To excel in the future energy business, here's what you need to do.
In our previous blogpost, we already outlined how digitalization is an imperative requirement for energy companies to succeed. Intelligent use and automated processing of data not only enhance the business of energy companies, but also has the wider implication of working towards a zero-carbon future.
We also noted how Customer Information Systems (CIS) sit in the middle of the new way of doing business. Modern CIS are the middleman between centralized datahub information, the energy company’s business requirements, and the consumer’s requirements for individualized service.
1. Outstanding performance
Not only technological performance counts, although it is probably the most fundamental requirement for survival in the business. Service reliability makes or breaks the customer relationship, and dynamic scalability is crucial to respond to demand fluctuation.
For example, real-time invoicing and being able to flexibly transfer customers from one product to another require heavy-duty performance from the system.
That is why you should be able to build, ship, and scale AI-enabled solutions on platforms such as Azure cloud, and automatically deploy, scale, and manage your containerized applications.
2. Cost-effectiveness
Even if it is a cliché today, everyone needs to do more for less. Efficiency in service and maintenance operations can only be achieved by multitenant installations.
In-house, on-premises does not cut it anymore. Multitenancy public cloud, many customers sharing the same resources, offers high-level computing power at a much lower cost than legacy or dedicated systems. An architecturally well-designed multitenant environment brings significant cost-efficiency to the solution.
3. Speedier product and service creation
Electricity retailers, in particular, must be able to respond quickly to competition and customer wishes. Current systems are too complex and do not support the quick creation of new products, pricing models and services. Vendors need to be able to productize and test new products quickly and decide what deserves to be made available as a new offering. Fail fast is the key.
The system they run must therefore include an advanced product creation and testing module and, on the other hand, comprehensive API interfaces to enable the smooth construction of even complex products.
4. Everything in real time
Information flows within the entire ecosystem must work in real time to enable efficient management of all aspects of the business, as well as providing relevant, up-to-date information to consumers and other involved parties.
Versatile API interfaces are therefore needed to make it easy to add new functionalities to the concept and, on the other hand, publish real-time and relevant information in different channels and to different stakeholders.
5. Easy deployment
Just like your customers want freedom of decision, so do you. Before committing to a supplier, you will want to test how the solution works. A subscription model allows you to test and build up gradually.
Delivery from public cloud allows you to deploy the product immediately, without a cumbersome R&D project that will result in a customized, but rigid specific solution. You’ll also benefit from a fast monthly update cycle.
We at Tietoevry are developing a Customer Information System that does all the above. Interested to know more? Do contact me. I’ll be more than happy to discuss how we can make it work for your continued business success.