“The energy market is changing at a rapid pace. However, many energy suppliers are not yet prepared for future requirements, such as the implementation of new business models, with their historically evolved, inflexible and insufficiently integrated IT landscapes. A new end-to-end solution based on Microsoft Dynamics should help to manage the change.” The energy supply in Germany is facing extensive changes. This is triggered by three drivers:

• Cost and efficiency pressure due to increasing competition
• Structural and process change due to the energy transition
• Increasing pressure for innovation and rationalization due to digitalization.

Of these three catalysts, which correspond with each other in many ways, digitalization in particular is exerting powerful disruptive forces, as a look at other sectors – for example, retail, the hotel and taxi industries – shows. Energy suppliers often still find it difficult to follow the new trends. To date, digitalization in this area has been understood primarily as the provision of a supporting IT tool that is integrated into a business process that is primarily implemented by clerks. These are usually repetitive tasks such as data collection, information research and evaluation. This means that valuable human resources are tied up in tasks that contribute little to added value . Deeper added value could be achieved, for example, by deploying clerks selectively where customers require customized solutions due to complex needs .

Simple coding rules are not enough

Why can’t a high degree of automation, as is often found in the manufacturing industry, simply be transferred to the energy industry? Industrial processes are characterized by a very high degree of standardization and can easily be coded in rule-based systems. The core of service processes, on the other hand, is the interaction between a provider and a customer. This interaction is characterized by a wide range of potential states and options , so simple rules for coding are not sufficient. Rather, the interaction is divided into numerous different business processes . In practice, this is made even more difficult by the fact that all of these business processes are currently mapped in separate software systems , for example for ERP, billing, CRM, EDM, calculation and market communication. Usually, each component has its own data model, although the same business objects are relevant for several of these applications. The relationships between the information are so complex that data integration and evaluation via static connectors are usually not promising and can hardly be implemented with the integration solutions known to date . Due to this incomplete integration, it is difficult or even impossible to bundle all the data relevant to complex business and decision-making processes in one data instance . However, such bundling is one of the prerequisites for automating business processes. Working with such IT solutions is therefore inefficient because they are not up to future challenges.

Indispensable: integration of business processes

Anyone who wants to be and remain successful in the energy market 4.0 cannot avoid a stronger integration of business processes . This insight is the basis for the IT Vision Technology (ITVT) GmbH project to develop a new cloud-based information technology platform that connects the various separate databases within the utility company’s IT architecture using a flexible data model. With it, users in the company can declaratively model higher-level processes that can flexibly access all affected data sources. With these declaratively created processes, the value creation process of an energy service provider can be mapped, partially automated and even a limited self-learning functionality can be implemented. With the new ITVT energy market solution »Stadtwerk365« it is possible to configure rule-based systems that can also automate complex processes that affect several data-related pillars of the IT architecture . These include, for example, consumption billing and invoicing for various energy sources, automated pre-screening of customers and new customers before calculating offers, credit checks, address validations, network logistics and financial transaction processes.

Maximum automation of processes sought

A typical use case is that an automated preliminary check of the customer takes place when a new customer query is made via the web portal. These processes are controlled at the CRM level and end systems such as price portals are addressed via web service interfaces . If the query passes through the system, an object is automatically created at the ERP system level. This object is the basis for an automatic offer calculation before a clerk even becomes active. Many cases – especially those in which the energy supplier cannot or does not want to enter into a business relationship – therefore do not even reach the clerk level. The stated goal is to achieve an automation rate of 99.9% for standard cases of contract initiation . An employee’s intervention should only be necessary in 0.1% of cases. In vertical terms, it can be assumed that a clerk will only check and release the automatically pre-processed processes at the end of the process chain. Stadtwerk365 is a cloud-based software platform. Software-as-a-service solutions are on trend because they are inexpensive and easy to use. This means that users do not have to worry about tasks such as system operation, maintenance and administration. Customers can host the application either in the Microsoft cloud, in their own data center or in the ITVT Group’s high-security center. Thanks to the all-in-one approach, energy suppliers no longer need a range of IT solutions, but only a single one.

Relief from routines

The new end-to-end solution also offers energy suppliers the advantage of relieving their employees of routine processes that add little value and allowing them to use them for critical and complex cases . This makes it possible to pass on price advantages to customers on the one hand, and to grow in new customer business on the other , without having to expand the sales team. A special feature of the new solution is that it enables the mapping and support of new business models that will become central to the energy market 4.0. Virtual assistants, chatbots and artificial intelligence, for example , are used to support complex processes . With the cloud approach, Stadtwerk365 also offers itself as a lean solution for future small providers in the energy market . The new software is primarily aimed at three target groups:

• Energy suppliers who come from other industries and are new to the energy market. Initially, such companies often worked with external providers so that they did not have to build up their own vertical integration for tasks such as market communication and billing . Successful new providers are now realizing that they need their own know-how and tools in order to be able to operate on the market with higher quality and the necessary differentiating features .
• Municipal utilities and energy suppliers who recognize the need to consolidate and renew their systems in the wake of digitalization and increasing competition.
• Large, nationwide energy suppliers that are building up target group-specific product lines under a separate brand alongside their existing business . To do this, they need an IT solution that will enable them to bring their offerings to market quickly.

Benefit from established Microsoft Dynamics standards

ITVT offers more than 15 years of energy market experience, primarily in the area of ​​CRM solutions and cloud-based for many years. A good part of the way to the new energy market solution has already been covered. The process coverage – initially only for sales – was expanded in close cooperation with customers to cover functions such as billing and financial accounting in an end-to-end solution. The Microsoft Dynamics standard already provides a lot of functionality that is linked to ITVT developments . This means that users can work on a widely used platform that they often already have in-house and thus benefit from future Microsoft innovations . Author: Jochen Klipfel & Marc Schütt Source: Article in ew – Magazine for the Energy Industry IV/17, p. 26-27