Utilities

Utilities companies across the power, water and waste sectors are facing up to the challenges of an increasingly competitive marketplace, still dominated by the rules of the regulatory bodies, Ofwat and Ofgem.

For water companies the current lack of competition is moderated by the need to make massive investments in the network, despite an Ofwat decreed drop in customer pricing. For power companies the open market is now massively competitive, impacting both pricing and the need to deliver ever improving customer service, whilst still meeting Ofgem targets for network improvement.
 
Utilities companies are also facing demands from both government and shareholders to become far more efficient – most notably in addressing the high levels of energy consumption, as well as facing up to the implications of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) which look set to demand carbon consumption reporting by individual task.

How can Azzurri help?

Streamline customer communication – A contact centre evaluation is a good way to highlight opportunities for more agile customer communication. Contact centre consolidation can also deliver cost savings and enable staff multi-tasking. Adding SMS, email, instant chat and social media to the contact centre can streamline communication, drive down costs and meet regulatory targets for customer service. Find out more »

Control Costs – With the downward pressure on customer prices, cost containment and reduction is the number one priority. Opting for a proven managed service provides financial savings from day one. With fixed fees for technology management and support, as well as transparent communication costs and built-in technology refreshes, utility companies can attain unprecedented cost control and the agility to utilise state of the art technology to support new services. Find out more »

Exploit wireless and mobile technologies – With new targets for increasing the number of customer meters, water companies are joining the rest of the industry in looking for lower cost meter reading solutions. Flexible and innovative wireless and mobile technologies are key to driving down costs. Find out more »

Improve competitiveness -

• Mobile tracking technology can be used to improve resource management.
• Unified communications (UC) technologies such as presence provide great cross-organisational visibility, with a direct knock on impact on productivity.
• UC can also be used to streamline voice costs by using triangulation to automatically find the cheapest network, such as rerouting mobile calls via fixed line within the office.

Utility Week www.utilityweek.co.uk
Office of Gas and Electricity Market www.ofgem.gov.uk
Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) www.ofwat.gov.uk