Sales Manager
Karlskoga Energi & Miljö chooses Multichannel with Live Invoice, a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative for easily automating and distributing documents, letters, and invoices
By rapidly delivering information to their customers, without compromising on expensive and time-consuming processes involving physical letters or lengthy distribution times, Karlskoga Energi & Miljö can maintain close and prompt communication with its local customers thanks to Tietoevry's Multichannel platform.
For a local player like Karlskoga Energi & Miljö, which provides services to virtually all residents of Karlskoga in Sweden, customer communication is high on the priority list. Founded in 1995 by the Karlskoga municipality, Karlskoga Energi & Miljö delivers services such as electricity, heating, water, waste management, and recycling to the majority of the municipality's residents. Therefore, Karlskoga Energi & Miljö needs to be able to communicate smoothly and efficiently with its customers, regardless of the nature of the matter.
The company has been undergoing a digitalization process, which has resulted in a consolidated contact point through an app where customers can view their electricity consumption, operational information, and receive information about waste collection.
One of the challenges faced by Karlskoga Energi & Miljö was the distribution of various documents to its customers, as well as automatic invoice dispatch. Within these processes, general communication that occurred outside the noise of social media was also included. The challenge lay, among other things, in the fact that different customers have different preferences for accessing information. Some still prefer physical mail in their mailboxes, while others use electronic mailboxes, and many have transitioned to e-invoices or direct debit. What was important for Karlskoga Energi & Miljö was that all customers received the same information at roughly the same time, and that it could be achieved through a single service.
Tietoevry won the procurement process of Karlskoga Energi & Miljö
Following a public procurement process, Tietoevry was selected as the provider, as Karlskoga Energi & Miljö was interested in Multichannel with Live Invoice – a simple and automated way to distribute documents, letters, and invoices. The fact that it is also a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative that aligns with Karlskoga Energi & Miljö's digitalization and sustainability agenda was decisive.
- "For us, this was the major unique selling proposition," says Janne Jacobsen, project manager at Karlskoga Energi & Miljö. "Different customers have different needs when it comes to accessing information from various services and providers. Both in terms of cost and environmental impact, Tietoevry's Multichannel is a very good solution." Sebastian Cabander, CEO of Karlskoga Energi & Miljö, agrees with the above and believes that the project has been very smooth. "Tietoevry knows what they're doing, so we truly feel that we have found the right supplier who is helpful and never hesitates to address any problems that arise," says Sebastian.
The customer choose distribution and communication channels
Currently, they are solely using Multichannel, but an agreement has been made to implement Live Invoice. With Tietoevry's Multichannel, it is easy to keep track of all types of communication with customers. The solution provides access to various distribution methods, payment solutions, and communication channels, allowing customers to choose how they want to receive information and invoices. The distribution of invoices to internet banks and the collaborations Tietoevry has with major digital mailbox providers and payment services make Multichannel a time- and cost-effective communication alternative. Customers can also choose multiple communication channels for different types of information.
Through digitizing communication with customers, companies can not only save substantial costs but also reduce their environmental impact. It is estimated that in 2020, users of Tietoevry's Multichannel platform, including both businesses and private individuals in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, saved 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
When Janne Jacobsen started at Karlskoga Energi & Miljö, they were already in the midst of a digitalization journey. He believed that the focus should be on delivering information digitally and that this should be prioritized while not forgetting that everyone has digitized their lives in different ways.
- "We can't exclude anyone; we have to consider that some people may not have a smartphone and cannot access the app, or they may have an electronic mailbox solution. That's where we felt that the Multichannel solution from Tietoevry suited us perfectly. Tietoevry's Multichannel doesn't exclude anyone; instead, it invites customers to make a choice so that everyone can use our services and access the same amount of information," Janne explains.
E-invoicing is the goal
Although they don't want to exclude anyone, there is an ambition for the majority of customers to use e-invoices and Karlskoga Energi & Miljö's own app. In the app, the Live Invoice service from Tietoevry will be integrated, enabling Karlskoga Energi & Miljö to provide individual customers with relevant information such as personalized offers, statistics, and other relevant information.
- "Tietoevry's Multichannel platform, with the additional service of Live Invoice, is the absolute best solution for us. The experience of the implementation from Tietoevry has been very good, and as a provider, we feel that they are always on their toes and willing to develop their own services, sometimes in collaboration with their customers. For us, it has naturally involved some work in terms of digitization and file deliveries in the correct format, but in the end, it will lead to more efficient work," says Janne.
After Tietoevry won the public procurement, two project groups were established, one from each company.
- "We started with weekly meetings and figured out how we would proceed, what deadlines we needed to adhere to, and I think it went excellently," says Janne. "We tested everything during follow-ups a couple of times a week since it involved a new integration of the Multichannel platform, implementation of distribution channels, and large volumes of historical documents that needed to be moved. It included an e-archive from ten years ago that had to be transferred and then mirrored against our business system, so there is quite a lot that needs to work smoothly, but it has gone very smoothly - surprisingly smoothly, actually," Janne adds.
Your company has its own app. How will Live Invoice enhance it?
- "We see that our app and the interactive Live Invoice will enable us to constantly update our customers with the latest news, important information, but it also gives customers the option to pay their invoices immediately using Swish or similar methods. Currently, we don't have a payment solution in the app, so we believe that integrating Live Invoice into the app will be very beneficial," Janne explains.
Last winter, when electricity prices fluctuated significantly, Karlskoga Energi & Miljö found themselves in a situation where they needed to communicate quickly with their customers, and Multichannel proved itself during a period when many customers required rapid information.
- "When electricity invoices shot up last winter, only to come down just as quickly, some customers became angry, and our customer support faced high pressure. If we have 7,000 electricity customers and 300 of them are angry, that's a lot. The reason for their anger was that something had gone wrong, and the invoice showed 330 kW instead of the actual 285 kW. We were able to quickly correct it with a new invoice. We also needed to send a letter explaining what had happened, and we could quickly write up important information for a clarification letter that we sent out through the Multichannel flow. We only send one file to Tietoevry's support, and the same afternoon, people could open the letter digitally in their chosen channels," says Sebastian.
For Karlskoga Energi & Miljö, it's about regaining ownership of communication. Sometimes, social media can be uncertain, but by concentrating their communication through their own app and Multichannel with Live Invoice from Tietoevry, Karlskoga Energi & Miljö can achieve it.
Learn more about Karlskoga Energi & Miljö.
If your company needs help with invoice automation, contact us at Tietoevry, thomas.frey@tietoevry.com, and we will assist you.