case study british gas home energy - pitney bowes · asia pacific/australia level 7, 1 elizabeth...
TRANSCRIPT
British Gas Home EnergyCASE S TUDY
“WE CAN PRINT INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION AND MARKETING
MESSAGES AND THESE ALL ADD TO THE VALUE OF OUR
SERVICE TO OUR CUSTOMERS.”
Paul Richards, Marketing Manager, British Gas Home Energy
PITNEY BOWES BUSINESS
INSIGHT PROVIDES BRITISH
GAS HOME ENERGY WITH A
COMPETITIVE EDGE.
Challenge
British Gas Home Energy
needed a new document
composition tool to create
clearer and more effective
bills and statements, as well
as add the right kinds of
marketing messages.
Solution
DOC1® software’s easy-to-
use PC-based design station
with its advanced capabilities
and powerful production
engine made an ideal fit for
British Gas Home Energy.
SUMMARY
British Gas, part of the Centrica group of
companies, provides energy and services to
home and business customers throughout
Great Britain. The organization operates in
England and Wales under the British Gas
brand name and as Scottish Gas in Scotland.
As well as providing gas and electricity, the
company installs and maintains central
heating and gas appliances in millions of
homes throughout the country. In addition,
the organization offers expert, hassle-free
services for kitchen appliances, home electrics
and plumbing and drains.
Against the background of a highly competitive
energy market since the residential electricity
market opened to competition in 1998, British
Gas needed to improve its competitive edge
with better customer satisfaction. As a result,
the company implemented DOC1® document
composition software to improve the clarity
of customer billing statements and provide
information on additional products and
services the company had to offer.
CHALLENGE
Not long after the utilities industry in the
United Kingdom was deregulated in 1998,
British Gas Home Energy took a poll that
uncovered a sobering figure: 27 percent of its
19 million customers said they would consider
changing suppliers.
So in an attempt to place itself in a more
positive competitive position and understand
its customers better, British Gas Home Energy
undertook a series of surveys that focused
on how its customers and those of other
utility companies perceive their monthly bills.
(The most important means of communication
the company has with its customers is the
billing process; in fact, 80 percent of those
polled said it was the only contact they had
with the utility.)
The results of these studies highlighted two
areas in which British Gas Home Energy was
failing to satisfy customers: the presentation
and clarity of the statements themselves
and a lack of information customers were
receiving about products and services the
company had to offer.
British Gas Home Energy realized that a
new document composition tool was needed
to create clearer and more effective bills and
statements as well as add the right kinds
of marketing messages. Plus, the new system
had to be able to churn out high volumes
of documents in short periods of time. It also
needed to be dynamic enough not only to
quickly create customized marketing messages
on these documents but also make it possible
for additional bills and statements to be
produced on an ad-hoc basis.
UNITED STATES
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Troy, NY 12180
1.800.327.8627
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CANADA
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Suite 500
Toronto, ON M5E 1S2
1.800.268.3282
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EUROPE/UNITED KINGDOM
Minton Place
Victoria Street
Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1EG
+44.1753.848200
www.pbinsight.co.uk
ASIA PACIFIC/AUSTRALIA
Level 7, 1 Elizabeth Plaza
North Sydney NSW 2060
+61.2.9437.6255
www.pbinsight.com.au
“ANY CHANGES THAT WE WANT TO MAKE TO OUR DOCUMENTS ARE DONE EASILY
AND QUICKLY.”
Paul Richards, Marketing Manager, British Gas Home Energy
After a short search, British Gas Home Energy
decided to take a look at DOC1 document
composition software from Pitney Bowes
Business Insight.
“Aside from wanting to produce user-friendly
documents,” said Paul Richards, the marketing
manager at the utility who was in charge of
the project, “the fact is that we had invested
in state-of-the-art printers some years before,
and so we wanted to get the most out of them.
Seamless integration with these printers was
a real plus for DOC1.”
Following an extensive three-month test
period, British Gas Home Energy saw that
DOC1 software met the parameters of its
requirements and began implementation.
The first step in the document creation
process is a design station. Since the design
of the documents is often done by marketing
teams, the software was developed with an
easy-to-use graphical user interface based on
Windows. The fact that the design station
runs on PCs has proven to be a boon to the
collaboration between the marketing and
technical teams who use the software as
a common tool for document creation and
production.
Once the formatting and design stage is
complete, the data moves to a production
engine, which creates a data stream and
downloads it to the company’s two printing
centers—in Manchester and Northampton—
which routinely produce a total of 600,000
documents a day.
British Gas Home Energy selected an OS/2
system for the design station, which exports
the document data to the production engine,
which in turn runs under SCO UNIX. So that
DOC1 software can perform this process as
quickly and efficiently as possible, it’s possible
for the production engine to run under the
MVS, UNIX, AS/400, NT operating systems,
among others.
The result for British Gas Home Energy is
clear: readable bills and statements that are
not only tailored to the individual customer
but that are also excellent marketing vehicles.
The fact that these documents can be
personalized to meet the needs of individual
customers adds true value. The goal of British
Gas Home Energy has always been to supply
the best possible service to its customers;
implementation of DOC1 software has
enhanced this commitment to high quality
and greater value.
©2010 Pitney Bowes Software Inc. All rights reserved. 92425-AM-1004Pitney Bowes Business Insight is a division of Pitney Bowes Software Inc. DOC1 is a trademark of Pitney Bowes Software Inc. All other marks and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
RESULT
THE PITNEY BOWES BUSINESS INSIGHT ADVANTAGE
The combination of the easy-to-use PC-based design station with its advanced capabilities (such
as highlight color printing) and the powerful production engine was what made DOC1 software such
an ideal fit with British Gas Home Energy’s requirements. Another major benefit is the fact that the
DOC1 software is capable of handling British Gas Home Energy’s single database, where the records
of all of 19 million customers reside.