Green champion Ecotricity moves ahead with IBM
From Lauraibm
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About Ecotricity
Ecotricity has been building wind turbines and selling electricity across the UK since 1996. It supplies large organisations such as The Body Shop and the Co-op Bank and is recommended by both the Soil Association and the World Wildlife Fund.
It is the only green electricity company that builds its own renewable energy sources and is dedicated to changing the way electricity is made and sold.
It builds and operates wind turbines on partner sites through its Merchant Wind Power programme. Partners buy their electricity from the turbine and receive a dedicated supply of green power at reduced rates.
Ecotricity and IBM
IBM’s green credentials and drive to focus on mid-market have opened the door to a $3.72 million deal with Ecotricity - the utility company that sells green electricity across the UK - and will enable the company to take the brakes off its business.
Ecotricity, which is investing £25 million in wind energy this year, can now move forward with its ambitious plans to change the way homes and businesses buy and consume power.
Customer growth
Ecotricity has seen its customer numbers double each year for the past three, but the increasing pressure on its back-office systems meant it had to put its marketing activities on hold.
The company’s founder, Dale Vince, had been searching for a customer relationship management (CRM) and billing solution to support his plans for customer growth, when an email from Client Manager David Benton popped into his inbasket.
Impressed with IBM’s environmentally-friendly policies and surprised that such a large company would be interested in his 70-employee organisation, he invited David and his Global Business Services (GBS) mid-market colleague James Ritchie for informal talks.
There was instant rapport between the two organisations, and a few months later, Ecotricity agreed with IBM’s proposal to become the first IBM UK implementation of SAP Industry Solution for Utility (ISU).
The direct approach
David, who is part of the SMB team covering Southern England, decided to introduce himself to Ecotricity with an email to Dale Vince headed ‘Big but Green’.
In the note, he said he had selected Ecotricity as a potential client because it was clearly a dynamic, expanding organisation committed to combating climate change. He outlined IBM’s long tradition of minimising its impact on the environment, and covered IBM’s policies on recycling, waste management and using renewable energy sources for its power needs.
He dismissed the preconception that IBM was only interested in large companies and suggested the two organisations could work well together. Importantly, Ecotricity could fulfil its plans for growth with help from IBM.
Dale responded positively and the next day David and James were on their way to the company’s HQ at Stroud for their first meeting.
“The company already had 25,000 customers and planned to move that figure to one million or more, but expansion was being held back by inadequate IT,” says David. “They were using an old legacy billing system that was out of support and needed a great deal of manual work-arounds, and although they had been having lengthy discussions with a couple of suppliers, including one that was proposing a solution with some SAP components, nothing had yet been signed. So, we were in with a remote chance.”
At the initial meeting, James confirmed IBM’s support for medium-sized companies as well as its understanding of the issues facing utility companies. He then suggested a process mapping exercise that would document the company’s current activities; shortly afterwards a contract was signed and a small GBS team lead by Lori Sangastiano began working with Ecotricity.
James says: “Like many relatively new companies of this size, there was no real documentation of the way things were done, so there was no base line to work from in order to define and improve things. The mapping exercise was therefore very important and identified some quick wins. There were three or four IT systems people, but no IT management, so Lori worked with the key stakeholders to really understand the needs of the business, while David and I worked on the relationship with Dale.”
Sharing values
The trust built up by the IBM team during the first engagement, together with a compelling commercial deal, led Ecotricity to choose the IBM proposal for a replacement CRM and Billing solution over the competition (Intallec) whose proposed solution cost 70% less than IBM’s.
“Things became very competitive at this stage, but it was clear that Ecotricity and IBM share the same values, and this gave us more credibility,” adds David. “Dale was also genuinely pleased that a company the size of IBM wanted to work with him. He had been unaware of our green credentials and history, and it was undoubtedly these that opened the door for our first meeting. Dale wants his company to be a market leader, and Ecotricity becoming IBM’s first implementation of SAP ISU in the UK shows his commitment to the goal. It will create shock waves around the utility industry - Green energy is now big business.”
The contract is a multi-brand solution that includes GBS implementation services over the next 10 months, $100,000 for IBM System x, and financing by IBM Global Financing (IGF), on top of the SAP licences which IBM wrapped into the deal.
Hitesh Amin, GBS Mid Market sector lead, who led and closed the deal directly with Dale, says: “This win is very much aligned to the mid-market business model of selling not only services but also hardware, licences, and IGF services. In addition, we were able to close the deal in one week with support from GBS risk & bid and C&N.”
He adds: “The Mid Market GBS sector approach to focus on white space clients and secure deals which GBS has not won before, is proving to be a win/win business model for Mid Market and GBS industries verticals.”
- Source: w3 News
