First Utility Helps Customers Optimize Their Energy Consumption Using DataStax Enterprise
Company Background
First Utility is the largest independent energy supplier in the UK , servicing more than one million households . The company is focused on disrupting the legacy , slowchanging utilities industry through innovative new applications that deliver total transparency and help customers understand and manage their energy consumption . First Utility has a number of “ firsts ” to its name : it was the first supplier to offer dual-fuel Smart Metering to UK households , the first to offer an consumer energy analytics platform and the first to offer fully automated video meter reads in its mobile app . Business Objectives – Drive Better Customer Experience
Before adopting the DataStax Enterprise ( DSE ) distributed database platform , First Utility sought to achieve two main goals – develop a modern platform to support a disruptive energy startup through innovation and evolve a highly efficient business model that allows us to offer consistently market leading prices to our customers – DSE supports both of these strategies .
First Utility drives innovation through applications such as “ My Energy ”, a core component of the company ’ s digital proposition that helps customers optimize energy consumption and lower their bills . Many households now use the Smart Metering service on a monthly and even weekly basis , and First Utility seeks to bring more of these value-added applications to its
customers via DataStax Enterprise . Each smart meter produces up to 17 thousands meter readings per year . Most households have two meters – gas and electricity – and First Utility supplies nearly one million homes . That ’ s a lot of data to store and process within the My Energy platform and doing it in an affordable way is why they chose DSE .
“ Investing in digital engagements creates higher customer lifetime value , and First Utility is focused on delivering applications that build trust and create long-term profitable relationships with our customers ,” said Bill Wilkins , CIO / CTO , First Utility . “ DataStax Enterprise offers the data scale and analytics capabilities we need to bring these new innovations to market .” DataStax Enterprise – Database for Cloud Applications
First Utility realized it needed a new platform that could store and manipulate large amounts of data for their My Energy and other applications , so the company adopted DataStax Enterprise . DSE is a distributed database platform based on the open source Apache CassandraTM database . DSE ’ s masterless architecture ensures very high availability and linear scalability to support the uptime and performance requirements of cloud applications .
First Utility was initially drawn to using open source Apache CassandraTM , but realized that DSE ’ s integrated Analytics capabilities based on Apache Spark provided functionality not readily available elsewhere . The company also quickly realized that DataStax could help them adopt a “ digital shift ” mindset and adopt the skills needed to create next-generation applications .
When first undertaking their digital transformation , First Utility considered utilizing prepackaged software solutions that did not address their broader data management ecosystem . However for the long run , the company wanted its own framework for creating new applications and pursued a database platform that could accomplish innovative application delivery . Results – Drive Customer Retention
Since rolling out the data platform with DataStax Enterprise , First Utility has grown its footprint in DSE . It started as a strategy to support a modern innovative new platform . However success there has spawned the desire to bring the benefits to more traditional areas of Energy I . T . and have deployed the framework in the Customer Care and Billing platform – a mission-critical , business facing system . With DSE , First Utility was the first company to offer an energy data analytics platform that shows how much energy customers are using and spending to help them optimize their usage .
First Utility can now see that customers who use the platform regularly use 5-6 % less energy and save , on an average , £ 45 a year based on an annual spend of £ 900 . Customers are also happier , and stay with them 60 % longer than before .