Discontinuation of legacy IT systems: The clock is ticking at many utilities 

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The age of on-site software systems is coming to an end in many areas of application. Instead, cloud systems are increasingly taking on a more important role. In the energy sector, the issue is particularly urgent, because many utilities’ old IT systems are nearing the end of their support or are rather unwieldy “IT stacks” – it would be better for companies to dismantle these now so that they can act more quickly in the future. What does the alternative to SAP IS-U, Oracle Utilities and Co. look like?

 

Anyone who uses an old smartphone whose manufacturer no longer offers updates for its operating system knows the feeling: Uncertainty. Is your own data still safe and for how long can you download new apps? Decision-makers in those utilities whose legacy IT systems have grown over the last 15 to 20 years (mostly on the basis of decentralized in-house developments) and which will soon no longer be supported by the software provider, have a similar situation. There is enormous pressure to act because the systems control many sales functions, for example – and are therefore indispensable for future customer growth and economic success. So “business as usual” is not an option. Therefore it is necessary that utilities are now looking to increase their investment in digitalization with a  focus on these three action areas: the transformation of value creation, greater customer focus, and the creation of a largely digital enterprise.

 

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Finally getting rid of the old IT stack

But precisely how can these goals be achieved and which IT system is the right one? An interesting answer can be found in Accenture’s “Future Systems” study. Among other things, it compares “global pioneers” with German utilities and reaches some impressive conclusions. According to the report, 88 percent of leaders believe that the entire IT stack (i.e., the existing static legacy “stack” of software, hardware, data, telecommunications and data centers) needs to be dismantled – to make way for much more adaptive systems. However, according to Future Systems, only 38 percent of representatives of German utilities agree with this assessment. Consequently, the “global pioneers” are further down the road in adopting sophisticated cloud services: 95 percent of them have already introduced such systems, whereas only 30 percent of the latecomers among companies have done so.

 

On-site vs. cloud

Incidentally, an old (and long outdated) prejudice appears in the Accenture study when the term “cloud” is mentioned, because for the latecomers, cloud services are primarily “a low-cost data center”. Of course, this is a disastrous mistake from the point of view of the “pioneers” who see cloud computing as an indispensable prerequisite for the successful use of myriad other technologies – from artificial intelligence to data analytics. In addition, the advantages of the cloud over static on-site solutions are obvious: lower investment costs, faster availability and contracts with more flexible durations are just a few of the key factors here. In addition, cloud solutions can be adapted much more quickly and expanded with additional options if, for example, new business models require this or market requirements change.

 

This flexibility is likely to be an essential prerequisite for electric utilities in particular, because in their markets it is truer than ever: Everything is in flux. Startups as well as large companies from outside the industry are pushing ever faster into the market and creating cut-throat competition. At the same time, new products and services are emerging – the days when utilities only offered electricity and gas are over. Instead, wallboxes, PV systems or cell phone contracts, for example, are also sold via personalized portals using cross- and up-selling.

 

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powercloud meets critical future requirements

What does all this mean for billing systems? In response to this, pwc has defined a whole range of requirements that new systems must fulfil in its market study “ERP Systems in the Energy Industry”. These include the creation of customized products and flexible pricing structures, scalable and automatable IT processes, as well as real-time billing – prerequisites that are all fulfilled by the powercloud. Two examples of this:

  • “Automated processes”: The powercloud includes standardized and automated processes as well as fast updates (for example, due to changes in statutory requirements or as part of market partner communications). New requirements are implemented through an agile process and are quickly available for testing and productive use, without customers having to complete complex updating procedures.
  • “New products”: With the cloud-based, end-to-end software for the utility market, you only need a few clicks to fully automatically design a billable product and publish it ad hoc on the market! Without the need to involve developers or complex configurations, any non-commodity bundle can be defined that goes far beyond the classic electricity-gas bundle. The powercloud’s open architecture helps in the processing and fulfillment of these contracts. For example, hardware suppliers can be directly linked to the powercloud processes.

 

Speed up modernization

To conclude, a few words about the implementation and licensing of the cloud-based system – critical issues for users of established systems such as SAP IS-U or Oracle Utilities. In the past, many have experienced that the modernization of their IT solution invariably took a long time. This is where another major difference between the powercloud and legacy systems becomes apparent: The powercloud implementation uses a standardized best-practice process with defined onboarding modules. Depending on the starting point, the end-to-end solution is ready in just a few weeks, can be scaled at any time, and can therefore also be rolled out to new countries, for example. Nevertheless, the solution is in no way diminished. Stability, speed, and cost-efficiency all remain excellent.

 

The SaaS solution’s licensing model is equally advantageous. It is based on the number of active end-customer contracts with no hidden costs. All services necessary for operation and all future updates are included. If, in recent years, your legacy system has been generating high costs due to in-house maintenance, updates and system testing, powercloud can help you say goodbye to these spiraling costs! The price for the end-to-end system includes all processes in your “energy industry engine room” – including all future updates.


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About the author

Steven Dawson, VP powercloud North America, brings more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry, working for SAP, Oracle, and Genesys. He is recognized for building Salesforce Energy & Utilities (formerly Vlocity) in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from the bottom up. His new mission is focused on migrating energy and utilities companies in North America away from old on-premises/legacy systems to a new, modern architecture and billing platform in the cloud. Dawson established powercloud’s North American operations within the Atlanta Tech Village, one of the nation’s largest technology innovation workplaces. Companies that are dedicated to the growth of the energy and utilities sector in the southeast and especially within the Atlanta area. In all of his endeavors, he has helped energy companies reduce operational and acquisition costs while achieving the best possible Customer Experience.



New COO Carsten Dirks strengthens management

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powercloud has just overtaken SAP to become the German market leader among IT partners for the energy industry. Now the company is expanding its management team in order to continue driving international growth.

(powercloud, Offenburg, Germany, January 14, 2022) – The software-as-a-service company powercloud, founded in 2012, strengthens its management team. From January 17, 2022, 53-year-old Carsten Dirks will be supporting the CEO and founder Marco Beicht in the position of Chief Operating Officer. Dirks previously held the same position for ten years at Open-Xchange, the market leader in open email platforms, where he was responsible for engineering, services, support and administration over time. Dirks was formerly also Chairman and Global Managing Director at Interactive Data Managed Solutions AG. Before that, Dirks occupied a number of other leading positions at different IT companies. On top of that comes his experience as Vice President and Program Director at SAP.

At powercloud, Dirks will be taking responsibility for Product, Development and Operations, and is in charge of stabilizing and expanding existing markets, as well as scaling in new markets. In this regard, he will be able to deploy his expertise on large customers and critical infrastructures. On the other hand, CEO Beicht will be more focused on the development of the company and the product, corporate culture, as well as further internationalization.

Marco Beicht has this to say: “Carsten Dirks’ extensive knowledge will enable us to operationalize and strategically organize our processes and procedures, and further optimize them following the rapid growth of recent years. With him, we have found the perfect man for the position of COO. I am very excited about working with Carsten to drive the energy industry in new directions, away from old legacy systems towards an open and innovative cloud platform. In light of the digital requirements posed by the energy transition, this is the standard that we must aim for.”

Carsten Dirks:

powercloud can no longer be underestimated as the German market leader among IT partners for the energy industry. I am looking forward to tackling a range of exciting tasks with respect to powercloud’s customers, who are currently facing major upheaval processes and digital challenges as an extremely relevant industry.

 

 

 

 

2021 annual review: Successfully managing a year of pandemic crisis

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2021 – What a year! The coronavirus pandemic is still heavily impacting public life, energy prices continue to rise, and natural catastrophes remind us how quickly climate change is advancing. The fact that powercloud has enjoyed such outstanding development in this challenging environment makes us very proud – though, in a way, this is a logical progression, since we see ourselves as “facilitators” of the digital energy revolution, part of the foundation for the CO2 neutral society and economy we want to create.

The coronavirus pandemic has continued to upend all of our lives in 2021 and has posed unforeseen challenges for many companies – such as utilities. On the one hand, they faced a general drop in profit margins in light of the difficult economic situation, while on the other they contended with business-related challenges as part of the ongoing energy shift, such as creating new kinds of products, more flexible tariffs in general, or implementing a broad-scale smart meter rollout.

 

New products for the energy market of the future

At the same time, the challenges surrounding climate change and digitalization are enormous. Phasing out coal, increasing solar power and wind energy – for utilities, this means that the energy market will continue to change, for instance in terms of products which are composed of digitalized energy services, including energy management, storage, e-mobility, and many others.

Storage solutions, smart charging, and more

Tesla’s entry into the German electricity market and the new solutions available from VW subsidiary Elli offer a preview of what we can expect to see in the coming years. At Elli, for example, the focus is on app-based control of the charging process, where the client only has to enter their desired departure time in advance. A smart charging function then optimizes the process. What’s more, clients also collect points with which they can reduce their electricity bill by up to 100 euros a year. The news that VW intends to equip its electric cars with a bi-directional charging function is likewise interesting. This would allow a driver who produces “too much” electricity on the drive home via the solar system, for instance, to use the car battery as short-term storage that the driver can then “tap into” as needed. Other examples outside the world of automotive design illustrate the dynamic capabilities of energy storage. Sonnen GmbH, for instance, has already delivered more than 40,000 intelligent battery storage units for photovoltaic systems. This technology makes it possible to form decentralized energy communities, which offer their members the opportunity to self-generate, store, and share energy with other members. SENEC, a subsidiary of EnBW, is also pursuing an innovative approach to the sale and generation of renewable energy. They offer solar modules, home battery storage and wallboxes, which are integrated with the SENEC.Cloud. Specifically: If you generate more electricity than you need in the summer, you can feed the surplus into the SENEC.Cloud. In the less sunny winter months, you get it back. In this way, the customer is less exposed to rising electricity prices.

Overall, the general digitization of the energy market continued to pick up speed in 2021 – along with the economic development of powercloud. We added a range of new customers, such as the Uelzen municipal utilities, SachsenEnergie, Ostrom, EWII, Elli, and e.optimum. Having our bid accepted to implement a new Thüga billing platform was a particularly important success. Alongside Accenture as general contractor and multiple technological partners, we are developing a back-end and front-end solution for the market roles of supplier, grid and metering station operator, for a total of 38 municipal utilities with around 15.5 million metering points, all under the umbrella of TAP. We are also very proud that we successfully completed large data migrations for customers such as E.ON and Lichtblick on our platform this year. In addition, the number of industry partners, start-ups, Fintechs and global technological companies offering their expertise via apps in our powerApp store is growing. With their help, the powercloud is becoming a cross-industry interactive platform. Together, the participants compile new experiences that are incorporated into technological innovations and used to establish new products.

Transformed into a global software company

Our formula for success can be summarized as follows: We have a universal platform solution that adapts continuously to the challenges of the future. This ensures investment security and competitiveness. The powerApp store, along with other tools, makes this possible. This opens up a world of possibilities for companies, with which they can react quickly to changes in markets and infrastructure – and all without expensive IT projects! The specific app can simply be booked along with the core functions of the powercloud to use new functions.

Since being founded in 2012 powercloud has enjoyed consistent growth. However, the year 2021 was a very special one for the company, as we converted from a Black Forest start-up into an international software company, which today has seven locations around the world — in Offenburg, Leipzig, Berlin, Madrid, Milan, Paris, and Atlanta. In addition, after hiring over 100 new employees our workforce today comprises more than 300 employees working for our success with creativity and passion. Having our headquarters located close to France is a unique advantage in this context, since we are able to recruit many experts from the neighboring country and have French-speaking resources – which, in turn, has a positive impact on customer acquisition in France. The country is an important market for us. Overall, we are taking a two-track approach: continuing our strong growth within Germany and adding a large number of municipal utilities, in particular, to our customer base, while at the same time generating interest among municipal utilities in America and Australia for our solution, helping them speed up their digitization.

New IT campus as security for the future

The issue of “sustainability” is likewise part of our corporate positioning. The best example for this is the construction of our new IT campus in Achern, for which the groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 1st. Construction and the move to the new powercloud company headquarters are scheduled for completion in 2024. In the future, the property will have its own photovoltaic system to supply power, along with electricity storage solutions. Heating and cooling are supplied via heating networks, which include biomass and large-scale heat pumps. A special mobility concept also in the mix includes e-car and e-bike sharing plus a public transport service that has also developed further. The goal behind all these steps is to create a CO2-neutral residential and commercial district for around 350 IT and software experts who will be able to help us convince many other talented workers to come to Achern – including from abroad. This is an important factor for our future development. Because of this, our plans address new work/life concepts, streamlined intercultural exchange, and ensuring a good balance between career and family life. Specifically, this means, for example, that workers can do some of their work at home at any time and can reach the workplace quickly when needed. Families from different countries should be able to find their way around the area easily, and connect work, leisure activities, school and kindergarten easily as well.

Marco Beicht is the only German to be ranked as one of the “Top 50 SaaS CEOs”

In addition, we are already one of the ten most attractive employers among Germany’s software start-ups, at least according to Business Punk! and Statista. We were also proud to learn that our founder and CEO Marco Beicht is the only German to be ranked as one of the “Top 50 SaaS CEOs” by American trade magazine “Software Report”. This rankings list includes only CEOs of rapidly growing, innovative software companies with strong leadership and a visionary approach. Ultimately, these awards are indicators that we are on the right path as the fastest growing billing system for the energy sector in Germany. We now want to achieve the same thing in other countries as well. We are convinced that this will allow us to make a key contribution to the climate revolution, while helping many companies. We will also be celebrating our 10-year company anniversary next year, for which we are planning something special for all of our employees, partners, and customers. We look forward to the event very much and hope that the pandemic does not interfere too greatly with the planning. With or without the pandemic, our motto remains the same: “Stay different.”

 

 

Success in the tender for Thüga’s major project

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With powercloud, BTC and Klafka & Hinz as technology partners, Accenture is developing a new billing platform for the energy industry.

It is a project without parallel: In January, the Thüga Group began a Europe-wide tendering process for its billing solution Thüga-Abrechnungsplattform (TAP) intended for suppliers, network operators and meter operators in the energy sector. Thüga is Germany’s largest cooperative network of municipal energy and water providers with more than 100 municipal utilities in the group. The consulting firm Accenture has now been awarded the contract to develop and roll out TAP as the general contractor and has brought on board powercloud, BTC and Klafka & Hinz as its technology partners. powercloud and Accenture have already been working together for years. This intensive cooperation was one of the pivotal considerations in Thüga’s decision and could also be applied to similar platforms in other European countries. With around 15.5 million metering points right now, TAP is considered one of the largest IT projects on the market.

The platform is designed to set a new standard in the energy sector. A total of 38 municipal utilities and energy utilities have chosen to use TAP. The solution offers customers competitive services at economical prices based on the pay-per-use model. Just like powercloud, the system is a modular software-as-a-service platform built on a cloud architecture and sets new standards in terms of technology. This means users will be able to select the elements they need from the modular system.

On the platform, powercloud acts as the core system that handles financial processes for all market roles in the energy sector, including billing, receiving payments, managing payment reminders and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements placed on market communication. TAP can help make billing processes in the commodity sector especially efficient and largely automated – with correspondingly lower costs. In addition, powercloud will manage all master data and take account of all regulatory changes in the market to relieve users of the burdens of laborious adjustment processes. With the help of powercloud, the new platform can also reduce the time-to-market of new products in the energy sector.  Other features include network usage management and contract management.

The platform is a response to the fact that many energy utilities are struggling with the same challenges, which necessitate fresh new approaches. For example, the increasingly complex regulatory requirements on the calculation of feed-in remuneration have pushed the billing solutions of many network operators to their limits. Increasing competition, along with growing pressure to invest due to legal regulations, has also forced energy utilities to intensify their cost-cutting. Using common platforms and services presents a significant opportunity for these companies.

One major challenge for TAP is that it must meet a wide range of needs of both large and small companies. As a standardized machine room of the energy sector, powercloud is particularly well suited to tackle this task. The well-established solution is already used by many companies of all scales and sizes – ranging from start-ups to DAX companies.

To highlight the potential of such a platform, powercloud worked with Accenture, BTC and Klafka & Hinz to offer a series of webinars during the tendering process. For example, the webinars illustrated the meter-to-cash process for all customer groups, market roles and product categories and also demonstrated what intelligent automation of mass processes can look like in the complex interaction between billing and energy data management.

powercloud is proud to be a part of this mega IT project for the energy sector. Clinching the project is a major milestone in company’s history.

 

 

powercloud and connectAI automatically provide optimal customer communication

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  • Integration of the CAIA omnichannel contact center solution from connectAI into the powercloud powerApp Store
  • AI-supported personalization and automation of utility companies’ customer services
  • Self-learning platform process standard use cases and enable rerouting of exceptional cases

 

(powercloud, Offenburg, 11/29/2021) – For utilities, customer communication is a core element of customer loyalty and differentiation within the highly competitive energy industry. At the same time, though, the effort it takes to process all customer queries personally and promptly poses a complex challenge for customer services. As of now, the integration of the CAIA omnichannel contact center solution by connectAI offers users of powercloud an automated but nevertheless personalized service for standard customer processes.

This includes, for example, automated processing of inbound cases such as messages related to meter reading, billing requests or changes to addresses and bank details. CAIA provides support for this using AI-based communication with customers on all channels via voice assistants, email, chat, messaging or document scanning. CAIA can also be used for outbound communication, for example for creating personalized offers for respective customers. In addition, the solution allows call center agents to intelligently route exceptional cases. CAIA currently supports English and German. Other languages can be added as needed.

Users of CAIA in powercloud particularly benefit from the seamless integration with powercloud as “one system of truth” and the smooth interaction of both solutions. Functions such as recording calls and transcriptions as well as saving the results of decisions enable seamless tracking – while ensuring the required data protection at the same time.

Utilities are able to considerably lower their customer service costs using CAIA. Georgios Gergianakis, CEO of connectAI, also stresses the numerous advantages that CAIA offers the individual customers: “For their part, utility customers have the freedom to take care of their concerns and needs, individually, proactively and efficiently, at any time and through the communication channel of their choice. CAIA not only allows utilities to offer exceptionally efficient customer service but also an extremely high level of service.

Thayabaran Thanabalasingham, Head of Partner Sales at powercloud, considers the integration of CAIA to be an important building block for powercloud’s holistic approach: “powercloud unites reliable processing and billing with the possibility of launching new business models on the market quickly. We always keep the end customer firmly in focus during the further development of our platform and the selection of partners. CAIA, as a continuously learning platform for proactive, personalized and automated customer care on all communication channels, is ideal for this approach.”

 

About connectAI

connectAI is an ultra-modern, AI-based omnichannel solution that focuses on providing intelligent and automated communication to customers of large companies. We are a highly innovative and international company headquartered in Germany offering state-of-the-art B2B solutions. Our sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms create digital assistants that support our customers’ customers through call center automation, chat, email processing, letter recognition, etc. The created digital assistants are constantly learning on the job and improving all the time. While doing so, we enable seamless integration into existing IT environments and continually improve to meet new service standards.

 

 

powercloud forms strategic alliance with Advizzo

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  • Platform powered by behavioural & data science

 

(powercloud, ALPHARETTA, GA, November 23, 2021) – powercloud, the world’s fastest growing billing system in the energy and utilities industry, announced today a partnership agreement with Advizzo, one of the nation’s top behavioral analytics and data companies for utilities.

This new alliance will bring Advizzo platform together with powercloud’s service offerings as it seeks to help North American energy and water companies unlock new sources of value creation and deploy new user experiences towards decarbonization. Advizzo is widely recognized by leveraging Behavioral Sciences to transform multiple dimensions of customer data—such as energy and water consumption, demographics, and user interactions—into deep, accurate and actionable insights.

“While energy and utility companies say that they are charting a path for the future, their back-of-office operations are stuck in neutral,” said Steven Dawson, Vice President & Country Manager for powercloud North America. “Working together with Advizzo, powercloud is charting a course to put more power in customers’ hands, when and where they want it.”

Dawson said that Advizzo will be offered as part of powercloud’s powerApp Store, and offers another example how powercloud is transforming the industry by integrating behavioral data insights into existing utility workflows.

“powercloud embraces the same principles of innovation and Behavioural design-thinking ahead, as we are both focused on digitally transforming how utility companies and their customers access data insights,” said Julien Lancha, Chief Customer Officer of Advizzo. “Advizzo constantly evolves with partners who share our vision of redefining utilities’ customer experience. We find new ways of working together to drive more sustainable growth for everyone.”

Dawson said that Advizzo and powercloud will introduce its alliance more detailed to North American utility professionals during it’s upcoming Webinar in January, serving the electric, gas and water/wastewater utility sectors. The webinar will showcase efficiencies and innovations that have helped energy and water companies across Europe optimize their financial resources. It will give a view of what companies in the United States should expect to experience next. Don’t miss this opportunity and register to our upcoming webinar soon.

 

 

About Advizzo (www.advizzo.com)

Advizzo is one the fastest growing behavioral science SaaS company worldwide. Advizzo transforms the way customers think about their energy and water consumption, and helps utilities reduce carbon emissions. Advizzo is currently processing billions of data points and serves almost 3,000,000 households globally whilst enabling customer-led engagement to meet a wide spectrum of decarbonization challenges. With significant experience in both utility and software industries, the founders sought to combine Data Science, Cloud Computing and Behavioral Science to solve water and energy issues faced by utility companies. Our vision: We believe in a world where everyone can use their data better to consume the energy and water they need more sustainably, as well as reducing their Carbon footprint. Our mission: We use Behavioral Science to enrich people’s lives, using insights from their own household data through their energy and water providers. This will change the way people think and behave towards electricity, gas and water consumption.

 

 

powercloud and DEFG form strategic partnership

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  • Two of the utility industry’s leading voices work together on bringing needed changes between energy companies and their consumers

 

(powercloud, ALPHARETTA, GA, November 10, 2021) – powercloud, the fastest growing billing system in the energy and utilities industry, announced today that it has joined DEFG’s Utility Customer Research Consortium (UCRC). This group is comprised of utility executives and vendors working together to bring a stronger voice to how consumers connect with their energy providers.

The two Alpharetta-based companies, which share a passion for putting more control in consumers’ hands, are aligned in an effort to better optimize the overall energy and utility experience.

“Between powercloud’s vision of bringing the efficiencies and innovations from cloud computing to the energy sector, and DEFG’s progressive dedication to understanding the energy customer’s needs, we’re eager to work together to move the industry forward,” explained Steven Dawson, Vice President and Country Manager, powercloud North America. “DEFG and powercloud share many of the same beliefs surrounding innovation and efficiency in a market that’s changing at such a rapid rate. We’re excited to get working with the team and for what we believe will be an impactful and long-lasting alliance.”

“We at DEFG have always been focused on helping consumers stay up-to-date on the latest and most advanced services that empower their control of their energy usage. Unless regulations move quickly into the 21st century, new service innovations may be indefinitely delayed,” said Jamie Wimberly, CEO of DEFG. “We are eager to work with powercloud to find new and exciting ways to put more power in the hands of energy consumers and, in the process, find new avenues for energy companies to deliver services when and how customers want them.”

 

About DEFG (www.defgllc.com)

DEFG is a research and advisory firm with a core expertise in customer strategy, experience and operations in the utility sector.  We serve over 50 of the largest utilities in North America and provide support on all aspects of our clients’ relationships with their customers.   Founded in 2003, DEFG is widely recognized for its progressive vision on customer experience and thought leadership to ensure that service to low-income and vulnerable customers continues to improve. Serving those with the least, the best, improves customer experience for all.

 

Enabler of the digital energy transition

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Enabler of the digital energy transition – and not only that – powercloud takes a holistic approach to sustainability

Sustainability is a central issue for powercloud in three ways: As a provider of enabling technology for a sustainable energy industry, as a pioneer in sustainable corporate governance, and as an ambassador for numerous sustainability initiatives.

 

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Leaving fossil fuels behind, moving towards renewable energies

Decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization – the energy industry is in a state of upheaval. In the very midst of it, powercloud enables utilities to drive their digitalization forward at full speed and so respond to market changes. As a SaaS billing solution, powercloud provides the basis for efficient and customer-oriented processing and billing of new, green products and services. An intelligent cloud solution driven by the desire to enable the digital energy transition. Added to this are the advantages of extensions via the so-called powerApp store, which can be used to integrate additional functions and business models that have a sustainable orientation. In short: with the help of powercloud, more and more sustainable processes and products are finding their way into the energy industry.

IT campus as best practice for a sustainable living and working environment

That the green energy revolution started a long time ago for powercloud is shown by the IT Campus the company is building in Germany. Already regarded as a forward-looking model of the energy transition for the housing industry and for the energy companies of tomorrow, by its completion in 2024 all the buildings of the campus are to be fully CO2-neutral. The site will have its own photovoltaic power supply and electricity storage solutions. Heating and cooling are supplied via heating networks, which include biomass and large-scale heat pumps. In addition, there is a special mobility concept that includes, among other things, sharing offers of e-cars and e-bikes as well as a further developed public transportation service. But the IT campus embodies far more than merely environmental aspects of sustainability. It is also considered to be breaking new ground in lifestyle and work. Social aspects therefore play just as big a role as ecological ones. For powercloud, sustainability means not only energy transition and climate neutrality, but also a fair coexistence under conditions that allow future generations to lead a “good” life.

Ambassador for a sustainable future

Apart from the sustainable orientation of its own product and the future working environment, powercloud is also taking part in numerous sustainability initiatives on both local and global levels. For example, powercloud CEO Marco Beicht is a member of Fairantwortung AG, a non-profit entrepreneurial initiative. Their goal is to support society’s shift toward a sustainable and climate-compatible economic system.
Internationally, powercloud is a member of the “Tech for Net Zero Allianz“, which was launched by the German Energy Agency (dena) together with Bill Gates’ “Breakthrough Energy” initiative. The aim is to identify scalable innovations for Germany’s energy transition and climate-neutrality target based on technological developments and to make recommendations for the further development of corresponding framework conditions in Germany.
Marco Beicht’s participation in the “SET Tech Festival“, which was also organized by dena together with the World Energy Council on October 20, had a similar goal. The event not only gave participants access to the most innovative energy-solution startups, but also brought them together with innovation-oriented companies, investors and public organizations that want to push the energy transition forward.

Climate neutrality starts today

While the model IT campus will not be fully completed until 2024, powercloud is already ensuring, where possible, that its business activities are as climate-neutral as possible. To this end, the company uses Planetly, among other tools, for intelligent CO2 management. With Planetly, emissions can be calculated, the biggest emission hotspots identified and, on this basis, the right adjusting screws can be dialed towards a negative CO2 balance.
The delegated staff at powercloud are also looking at new work-life concepts. Specifically, this means, for example: Workers can do some of their work at home at any time, allowing them to reach the workplace quickly when needed. To enable necessary business trips by car to remain sustainable, powercloud also has an e-Smart fleet of five vehicles.

Through many activities, powercloud pursues a corporate culture that raises awareness of sustainable cooperation. And so, in the spirit of “Walk the Talk”, the commitment and measures around corporate sustainability align with the fundamental orientation of the powercloud solution towards a sustainable energy industry.

 

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Volkswagen Group Charging GmbH (“Elli”) relies on powercloud 

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  • Development was geared towards a quick market-launch
  • powerApps enable efficient business processes
  • Platform is ready for European expansion

 

(powercloud, Offenburg, 13/10/2021) – Elli, a brand of the Volkswagen Group, has been offering its clients an intelligent household electricity tariff since August 2021. Implementation of the corresponding backend was facilitated by the SaaS platform powercloud in cooperation with powerApp partners and took less than five months.

Clients with Volkswagen e-cars and plug-in hybrids benefit from Volkswagen’s “Naturstrom Connect Tarif”, as their vehicles are prioritized when it comes to charging, as long as excess renewable energy is available in the grid. This is both more sustainable and also makes more financial sense.

“The focus is on app-based control of the charging process, where the client only has to enter their desired departure time in advance,” explains Ingo Müller, Head of Energy Solutions for the Volkswagen brand Elli. “A smart charging function then automatically optimizes the process. What’s more, clients also collect points in this manner, with which they can reduce their electricity bill by up to 100 Euros per year.” The overarching objective was to establish a European billing platform in the shortest possible time – this would enable Elli to achieve a successful market launch very quickly. Two factors were of vital importance in this regard: First of all, every powercloud implementation uses a standardized best-practices process with defined onboarding modules. The end-to-end solution is ready in just a few weeks, is scalable at any time, and can also be rolled out to new countries, for example. The powerApp store from powercloud also makes it possible to integrate the special business processes and innovative products into the complete service solution in a highly flexible manner – Elli simply adds the relevant apps to the core functions of powercloud and then uses other functions.

 

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“Established industry partners, startups, fintechs and global technology companies transfer their know-how into powerApps,” explains Marco Beicht, CEO of powercloud. “This approach was highly important for Elli. This means that not only was powercloud standard including migration implemented, but also an entire process landscape, featuring a range of powerApps and modules, since the complete service solution has to fulfill a series of conditions regarding process mining, the customer portal, reports, payment methods and more. The end result is that Elli now benefits from a highly efficient SaaS-platform.”

A closer look at the powerApps in use reveals a broad spectrum of technical possibilities and economic advantages. That is why Volkswagen Group Charging GmbH relies, for example, upon an efficient completion route to customer acquisitions and an extensive self-service customer portal. Both solutions from work digital are available “out of the box” in the powerApp Store. The same is true of the two apps from powerdata for connecting other systems with powercloud – including monitoring of integration – as well as real-time analysis of turnover, yields, gross margins and much more. In this context, the “Business Process Mining” app from Lana (acquired through Appian) is also useful: It makes it possible to optimize customer processes on the basis of AI and adapt them to new conditions. What’s more, the powerApp from PayPal as well as the app from the SCHUFA bureau for credit checks have also been integrated. The BPO service-team from hsag Heidelberger Services AG is responsible for the customer experience and back-office processes, and also brings their chat-bot Isa into the cooperation – including integrated live chat for churn prevention campaigns on the basis of the iAdvize conversational platform.

“We are very proud that by working with these partners, we have been able to provide an efficient complete solution for the backend of Volkswagen Group Charging GmbH,” is how Marco Beicht summarizes the situation. “What is critical in this regard is the fact that every app integration into our platform is done without the need for complex IT projects. Here, it is of central importance that the powerApp Store is an integral part of the powercloud operating model. This means the apps being used are automatically integrated into our transparent software-as-a-service model, and as the platform operator we ensure the quality standard of the apps. This idea enables us to create flexible IT systems, which make for a high level of investment security and competitiveness. This opens us a world of possibilities for companies, with which they can react radically and quickly to changes in markets and infrastructure.”

 

About Volkswagen Group Charging GmbH (“Elli”)

Elli is a provider of energy and charging solutions. Elli offers simple, convenient solutions at the interface between energy and mobility. The goal is to make it possible for anyone to become part of the energy transition – in a simple and transparent manner.

As part of the Volkswagen Group, Elli supplies households throughout Germany with Volkswagen Green Energy – 100% sustainable and from renewable sources. In turning to Volkswagen Green Energy Connect, customers can take advantage of intelligent charging to reduce the CO₂ emissions of electric vehicles during the use phase.

 

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powercloud becomes silver member of TMG Research

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  • powercloud has become a Silver Member of TMG Research

 

(Atlanta, GA; October 5th, 2021) – powercloud, the fastest growing billing system in the energy and utilities industry, announced today that it will sponsor TMG Research, a division of TMG Consulting. Through independent, unbiased research, TMG Research creates an environment for industry professionals that will enable them to access business-critical information, objective data, and the tools they need to further the utility landscape.

 

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“TMG Research has proven its value in matching utility companies with innovative service providers,” explained Steven Dawson, Vice President of North American Sales at powercloud. “Working with TMG will play a prominent role in our growth in the North American market.”

“We are excited to have powercloud on board. We serve as a connecting point for solution providers, like powercloud, to get their message and thought leadership in front of utility professionals. We welcome the opportunity to help Steven as his team pushes the powercloud message out and look forward to finding new avenues to help them achieve their marketing goals,” said Ken Maness, VP of Marketing & Research at TMG Consulting.

 

About TMG Consulting (www.tmgconsulting.com)
TMG Consulting is an advisory and professional services firm working with utilities to plan, develop, implement, and manage their ecosystem of digital technology solutions and service providers. Over the past 29 years, TMG has worked with over 300 utilities, matching their business needs with digital solutions, systems integrators, and implementation services to maximize the value of their customers and optimize and de-risk their IT investments. TMG brings deep experience across all major IT domains including CIS, Metering, Asset Management, Work Management, Resource Planning, and ERP environments. TMG’s clients include Utilities of all sizes providing Water, Gas, Electric, and Municipal Services in both regulated, competitive, and public power markets.