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May 2015, IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X
BEST PRACTICES
E.ON UK Rebuilds Trust with Customer Engagement and
Digital Transformation
Roberta Bigliani
IDC ENERGY INSIGHTS OPINION
Customer trust and satisfaction are the pillars of success for any utility. These pillars are even
more important in competitive energy markets where energy retailers compete to retain and
acquire customers and to possibly generate new revenues streams.
E.ON UK is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies, generating electricity and retailing
power and gas to about five million residential and business customers. In 2012, the company
radically changed its strategy and market approach, and began a customer journey to "reset" its
relationship with customers and digitally transform the customer experience, aimed at improving
trust and satisfaction, reducing churn and ultimately enhancing the company's performance. Key
elements included:
 A new company strategy that focuses on becoming customers' trusted energy partner was
formulated and agreed upon.
 A customer transformation program was created to focus on a series of key "customer
moments." The key moments are supported by new and simplified customer-centric
processes and new digital tools, such as the "Saving Energy Toolkit".
 E.ON UK's Saving Energy Toolkit was delivered to residential customers. The online tool,
built on Opower's platform and software as a service solutions, leverages Big Data
analytics and behavioral science to enable E.ON UK to provide personalized advice and
products to help customers control their energy use and reduce their energy bill.
 So far, above-plan benefits have been achieved. E.ON UK's Net Promoter Score (NPS)
has improved, and the company is leading among the larger suppliers. Also, brand metrics
demonstrate consistent improvements, while overall the number of customers who choose
to manage their energy online has doubled. Additionally, customers started saving energy.
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 2
IN THIS STUDY
To successfully compete in a very dynamic energy market and reestablish customer trust, E.ON
UK has profoundly redefined its strategy, services and marketing approach to focus on customer
experience and digital transformation. This report highlights the pillars of this transformation, and
describes the successful implementation of the company's "Saving Energy Toolkit'"(SET) with
Opower, as well as the approach it took, the business value delivered, and the lessons learned.
IDC Energy Insights Case Study Series
IDC Energy Insights' case studies series provide utilities with fact-based, comparable, consistent,
and independent views on interesting projects implemented across geographies. The focus is on
IT and operational technology solutions or, more broadly, energy technology initiatives that
contribute to innovation and sustainability. Collaborating with utility companies and vendor
personnel directly involved in the projects, IDC Energy Insights analysts gather all relevant
information and analyze the approaches taken and the solutions' success in meeting their stated
goals. Case studies are assessed against four criteria that IDC Energy Insights believes are critical
to generate additional value: contribution to operational effectiveness, degree of technological
innovation, transformational impact on the company's businesses, and, more broadly, the utilities
industry value chain.
Why This Case Study?
This case study was selected as a best practice example of how a utility can transform its existing
relationship with customers to improve their satisfaction and their trust in the company. This case
study describes the experience of a large energy retailer, which operates in a competitive energy
market — the UK — but is equally relevant for utilities that operate in regulated and vertically
integrated markets.
This case study demonstrates how E.ON UK effectively changed its customer strategy and, by
taking advantage of digital technologies, redesigned its entire customer experience. Overall, the
report provides concrete examples of actions to consider for all utilities that embark in a
transformation journey. Additionally, it proves how to effectively scale up consumer engagement
pilots to make them part of marketing activities and part of real customer-centric operations.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
The Competitive Energy Market in the UK
The UK energy market (both electricity and gas) is unbundled and competitive in every segment of
the value chain except transmission and distribution, which are regulated businesses. Consumer
protection and economic regulation of the market is carried out by the Office of Gas and Electricity
Markets (Ofgem). The country was a European pioneer in the liberalization of national service
monopolies, a process that had its genesis during the 1980s. For the electricity industry,
liberalization had its first major milestone with the Electricity Act 1989, which privatized electricity
supply in Great Britain, and culminated in 1998 with the introduction of competition in the supply of
electricity to the domestic market. Later, the Energy Act 2008 mandated the rollout of smart meters
for both electricity and gas supply as a responsibility of energy suppliers (and not of distribution
companies as was mandated in the majority of continental European countries). This process,
which is currently scheduled to start in 2016, involves the installation of 53 million smart meters in
over 30 million properties at an estimated investment of about $17 billion (£10.9 billion).
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 3
Over the past 15 years, energy supply coalesced into 6 large suppliers– British Gas, EDF Energy,
E.ON, npower, Scottish Power, and SSE), in addition to a number of smaller suppliers, such as
First Utility, Flow Energy, Ovo Energy, and Good Energy. To varying degrees, the larger suppliers
are part of international vertically-integrated groups that own electricity generation and supply
businesses.
Company Overview
E.ON UK is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies, generating electricity and retailing
power and gas. Selling electricity and gas to about five million residential and business customers,
E.ON UK is the country's third-largest domestic gas and electricity supplier (based on market share
data published by Ofgem in 2014).
E.ON UK is part of the German E.ON Group, a major investor-owned energy supplier with facilities
across Europe, Russia, North America, and with partnering operations in Brazil and Turkey.
E.ON's diversified business consists of renewables, conventional and decentralized power
generation, natural gas, energy trading, retail and distribution. The group supplies around 35
million customers, and owns about 61 GW of generation capacity.
Business Needs
The utility industry is going through a period of profound transformation. Traditional
utility business models no longer work effectively it can be argued. In the electricity
business, for instance, profitability which traditionally originated in power generation is
now dramatically shrinking, and value creation has moved away from generation
toward the downstream segments. In this evolving context, the E.ON Group radically
changed its traditional generation-centric approach to become "the partner of choice for
energy solutions." The customer is now at the heart of the Group's vision. Consistently,
E.ON UK's strategy is to become its customers' trusted energy partner by helping them
"pay no more" and "use no more" than what they need.
Management Challenges
The UK market is not only a competitive and heavily regulated energy market, but can
also be an unsympathetic environment for utilities to operate in. Over the last several
years, the media and consumers associations have routinely confronted the larger
suppliers. In its "State of the Market Assessment" issued in March 2014, Ofgem reported that
"levels of customer confidence and trust are not what we would expect to see in an industry that is
successful in meeting its customers' needs and expectations." Only about 52% of customers said
they were satisfied with their supplier. Additionally, customer complaints have increased by more
than 50% since the beginning of 2011. Ofgem's analysis showed that in 2013, 43% of customers
did not trust energy suppliers to be open and transparent in their dealings with them. Ofgem's
report also highlighted that customers are reluctant to engage in the market, and require large
savings to consider switching worthwhile.
In this complex scenario, in 2012 E.ON UK decided to radically change its strategy and approach
to the market. The company began a journey to "reset" its relationships with customers, and to
digitally transform the customer experience, aimed at improving trust and satisfaction, reducing
churn and ultimately enhancing company performance.
A new straightforward strategy — to become the trusted energy partner for customers — was
formulated and agreed upon. This enabled the company to focus on a number of key goals,
including achieving market-leading customer satisfaction and helping customers control their
energy use.
E.ON UK's
strategy is to
become its
customers'
trusted energy
partner, by
helping them
"pay no more"
and "use no
more" than they
need.
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 4
THE BEST PRACTICES
Program Background and Objectives
E.ON UK's customer journey began by listening to customers and to the ideas of internal
employees. The company found, and continues to find, new ways to listen and involve employees,
customers, and stakeholders.
E.ON became the first UK energy supplier to create an Independent Customer Council, made up of
business leaders, stakeholders, and customer advocates to report to every month. The council
convened for the first time in early 2012 to explore whether E.ON UK properly understood its
customers' concerns and made adjustments accordingly. In response to the council's feedback, for
instance, in 2013 E.ON UK reduced its utility bills from six sheets to one sheet, which made it more
legible and environmentally-friendly. Most importantly, the council challenged E.ON UK's top
management to really transform into a customer-centric company by looking at internal processes
with an outside-in perspective.
Since the "Reset" process began, E.ON has continued to listen to the views of its customers and
employees: about 1,300 internal people are involved with the "MySay" colleague research panel;
sessions involving residential, SME, and corporate customers are held to enable extensive
customer dialog; and the "YourSay" online forum is now established with 28,000 customers
expressing their opinions and making suggestions.
As part of the customer transformation program, and ahead of the Retail Market Review which
made a reduction in tariffs mandatory, E.ON's tariff options were simplified and reduced, making
choosing the best deal easier for customers. More recently, smart meters started to be rolled out.
The company now has more than 440,000 smart meters deployed in the field.
With a strategic goal to encourage more customers to manage their energy accounts online, since
2013 digital transformation became a core component of E.ON UK's customer operations
redesign. Digital "evangelists" were brought on board to disseminate digital capabilities. Initial
improvements included basics such as improving the corporate website. Over the past three years,
the digital team has grown significantly from 8 to 50 people, equipping E.ON UK with a mix of
digital native experts, marketeers, project managers, deliverers, strategists, planners, and analysts
to deliver a series of services and tools designed to make life easier for customers, including the
Saving Energy Toolkit in collaboration with Opower, a Direct Debit Manager tool, a Prepayment
Store Locator tool, and helpful video content. The team also manages mobile optimization and app
development and social media.
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 5
FIGURE 1
E.ON UK's Digital Transformation
Source: E.ON UK, 2015
Solution Description: The Saving Energy Toolkit
Customer engagement is essential for any utility. It creates intimacy and trust, and opens the door
to sell more. The Saving Energy Toolkit has played a fundamental role in E.ON UK's customer
engagement transformation and is delivered to residential customers.
The online tool is built on Opower's platform and software-as-a-
service solutions, which use Big Data and analytics, and behavioral
science to enable E.ON UK to provide personalized advice and
products to help customers control their energy use and help reduce
their energy bill. The following are the core features of the Saving
Energy Toolkit:
 Energy consumption tracking
 Social benchmarking
 What uses most
 Energy saving tips
 Energy saving plan/goals
The Saving Energy Toolkit enables customers to monitor their energy
usage and costs to find out how much energy nearby households in
similar homes use. Each household's energy use is compared
anonymously to around 100 homes of similar size so they can
compare their consumption to average peer households. The
comparison feature encourages positive behavior changes and
nudges users to adopt recommended tailored energy-saving tips. The Saving Energy Toolkit helps
"Engagement is about us
helping and motivating our
customers to make
informed decisions
regarding their personal
energy use, allowing them
to choose what is
important to them —
comfort, cost,
convenience, control —
and making it easy for
them to do so."
Anthony Ainsworth, E.ON UK
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 6
customers understand how they use energy and when they use it the most. It provides easy to
read charts that detail how energy use changes on a month-by-month basis and how energy is
currently used in the home, divided between heating, lighting, hot water, appliances, and other
uses. Participants can use social media like Facebook and Twitter to share their energy-saving
successes with others.
Since it was launched in October 2013, one million E.ON UK residential customers have visited the
Saving Energy Toolkit.
FIGURE 2
Saving Energy Toolkit Screen Shots
Source: EON UK, 2015
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 7
Selecting the Solution
For its customer transformation program, E.ON UK looked for customer-led technology innovation,
assisted by the E.ON Group's Strategic Co-investments Team, which brings a combination of
commercial collaboration with VC investment designed to bring more value to E.ON and its
partners.
Opower was selected since it matched the purpose well, thanks to its strong integration of
behavioral and data science.
Implementing the Solution
The Saving Energy Toolkit was launched in October 2013 and was smoothly delivered thanks to
tight collaboration between E.ON UK and Opower.
The launch was complemented by a strong integrated communications campaign, leveraging all
types of channels including social media, TV and cinema advertising, email, direct mail, and other
direct customer communication, digital displays and PR. Internal communication to colleagues was
also key for the launch. This campaign made it possible to have an immediate reaction from
customers and to reiterate momentum over time.
Business Value
The customer transformation program created a series of key customer moments and supports
them with new and simplified customer-centric processes and new digital tools, such as the Saving
Energy Toolkit. The overall benefits derived from the Saving Energy Toolkit have surpassed those
originally anticipated.
One of the key performance indicators for customer satisfaction and loyalty monitored by E.ON UK
is the net promoter score (NPS). It measures customers' willingness to recommend the company to
their friends. E.ON UK's NPS has improved and it now leads among the major energy suppliers.
Also, brand metrics and churn demonstrate consistent improvement by E.ON UK.
On the customer side, E.ON UK collected signs of consumption reduction from engaged customers
that use the Saving Energy Toolkit, with average savings of around 1.4%
The entire digital transformation program was very successful, and in 2014, showed the following
statistics:
 Almost 30 million unique visitors to E.ON's website in 2014, double that of the previous
year
 Over 10 million visits were via mobile devices
 Over 1 million visits to the iFAQ help pages
 Double the number of customers managing their accounts online
 A significant increase in online product switches
 Over 30,000 customers helped via social media
 Over 1 million customers signed up for E.ON Rewards
Helping customers understand and control their own energy use is core in E.ON UK's strategy and
this will continue to be important as the rollout of smart meters progresses.
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 8
Lessons Learned
The introduction of a new strategy to become its customers' trusted energy partner enabled E.ON
to embed an internal cultural change and put the customer experience at the center of the
company's ways of working. Additionally, it enabled better alignment and accountability among
different E.ON teams, including the marketing and sales teams.
The introduction of the Saving Energy Toolkit drove significant improvement in customer care
metrics and helped encourage customers to use E.ON UK's digital channels.
Top management commitment and business people engagement were critical factors for success.
The program execution focused on the customer experience, with the digital strategy layer
supporting it. The digital team engaged the business during the transformation program. The team
executed several training sessions, road shows and engagement workshops, which were critical to
create company participation and achieve results.
E.ON UK's digital maturity increased throughout the program and digital
transformation is now a strategic priority.
E.ON UK understood the importance of two-way conversational customer
engagement via digital channels to improve the personalization, effectiveness and
value of the next communication/action. Digital cannot only be seen by utilities as a
website and outbound communications. It is not a push approach but a pull one. It is
not only data provisioning but data capture and reciprocity: "give us more information
about you and we can provide more value."
Overall, "Digital First" is E.ON UK's new strategic marketing approach.
Along the transformation journey, E.ON UK learned that the customer owns and
drives the conversation now more than ever before. Based on this, the company is
evolving the way it interacts with customers, to adopt an "Always On" model for
customer engagement (Figure 3).
"Digital is changing
the way we talk
with our
customers, it is
not a technology
or architectural
change"
Anthony Ainsworth,
E.ON UK
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 9
FIGURE 3
E.ON UK "Always On" Model for Customer Engagement
Source: E.ON UK, 2015
The transformational program was heavily scrutinized for its budget as is consistent across all of
E.ON UK's operations. In an industry in which compliance to constant regulatory changes can
absorb large amounts of operational units and IT budgets, it is extremely important to set priorities
and execute accordingly.
Finally, E.ON UK learned an important lesson about scale. To really make a change, execution
needs to impact the entire customer base, evolving from pilots to full-scale implementations. E.ON
UK has taken consumer engagement beyond its "pilot phase," making it the "new normal" business
practice.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
Next Steps
Customer trust and engagement are the basis to attract and retain customers, and to support them
beyond the pure commodity business. With its transformation program, E.ON UK has helped
customers to better understand their energy consumption, to know what consumes most energy
and how much it costs. The next step for E.ON UK is to make it easy for customers to buy smart
products that will help them save energy.
Additionally, there are enhancements planned for the Saving Energy Toolkit, including improved
information dashboards and mobile optimization. The positive collaboration with Opower is set to
continue.
ESSENTIAL GUIDANCE
Project Impact Assessment
IDC Energy Insights believes the E.ON UK customer journey has very effectively transformed the
company's culture, and its approach to residential customers, driving cost to serve reduction,
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 10
operational effectiveness and measurably improving customer trust. The ongoing digital
transformation deployed new capabilities and has evolved from a matter for the small initial core
team, to a much larger group made up of digital experts, marketeers, project managers, deliverers,
strategists, planners, and analysts. The collaboration with Opower quickly enabled E.ON UK to
scale up the Saving Energy Toolkit to deploy it to its entire residential customer base. All the above
makes for an excellent program, and a very relevant reference for other utilities that operate in both
competitive and non-competitive energy markets. Figure 4 presents a summary of IDC Energy
Insights' project impact assessment evaluation.
FIGURE 4
E.ON UK's Customer and Digital Transformation: Project Impact Assessment
Source: IDC Energy Insights, 2015
Operational Effectiveness
Technological Innovation
Business Transformation
Industry Transformation
Low High
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 11
Actions to Consider
Engaging customers, improving their trust and satisfaction is more easily said
than done, especially in the utilities industry. The truth is that many residential
customers find energy and water commodities a boring topic and dedicate a
very limited amount of time to them. Therefore, it is vital for utilities to make
the most of customers' attention by providing them with an effortless
experience and by delivering value. This is even more important in competitive
electricity and gas markets, where residential customers can freely choose
and switch their supplier, and are encouraged to compare offers. Nonetheless,
trust is the pillar on which utilities can build opportunities for the additional
revenue streams they are looking for in the new energy scenario in which they
operate.
In more detail, utilities that are undergoing customer transformation journeys
should consider the following:
 Lead an "outside in" business environment. Bring inside the customer voice and put
yourselves in your customers' shoes. Think as a customer, and listen to their voice in any
way possible. To act accordingly, anticipate their needs and make things easier for them.
Try to be "genuinely helpful."
 Give scale to your initiatives. Stop executing isolated pilots. Test if needed, but then
quickly scale up to create synergies and impact the customer base. This is the only way to
really release the full benefits of customer engagement initiatives and most importantly
trigger your company customer transformation journey. And from a technical perspective,
consider cloud options as a way to easily scale up your customer experience initiatives.
 Assess your company's customer experience maturity. Assess your organization's current
culture regarding customer management. To what degree has management taken an
active or leadership role in formulating, communicating, and implementing the customer
experience vision? Is management giving customer experience the time commitment
required to play out? Focus on the big picture of what it is you want to achieve. Look at the
existing processes and systems in place for customer operations, from either an inbound
or an outbound perspective. Are these connected, consistent, and comprehensive?
 Show top management commitment and engage employees. Customer experience
strategies and the infrastructure required to execute them take time to be put in place.
Assign a C-level executive, and ensure that the leaders of the initiative are given the
authority to enact change and garner support. Ensure all employees are engaged in their
own career paths and are proactive advocates for the organization.
 Measure success. Metrics and analytics need to be in place. Develop required customer
experience-related KPIs, in conjunction with business performance metrics, and review
correlations.
 Select the right partners. Bring partners and suppliers into the broader "experiences"
strategy. Review and evaluate current suppliers and partners for their ability to operate to
satisfy the customer experience initiative and their ability to represent the corporate
mission.
LEARN MORE
References
 Interview with:
 Anthony Ainsworth, B2B and Marketing director, E.ON UK
Digital engagement is
not a website and
outbound
communication. It is a
pull not a push
approach. It is not only
data provisioning but
data capture and
reciprocity.
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 12
 Company website:
 www.eon-uk.com
 www.eon.com
 https://www.eonenergy.com/for-your-home/help-and-support/saving-energy-toolkit
 Ofgem: State of the Market Assessment, March 27, 2014
Related Research
To learn more about customer engagement in Utilities industry please refer to the following IDC
Energy Insights documents:
 Marketing Effectiveness Improvements in the Spotlight for Energy Suppliers (IDC Energy
Insights #EISC01X, March 2015)
 Utilities Smart Customer Operations Quarterly Update: October-December 2014(IDC
Energy Insights #EISC51X, February 2015)
 IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Utilities 2015 Predictions (IDC Energy Insights #EISC04W,
December 2014)
 Utilities IT Investment Priorities for Solutions: Results from the Western European Utilities
2014 Survey (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS10W, January 2015)
 Business Strategy: Shedding Light on Social Media Practices in Utility Customer
Operations (IDC Energy Insights #EISC03W, November 2014)
 Business Strategy: A Unified Customer Experience Through Customer-Preferred
Channels is Key for Utility Retailers' Success (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS07W, August
2014)
 Gamifying the Enterprise (IDC Energy Insights #EISC02W, July 2014)
 Smart Customer Management: The First Utility Way (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS03W, May
2014)
 Utilities Scaling Up Growth and Innovation in Their IT Budgets for Successful Customer
Operations (IDC Energy Insights #EISC01W, April 2014)
 Business Strategy: The Role of Gamification in Utilities' Consumer Engagement (IDC
#EIRS04V, January 2014)
 Residential Customer Engagement: An Opportunity or a Threat for Utilities? (IDC Energy
Insights #EIRS02V, April 2013)
To learn more about case studies discussing best practices in utilities, please refer to the following
IDC Energy Insights documents:
 Beating Unaccounted for Energy with Big Data and Analytics: Baltimore Gas and Electric's
Line of Attack (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS02X, February 2015)
 Northumbrian Water Transforming Field Service with Mobile Workforce Management (IDC
Energy Insights #EIOS01X, February 2015)
 Reinventing GIS for the Modern Utility: The United Utilities Enterprise GIS Solution (IDC
Energy Insights #EIOS08W, September 2014)
 Think Big, Start Small, and Scale Fast: GDF SUEZ Energia Italia's Cloud CRM Platform
Based on salesforce.com, Delivered by WebResults (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS02W,
March 2014)
 Thames Water's AORTA: Wipro Enables Real Time Insights for Thames Water's Asset
Operations (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS03V, September 2013)
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 13
 Anglian Water Moves Closer to a Smart Water Network With a Leakage and Pressure
Management Solution (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS03V, June 2013)
 ScottishPower Trials Long-Range Radio for Smart Metering Communications (IDC Energy
Insights #EIRS53V, April, 2013)
 Low Carbon London, Promoting Innovation in the Distribution Network (IDC Energy
Insights #EIRS04U, December 2012)
 Best Practices: Spotlight on Mobile Applications — Mekorot, Israel's National Water
Company (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS57U, September 2012)
 Deep Dive into Smartcity Málaga Ranked #1 in IDC Smart Cities Index for Spain (IDC
Energy Insights #EIRS03U, May 2012)
 Best Practices in Building Energy Management: Høje-Taastrup and Middelfart
Municipalities Partner with Schneider Electric to Improve Buildings Performances (IDC
Energy Insights #EIRS01U, January 2012)
 Best Practices: Portugal's Way of Driving Electric Mobility — The MOBI.E Project (IDC
Energy Insights #EIRS03T, October 2011)
 Best Practices: Thames Water Adopts BPMS Solution to Streamline Its Customer
Services, With Wipro as Systems Integrator (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS05T, August
2011)
 Best Practices: Veolia Water Transforming Metering — The m2ocity Innovative Business
Model and Oracle Utilities MDM Deployed by Power Reply (IDC Energy Insights
#EIOS04T, May 2011)
 Data Privacy and Security for Smart Metering: Alliander Certification Case Study (IDC
Energy Insights #EIOS52T, March 2011)
 Best Practices: GasTerra Flexes up Its IT Application Portfolio by Choosing Oracle Utilities
Solutions (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS03S, May 2010)
 Best Practices: Mobile Work Force Management Solution, Enel Style (IDC Energy Insights
#EIOS02S, February 2010)
 Best Practices: Palm Utilities Deploys Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing
Solution (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS08R9, October 2009)
 Best Practices: Pioneering Smarter Metering in Gas — The Gas Natural AMM Project Case
Study (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS06R9, September 2009)
 Best Practices: Enabling Electric Vehicles in Denmark — The EDISON Consortium
Project (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS02R9, September 2009)
 Iberdrola's Control Center for Renewable Energy (CORE): A Model for Grid Integration of
Renewable Energy (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS54Q, June 2008)
 Utility Remote Wind Power Management: EdP Bets on Logica's IT Solution (IDC Energy
Insights #EIRS53Q, April 2008)
Synopsis
E.ON UK is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies, generating electricity and retailing
power and gas. It sells electricity and gas to about five million residential and business customers,
and is the country's third largest domestic gas and electricity supplier.
To successfully compete in the UK's very dynamic energy market and rebuild its customers' trust,
E.ON UK profoundly redefined its strategy and its marketing, sales, and service approach to focus
on the customer experience and digital transformation. This report highlights the pillars of this
transformation and describes the company's successful implementation of the "Saving Energy
Toolkit" as well as how E.ON UK teamed up with Opower, the approach it took, the business value
derived, and the lessons learned.
©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 14
"Customer engagement is essential for any utility. It creates intimacy and trust and opens the door
to sell more. E.ON UK's Saving Energy Toolkit was a fundamental component of the company's
customer engagement transformation," said Roberta Bigliani, associate vice president and head of
Europe, Middle East & Africa, IDC Energy Insights. "The benefits derived from the deployment of
the Saving Energy Toolkit to all of E.ON UK's customer base even surpassed those originally
planned."
About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory
services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology
markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make
fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC
analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and
trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help
our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading
technology media, research, and events company.
Global Headquarters
5 Speen Street
Framingham, MA 01701
USA
508.935.4400
Twitter: @IDC
idc-insights-community.com
www.idc.com
Copyright Notice
Copyright 2015 IDC Energy Insights. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.
External Publication of IDC Energy Insights Information and Data: Any IDC Energy Insights information that is
to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the
appropriate IDC Energy Insights Vice President. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any
such request. IDC Energy Insights reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason.

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IDC_EON_Case_Study

  • 1. May 2015, IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X BEST PRACTICES E.ON UK Rebuilds Trust with Customer Engagement and Digital Transformation Roberta Bigliani IDC ENERGY INSIGHTS OPINION Customer trust and satisfaction are the pillars of success for any utility. These pillars are even more important in competitive energy markets where energy retailers compete to retain and acquire customers and to possibly generate new revenues streams. E.ON UK is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies, generating electricity and retailing power and gas to about five million residential and business customers. In 2012, the company radically changed its strategy and market approach, and began a customer journey to "reset" its relationship with customers and digitally transform the customer experience, aimed at improving trust and satisfaction, reducing churn and ultimately enhancing the company's performance. Key elements included:  A new company strategy that focuses on becoming customers' trusted energy partner was formulated and agreed upon.  A customer transformation program was created to focus on a series of key "customer moments." The key moments are supported by new and simplified customer-centric processes and new digital tools, such as the "Saving Energy Toolkit".  E.ON UK's Saving Energy Toolkit was delivered to residential customers. The online tool, built on Opower's platform and software as a service solutions, leverages Big Data analytics and behavioral science to enable E.ON UK to provide personalized advice and products to help customers control their energy use and reduce their energy bill.  So far, above-plan benefits have been achieved. E.ON UK's Net Promoter Score (NPS) has improved, and the company is leading among the larger suppliers. Also, brand metrics demonstrate consistent improvements, while overall the number of customers who choose to manage their energy online has doubled. Additionally, customers started saving energy.
  • 2. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 2 IN THIS STUDY To successfully compete in a very dynamic energy market and reestablish customer trust, E.ON UK has profoundly redefined its strategy, services and marketing approach to focus on customer experience and digital transformation. This report highlights the pillars of this transformation, and describes the successful implementation of the company's "Saving Energy Toolkit'"(SET) with Opower, as well as the approach it took, the business value delivered, and the lessons learned. IDC Energy Insights Case Study Series IDC Energy Insights' case studies series provide utilities with fact-based, comparable, consistent, and independent views on interesting projects implemented across geographies. The focus is on IT and operational technology solutions or, more broadly, energy technology initiatives that contribute to innovation and sustainability. Collaborating with utility companies and vendor personnel directly involved in the projects, IDC Energy Insights analysts gather all relevant information and analyze the approaches taken and the solutions' success in meeting their stated goals. Case studies are assessed against four criteria that IDC Energy Insights believes are critical to generate additional value: contribution to operational effectiveness, degree of technological innovation, transformational impact on the company's businesses, and, more broadly, the utilities industry value chain. Why This Case Study? This case study was selected as a best practice example of how a utility can transform its existing relationship with customers to improve their satisfaction and their trust in the company. This case study describes the experience of a large energy retailer, which operates in a competitive energy market — the UK — but is equally relevant for utilities that operate in regulated and vertically integrated markets. This case study demonstrates how E.ON UK effectively changed its customer strategy and, by taking advantage of digital technologies, redesigned its entire customer experience. Overall, the report provides concrete examples of actions to consider for all utilities that embark in a transformation journey. Additionally, it proves how to effectively scale up consumer engagement pilots to make them part of marketing activities and part of real customer-centric operations. SITUATION OVERVIEW The Competitive Energy Market in the UK The UK energy market (both electricity and gas) is unbundled and competitive in every segment of the value chain except transmission and distribution, which are regulated businesses. Consumer protection and economic regulation of the market is carried out by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). The country was a European pioneer in the liberalization of national service monopolies, a process that had its genesis during the 1980s. For the electricity industry, liberalization had its first major milestone with the Electricity Act 1989, which privatized electricity supply in Great Britain, and culminated in 1998 with the introduction of competition in the supply of electricity to the domestic market. Later, the Energy Act 2008 mandated the rollout of smart meters for both electricity and gas supply as a responsibility of energy suppliers (and not of distribution companies as was mandated in the majority of continental European countries). This process, which is currently scheduled to start in 2016, involves the installation of 53 million smart meters in over 30 million properties at an estimated investment of about $17 billion (£10.9 billion).
  • 3. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 3 Over the past 15 years, energy supply coalesced into 6 large suppliers– British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, npower, Scottish Power, and SSE), in addition to a number of smaller suppliers, such as First Utility, Flow Energy, Ovo Energy, and Good Energy. To varying degrees, the larger suppliers are part of international vertically-integrated groups that own electricity generation and supply businesses. Company Overview E.ON UK is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies, generating electricity and retailing power and gas. Selling electricity and gas to about five million residential and business customers, E.ON UK is the country's third-largest domestic gas and electricity supplier (based on market share data published by Ofgem in 2014). E.ON UK is part of the German E.ON Group, a major investor-owned energy supplier with facilities across Europe, Russia, North America, and with partnering operations in Brazil and Turkey. E.ON's diversified business consists of renewables, conventional and decentralized power generation, natural gas, energy trading, retail and distribution. The group supplies around 35 million customers, and owns about 61 GW of generation capacity. Business Needs The utility industry is going through a period of profound transformation. Traditional utility business models no longer work effectively it can be argued. In the electricity business, for instance, profitability which traditionally originated in power generation is now dramatically shrinking, and value creation has moved away from generation toward the downstream segments. In this evolving context, the E.ON Group radically changed its traditional generation-centric approach to become "the partner of choice for energy solutions." The customer is now at the heart of the Group's vision. Consistently, E.ON UK's strategy is to become its customers' trusted energy partner by helping them "pay no more" and "use no more" than what they need. Management Challenges The UK market is not only a competitive and heavily regulated energy market, but can also be an unsympathetic environment for utilities to operate in. Over the last several years, the media and consumers associations have routinely confronted the larger suppliers. In its "State of the Market Assessment" issued in March 2014, Ofgem reported that "levels of customer confidence and trust are not what we would expect to see in an industry that is successful in meeting its customers' needs and expectations." Only about 52% of customers said they were satisfied with their supplier. Additionally, customer complaints have increased by more than 50% since the beginning of 2011. Ofgem's analysis showed that in 2013, 43% of customers did not trust energy suppliers to be open and transparent in their dealings with them. Ofgem's report also highlighted that customers are reluctant to engage in the market, and require large savings to consider switching worthwhile. In this complex scenario, in 2012 E.ON UK decided to radically change its strategy and approach to the market. The company began a journey to "reset" its relationships with customers, and to digitally transform the customer experience, aimed at improving trust and satisfaction, reducing churn and ultimately enhancing company performance. A new straightforward strategy — to become the trusted energy partner for customers — was formulated and agreed upon. This enabled the company to focus on a number of key goals, including achieving market-leading customer satisfaction and helping customers control their energy use. E.ON UK's strategy is to become its customers' trusted energy partner, by helping them "pay no more" and "use no more" than they need.
  • 4. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 4 THE BEST PRACTICES Program Background and Objectives E.ON UK's customer journey began by listening to customers and to the ideas of internal employees. The company found, and continues to find, new ways to listen and involve employees, customers, and stakeholders. E.ON became the first UK energy supplier to create an Independent Customer Council, made up of business leaders, stakeholders, and customer advocates to report to every month. The council convened for the first time in early 2012 to explore whether E.ON UK properly understood its customers' concerns and made adjustments accordingly. In response to the council's feedback, for instance, in 2013 E.ON UK reduced its utility bills from six sheets to one sheet, which made it more legible and environmentally-friendly. Most importantly, the council challenged E.ON UK's top management to really transform into a customer-centric company by looking at internal processes with an outside-in perspective. Since the "Reset" process began, E.ON has continued to listen to the views of its customers and employees: about 1,300 internal people are involved with the "MySay" colleague research panel; sessions involving residential, SME, and corporate customers are held to enable extensive customer dialog; and the "YourSay" online forum is now established with 28,000 customers expressing their opinions and making suggestions. As part of the customer transformation program, and ahead of the Retail Market Review which made a reduction in tariffs mandatory, E.ON's tariff options were simplified and reduced, making choosing the best deal easier for customers. More recently, smart meters started to be rolled out. The company now has more than 440,000 smart meters deployed in the field. With a strategic goal to encourage more customers to manage their energy accounts online, since 2013 digital transformation became a core component of E.ON UK's customer operations redesign. Digital "evangelists" were brought on board to disseminate digital capabilities. Initial improvements included basics such as improving the corporate website. Over the past three years, the digital team has grown significantly from 8 to 50 people, equipping E.ON UK with a mix of digital native experts, marketeers, project managers, deliverers, strategists, planners, and analysts to deliver a series of services and tools designed to make life easier for customers, including the Saving Energy Toolkit in collaboration with Opower, a Direct Debit Manager tool, a Prepayment Store Locator tool, and helpful video content. The team also manages mobile optimization and app development and social media.
  • 5. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 5 FIGURE 1 E.ON UK's Digital Transformation Source: E.ON UK, 2015 Solution Description: The Saving Energy Toolkit Customer engagement is essential for any utility. It creates intimacy and trust, and opens the door to sell more. The Saving Energy Toolkit has played a fundamental role in E.ON UK's customer engagement transformation and is delivered to residential customers. The online tool is built on Opower's platform and software-as-a- service solutions, which use Big Data and analytics, and behavioral science to enable E.ON UK to provide personalized advice and products to help customers control their energy use and help reduce their energy bill. The following are the core features of the Saving Energy Toolkit:  Energy consumption tracking  Social benchmarking  What uses most  Energy saving tips  Energy saving plan/goals The Saving Energy Toolkit enables customers to monitor their energy usage and costs to find out how much energy nearby households in similar homes use. Each household's energy use is compared anonymously to around 100 homes of similar size so they can compare their consumption to average peer households. The comparison feature encourages positive behavior changes and nudges users to adopt recommended tailored energy-saving tips. The Saving Energy Toolkit helps "Engagement is about us helping and motivating our customers to make informed decisions regarding their personal energy use, allowing them to choose what is important to them — comfort, cost, convenience, control — and making it easy for them to do so." Anthony Ainsworth, E.ON UK
  • 6. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 6 customers understand how they use energy and when they use it the most. It provides easy to read charts that detail how energy use changes on a month-by-month basis and how energy is currently used in the home, divided between heating, lighting, hot water, appliances, and other uses. Participants can use social media like Facebook and Twitter to share their energy-saving successes with others. Since it was launched in October 2013, one million E.ON UK residential customers have visited the Saving Energy Toolkit. FIGURE 2 Saving Energy Toolkit Screen Shots Source: EON UK, 2015
  • 7. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 7 Selecting the Solution For its customer transformation program, E.ON UK looked for customer-led technology innovation, assisted by the E.ON Group's Strategic Co-investments Team, which brings a combination of commercial collaboration with VC investment designed to bring more value to E.ON and its partners. Opower was selected since it matched the purpose well, thanks to its strong integration of behavioral and data science. Implementing the Solution The Saving Energy Toolkit was launched in October 2013 and was smoothly delivered thanks to tight collaboration between E.ON UK and Opower. The launch was complemented by a strong integrated communications campaign, leveraging all types of channels including social media, TV and cinema advertising, email, direct mail, and other direct customer communication, digital displays and PR. Internal communication to colleagues was also key for the launch. This campaign made it possible to have an immediate reaction from customers and to reiterate momentum over time. Business Value The customer transformation program created a series of key customer moments and supports them with new and simplified customer-centric processes and new digital tools, such as the Saving Energy Toolkit. The overall benefits derived from the Saving Energy Toolkit have surpassed those originally anticipated. One of the key performance indicators for customer satisfaction and loyalty monitored by E.ON UK is the net promoter score (NPS). It measures customers' willingness to recommend the company to their friends. E.ON UK's NPS has improved and it now leads among the major energy suppliers. Also, brand metrics and churn demonstrate consistent improvement by E.ON UK. On the customer side, E.ON UK collected signs of consumption reduction from engaged customers that use the Saving Energy Toolkit, with average savings of around 1.4% The entire digital transformation program was very successful, and in 2014, showed the following statistics:  Almost 30 million unique visitors to E.ON's website in 2014, double that of the previous year  Over 10 million visits were via mobile devices  Over 1 million visits to the iFAQ help pages  Double the number of customers managing their accounts online  A significant increase in online product switches  Over 30,000 customers helped via social media  Over 1 million customers signed up for E.ON Rewards Helping customers understand and control their own energy use is core in E.ON UK's strategy and this will continue to be important as the rollout of smart meters progresses.
  • 8. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 8 Lessons Learned The introduction of a new strategy to become its customers' trusted energy partner enabled E.ON to embed an internal cultural change and put the customer experience at the center of the company's ways of working. Additionally, it enabled better alignment and accountability among different E.ON teams, including the marketing and sales teams. The introduction of the Saving Energy Toolkit drove significant improvement in customer care metrics and helped encourage customers to use E.ON UK's digital channels. Top management commitment and business people engagement were critical factors for success. The program execution focused on the customer experience, with the digital strategy layer supporting it. The digital team engaged the business during the transformation program. The team executed several training sessions, road shows and engagement workshops, which were critical to create company participation and achieve results. E.ON UK's digital maturity increased throughout the program and digital transformation is now a strategic priority. E.ON UK understood the importance of two-way conversational customer engagement via digital channels to improve the personalization, effectiveness and value of the next communication/action. Digital cannot only be seen by utilities as a website and outbound communications. It is not a push approach but a pull one. It is not only data provisioning but data capture and reciprocity: "give us more information about you and we can provide more value." Overall, "Digital First" is E.ON UK's new strategic marketing approach. Along the transformation journey, E.ON UK learned that the customer owns and drives the conversation now more than ever before. Based on this, the company is evolving the way it interacts with customers, to adopt an "Always On" model for customer engagement (Figure 3). "Digital is changing the way we talk with our customers, it is not a technology or architectural change" Anthony Ainsworth, E.ON UK
  • 9. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 9 FIGURE 3 E.ON UK "Always On" Model for Customer Engagement Source: E.ON UK, 2015 The transformational program was heavily scrutinized for its budget as is consistent across all of E.ON UK's operations. In an industry in which compliance to constant regulatory changes can absorb large amounts of operational units and IT budgets, it is extremely important to set priorities and execute accordingly. Finally, E.ON UK learned an important lesson about scale. To really make a change, execution needs to impact the entire customer base, evolving from pilots to full-scale implementations. E.ON UK has taken consumer engagement beyond its "pilot phase," making it the "new normal" business practice. FUTURE OUTLOOK Next Steps Customer trust and engagement are the basis to attract and retain customers, and to support them beyond the pure commodity business. With its transformation program, E.ON UK has helped customers to better understand their energy consumption, to know what consumes most energy and how much it costs. The next step for E.ON UK is to make it easy for customers to buy smart products that will help them save energy. Additionally, there are enhancements planned for the Saving Energy Toolkit, including improved information dashboards and mobile optimization. The positive collaboration with Opower is set to continue. ESSENTIAL GUIDANCE Project Impact Assessment IDC Energy Insights believes the E.ON UK customer journey has very effectively transformed the company's culture, and its approach to residential customers, driving cost to serve reduction,
  • 10. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 10 operational effectiveness and measurably improving customer trust. The ongoing digital transformation deployed new capabilities and has evolved from a matter for the small initial core team, to a much larger group made up of digital experts, marketeers, project managers, deliverers, strategists, planners, and analysts. The collaboration with Opower quickly enabled E.ON UK to scale up the Saving Energy Toolkit to deploy it to its entire residential customer base. All the above makes for an excellent program, and a very relevant reference for other utilities that operate in both competitive and non-competitive energy markets. Figure 4 presents a summary of IDC Energy Insights' project impact assessment evaluation. FIGURE 4 E.ON UK's Customer and Digital Transformation: Project Impact Assessment Source: IDC Energy Insights, 2015 Operational Effectiveness Technological Innovation Business Transformation Industry Transformation Low High
  • 11. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 11 Actions to Consider Engaging customers, improving their trust and satisfaction is more easily said than done, especially in the utilities industry. The truth is that many residential customers find energy and water commodities a boring topic and dedicate a very limited amount of time to them. Therefore, it is vital for utilities to make the most of customers' attention by providing them with an effortless experience and by delivering value. This is even more important in competitive electricity and gas markets, where residential customers can freely choose and switch their supplier, and are encouraged to compare offers. Nonetheless, trust is the pillar on which utilities can build opportunities for the additional revenue streams they are looking for in the new energy scenario in which they operate. In more detail, utilities that are undergoing customer transformation journeys should consider the following:  Lead an "outside in" business environment. Bring inside the customer voice and put yourselves in your customers' shoes. Think as a customer, and listen to their voice in any way possible. To act accordingly, anticipate their needs and make things easier for them. Try to be "genuinely helpful."  Give scale to your initiatives. Stop executing isolated pilots. Test if needed, but then quickly scale up to create synergies and impact the customer base. This is the only way to really release the full benefits of customer engagement initiatives and most importantly trigger your company customer transformation journey. And from a technical perspective, consider cloud options as a way to easily scale up your customer experience initiatives.  Assess your company's customer experience maturity. Assess your organization's current culture regarding customer management. To what degree has management taken an active or leadership role in formulating, communicating, and implementing the customer experience vision? Is management giving customer experience the time commitment required to play out? Focus on the big picture of what it is you want to achieve. Look at the existing processes and systems in place for customer operations, from either an inbound or an outbound perspective. Are these connected, consistent, and comprehensive?  Show top management commitment and engage employees. Customer experience strategies and the infrastructure required to execute them take time to be put in place. Assign a C-level executive, and ensure that the leaders of the initiative are given the authority to enact change and garner support. Ensure all employees are engaged in their own career paths and are proactive advocates for the organization.  Measure success. Metrics and analytics need to be in place. Develop required customer experience-related KPIs, in conjunction with business performance metrics, and review correlations.  Select the right partners. Bring partners and suppliers into the broader "experiences" strategy. Review and evaluate current suppliers and partners for their ability to operate to satisfy the customer experience initiative and their ability to represent the corporate mission. LEARN MORE References  Interview with:  Anthony Ainsworth, B2B and Marketing director, E.ON UK Digital engagement is not a website and outbound communication. It is a pull not a push approach. It is not only data provisioning but data capture and reciprocity.
  • 12. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 12  Company website:  www.eon-uk.com  www.eon.com  https://www.eonenergy.com/for-your-home/help-and-support/saving-energy-toolkit  Ofgem: State of the Market Assessment, March 27, 2014 Related Research To learn more about customer engagement in Utilities industry please refer to the following IDC Energy Insights documents:  Marketing Effectiveness Improvements in the Spotlight for Energy Suppliers (IDC Energy Insights #EISC01X, March 2015)  Utilities Smart Customer Operations Quarterly Update: October-December 2014(IDC Energy Insights #EISC51X, February 2015)  IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Utilities 2015 Predictions (IDC Energy Insights #EISC04W, December 2014)  Utilities IT Investment Priorities for Solutions: Results from the Western European Utilities 2014 Survey (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS10W, January 2015)  Business Strategy: Shedding Light on Social Media Practices in Utility Customer Operations (IDC Energy Insights #EISC03W, November 2014)  Business Strategy: A Unified Customer Experience Through Customer-Preferred Channels is Key for Utility Retailers' Success (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS07W, August 2014)  Gamifying the Enterprise (IDC Energy Insights #EISC02W, July 2014)  Smart Customer Management: The First Utility Way (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS03W, May 2014)  Utilities Scaling Up Growth and Innovation in Their IT Budgets for Successful Customer Operations (IDC Energy Insights #EISC01W, April 2014)  Business Strategy: The Role of Gamification in Utilities' Consumer Engagement (IDC #EIRS04V, January 2014)  Residential Customer Engagement: An Opportunity or a Threat for Utilities? (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS02V, April 2013) To learn more about case studies discussing best practices in utilities, please refer to the following IDC Energy Insights documents:  Beating Unaccounted for Energy with Big Data and Analytics: Baltimore Gas and Electric's Line of Attack (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS02X, February 2015)  Northumbrian Water Transforming Field Service with Mobile Workforce Management (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS01X, February 2015)  Reinventing GIS for the Modern Utility: The United Utilities Enterprise GIS Solution (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS08W, September 2014)  Think Big, Start Small, and Scale Fast: GDF SUEZ Energia Italia's Cloud CRM Platform Based on salesforce.com, Delivered by WebResults (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS02W, March 2014)  Thames Water's AORTA: Wipro Enables Real Time Insights for Thames Water's Asset Operations (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS03V, September 2013)
  • 13. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 13  Anglian Water Moves Closer to a Smart Water Network With a Leakage and Pressure Management Solution (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS03V, June 2013)  ScottishPower Trials Long-Range Radio for Smart Metering Communications (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS53V, April, 2013)  Low Carbon London, Promoting Innovation in the Distribution Network (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS04U, December 2012)  Best Practices: Spotlight on Mobile Applications — Mekorot, Israel's National Water Company (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS57U, September 2012)  Deep Dive into Smartcity Málaga Ranked #1 in IDC Smart Cities Index for Spain (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS03U, May 2012)  Best Practices in Building Energy Management: Høje-Taastrup and Middelfart Municipalities Partner with Schneider Electric to Improve Buildings Performances (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS01U, January 2012)  Best Practices: Portugal's Way of Driving Electric Mobility — The MOBI.E Project (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS03T, October 2011)  Best Practices: Thames Water Adopts BPMS Solution to Streamline Its Customer Services, With Wipro as Systems Integrator (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS05T, August 2011)  Best Practices: Veolia Water Transforming Metering — The m2ocity Innovative Business Model and Oracle Utilities MDM Deployed by Power Reply (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS04T, May 2011)  Data Privacy and Security for Smart Metering: Alliander Certification Case Study (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS52T, March 2011)  Best Practices: GasTerra Flexes up Its IT Application Portfolio by Choosing Oracle Utilities Solutions (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS03S, May 2010)  Best Practices: Mobile Work Force Management Solution, Enel Style (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS02S, February 2010)  Best Practices: Palm Utilities Deploys Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Solution (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS08R9, October 2009)  Best Practices: Pioneering Smarter Metering in Gas — The Gas Natural AMM Project Case Study (IDC Energy Insights #EIOS06R9, September 2009)  Best Practices: Enabling Electric Vehicles in Denmark — The EDISON Consortium Project (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS02R9, September 2009)  Iberdrola's Control Center for Renewable Energy (CORE): A Model for Grid Integration of Renewable Energy (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS54Q, June 2008)  Utility Remote Wind Power Management: EdP Bets on Logica's IT Solution (IDC Energy Insights #EIRS53Q, April 2008) Synopsis E.ON UK is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies, generating electricity and retailing power and gas. It sells electricity and gas to about five million residential and business customers, and is the country's third largest domestic gas and electricity supplier. To successfully compete in the UK's very dynamic energy market and rebuild its customers' trust, E.ON UK profoundly redefined its strategy and its marketing, sales, and service approach to focus on the customer experience and digital transformation. This report highlights the pillars of this transformation and describes the company's successful implementation of the "Saving Energy Toolkit" as well as how E.ON UK teamed up with Opower, the approach it took, the business value derived, and the lessons learned.
  • 14. ©2015 IDC Energy Insights #EISC05X 14 "Customer engagement is essential for any utility. It creates intimacy and trust and opens the door to sell more. E.ON UK's Saving Energy Toolkit was a fundamental component of the company's customer engagement transformation," said Roberta Bigliani, associate vice president and head of Europe, Middle East & Africa, IDC Energy Insights. "The benefits derived from the deployment of the Saving Energy Toolkit to all of E.ON UK's customer base even surpassed those originally planned."
  • 15. About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. Global Headquarters 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA 508.935.4400 Twitter: @IDC idc-insights-community.com www.idc.com Copyright Notice Copyright 2015 IDC Energy Insights. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden. External Publication of IDC Energy Insights Information and Data: Any IDC Energy Insights information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Energy Insights Vice President. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC Energy Insights reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason.