Instant energy

An innovative application of technology from the mobile phone market by Logica will transform prepayment customers into a profitable and desirable group.

Instant Energy is designed to replace existing prepayment metering technology easily and effectively. 

Specifically it will enable suppliers to:

• Reduce the total cost of ownership of prepayment customers
• Improve customer experience and aid retention
• Create new and more flexible sales channels
• Enhance operational data quality and completeness
• Reduce the number of unproductive calls to your call centres
• Support  top-up methods that your customers are using already for mobile phones

The solution
Logica and Iskraemeco ECL have designed an electricity and gas Prepayment Metering Service based on SMS messaging and the Pay As You Go (PAYG) concept.  The service is designed to support existing customer behaviour, while greatly improving operational efficiency.  This technology enables customers to add credit to their prepayment meter without the need to use smartcards, keys or tokens and without even leaving their home.

Communications with the meter is on demand using SMS messaging from a central service, enabling a Supplier to control and gather information from the meter as and when required.

The solution is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing supply business.

Suppliers will be provided with access to the Instant Energy Service through a web site which will enable customer records to be accessed, meter configurations, reads or credit updates requested.  Electronic messages will be sent between the Service and the Supplier using the standard industry message formats.