if the database done after checking it by authorized offices in the Computer Center (Programmers and System Analysts).
3.7 Problem in Decision Making As there is a delay between the payment notification and actual payment by the subscribers in the bank we can say that the database stored in the Computer Center is not consistent. This might make several problems in decision-making:
1. The Computer Center cannot provide the current revenue collection at a particular day. So the management has to wait until the of batch processing to get this information. It definitely hampers the necessary purchase of DESA.
2. The law enforcement department may harass a subscriber by disconnecting the electricity line although the subscriber might have paid the entire outstanding bill a few days back.
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Chapter 4 Proposed System of Payment and Notification
The proposed system is the automation of the utility bill generation, collection from the Consumers by the Bank and notification of the collection to the Utility Service Provider by the Bank. In the automation of the bill collection system both current bill format and bill payment system is changed. And in the automation of notification process the data transaction information is transmitted directly to service provider from collecting banks in an electronic format. This requires change in four areas of current system
1. Changes in generated bill format
2. Changes in bill generation system
3. .Changes in data communication system between banks and service provider.
4. Changes in bank end bill collection software and in service provider end billing information reconciliation software.
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4.1 Suggested Billing Format The current bill format contains information in letter and digit format. The proposed system also introduces Bar Code that will contain the billing information. Bar Codes in the bills in both the parts of the bills must be put. This Bar Code must contain the bill number and the amount to be paid by the consumers. Change of bill format is required to use optical devices like scanner for reading bills. The advantages of introducing Bar Codes are as follows:
1. The bank officer can easily scan a bill if there is a computer equipped with a scanner in the bank.
2. The bank officer does not need to write bill numbers and amount paid. That will be automatically stored in the computer database.
3. At the end of day it will be very easy to generate the statements of collection.
4. Generally one consumer comes with multiple bills. It takes time to sum them up. Scanner can do that automatically.
5. Definitely more consumers can be served by this system.
6. Waiting time in the queue must be less than before.
7. The data entry in he Computer Center is not required.
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4.2 Suggested Bill Generation System The quality of the barcode in the bill should be of good quality so that it can be read by the scanner without any error. The suggested two options are the existing line matrix printer or multiple laser printers. The comparative advantages and disadvantages are as follows:
#
Issue
Line Matrix
Laser Printer
1
Bar Code
Supports Bar Code fonts
Fonts not required as it prints Bar
Support 2
3
Code as graphics
Heavy duty and
It is a heavy duty printer. One
Not heavy duty. Requires
speed
printer is sufficient for all bill
multiple laser printers to print all
printing.
the bills.
System will be down if the
There must be multiple printers,
single machine goes down.
so one faulty machine is not a
Fault tolerance
problem. 4
Printing quality
Quality may degrade when
Does not require careful
the toner is low. Careful
inspection for low toner signal.
inspection is required.
Quality must be better than matrix printer.
5
Cost
Printer cost is high, but the
Cost of printing for each bill is
printing cost is very low.
twice than that of line matrix, but machine cost is not that high.
6
Availability
Not available in the local
Available in the local market.
market.
Table 4.1: Comparative advantage and disadvantage of Line Matrix Printer and Laser Printer
21
4.3 Suggested Changes in Data Communication System
Here data communication means the billing information that needs to transmit to the Service Provider (e.g. DESA) Computer Center database from the individual bank databases. Billing information includes bill number, date, billing amount paid by the consumers at the banks. Currently there is no electric means to transfer this billing information. So, it is much convenient to transfer this information electrically. It is a cheap means to transfer a lot of information. Two possible ways are suggested for the data communication from the bank database to the DESA Computer Center database. a)
Communication through telephone lines by dial-up connection.
b)
Communication through GSM network by SMS data interchange.
4.3.1 Dial-up Connection through Telephone Network
In this communication system the DESA Computer Center maintains a server computer which is configured to accept in coming dial-in connection using modem through telephone network. and the bank maintains a client computer which dials up in this DESA computer using modem through telephone line. And there is also a server program which always listens at a certain particular port no for clients trying to make connection with this computer. The bank end software receives the bills by reading the Bar Codes of the bill paper and updates the bank database. At the end of the day, the bank end computer dials up in DESA Computer Center computer. When the connection is established, the bank end program reads the billing information in that day and makes a connection with the DESA Computer Center computer program and then sends the billing information as XML file. The DESA end computer receives the file and saves it in the disk
22 and then it makes connection with the DESA DBMS and updates the database according to the information in the XML file.
Figure 4.4: Data Communication between Bank and DESA (Dial-up Connection)
4.3.2 SMS Communication through GSM Network In this communication system the both the Service Provider and the Banks use GSM modem with SIM and the GSM network to transmit the billing information in the form of SMS. Also XML processing is involved. The bank end software retrieves the day-to-day billing information from the Bank end database and do some XML processing like XML fragmenting and sequencing. Then the information is converted in the form of SMS and the SMS is sent through the GSM Modem to the GSM Network which has SMS gateway. The Service Provider (e.g. DESA) end software receives the billing information from the GSM
23 Network in the form of SMS. Then it performs the XML reassembly and converts the XML into SQL statement and updates the Database accordingly. The lowest layer both the Bank end software and Service Provider end software implements the protocol handler which maintains the protocol of transmitting the SMS through the GSM Network.
Figure 4.5: Data Communication between Bank and DESA (XML-SMS-GSM way)
24
4.3.3 Comparison between Dial-up and XML-SMS-GSM Technique A comparative analysis is given in the following table between the above two modes of data communication.
#
Issue
1
Bank End Cost
Dial-up Telephone and a modem
XML-SMS-GSM GSM connection (SIM) and a modem.
2
DESA End
A dial-in setup. Increases as
Fixed, just the same as
Cost
number of banks increase.
bank end. If necessary new modems can be included easily.
3
Running Cost
Telephone call charge
SMS is going to be free
4
Reliability
Call/connection drop is a reality.
No data loss. Gateway stores data. Delivery is ensured.
5
Speed
Slightly faster if there is no
Uniform but slow.
interference 6
7
Complexity
Simple to implement in
More complex to
software
implement in software
Software
Connection oriented, cannot be
Connectionless, can be
Impact
controlled by software.
easily controlled by software.
8
Scalability
Not much
Highly scalable
9
Coverage
Major cities, but cost increases
Almost allover
as distance increases.
Bangladesh
Table 4.2 Comparison Chart for Dial-up data and GSM-SMS data communication
25
4.3.4 On Line Versus Off Line Posting Using the proposed communication link the bank can send the posting information right away as soon as a customer pays the bill. But according to the bank they cannot send the posting unless the cash box is closed and the account is balanced. That is why we do not need to think about on line posting. Dialing up once at the end of day or sending SMS messages at the end of day is more than enough to automate bill collection system.
4.4 Changing the Billing Software We need to upgrade the bill generation software to introduce the barcode in the bills. There are some off the shelf library packages to generate Bar Codes provided by the software companies. These routines are not that costly and can be purchased from the Internet. So introducing the barcode will not be a very difficult job.
4.5 New Modules in the Billing Software
Following new modules should be introduced in the DESA billing system to make the system fully automated.
26
4.5.1 Corrected Bill Generation and Notification of Correction Module This module will be specially used by the S & D offices to print a new bill and sending the corrections to the Computer Center. Figure 4.6 shows the data flow of this process. The different steps of this processing are as follows:
Step 1: The subscriber will come to the corresponding S & D office with valid proof of his claim such as previous paid bills and current meter reading. In some cases applications with proper explanation of partial payment are accepted for consideration.
Step 2: S & D office is online with the Computer Center Database. A screen will be developed to enter all the suggested corrections of that particular bill and the records of the subscriber. These suggested corrections will be stored in a temporary data file.
Step 3 and 4: The software will print a provisional bill based on the suggested corrections. No previous records are checked in this billing. The final calculation will be done in the next bill processing and any discrepancy will be adjusted in the bill of the next month. The bar coded provisional bill will be given to the subscriber after signing it by an authorized personnel (AD accounts, SD Engineer or Executive Engineer) with a valid seal.
Step 5: S & D office will send the bundle of corrections in the existing paper format to the Computer Center.
27 Step 6: Authorized personnel in Computer Center will check the correction request sent by the S & D office. The bill correction module will assist to find out whether the proposed correction is consistent. The correction will be done in the main table of the database if it seems to be valid. Inconsistent corrections will not be updated and notified to the S & D office. The S & D personnel must log in to the billing system to know whether there is any rejected correction request. This process will be paperless and automatic.
Applies for Bill Correction Step 1 S&D Authority Se nd st
Pro vision al Bill with Barcod es Step 4
Place s Req ue st for Corre cted Bill Step 2
Subscriber
he et
C
Billing Data Step 3
he co Ste rrec p 5 tio n s
om
m
ts ec ej R d an s s tion n io c ct rre rre Co o t c n 6 lid te p va n sis Ste e th sco its in
e th
Computer Center Authority
Computer Center Database
S & D printer
Figure 4.6: Data Flow of the Bill correction and notification procedure
28
4.5.2 Checking Payment Posting
There is no guarantee that the bank did not manipulate the received payment information. The bank can change the bill number or the amount of the bill or both the data. A checking by authorized personnel from S & D office is required.
At the end of the day S & D collects the paid bills in bundles from the branches of the bill collecting banks. A set of software should be developed to check whether all these paid bills have been posted by the bank. It is doable as the S & D offices are connected to the Computer Center. The software can perform the checking if it has the following functionalities:
Each bill will be read by the scanner. The software will check the database whether the bill has been posted by bank.
The total collection of a branch of a bank will be checked with the bundles of the paid bills received in a day.
The software will be capable to find out the postings without receipts or the receipts without postings.
For checking the payment posting there must be online connections between each S & D office and the Computer Center. Following table shows comparative analysis between Radio link and Broadband connection as a communication system. Considering the relative advantages and disadvantages we suggest a VPN over the broadband Internet connection to set up a network between the Computer Center and S & D offices of DESA.
29
#
Issue
Radio Link
Broad band
1
Bandwidth
1 Mbps through air
1 Mbps through cable
2
Establishment
Very high
No establishment cost
Maintenance charge required
Monthly fee required for
Cost 3
Running Cost
maintenance and rent of the bandwidth. 4
Security
Not secured. Anybody can
A VPN can be installed to set
copy the transmitted data
up a secured private network
from the air. 5
Other facility
for DESA.
Can be used for Internet if CC The connection will be rented serves as an ISP.
from an ISP, so it will be used as an Internet connection by default.
Table 4.3: Comparison between Radio Link and Broad Band
On line connection between the S & Ds and the Computer Center is necessary not only for the checking of payment posting but also for decision making. The authority of S & D must have the opportunity to view the status of a consumer‟s account. The required software with this facility is already developed in the running billing module in the Computer Center. An online connection is the only thing required to provide this facility to the S & D offices.
30
4.5.3 Protocol Handlers for Message Passing SMS messages are simple messages like email. It is not like a connection between the sender and receiver. Using this technology of message passing we cannot update the database directly. Following layers of protocols must be developed for the sender workstations in the banks and the server in the Computer Center if we want to do online payment posting using SMS messages over GSM network:
SMS messages do not follow connection-oriented protocol. An SMS message may be sent to the receiver right away or it might be sent later on. To get the on line facility we must implement Acknowledgement based message-passing system in a layer.
Duplication of SMS messages and sequence control will be done in one message.
The message must contain security information. A layer is required for authentication in the server side.
The SQL for updating the Computer Center Database will be sent in SMS message format. A layer will do the transformation between SMS message format and SQL/XML message format.
4.6 New Software in the Bank A database system of medium-scale must be developed for the bank to receive bills and posting the paid bills. The software must have the following functionalities:
The data input screen must have the facility to read the bar codes in the bills. Some times the bar codes might not be read by the scanner due to wear and tear of the bills. That is why the screen must be able to take inputs from keyboard as well.
The data of the received bills will be stored in a database in the data entry workstation.
31
Each bank must have a user id to log into the Computer Center database with the insert permission on a table to send all the paid bill information.
The software must have the facility to receive multiple bills at a time, as it is a common practice that one person comes with the bills of his tenants and neighbors.
The software will generate a day end detailed and summary report of collected bills.
The software does not need to store all the data. Storing the payment information for couple of months is sufficient, as the banks do not take the responsibility of the bills after the receipts are sent to the S & D office.
4.7 Oracle Licensing Fee The existing billing database in the back end is Oracle. Approximately 250 oracle licenses are required if the developed software is a direct client of oracle. We suggest web-based applications to reduce the cost of oracle license. There must be a web server in the DESA Computer Center. All the communications to the Oracle database must go through the web server, so one connection license for the web server is sufficient for the applications. The database server can be configured as a web server.
4.8 Issues in Bill Collection Following issues regarding bill collection should be resolved before starting the project of automating bill collection:
1. As the banks do not get any money for collecting bills they are not interested to develop the software for free.
32 2. It will be really difficult to provide maintenance support of the bill collecting software. 3. The banks might be really interested to adopt this change if DESA authority provides a certain amount of service charge for bill collection. In that case the IT departments of the banks might buy the software from the vendors and will take part for maintaining the software. 4. The bill collecting software can be easily developed for all the utility organizations if every utility organization provides the barcode in the bill. 5. The banks will not be that much interested if only one organization provides bar code because they need to set up separate queue for DESA. This will not be very much appreciated by the subscribers because a subscriber usually wants to pay all the bills in one counter.
4.9 Proposed Communication Link between the Bank and Computer Center The key point to use SMS services over wireless network is the cheap countrywide on line service provided by wireless operators (e.g., Grameen Phone) between the server and data entry system using SMS. In this particular case we do not need on line communication, as data will be sent once at the end of day. That is why BTTB lines, the cheaper solution is recommended. Another good point behind choosing the BTTB lines is that it will not require one year to develop protocol handler for the DESA Computer Center. In each commercial Operating System there is a built-in communication modules for dial up networking. On the other hand, wireless communication is a state of the art technology with better maintenance service than BTTB. So DESA can think about wireless solution in future for better service.
33
Chapter 5 Prototype Implementation of Automatic Utility Bill Collection System
5 Prototype Implementation to Automate the System
To automate the system there are several fields where prototypes are suggested. These prototypes covers the basic requirements of the automation rather implementing in details. They are discussed in the next sections.
5.1 Suggested Bar Code Incorporation in Bill Paper The suggested system introduces Bar Code in the bill paper. This new incorporation will automate the bill collection process. Bar Code scanners are needed to read the Bar Code. The suggested Bar Code contains the Owner ID, Bill No, Date and Bill Amount of the respective bills. All the four fields contain eight digits. The total length of the Bar Code is of 32 digits. The suggested Bar Coding uses the UPC style standard. There is a center line in the middle of the Bar Code Right hand digits are encoded using „Right Hand‟ with even number of 1‟s (i.e.
34 even parity) and left hand digits are encoded using „Left Hand‟ with odd number of 1‟s (i.e. odd parity) as shown in Table 5.1.
Digit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Left Hand 0001101 0011001 0010011 0111101 0100011 0110001 0101111 0111011 0110111 0001011
Right Hand 1110010 1100110 1101100 1000010 1011100 1001110 1010000 1000100 1001000 1110100
Table 5.1: UPC character set
Here a 1 represents a dark band and a 0 represents an absence of dark band. For A bill information in Bar Code form (in 1 and 0 notation) of Owner ID of 310032, Bill No of 423312, date 13-Apr-2004 ( i.e. 13-04-2004) and amount 34000 is shown below.
Field Name Owner ID Bill No
Decimal Number 310032
Bar Code in 1 and 0 notation 0001101 0001101 0111101 0011001 0001101 0001101 0111101 0010011
423312
0001101 0001101 0100011 0010011 0111101 0111101 0011001 0010011
Date
13-04-2004
1100110 1000010 1110010 1011100 1101100 1110010 1110010 1011100
Amount
34000
1110010 1110010 1110010 1000010 1011100 1110010 1110010 1110010
Table 5.2: An example Bar Code in 1’s and 0’s
35 Here the Owner ID, and Bill No are taken from the Left Hand and Date and Amount are taken from the Right hand. To make each field eight digit, sufficient number of digit 0 is preceded to each field which needed.
5.2 Bill Collection Software in the Bank The bill collection software in the bank collects the billing information and sends the payment information at the end of the day through telephone line using dialup technology. The prototype is implemented in Java programming language. The program has two module , one is the bill reader and other is the bill sender. Both of the modules is discussed below. The Bank Database here used is Microsoft Access.
5.2.1 Bill Reader Module The bill reader module reads the bill information of the customer bill paper Bar Code
with the help of Bar Code scanner and updates the Bank Database
accordingly. The module also has the provision for entering the billing information by hand in the text field of the GUI of the program. The Bank computer must have the Java Virtual Machine running in order to run the program. The module uses the Java Serial Port Communication API (javax.comm package) to read the Bar Code of the bill paper. The module also has the facility of finding a record of bill previously inserted in the bank Database. It can then be updated and inserted again. This introduces the facility of correcting a previously incorrect record insertion.
When the program is run, the Bank Officer has to reads the Bar Code from the bill paper with the Bar Code Scanner. The Bar Code scanner must be connected with the Serial Port (COM). Then our program reads the data from the COM port and
36 parses the Bar Code digits into 4 fields Owner ID, Bill No, Date and Amount. The code of the Bar Code reading portion of the program is given in Appendix. These values of the fields are then put the text fields of the GUI of the program. Then when the Bank Officer clicks the Add button, the record is inserted into the Bank Database.
Figure 5.1: Screenshot of Bank end Bill Reader Module
If any bill paper contains Bar Code that can not be read by scanner, then the information can be inserted by Bank Officer with the help of keyboard.
5.2.2 Bill Sender Module In this way when all the bills of the day is inserted in the Bank Database, the billing information needs to transfer to the Service Provider Database. The Bill Sender Module of the Bill Collection program makes an XML file with the
37 records of the day and sends it to the Service Provider computer. In the Service Provider computer, another programs runs to receive the billing information. When the Bank Officer clicks the Today‟s Transaction button another window appears showing all the bill records of the day.
Figure 5.2: Screenshot of Bank end Bill Sender Module
To actually send the data to the Service Provider Database, the Bank end computer needs to dial-up in that of Service Provider. The dial-up process is discussed in the next section. When the Bank computer is logged on with valid user account and password, Bank Officers can clicks the Send button and then all the billing records are put in a XML file and sent to particular port number of the Service Provider computer. The program running in the Service Provider
38 computer listens at that port number and when the data is read, it updates the Service Provider Database.
5.3 Bill Payment Information Receiving Software in the Service Provider The Bill Payment Information Receiving software is written in Java programming language. In order to run it, the Service Provider computer must have Java Virtual Machine running in it. When the program is run, it starts to listen at a particular port number that is known by the Bank end Bill Collection software. To actually receive the data from Bank end computers, the Service Provider computer must have the dial-in Server running (Remote Access Server ). The procedure of setting up the dial-in Server is discussed in the next section. When the Bank end Bill Collection software sends the billing information in the from of XML file, the Service Provider end software reads the file and parses the records and updates the Service Provider Database. The DBMS used in the prototype is Microsoft Access. But the suggested DBMS is Oracle. The codes related to the data reception and update of the database is given in Appendix A.
5.4 Dial-up Connection through Telephone Network To transfer the billing information from the Bank Database to the Service Provider Database the dial-up technology is suggested. In this technique the Service Provider maintains a computer with a dial-in server configured and the bank end computer is configured to dial-up in that computer. Both the Service Provider computer and the Bank computer use modem and telephone line to establish this communication line. The Service Provider computer maintains a user account for each bank so that the banks can use these user names and their
39 passwords to dial-up in Service Provider computer and can transmit data. The detailed procedure for establishing dial-in server in Service Provider computer and dial-up client in Bank computer is discussed in the following sections.
5.4.1 Dial-in Server Setup in the Service Provider Computer The Service Provider computer keeps a user account for each Bank who wants to transmit data. To allow incoming calls, the dial-in server must be set up. To configure this in a Microsoft Windows PC such as Microsoft Windows XP the following steps should be performed.
1. The Network Connections window is to be opened. It can be opened by double-clicking the Network Connections icon in the Control Panel window. When the Network Connections window appears, Create New Connection is to be selected.
2. Then the New Connection Wizard appears. Selection of Next button brings new window where four choices appear where different kinds of connection can be set up. The last choice, Set up an advanced connection needs to be selected.
3. Selecting the Next button, appears a new window where two choices appears, one for accepting incoming connections and other for connecting to other computers. In this step, the Accept Incoming Connection radiobutton needs to be selected.
4. Selecting the Next button brings another window where the device needs to be selected which will be used to accept incoming connection. The incoming connection can be granted from the Parallel Data Line or Serial Data Line. If a modem is to be used for incoming connection which is connected to a Serial Data Line.
40
5. From the different type of devices, the device needs to be chosen which will be used for receiving incoming calls. As for example, the modem which is connected with the telephone line which has the telephone number that the banks uses to dial-up in this Service Provider computer. Selecting Next button appears another window where the virtual private connections can be allowed.
6. Allowing VPN connections, Windows will modify the Internet Connection Firewall so that the computer can send and receive VPN packets. Virtual private connections to a computer through the Internet are possible only if the computer has a known name or IP address on the Internet. Allowing VPN, another computer can connect this computer through a VPN connection. Selecting Next button appears a window where the user needs to be selected who will dial-up from Bank computer. Here, there needs to be at least one user for each bank who wants to make incoming connection. The add button can be used to add user and the check box needs to be selected for the users to allow them dial-up.
7. Then next window shows the networking software that will be enabled for incoming connections. Selecting the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) enables the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. It is the default wide area network protocol that provides communication across diverse interconnected networks. The File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks allows other computers to access resources on this computer using a Microsoft Network. Selecting QoS Packet Scheduler provides network traffic control including rate-of-flow and prioritization services. Client for Microsoft Network allows the computer to access resources on a Microsoft Network.
41 8. Selecting the Properties button of the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) chick box appears a new window where the IP address of the client computers can be set up. Selecting DHCP allows the DHCP server to run at the time of boot up and when a client wants to connect to this computer, the DHCP server assigns the client a IP address dynamically using DHCP. Alternatively the range of IP address for the clients can be set.
9. Selecting Next finishes the configuration of incoming connection and shows a confirmation window.
When all the above steps are performed successfully, the connection icon is shown in the Network Connections folder. Next time it can be used to modify the properties of the incoming connection. Double clicking the Incoming Connection icon opens a new window where there are tabs for changing the configuration of incoming devices and VPN, Users and Network components.
5.4.2 Dial-up Client Setup in the Bank Computer To transfer data from Bank Database to the Service Provider Database the software in the bank needs to connect to the server software in the Service Provider computer. As both the server program and the client program uses socket to connect to each other they need a TCP/IP network layer. As the Bank computer uses modem and telephone line to make connection with the Service Provider computer, its dial-up service needs to be configured. To configure dial-up connection in a Microsoft Windows PC such as Microsoft Windows XP the following steps must be performed.
1. The Network Connections window needs to be opened from the Control Panel. Then selecting the Create a new connection brings a new window
42 where there are four choices and from these choices the second choice Connect to the network at my workspace needs to be selected.
2. Selecting Next button brings a new window where the first choice ,Dialup connection needs to be selected. It allows making connection using modem and telephone line or ISDN phone line.
3. Selecting Next appears a new window where the name for the connection is set up. Any name can be used but it is recommended that the name should relate to the server name or the company to which the connection is requested.
4. Then selecting Next brings a new window where the telephone phone number is set up. It is the telephone number of the telephone line that is connected with the modem that is used to accept incoming calls in the Service Provider computer.
5. Selecting Next button finishes the dial-up client set up and shows a confirmation window. It can be then used to connect to the Service Provider computer.
6. To actually connect to the Service Provider computer, the dial-up icon in the Network Connections window needs to be selected.
7. Then a window appears where the user name and password of the Bank that the Service Provider has assigned to the Bank is to be entered. And then clicking the Dial button attempts to connect to the Service Provider computer. If there is no any other problem then the connection will be established.
43 When the connection is actually established, the Bank software can send the day-to-day billing information to the Service Provider computer using sockets and input-output streaming.
44
Chapter 6
Estimated Cost for Automated Bill Collection System
The cost for the automation of the DESA bill collection and notification system is estimated by considering the current cost of the hardware and software in the market. The cost is analyzed by considering each sector of automation. The following sections show the detailed chart of the estimated cost of each sector in the current currency of Bangladesh (i.e. Taka).
45
6.1 Computer Hardware Cost for Data Entry in Each Branch Cost Head A PC workstation with necessary system S/W Handy 1D bar code scanner One Laser Printer One slip printer UPS (to provide one hour back time for the computer and
Taka 45,000.00 5,000.00 17,000.00 3,000.00 20,000.00
the slip printer) Telephone Line Total Cost
10,000.00 1,00,000.00
Table 6.1: Cost chart of Computer Hardware for Data Entry in Each Branch
6.2 Computer Hardware Cost in each S & D Office Cost Head A PC workstation Handy 1D bar code scanner
Taka 45,000.00 5,000.00
One Laser Printer
17,000.00
UPS (to provide one hour back time for the computer and
20,000.00
the slip printer) Total Cost
87,000.00
Table 6.2: Cost chart of Computer Hardware in each S & D Office
46
6.3 Communication Hardware Cost Cost Head
Taka
Dial Up Modem (If BTTB lines are used) per branch
4,000.00
GSM Modem with SIM card (wireless solution) per
10,000.00
branch Table 6.3: Cost chart of Communication Hardware
6.4 Hardware Cost in the Computer Center Cost Head
Taka
Access Server (If BTTB lines are used)
3,00,000.00
Protocol Handler Server (wireless solution)
2,00,000.00
Laser Printers (12 pcs)
12,00,000.00
Line Matrix printer (2 pcs)
12,00,000.00
20 Telephone Lines
2,00,000.00
Table 6.4: Cost chart of Hardware in the Computer Center
47
6.5 Running Communication Cost per Month
Cost Head
Taka
For BTTB Lines (off line) per branch
300.00
For wireless solution per branch
300.00
VPN cost per S & D office per month
2,000.00
Table 6.5: Cost chart of Running Communication per Month
6.6 Software Development Cost for Data Entry System
Cost Head System Analysis and Design
Taka 4,00,000.00
Time required: one month Required effort: 6 man month Coding
2,00,000.00
Time Required: one month Required effort: 4 man month Software Testing
2,00,000.00
Time Required: one month Required effort: 4 man month Total Cost
8,00,000.00
Table 6.6: Cost chart of Software Development for Data Entry System
48
6.7 Software Installation, Licensing and Maintenance Cost
Cost Head
Taka
Installation and Training per branch
5,000.00
Licensing per bank branch
20,000.00
Maintenance per month
1,000.00
Table 6.7: Cost chart of Software Installation, Licensing and Maintenance
6.8 Networking Software For Dial up Connection, cost is included in the Data Entry Software. For wireless solution we find the following costs due to develop protocol handler:
Cost Head
Taka
Analysis and Design of the Protocol
10,00,000.00
Time required: two months, required effort: 12 man month Coding
5,00,000.00
Time required: two months, required effort: 8 man month Software Testing
5,00,000.00
Time required: Two months, 4 man month Total Software Development cost
20,00,000.00
Maintenance Cost (per month) Table 6.8: Cost chart of Networking Software
1,00,000.00
49
6.9 Software Development Cost in the DESA Billing Software
Cost Head Bar code generation
Taka 1,00,000.00
(Requires one month, total effort 2 man month) Provisional bill printing module
2,00,000.00
(Requires one month, total effort 4 man month) Correction Notification module
2,00,000.00
(Requires one month, total effort 4 man month) Total Cost
5,00,000.00
Table 6.9: Cost chart of Software Development in the DESA Billing Software
6.10 Other Software Cost in the DESA Billing Software Cost Head Installation and Training 2 officers per S & D office Licensing fee per S & D office Per month maintenance cost per sales office or computer
Taka 5,000.00 20,000.00 1,000.00
center Table 6.10: Cost chart of Other Software in the DESA Billing Software
50
6.11 Stationery Cost Cost Head
Taka
Stationery cost (Paper, ribbon, toner) per bank branch per
1,000.00
month Stationery cost (Paper, ribbon, toner) per S & D per
1,000.00
month Table 6.11: Cost chart of Stationery
6.12 Total Cost Let there be 200 branches and 35 S & D offices collecting DESA bills. Now the required fixed and recurring costs are as follows:
Costs Computer Hardware Cost for the data entry in 200 branches (fixed Cost) Computer Hardware and networking Cost for 35 S & D offices (fixed Cost) Communication Hardware Cost in 200 branches (fixed cost) Hardware Cost (printers and access server) in the Computer Center: (fixed Cost) Software Development Cost for Data Entry System: (fixed Cost) Software licensing cost in 200 branches (fixed cost) Software Installation and Training Cost in
BTTB Lines
Wireless Solution
2,00,00,000.00
2,00,00,000.00
30,45,000.00
30,45,000.00
8,00,000.00
20,00,000.00
17,00,000.00
14,00,000.00
8,00,000.00
8,00,000.00
40,00,000.00
40,00,000.00
10,00,000.00
10,00,000.00
51 Costs
BTTB Lines
Wireless Solution
2,00,000.00
2,00,000.00
Protocol Handler (fixed cost)
NA
20,00,000.00
Protocol Handler maintenance (per month)
NA
1,00,000.00
5,00,000.00
5,00,000.00
7,00,000.00
7,00,000.00
1,75,000.00
1,75,000.00
35,000.00
35,000.00
60,000.00
60,000.00
2,00,000.00
2,00,000.00
35,000.00
35,000.00
70,000.00
70,000.00
10,00,000.00
10,00,000.00
3,37,20,000.00
3,66,20,000.00
6,00,000.00
7,00,000.00
200 branches (fixed cost) Software Maintenance in 200 branches (Per month)
Software Development Cost in the DESA billing Software: (fixed cost) Software licensing cost for 35 S & D offices (fixed cost) Software Installation and training in 35 S & D offices (fixed cost) Software Maintenance Cost in 35 S & D offices of DESA billing Software: (per month) Running Communication Cost in 200 branches (per month) Stationery cost in 200 branches (per month) Stationery cost in 200 branches (per month) Networking cost for the S & D offices (per month) Consultancy Cost (preparation of TOR, bid evaluation and certification for Hardware and Software) Total
Fixed Cost
Cost
Recurring Cost per Month
Table 6.12: Total cost chart
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Chapter 7 Visions for Future – Billing Data Collection Automation
Bill collection is not the only area where Information Technology should be applied. There are several other areas where automation can be done by applying the already existing techniques. These are as follows:
Use of automated meter collection system
Automatic meter reading collection using the network between subscriber‟s meter and Computer Center
7.1
Introduction of self-reading system
Automation of bill sending directly to the subscribers
Automation of bill payment through World Wide Web.
Use of Digital Meters to Automate Meter Reading
Digital electric meters have already been installed in several areas under DESA. This meter is made of electronic circuits and provides lots of data like power consumptions in different days, power factor, peak load and lowest load etc. Only the power consumption in kilowatt is used for billing. In the existing system the meter readers go to the subscribers‟ home and read the meter and write that in meter reading sheet. There are some special cards that can be easily interfaced with the digital meters and the reading can be taken by pressing a button only. The reading will be stored in the
53 machine and data can be uploaded to the Computer Center server from a workstation in the S & D.
7.2 Use of GSM Network for Reading the Power Usage The main purpose of using this type of network for meter reading is as follows: Make pilferage zero by eliminating human interference/involvement Making the collection process faster. If meter reading can be collected in
one day, bill can be generated the next day and payment can be ensured much earlier than what is in current situation
7.3
Automation by Ethernet over Power (PLC) All the consumers are connected to the national grid through the power cable. This is the largest network of our country. This network can be easily used as data carrier. A high frequency band can be chosen to send data through the power line. Thus the efficient use of power lines can result in a good infrastructure for the Internet in Bangladesh. The meter readings will be sent from the consumers‟ meters to the computer center. The hardware and software required for this system are as follows:
An electronic circuit that reads the meter and creates the frames containing the reading once in a random interval.
Repeaters, Ethernet switches are essential in different places of the network (feeder lines, transformer, sub stations). The job of these networking equipment are to shape up the weaker signals and routing the frames to the computer center.
A server in the computer center must be able to read meter reading frames and update the database accordingly. Not all the sent frames will arrive the
54 Computer Center of DESA. Only one reading in a month is sufficient for processing the bill of a consumer.
7.4
Automation by IPV6 It is anticipated that, with the advent of IPV6, each and every machine of the world would get an IP address and hence if connected to the network, each can be accessed from any where of the world. In this section we propose a model for the automation of bill data collection using the above-mentioned feature of IPV6.
7.4.1 The Proposed Model First we present our proposed model, its architecture and the corresponding protocol. The model we are proposing is quite simple and has some assumptions that are stated as follows. 1. Each and every house in a city (or a particular area which is under the scheme) has to have an Internet connection. 2. Each and every (major) electric appliance must have an IP (IPV6) address. 3. The appliances also must have built-in (economically cheap) chips that would be able to run a routine according to the protocol/program residing on the chip. This particular chip must have a transmitter and receiver for communication. The protocol is basically and essentially an authentication protocol. 4. There must be a central authority that will perform the registration, authentication and other activities.
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7.4.2 The Architecture Now we are ready to present our architecture as follows. As per our assumptions, each and every house must have an Internet connection. We call this particular connection an “IAP” which means the Internet Access Point. On the other hand each electric appliance is termed as “ECP” which means Electricity Consumption Point. Note that in our architecture for simplicity we are assuming that each house has a single IAP. It is, however, obvious that there would be more than one ECP. Each IAP would have a receiver/transmitter in order to establish a radio link connection between itself and each of the ECP‟s. Recall that each ECP, according to our assumption, must have a receiver/transmitter pair. The central authority for all our purpose has to be a server that we call CAS (Central Authority Server).
7.4.3 The Protocol The protocol proposed by us for this architecture is also quite simple and utilizes the built-in chip assumed to be present in each of the ECP‟s. As is indicated in the assumptions, this built-in chip would be able to run a routine (implementing the protocol) residing in it (preferably in the form of a EPROM for the provision of future changes). Each ECP could be used by multiple users (not simultaneously though) and hence there has to be a way of logging on into the ECP. This can be done by sending a particular (pre-defined) command message, through mobile communication, with the user name and password as parameters. As soon as a “log on” command is received by an ECP, it sends and “authentication request” command to the CAS. It should be clear that these messages are sent and received via mobile communications (recall the presence of receiver/transmitter pair in each of the ECP‟s and IAP). Also note carefully that the communication to CAS is through IAP and in fact all communications of ECP are to and from IAP. Only IAP is responsible to communicate to CAS. Now in response to the “authentication request” the CAS would either validate or invalidate the request
56 depending on respectively whether there is an entry or not of the corresponding username with matching password in the CAS server. Obviously each potential user for a particular ECP must be pre-registered to CAS. The ECP allows consumption of electricity i.e. the appliance starts, if and only if CAS validates the consumption. Otherwise the “log on” request fails and the user will not be able to use the appliances. Now the only thing that is left to make clear is how the different appliances are distinguished. In fact this should be clear to the reader already that the IPV6 comes into play in this aspect. As is mentioned in the assumptions, each appliance should have an IP address and hence each command to a particular appliance should bear the IP address of the appliance inside the message so that the corresponding message reach the intended appliance.
7.4.4 Consumption Metering Metering is a real problem especially in countries like Bangladesh. Our proposed model provides a simple way of metering the consumptions. Since each appliance must authenticate through CAS whenever it is started, CAS may easily keep track of the start and end of the appliance (when the appliance is about to stop another message may be sent to the CAS). Each appliance may possess the capability to calculate its own power consumption and hence it may also periodically send the consumption information. Sending this information periodically is needed for the cases when sudden power failures occur.
7.4.5 Pilferage Control of Electronic Consumptions Associated with consumption metering, as discussed in the preceding paragraph, is a serious issue of pilferage especially in the current context of Bangladesh. It is a matter of deep regret that in many cases the electric meter, whether it is analog
57 or digital, can be and is bypassed and thus the actual electric consumption is not recorded. In our study we have found report that in case of digital meters a small chip with receiver and transmitter can be placed inside the meter and the meter can be controlled remotely. As a result the meter can be shown to be working whenever inspectors are there for checking with the help of a remote controller and as soon as the checking is over it is switched off. It should also be added here that the meter inspectors also sometimes can be bribed and thus the pilferage continues. In our model, we can provide a very good pilferage control scheme. If the meter is bypassed or switched off it is clear that the CAS would not be able to retrieve any consumption record through the meter. However recall that each electric appliance individually communicate with CAS and hence the electric authority (DESA in our case), if it has an agreement with CAS off course, can check the data from CAS to check whether there is any kind of pilferage going on due to the bypassing of the meter. If there is no consumption from the meter, there should not be any consumption by a refrigerator inside that apartment.
7.4.6 Problems and Suggestions The idea of pilferage control of electric metering suggests a problem in our model. The electric appliances like light bulbs or electric fans cannot be assumed to be equipped with the kind of chips we are suggesting to be installed in each electric appliance in our proposed model. The economic concerns would not allow us to do that. So in case of pilferage control this would be a serious issue. Note carefully that this problem doesn‟t have any effect in other features that our model offers. A suggestion in this regard is to consider integrated switch boxes as electric appliances. However, the mischievous idea of bypassing a switch box would still be an issue to resolve.
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7.5
Courier Service for Sending the Bills Courier service is a popular private media to send letters to the receiver in due time. In the existing system each bill is sent to the consumers by the meter reader and the meter readers sometimes do not send it to the consumers‟ place within the due date of bill payment. This is not a good example of customer service for a utility company. DESA should immediately start sending bills through the courier service. T & T is sending their bills through courier service. The cost of courier must be less than the regular rate, as bills of a particular area will be sent at a time. DESA can use special type of envelopes with one small opening for displaying the address. Sending the bill without any envelope is also feasible as it is being done in the existing system. Some of the addresses are still invalid in the DESA Computer Center database. It can be corrected easily as the bills cannot be delivered will be returned after sending the bill of the first month. This process of sending the bills can be started in phases. It can be started with one S & D and then moving on with more S & Ds after all the addresses of the first one is corrected properly.
7.6
Introducing World Wide Web for Automation Websites are being used for bill payment by the subscribers and bill sending to the subscribers in the developed countries. The main benefit of this technology is that the subscribers do not need to move from their homes to the banks or S & D offices and they can save their valuable time. This would be an excellent solution for the working couples in Dhaka city. For any web based automation the following environment must be set up:
There must be a web server. This should be powerful enough to support the load of the web users in the system.
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The software to be developed must communicate with the database server. Web server and database server can be the same machine.
There must be high-speed connection to the Internet. It will be possible when there will be a high-speed Internet infrastructure in the country. This is expected to be done in Dhaka city soon.
Following services can be automated by using World Wide Web:
1. Self Reading Through Website 2. Bill Printing Through Website 3. Website for Pilferage Control 4. Website for Customer Service 5. Power calculation in the website 6. Notification through E-mails
7.7
Automation of Bill Payment and Money Collection Now a subscriber has to go to the bank and wait in a queue to pay the bill. It is not a very pleasant job for a subscriber. Introduction of automation techniques can make this process of payment easier. We will discuss several techniques in the following subsections:
7.7.1 Prepaid Payment A subscriber might be interested to pay in advance so that he does not need to waste his or her time in the bank queue. So there should be a provision to pay more than the bill amount
in the bill. This prepaid payment might be very
lucrative to the management level for raising funds for developing power plants to
60 support the extra load for the future. DESA can offer different lucrative packages (such as lower rate) for advance payment to the subscribers. In this scheme the subscriber does not need to pay until the corresponding balance becomes negative.
7.7.2 Bill Payment through ATM Card ATM provides 24 hours banking service to the customers. The customers can go to the bank any time and do limited banking such as drawing money up to certain limit, transferring money to another accounts and automatic bill payment. If a bank supports ATM cards to their customers then DESA can easily interface their database with the bank database to provide on line bill payment through smart ATM cards.
7.7.3 Bill Payment through the Internet Account Using ATM cards the subscribers can go to the ATM machine any time and pay the bill. Use of website can make this process easier and faster. A subscriber can login to his or her bank account from his home through the Internet. There must be some provision to pay any kind of bill from the subscriber‟s account. The subscriber will provide the bill number and the amount to be paid and finally the amount will be deducted from the account. The bank will send the bill numbers and amount to be paid at the end of day to the corresponding utility organization. This technique utilizes the full power of Information and Communication Technology. The website developed for this application must have the sufficient security features and these features are now available in the software development platforms.
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7.7.4 Bill Payment through Credit Card This method also uses the Internet technology. The Computer Center of the DESA will develop a website of the subscribers to see the bills of a particular month. When a particular bill is shown in the screen there will be some more facilities to pay the bill right away. The subscriber will give the credit card number and necessary security information on the credit card to pay the amount. The DESA office will store the credit card numbers and print the payment information along with credit card numbers to the accounts department of the DESA. When all these bills will be collected from the Credit Card Companies the payment will be posted in the Computer Center database. All these processing does not require any manual entry in the computer center. Thus the total process will be faster with much more satisfied subscribers. This method is not feasible until necessary laws regarding Credit Cards are not made by the Government of Bangladesh.
7.8
Concluding Remarks This report presents possible ways to automate the bill collection system to enhance the consumer satisfaction. It may be noted here that automation of bill collection is a prime need for every utility company to speed up the revenue collection procedure. The estimated cost for automation is negligible compared to the anticipated increase in revenue collection resulting from automation in addition to customer satisfaction. The setup for automation can be easily shared by any other utility companies. Thus the cost for these services can be distributed among all the utility companies such as Gas, Water, T & T, mobile and Internet service providers. The top management of all these utility companies should take initiatives immediately to adopt this technology both for improved revenue collection and customer satisfaction
.
62 Application of Information Technology in data entry helps us provide service in the shortest possible time where lots of data are processed daily. Manual data entry by the tellers in the banks is not really acceptable in a any busy city as it wastes lot of time of the consumers. That is why the Utility Service Providers should start automation not only in bill collection but also in meter reading. Automated meter reading should be given priority as it will reduce the pilferage done by the meter readers and detect the dishonest consumers. The developed countries in the world are also using the concept of automated meter reading. So the Service Providers should start thinking to utilize the technology right away. The phases mentioned in the last section provides the guideline to implement the automated system in the quickest possible time.
Since IT is penetrating into every walks of life, to be competitive with other service organizations, all the Service Providers should take the initiative immediately and embark upon this project to harvest the benefits of IT through improved customer service and faster revenue collection.
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Appendix 1. Java Code for reading and parsing data from Bar Code scanner using the javax.comm package import javax.swing.*; import java.io.*; import java.awt.event.*; import java.awt.*; import java.sql.*; import javax.comm.*; import java.util.*;
public class ReadBarCode implements SerialPortEventListener {
private ScrollingPanel fields; private JTextArea output; private Connection connection; static Enumeration
portList;
InputStream
inputStream;
Thread
readThread;
SerialPort serialPort; static CommPortIdentifier portId;
public ReadBarCode(Connection c ,ScrollingPanel f, JTextArea o){ connection=c;
64 fields=f; output=o; try{ portId=CommPortIdentifier.getPortIdentifier( "COM1") ; }catch(NoSuchPortException nspe){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Port COM1 is not active", "ERROR" , JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE); }
try{ serialPort = (SerialPort) portId.open("Bill Collector", 2000); }catch (PortInUseException e){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,portId.getName()+" is in use " , "ERROR" , JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE); } try{ serialPort.setSerialPortParams(9600, SerialPort.DATABITS_8, SerialPort.STOPBITS_1, SerialPort.PARITY_NONE); } catch (UnsupportedCommOperationException e){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error in setting SerialPortParams","ERROR",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE); }
try{ serialPort.notifyOnOutputEmpty(true); }catch (Exception e){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error setting event notification","ERROR",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE); }
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try{ inputStream = serialPort.getInputStream(); } catch (IOException e){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error in getting input stream","ERROR",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE); } try{ serialPort.addEventListener(this); } catch (TooManyListenersException e){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Listener is already set","ERROR",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE); }
serialPort.notifyOnDataAvailable(true); }
public void serialEvent(SerialPortEvent event){ switch (event.getEventType()) { case SerialPortEvent.BI: case SerialPortEvent.OE: case SerialPortEvent.FE: case SerialPortEvent.PE: case SerialPortEvent.CD: case SerialPortEvent.CTS: case SerialPortEvent.DSR: case SerialPortEvent.RI: case SerialPortEvent.OUTPUT_BUFFER_EMPTY: break;
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case SerialPortEvent.DATA_AVAILABLE:
byte[] readBuffer = new byte[256]; try{ while (inputStream.available() > 0) { int numBytes = inputStream.read(readBuffer); }
}catch (IOException e){ JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error reading BAR code","ERROR",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE ); }
String s; s=""; for (int i=0;i
