Watch British Gas and ENSEK talk about their partnership
Key individuals from British Gas and ENSEK talk about why they started working together and the goals they share.
Continue below to read more on the story.
Diving in and addressing the need for radical change
The energy market is undergoing a radical change. Aging legacy infrastructure, continually evolving customer expectations, disruptive challenger brands, a highly regulated market, and a drive to net-zero have all been factors in this pressure cooker environment.
Against this backdrop, British Gas was facing increasing competition from digital-first, agile energy start-ups that were beginning to erode market share. Centrica quickly realised the systems that enabled British Gas’ residential energy business were outdated and decided to act.
The brief was simple but radical – replace British Gas’ legacy software with a cloud-native SaaS solution and customer-centric operating model that would enable them to simplify their operations, improve their customer’s experience, and enable new product innovation.
Thinking differently to achieve the impossible
Migrating seven million customers from one platform to another is not an easy feat - simplifying technology and system processes, building a new operating model from the ground up, and all whilst ensuring a seamless customer experience.
The success of this project was reliant on the formation of strategic partnerships with the right technology and people.
Finding a great technological and cultural fit
British Gas started by incubating a team referred to as New Energy Platform (NEP), which adopted a “startup” mindset to evolve at pace. The team coordinated with chosen platform provider, ENSEK, and additional technology partners Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS), to accelerate the transformation program.
ENSEK fitted perfectly with the culture Centrica was working to create, complementing the team’s agile methodology and providing advanced, flexible tech that supported long-term goals.
Redesigning with customer-centricity at the heart
Centrica wanted to work with technology that allowed them to focus on adding value.
By handing over the underlying infrastructure to ENSEK, they were able to concentrate on designing great customer experiences, instead of working on non-value-added tasks.
Customer-centricity has been an integral part of Centrica’s plans from the beginning. With the intense competition over recent years and the energy market growing in complexity, it became ever more important to attract and retain customers for the long term.
Innovating for the future and building resilience to constant change
With the fast-paced advancement in technology and continuously changing customer behaviours, it is impossible to predict what the energy space will look like in ten years. The key is to stay focused on the customer, and continually strip out complexity and distraction so that you can remain customer focused whilst the world changes around you.
ENSEK’s leading-edge technology and hugely talented individuals were a big attraction to Centrica. By letting ENSEK focus on the non-discretionary activities of running a supply business, Centrica could focus on providing a better experience for customers.
With the non-discretionary taken care of, ENSEK’s platform allowed Centrica to unlock its digital transformation and acted as an innovation springboard to support the adoption of new products and services that will help accelerate the energy transition.
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