The Benefits of SaaS for the Energy Market

Software as a service, or SaaS, is a model which uses software delivered across the internet. Third parties host various applications for use by clients across the world. It’s a form of cloud computing, in which the end user always has access to the latest iteration of the application and doesn’t need to host bulky programmes on its own servers.

Many UK businesses already use SaaS, either exclusively for all their apps or partially for just some. For the UK energy industry, getting on board with this modern and easy way of doing things comes with some great benefits. Let’s take a look at what those are.

For an energy company, whether a start-up or a long running outfit, SaaS opens up many ways to bring benefits to both the business and to its customers. For example:

• Reduced cost from elimination of hardware: A pure SaaS company will have very little hardware or infrastructure to contend with. This will inevitably reduce downtime, reduce maintenance costs and drive down problems with keeping everything running.

• Remote working is a possibility: Hosting your business in the cloud means it’s accessible from anywhere. This means you have the ability to facilitate remote working, to allow for round the clock query resolution and generally to provide a better customer experience without needing to keep an office building open all hours.

• Rapid price configuration: Energy customers are always on the look out for a better deal, and by using a cloud hosted platform, your business can respond quickly to market changes, capitalising on price changes before the competition can catch up.

• Data deciphering in real time: As customers switch over to smart meters, energy companies suddenly have access to a wealth of real time data about how their customers are behaving. In a location hosted environment, this would likely sit on a hard drive somewhere, waiting for someone to have the time to delve into the numbers. With the right SaaS solution in place, the tools to decode the data rapidly will be provided, helping you stay on top of trends in energy consumption in real time.

• Lower software costs: Most SaaS providers use a monthly subscription model to allow access to various applications within their suite. This can make it far more affordable to energy companies to access the software they need, without having to pay out a lump sum for a long term licensing agreement.

• Up to the minute improvements: While your version of office hosted software will eventually go out of date, requiring a new licensing fee to be paid, with SaaS your provider will keep everything up to date and will offer the latest and best version at all times. There will be no need to pay for infrastructure upgrades or to use a new release or feature, as the provider will take care of all that for you.

• Easy scalability: Growing an energy supply business can be hard enough, without trying to get to grips with how to grow your software solitons too. By partnering with an experienced SaaS provider, new and growing suppliers can find solutions that allow them to expand where necessary, add on features where needed and to complement and facilitate a healthy business plan.

SaaS, while being used by some energy companies, is still to really take off in this industry. As the

benefits of smart meters come to the fore, however, we fully expect more energy suppliers to move over to this more agile, more customer friendly way of working.

With every golden lining, there has to be a cloud. Thankfully, with SaaS, it’s not particularly large or ominous. As an energy company, here are some of the things to be aware of if considering a switch to SaaS.

• Security: In our day and age, security is a primary concern for any business, and the energy sector is no different. Keeping customers details and data safe is paramount. Thankfully, most SaaS providers will have done the hard work for you, but make sure you’re happy with the offer on the table before jumping in.

• Control: Most SaaS providers will offer a far more secure environment for data than any energy supplier could hope to provide in house. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that you’ll have no control over that security. Although data security will be backed up by a tight service level agreement, it's still your name that gets dragged through the mud in the event of a breach.

• Cost: Without some planning and, hopefully, some good advice, it can be easy to get signed up for something you don’t necessarily need. Paying over the odds for software that is far too complex is a mark of some unscrupulous SaaS providers. However, when you find a good one, they should be able to help you refine down just those services you need, so that you can enjoy the benefits of SaaS at a price that reflects accurately just those tools you require.

None of these are challenges which cannot be overcome and should not be considered reasons to discount SaaS for your business. The energy industry is increasingly reliant on data, and by implementing SaaS to manage, control and understand that data, your business could get ahead of the competition.

Overall, SaaS solutions, when done right, are affordable, easy to implement and highly flexible, all attributes that are very welcome in the fluid world of energy supply.

Contact us for more information on using SaaS for your business, or for advice on starting up your own energy supply company. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn