Urjanet takes the pain out of collecting and standardizing utility bill data with its automated data service. Read more in this analyst report.

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URJANET UNRAVELS UTILITY BILLING WITH BIG ENERGY DATA SERVICE

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July 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report provides VPs of strategy and VPs of product development within energy software
and services firms, as well as heads of energy and procurement within corporates with an
overview of Urjanet’s energy data as a service proposition. Verdantix spoke with Sanjoy Malik,
CEO; Erik Becker, VP Sales and Business Development; and Erik Gabrielson, Director of
Marketing to find out more about Urjanet’s services. Urjanet, founded in 2009, uses proprietary
technology to capture near real-time data on energy prices and consumption directly from
utilities before aggregating the data into a standardized format and delivering it through a
cloud-based subscription model. Verdantix heard that Urjanet’s vision is to become the number
one supplier of utility data to a broad range of customers and partners, including energy
management software firms, energy services firms and large corporates.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
URJANET UNRAVELS UTILITY BILLING
WITH BIG ENERGY DATA SERVICE
Urjanet’s Proprietary Data Capture And
Aggregation Technology Takes The Pain
Out Of Managing Utility Bills And Interval
Meter Data
Urjanet Is To Expand Its Customer And
Partner Base Outside Of North America
ENERGY DATA AS A SERVICE IS AN
EMERGING BUSINESS MODEL
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trademarks of Verdantix Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Verdantix clients
may make one attributed copy of each figure or paragraph contained herein. Additional reproduction is strictly
prohibited.
Figure 1: Functionality Requirements For
Energy Management Software
Figure 2: Utility Bill Management Tops List
Of Outsourced Energy Management
Processes
ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED
ABB, Accenture, Acclaim Energy, Air2Web,
AtSite, Capgemini, CenterPoint Energy,
Costco, Cox Enterprises, Ecova, Fellon-
McCord, Flowers Foods, GameStop, Georgia
Institute of Technology, IHS, Johnson
Controls, Logi Analytics, Lucid, Noesis,
Nokia, OSIsoft, RockTenn, SAP, SAS,
Schneider Electric, Siemens, Synchrologic,
UPS, Urjanet, Velti
FIGURES & REFERENCES
URJANET UNRAVELS UTILITY BILLING WITH BIG ENERGY DATA SERVICE
Licensed Content

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URJANET UNRAVELS UTILITY BILLING WITH BIG ENERGY DATA SERVICE
Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Atlanta, Urjanet is a cloud-based provider of energy
data that uses proprietary technology to capture and aggregate near real-time data on energy
prices and consumption directly from utilities and interval meters. Urjanet is the third start-
up to be launched by co-founder Sanjoy Malik out of Georgia Institute of Technology, his first
venture Synchrologic launched in 1995 and is now part of Nokia. It was followed by Air2Web
launched in 1999 and acquired by Velti in 2011. Since 2009, Urjanet has grown to over 45
employees, raised $8.2 million in venture capital funding and a second office in Chennai,
India. Verdantix spoke with Sanjoy Malik, CEO; Erik Becker, VP Sales and Business
Development; and Erik Gabrielson, Director of Marketing to find out more about Urjanet and
its services.
Urjanet’s Proprietary Data Capture And Aggregation Technology Takes The
Pain Out Of Managing Utility Bills And Interval Meter Data
Utility bill management includes energy supplier management, account tracking, bill
validation, bill accruals, multi-tenant billing, energy rebate validation and chargebacks. All
rely upon capturing and analysing data from utilities. This can be challenging as multimillion
dollar revenue firms typically work with hundreds of utilities, each offering a variety of
tariffs. Urjanet believes that it has identified a gap in the market for firms to streamline the
data capture and management process required for utility bill management. Verdantix heard
that Urjanet:
 Captures multi-site energy cost and consumption data from disparate sources in one
central repository. Utilities do not adopt a standardized approach for firms to capture
their data as each has its own tariff and bill structure. Urjanet uses a number of different
approaches, including electronic data interchange (EDI), HTML, processing of PDFs and
XML, to collect data directly from each utility. In some instances it is not possible to
capture data electronically (less than 10% of all bills). To ensure that 100% of the data are
available to its customers, Urjanet processes scanned images of paper bills using optical
character recognition (OCR). Once captured from the scanned image the data are
indistinguishable from any other data source. Urjanet already gathers data directly from
over 800 utilities in North America.
 Aggregates data into a standardized format. As a result of the multitude of bill
structures, interval information, service charges and tariffs that exist, no two utility bills
are the same, even from the same utility. Urjanet standardizes these different data sets
into one manageable format. Urjanet’s proprietary technology uses a federated data
model that can be thought of as a virtual database – to connect different data sources
together through a common data access approach. By using a federated data model
Urjanet can consolidate data without having to “merge” the different data sets together.
This method delivers data in a standardized format, while still preserving the richness
of each individual database.
 Integrates with third-party business and energy management applications. Urjanet
provides data in a standardized format, through pre-built connectors to a number of
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energy management software and accounting applications, or in CSV and XML format.
Urjanet’s solution does not come with a user interface; instead it is the source of data for
whatever application end users intend to use for managing energy and utility bill data.
It is applications such as energy management software that provide the end user
interface and data analytic capabilities.
 Delivers data using a cloud-based subscription model. Urjanet offers its solution
through a cloud-based subscription model. Customers purchase data in blocks for use
over a 12 month period, offering discounts for volume purchases to encourage firms to
ramp up data usage as required. The cloud-based storage system means that firms can
access data as soon as Urjanet has collected and processed the information. Traditionally
bill payment cycles limit firms, as they have to wait until they receive a bill and enter the
data into a spreadsheet or application before analysing. By connecting directly with
utilities and making the data available via the cloud, Urjanet removes this limitation:
users can run an analysis outside of billing cycles. This provides end customers with a
more complete view of energy consumption and costs across their portfolio at a
particular moment in time, regardless of the billing cycles at each facility.
 Alerts customers to potential billing errors. To ensure data accuracy, Urjanet performs
150 data quality audits before delivering data to customers. Urjanet initially developed
the audits to ensure that there were no mistakes in its data capture and processing, but
then realized it could use the same audits to help alert customers of potential billing
errors. Urjanet compares current data with historical data and alerts the customer if the
new data are outside of pre-determined thresholds. For example, bills from two
consecutive months may show that the price paid per unit of electricity has increased by
20%; this could be a billing error or a change in tariff. When anomalies occur, Urjanet
alerts customers, who can then contact their utility provider to determine the reason for
this increase.
 Will capture energy-related data. Urjanet continues to increase the amount of data
sources and data types it captures within its solution, to make analysing energy data
easier. For example, Urjanet has added weather data and the option for customers to
input square footage data, to allow customers to normalize their energy bill and
consumption data. Urjanet can also capture information from utility contracts and
service level agreements, enabling customers to quickly reference this information if an
issue arises.
Urjanet Is To Expand Its Customer And Partner Base Outside Of North
America
Through its proprietary technology Urjanet captures and aggregates utility bill and interval
AMI data, and delivers it to customers in a standardized format through a subscription
service. Urjanet offers this data service to a broad range of end customers and partners,
specifically:
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 Energy management software firms responding to evolving customer requirements.
Twelve out of 15 customer panel respondents that Verdantix spoke with during its 2013
energy management software benchmarking study require utility bill management
capabilities from energy management software (see Figure 1) (see Verdantix Green
Quadrant Energy Management Software (Global) 2013). During the study Verdantix
heard from software suppliers on their struggles to capture and aggregate data directly
from utilities. Even if utilities can provide data in CSV or XML format, the lack of data
standardization across utilities can still make data aggregation a challenge. Energy
management software suppliers also lack an existing relationship with utilities to
develop connectors into their billing systems. Urjanet proposes removing this barrier,
allowing software suppliers to concentrate on developing and providing core energy
management capabilities. Urjanet has already established OEM relationships with
energy management software firms such as Johnson Controls, Noesis, SAP, Schneider
Electric and Siemens.
 Energy services firms streamline utility bill processing and validation. Energy services
firms such as Ecova and Fellon-McCord offer a broad range of energy bureau services
including utility bill management. Twenty-five per cent of 250 energy leaders outsource
utility bill management to an external firm (see Figure 2) (see Verdantix Global Energy
Leaders Survey 2013: Data Tables). For example, US video game retailer GameStop
selected Ecova’s Utility Expense And Data Management platform to manage its 12,000
utility accounts in 2008; resulting in ongoing annual savings of $734,000. Urjanet’s value
proposition allows energy bureau services firms to shorten bill processing time, without
"To what extent do you require the following energy management software functionality?"
Utility bill management
Energy monitoring and
targeting
Energy reporting and
certification
Energy asset management
Energy project and portfolio
management
Carbon reporting and
certification
Energy procurement and risk
management
Source: Verdantix Green Quadrant Energy Management Software (Global) 2013 N=15
Required Desirable Not Required Undecided
Figure 1. Functionality Requirements For Energy Management Software
40%
60%
60%
67%
73%
73%
80%
13%
20%
27%
7%
20%
27%
7%
40%
7%
7%
27%
7%
7%
13%
7%
7%
7%
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compromising on data accuracy. Urjanet’s automated data capture and aggregation
solution replaces manual data entry and is more accurate than OCR; this streamlines the
traditionally lengthy data capture and quality control process. Urjanet states that it can
cut the costs of utility bill processing by 30-50% compared with traditional methods of
employing data entry analysts. Urjanet has established partnerships with energy
services firms including Acclaim Energy, AtSite and Lucid.
 Technology services firms developing bespoke solutions. Corporates that do not have
sufficient capacity or expertise within internal IT departments to develop dashboards
and data management solutions turn to technology services and business intelligence
firms (see Verdantix Green Quadrant Sustainable Technology Services (Global) 2013).
Urjanet is developing its partnership network with technology services firms such as
Accenture and Capgemini and business intelligence firms such as Logi Analytics and
SAS. By partnering with these kind of firms and educating them on the data available
through the Urjanet solution, Urjanet hopes to accelerate its growth, tapping into these
firms existing customer bases and benefiting from reseller agreements.
 Corporates with existing dashboards and systems. Corporates that have existing
dashboards or systems in place can connect into Urjanet’s solution to enable them to
manage their utility bills. The internal business intelligence team at Cox Enterprises
developed a dashboard that leverages Urjanet’s solution to manage $100 million of
utility spend across 30,000 accounts from 190 US utilities. Urjanet boasts an end
customer list that includes Costco, Flowers Foods, RockTenn and UPS.
"Which of the following energy management processes are managed for you (outsourced) on a day-to-
day basis by an external firm?" (select all that apply)
None of the above
Utility bill management
Energy procurement and
risk management
Energy data analytics
and dashboards
Energy data collection
and reporting
Automated energy monitoring
and targeting
Energy project implementation
and monitoring
Asset level energy
management
Source: Verdantix Global Energy Leaders Survey 2013: Data Tables N=250
Figure 2. Utility Bill Management Tops List Of Outsourced Energy Management Processes
VERDANTIX — URJANET UNRAVELS UTILITY BILLING WITH BIG ENERGY DATA SERVICE
13%
16%
17%
17%
19%
21%
25%
61%

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 Target European and Australian markets. Urjanet plans to increase the number of
North American utilities that it directly captures data from, while also launching its
services in Europe and Australia. By 2015, Urjanet expects to increase the number of
utilities that it has direct data connections with from 800 utilities in North America, to
2,500 global utilities that will include all US utilities and major global utilities.
Opportunities lie in deregulated utility markets with open competition. Deregulated
markets provide customers with more freedom when contracting utilities, and this can
lead to complicated energy management and procurement strategies. The greater the
number of sites, utilities and tariffs that a customer has to manage, the greater the
challenge of managing utility bill data. As Urjanet’s subscription pricing model is based
on volume of data, firms operating in deregulated markets are the most attractive
customers for Urjanet.
ENERGY DATA AS A SERVICE IS AN EMERGING BUSINESS MODEL
Traditionally firms have stored energy data within siloed repositories linked to specific
software packages that allows users to access, process and analyse the data. As firms move
towards centralizing data and managing energy at the enterprise level, they have an
opportunity to do deeper levels of data analytics. Urjanet’s solution facilitates this by
capturing near real-time data on energy prices and consumption directly from utilities,
aggregating the data into a standardized format and delivering it to customers, and whatever
application they use to manage their energy and utility bill data. The value proposition of this
business model is:
 Data suppliers eradicate the data capture and aggregation challenges firms face.
Software and business analytics firms struggle with energy data capture, as a result of
the multitude of legacy hardware and siloed data systems that exist within large
corporates. This challenge is an opportunity for firms that specialize in data capture and
aggregation. For example OSIsoft partners with firms such as ABB, IHS and Siemens
that leverage its data integration and management system (PI System) (see Verdantix
Energy Management Software And Services Partnership Map). The partnership
provides software and services firms with access to topline data for enterprise energy
management, and access to detailed data aimed for industrial intelligence solutions (see
Verdantix Market Overview: Industrial Energy Management). Using partners for data
capture and aggregation is attractive to software and business analytics firms as this is
not where their core area of expertise lies; they would have to invest in R&D to develop
these skills in house.
 Data is the foundation of all analytics. Verdantix recommends that software and
business analytics firms invest in robust data capture methods, to ensure that customers
that use their applications make business decisions based on accurate data. Not only
does Urjanet’s solution decrease the risk of errors by capturing data directly, rather than
manually or by OCR processing, it also performs over 150 quality audits before
delivering data to customers. In 2010, US utility CenterPoint Energy overcharged 3,500
customers. The reason? The utility citied 5,200 inaccurate readings, caused by a
communication error in the software it uses for retrieving data from smart meters. When
Verdantix asked 250 energy leaders “How important is it for your firm to improve the
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following energy management processes in the next 12 months?” 88% responded that
improving energy data collection and reporting was either very important or important
(see Verdantix Energy Leaders Survey 2012: Data Tables).
 Data suppliers are enablers rather than competitors. Suppliers of data services such as
Urjanet intend to sell to software and services firms rather than compete with them. By
addressing the pain points around data capture and aggregation, data services firms
increase the volume and quality of data for customers and partners. Firms such as
OSIsoft are opening up the market by removing a significant barrier to entry – data
capture and aggregation – for smaller firms trying to offer energy management
solutions. By avoiding direct competition with suppliers of software and services
Urjanet’s vision is to become the go-to firm for utility bill and consumption data.
Building a broad partnership ecosystem will allow Urjanet to increase its market share
while benefiting from additional revenue streams through reseller agreements.
VERDANTIX — URJANET UNRAVELS UTILITY BILLING WITH BIG ENERGY DATA SERVICE
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