Vibb scales sustainably with Tietoevry digital invoicing

Norwegian electricity provider Vibb wanted to modernize its invoicing process for a better customer experience. Tietoevry Industry’s solution helped the company to grow rapidly while minimizing environmental impact.

For many utility providers, the majority of customer interactions take place around invoicing. Customers expect to receive accurate and clear invoices through the channel of their choosing, while payment flows need to be easy. Deviations from this experience cause inquiries and complaints, driving up costs and resulting in late payments. 

When Norwegian electricity provider Vibb adjusted its strategy in 2022, the young company set out to prioritize a low-friction customer experience – especially around invoicing. This approach saw Vibb quickly grow from having zero market share to becoming one of Norway’s top 10 electricity providers.

The backbone of Vibb’s frictionless customer experience is the Tietoevry Multichannel invoicing service, which ensures customers receive invoices through their preferred channel – whether direct d ebit, e-Invoice to an online bank, a payment app, or email.

By reducing invoicing errors and minimizing service inquiries, Tietoevry enables Vibb to maintain high customer satisfaction and a lean operating model. This gives the company a crucial edge in the highly competitive electricity market.

“Invoicing is a perpetual friction point. Our goal is to create excellent digital customer experiences, and the desired outcome of delivering on that goal is growth,” says Vibb CEO Erik Berg Solheim. “Tietoevry is a very good partner when it comes to ongoing improvements to reduce friction between us and our customers.”

Efficiency reduces environmental impact

There are also sustainability benefits to the solution. Tietoevry Multichannel runs on cloud infrastructure shared between multiple customers, eliminating the need for CO2-generating on-premises solutions. The Tietoevry offering also avoids the heavier carbon footprint that comes with dedicated SaaS deployments, which require separate applications, databases and servers. 

“All our customers are running on the same shared platform. This means Vibb and others benefit from a highly efficient and scalable system that minimizes resource consumption and environmental impact. By sharing infrastructure, we help companies to grow sustainably while keeping their operations lean,” explains Odd Egil Orøy, Product Manager at Tietoevry Industry.

The Tietoevry digital solution has also helped to reduce the number of Vibb customers requesting paper invoices. The company now prints fewer than 0.2% of the total. For these few cases, Tietoevry ensures environmentally responsible sourcing and printing. Delivery vendors must have green certifications and operate electric vehicles.

This follows a broader digitization trend in Norway, where paper invoicing has shrunk from 40% to just 4% over the past few years. Tietoevry has played a strong role in this.

“Working together with Vipps – the leading Norwegian mobile payment platform – we removed 50 million paper invoices in just three years. When you avoid any transport of paper, then naturally you minimize your environmental footprint,” explains Odd Egil Orøy.

“Digitizing the customer experience goes hand in hand with sustainability. By streamlining operations, you reduce friction while also lowering environmental impact. Sustainability goals are easier to meet when a better customer experience is in place,” he adds.

Ongoing improvements sustain customer satisfaction

Another priority is to ensure invoices reach customers on the first attempt. The system automatically detects the best digital channel for each recipient, thereby reducing the risk of lost invoices or delayed payments. 

“Our task is to digitize perfectly when sending out invoices. If a recipient is present in a digital channel in Norway, we will find that person. If they are not there or have opted not to be digital, the customer will receive a paper invoice. We aim to do this seamlessly so that the customer gets the invoice in their preferred channel,” says Odd Egil Orøy.

Over time, Vibb and Tietoevry have worked together to refine the invoicing experience in response to customer behaviour and feedback.

One example is the implementation of self-notifications. Initially, customers had to open the Vibb app to see their invoice details. But the company recognized that many customers prefer having a copy of their invoice sent to the payment channel of their choosing.

Tietoevry has also included an invoice specification for direct debit, enabling customers to choose this payment option from within their own accounts. The feature circumvents the need to use an app for this purpose.

“When a customer contacts us or complains about something, we like to jump in and fix it. We reach out to Tietoevry with all kinds of inquiries, which are then followed up by their support team,” says Berg Solheim.

Tietoevry continues to explore new invoicing methods with Vibb, ensuring the solution evolves together with customer expectations.