Utility Week Customer Summit 2023
Day 2 synopsis. A focus on Debt and Vulnerability.
Utility Week Customer Summit 2023.
It was exciting to see that the culture of data sharing has truly begun, and the industry is feeling positive about what they are being able to achieve.
The sharing of fixed purpose data sharing has been great to prove the concept worked, but there was clear recognition that further digital transformation was needed to address challenges around the ability to scale, along with security plus the validity of data.
The event saw attendees from both utility and charitable sectors, as they both have a vested interest in how they can provide a better service to customers that find themselves in vulnerable circumstances.
Charities seem to be some of the key voices in the drive for change as they see the effects of the cost-of- living crisis daily. A recurring theme was on how to address the challenges of ensuring people receive the right support.
The panel talk ‘Best ways to support those in need during the crisis’ Included Speakers
Sarah Oldman Head of affordability & vulnerability – E.ON Next
Pete Holland Director of customer & wholesale services – Anglian Water
addressed the Lessons learned from winter 2022/23 and the support available to customers to have safe and warm homes, along with the status of PSR assistance on a national level.
Points included – great to share data, start of process, but needed to think about outcomes of that sharing and also reflected that there was so much more that could be done to support these vulnerable people beyond the emergency scenario.
The art of sharing
Other presentations highlighted a case study on ‘Using data to identify and support vulnerable customers’
Pete Holland Anglian Water, Director of customer & wholesale services, discussed Anglian Water’s approach to affordability support and Customer affordability identification, and the way they are Supporting the third Sector.
Northern Gas Networks Steven Dacre – Vulnerability innovations lead, shared Review of needs and deploy ability with the Case study: How to assist vulnerable customers with power outages. The innovations he discussed around redirecting of battery storage from regular appliances to medical device in power outage was really fascinating and interested to watch this develop. Steve also discussed the NGN customer energy village project. IOTICS is proud to be part of this ground breaking project.
Case Study: ‘Helping customers: The evolution from emergency to everyday’
IOTICS Gemma Beard and Joanna Finlay, Consulting Manager, Financial Wellbeing, Inclusion & Vulnerability at Sopra Steria spoke about why they are working with us on the future state of PSR and data sharing. IOTICS accelerate the sharing of public and private data for Sopra’s vision around enabling support for vulnerable customers every day.
Our company vision statements and values align, with our willingness to act positively, and our vision to build a better world through digital innovation.
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