New utility billing platform for Europe

Since 2001 E:SO ( a division of ista International who employ 4,600 people across 26 countries) has been providing billing solutions for utility customers – Energy retailers, within the North American market. The E:SO |net ASP billing solution is currently employed across 18 production installations and there are over 1 million meter points serviced within their system.

“We created E:SO to bring together four of ista's greatest global strengths into one international name, with one simple goal in mind”
-Walter Schmidt, CEO of ista International

Since 2006 development started on bringing this advanced bill platform to the European Market place and the software has now been configured for use in Europe and currently runs on dedicated servers in the UK.

E:SO has announced an aggressive expansion plan and according to Alex Philbrook - the Managing Director of E:SO Europe: "The E:SO |net platform is probably the most advanced ASP platform of its type addressing the billing needs of all Utility providers, big or small. We have spent considerable resources within E:SO over the last few years in ensuring the platform is ready BEFORE we offer this for sale to end user energy retailers and their customers in Europe. We are all too aware of "vapourware" offerings and we were determined not to fall into this category. We have been working closely with one UK based utility over the last year and they are already using invoices generated from our system".

So why is the ASP model the way to go for bill platforms of the future? Alex Philbrook again "The low cost of entry together with the concept of only paying for the accounts managed has been an attractive formula in the US - Over the last few years we have installed between 3-5 new installations each year to resounding success from our customers. Some of the key advantages are:

1. No need for our customer to have any significant new IT skills
2. No requirement to run expensive servers and cope with software and service updates
3. Seamless integration with other customer or industry systems with standard industry file formats
4. User friendly GUI and fast true multiple real time users
5. Runs on any desktop PC using standard Microsoft Internet Explorer
6. Cost effective solution even for small (say 10,000 accounts upwards) clients
7. Works with any utility - Gas, Electricity or Water
8. Incorporates all GL/AR ledger functionality out of the box
9. All backups and security issues handled at our dedicated data centre in London or the US
10. Customers are provided with online access to consumption data, invoices and energy management reports, through powerful and targeted web portals.
11. Integrates directly with end consumer demand side management devices, controls and services

To ensure that the platform is continually updated all clients share the same code base and with 3 weekly updates any enhancements are available to all customers. This update process is controlled by our dedicated IT "POD" and separate QA structure enabling both a fast response to queries as well as reliable updates".

The background of E:SO is also something to mention as this division was only formed early in 2009 to specialise in energy management and utility billing.

"We created E:SO to bring together four of ista's greatest global strengths into one international name, with one simple goal in mind. That goal is to give energy businesses and energy-reliant organizations the ability to differentiate themselves offering their customers superior energy cost management opportunities," said Walter Schmidt, CEO of ista International. "The market is hungry for an agile, innovative company that can help businesses make the most intelligent, cost-effective decisions about energy. E:SO is primed and ready to rapidly deploy the systems these companies are looking for, backed by our established industry experts using the most proven technologies available."

The E:SO division now employs 200 people across the Europe and US target markets and has a strong IT development base successfully illustrated by the below case study.

Case Study

A large dual commodity retailer in the New York market needed to migrate 250,000+ accounts from an internal platform to E:SO|net. The client was currently supporting electric and gas commodities in all four billing models: bill ready, rate ready, dual and supplier consolidated. The accounts were primarily residential and small business and EDI was being managed direct with LDC (Local Distribution Company) through an internal GISB (Gas Industry Standards Board) application. To enable a quick timeline for go-live it was decided to leave their EDI platform in place so a full flight test could be avoided, opting instead for having the internal system act as a forwarding server to the E:SO|net platform. The implementation timeline was approximately 6 months and was highlighted by a series of parallel billing exercises where a copy of their internal system database was restored on our systems and the account base was migrated. After migration all transactions for the day were imported and processed in both systems and invoices were generated in both systems. The results of the two systems were compared and the discrepancies were investigated and resolved until the only exceptions remaining were exceptions evidenced by failures of their existing platform.

The new capabilities added to the E:SO|net platform to support this client were as follows: dual commodity support enabling easy CSR function while viewing customer with electric and gas service at same location with possibly two different LDCs, bill ready billing, rate ready billing, dual billing, 820 payment import, direct mapping of EDI transactions with GISB transmission support, and product management allowing one time definition of product offering to be sold to any number of customers.

All of the above mentioned features were developed, tested and successfully deployed in the six-month implementation window. The system has since been modified at the request of this client to support an improved enrolment workflow process, a pricing engine based on NYISO market prices and a significant improvement to our residential portal for bill payment and presentment.

If you are interested in understanding how the E:SO|net solution can be used for your business then please contact Alex Philbrook, Tel +44 (0) 1223 874974.