Airtricity

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Airtricity

Customer’s Challenge

Airtricity is one of Europe's leading fully integrated renewable energy companies. Airtricity has three main areas of focus: wind farm development, finance and ownership of wind farms and green energy supply. One of Airtricity’s main aims is to explore additional opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

Airtricity recently embarked on a project to implement a new Customer Information Solution (CIS) across the areas of sales & marketing, credit control, customer care, registration and customer billing functions. As part of this project Airtricity identified that a comprehensive customer communication solution needed to be implemented, and they decided to use a third party to manage this service. The solution had to include management of bills, letters and credit control items. Airtricity required a robust and scalable solution that would support the company's future business growth and integrate seamlessly with its current CIS system.

Previously within Airtricity the production and printing of bills, letters and credit control items was quite time consuming. Airtricity employees were spending a lot of their time printing, re-printing and issuing bills, letters and credit control letters, when they could have been focusing on the core competency of billing.

The new CIS system being implemented within Airtricity produced the required information for bills, letters and credit control items in XML format. The challenge was to find a vendor who could translate this data in meaningful information which would produce letters, bills and credit control items automatically. The data also had to be translated into PDF format which was to be used for Airtricity’s online self service, which allows customers to view their bills online.

Fujitsu’s Solution

Fujitsu were engaged by Airtricity to start the process of choosing a third party to manage the customer communication solution. David Brown, Sales, Services & Marketing director with Airtricity comments:

“Airtricity have partnered with Fujitsu in the past on a number of other projects, so they know our company well. We were very happy with the level of service we received from Fujitsu in the past. This was one of the reasons why we chosen them to assist us find the best vendor that would meet our needs.”

The process began with a comprehensive requirements gathering exercise was initiated and included the following:

• Cost benefit analysis & impact assessment on an inhouse versus a third party managed customer communication solution;
• Vendor selection for printing and translation of the XML output;
• Business scenario definition for issue of bills / letters / credit control items;
• Requirement definition documentation related to the required business rules for bills;
• Design of bill & stationery to meet Airtricity’s brand guidelines;
• Project management of new bill print system and printers;
• Production of PDF and e-mail informing customers their bill is available to view online.

Fujitsu then wrote the tender (RFT), took responses from various vendors and made recommendations to Airtricity as to which vendor would be most suitable to provide the customer communication solution. Fujitsu also assisted Airtricity in the commercial negotiations to ensure the best possible deal was reached with the selected third party vendor.

David Brown, comments: “Timing was everything for us in this project. With many deadlines in place, to fall behind on one, could mean we would fall behind on the entire project. Fujitsu did not fail us here, deadlines were met with ease and the entire solution was implemented over a five months period.”

Benefits to our Customer

The key benefits to Airtricity included:

• Business Processes were improved and there is now one point of contact for bill production within Airtricity.
• Airtricity employees are now concentrating on their core competency and not spending time on administration, which has resulted in a significant cost saving.
• Airtricity now have a billing partner who understands the business and will make it easier to implement the system in other Airtricity sites around the world.
• With the implementation of the customer communication solution Airtricity now have increased capacity which provided customers with a better level of service.
• The solution is scalable and flexible and any changes that Airtricity need to make to the solution going forward can be easily accommodated.
• The process of allowing customer the option to view their bills online reduces paper waste and reflects the ‘green’ ethos of the company.

Some of the benefits are echoed by Brown: “Fujitsu helped us define a clear strategy and pinpoint the most appropriate vendors within the market. We now have a robust and adaptable solution in place which meets our needs entirely.”

Our Expertise

Fujitsu has a proven track record in providing innovative and reliable IT consultancy and solutions, incorporating the best and most appropriate technology and methodologies that creates value for its customers by helping them to realise their business vision and deliver impeccable customer service.

We have also built a reputation for understanding the business requirements of a wide range of different organisations. Fujitsu's consulting services helps you tailor IT strategies that support your broader business goals and ensure the best possible return on investment.

Our consultants use their vast experience and world-class analytical tools to guide you through the complexity of choices and increase your productivity.