As ENSEK continues to invest in stronger, more scalable gross margin reporting, the benefits are becoming increasingly clear — from faster reporting cycles to greater audit confidence. In this post, we step back to explore the platform overhaul that made that progress possible.
Historically, Gross Margin reporting at ENSEK has been a resource‑intensive, hands‑on process. Each month‑end cycle depended on a group of highly skilled people navigating a patchwork of production‑based batch processes, manual scripts, and bespoke reporting templates to deliver the market‑leading insights our clients rely on — focused on Lives, not Just Loads.
It worked, and our customers were satisfied, but the process wasn’t built for scale. Over time, we knew these legacy approaches would start to create challenges: affecting production stability, stretching delivery SLAs, and adding needless pressure for both our teams and our clients. We also wanted to innovate our offering, but the constraints of the underlying technology, codebase, and visualisation tools made meaningful progress difficult.
We were already making incremental improvements and exploring “off‑prod” options when everything changed. A major energy supplier agreed to migrate its entire residential portfolio onto our platform. Overnight, our world expanded: millions of meter points, billions of rows of data, and a requirement to deliver a complete suite of Gross Margin reports by 9am on working day one each month.
The existing solution could never meet that demand. It was clear we needed to rethink everything… fast.
Working closely with our platform and data specialists, we agreed the answer was a full re-platforming to Data Warehouse 2 (DW2) using Databricks. This decision fundamentally transformed what’s possible in energy reporting.
Databricks leverages distributed computing frameworks like Apache Spark, enabling massive datasets to be processed across clusters. Batch jobs that previously took hours can now be completed in minutes. Its cloud native, autoscaling architecture ensures compute power is available exactly when required, optimising performance while managing costs.
This wasn’t just a technical uplift; it was the foundation for a new era of reporting capability.
Over the last 24 months, Product has partnered with an exceptional team of architects and engineers to rebuild Gross Margin Reporting from the ground up. Replacing a solution shaped by thousands of hours of development over more than a decade was no small feat. The complexity of the subject matter required deep domain expertise and sustained commitment.
The investment has paid off. ENSEK’s new Gross Margin Reporting solution is a step change for the industry.
Our entire codebase has been rebuilt using modern engineering practices. Everything is source‑controlled and deployed through scheduled, automated release pipelines that increase reliability and reduce risk.
The platform is now multi‑tenanted, enabling all clients to run in a single, consistent environment with unified definitions and aligned calculations. This strengthens governance, enhances efficiency, and delivers a foundation that is faster, more accurate, and infinitely more scalable.
Nothing is lost or simplified to work around technological limits. We now calculate volumes, revenues (and soon costs) daily, at meter and register level. Customers can analyse their portfolios with unprecedented granularity, exploring every row and every contributing component. The clarity and auditability this provides simply wasn’t possible before.
Crucially, the entire solution is powered by a single authoritative dataset: one source of truth. Every figure is consistent, traceable, and backed by a clear calculation lineage that supports compliance and reduces operational risk.
And throughout, ENSEK’s dedicated Energy Accounting team continues to provide expert guidance and insight to empower confident, well‑informed decision‑making.
ENSEK’s Gross Margin Reporting has long been unique and market‑leading, we’ve raised the bar even higher for anyone hoping to compete.
Innovation continues at pace. Recent enhancements include:
EHH meter functionality
A new Gas Costs Model
An I&C interval‑level revenue model
Running this modernised, data‑driven settlement model alongside existing legacy settlement approaches introduces new operational challenges, but we are engineering solutions that maintain our SLA commitments.
Importantly, we view these data‑modernisation programmes not only as regulatory requirements but as opportunities to deliver unprecedented visibility into portfolio behaviour and commercial outcomes.
Looking ahead, we are building toward a truly end‑to‑end suite of capabilities, including:
A transition from snapshot reporting to delta-based modelling for continuously updated insights
Cost models for complete Gross Margin analysis
Advanced controls that enhance accuracy, timeliness, and exception management
Revenue recognition features that support compliance and transparency
Forecasting and billing simulators for proactive commercial planning
Intuitive, brand‑aligned visualisation tools that elevate the user experience
By re-platforming onto Databricks and investing heavily in our engineering capabilities, we’ve created a powerful technical foundation that supports rapid innovation and scalable delivery. The solution is built to evolve with market changes and adapt to future industry developments.
This is just the beginning. We’ve created something distinctive, reliable, and scalable — and we’re excited for what comes next.
Note: ENSEK’s Financial Assurance capability is delivered through our Ignition platform and is not available as a standalone product. This ensures seamless data integration, governance, and audit-grade controls.