James Morgan

🏛 UK #utilities businesses, and #energy businesses in particular, are in a crisis of extremely poor #customerservice. ❌ How did it get this bad? 💷 High energy prices - Customers have become more discerning and diligent with energy spend, and more customers have been pushed into fuel poverty. This has generated more queries for energy businesses and customers have been better at identifying problems exacerbated by prices increases. 📈 Better customer service in other industries - As other industries improve automation and provide better standards of service, the same is expected of energy suppliers. Unfortunately they’re not even close, with the exception of a few that are making progress. Customer frustration increases as they see energy companies’ service drifting further from the overall market trend. 📜 #Regulation and intervention - The introduction and withdrawal of government schemes makes energy bills confusing and creates another line item for the energy company to get wrong. Schemes have to be withdrawn just as well as they are introduced. Additional pressures of new regulation on industry expertise means those skills are drawn away from serving customers and into implementing new schemes and regulations. 👋 Skills drain - Following the pandemic energy business employees found that they had invaluable skills that could be deployed remotely for businesses with better systems and processes, in roles that were better paid. Why stay and face the pain and aggravation of the energy sector when you could be working in a sector where the customer might actually like talking to you? Even the regulator itself has had a “brain drain’ according to Energy UK. 🇿🇦 #Outsourcing and #offshoring - Years ago we saw a rapid offshoring on energy customer services to reduce costs. It wasn’t widely successful and the activities were then reshored a few years later. The trend is here again with customer services for some companies offshored to South Africa. Reduces costs yes but the standardisation of scripting and issue resolution means anything non-standard doesn’t get resolved. 💻 #Automation - There’s an increasing use of chatbots, but again only the basic and standard stuff gets resolved. The UKCSI finds that 50% of chatbot queries have to go to a human eventually anyway. #AI and machine learning isn’t currently good enough to resolve complex industry issues. 👨‍💻 Systems replacement - As a response to much of the above energy retailers are looking towards new systems to resolve their issues, improve service, and reduce costs. That process is long, costly and disruptive, and customers end up with additional errors, slow resolution, and nobody to turn to. 45% of customers say poor use of technology has made them stop using an organisation. In the case of your energy supplier though, as you’re already registered, you don’t have much choice. You have to deal with your #supplier until you go through the potentially painful process of #switching.

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Resilience….? There are many reasons I have been reflecting on the term this week. Not to mention this quote from the Futurist Jamais Cascio… The quote embodies many topics we explore daily…resilience of our network, sustainability…and of course what does the future of energy look like…. However, as the Uk embarks on a general election, I have been wondering about the term “resilience” as a leadership competence. Super interested to reflect upon resilience vs other competencies such as confidence for example, especially in the context of what will be the most important competencies for future leaders…… Is one more valued than the other? Are they both vital for future leaders in equal measures? Reading the insights from some of our youngest consumers this week, who want to make their mark on the world, I wonder how we best support & enable them to thrive!

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I'm proud of the strides we've made with our latest Climate Transition Plan (CTP). Our CTP document summarises really clearly the different buckets of our emissions, the progress we have made, and our plans for dealing with each one. We set out clearly the dependencies and trade-offs involved, including the policy and regulatory support needed. We have also aligned our plan with the newest Transition Plan Taskforce guidance. We are focused on delivering net zero whilst maintaining reliability and affordability. #ClimateLeadership #NetZero

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In UK #energy #retail change is inevitable, it’s always been the same, businesses come and go, portfolios are bought and sold, and unfortunately people are made redundant. As most people in my energy network will know the latest shifting of the chairs was yesterday when it was agreed the Opus Energy SME portfolio would be sold to EDF (UK), completion expected Q3 2024. To any of the people at Opus Energy impacted by the sale and facing redundancy here’s are a few words of advice and an offer. 😧 First thing, don’t panic. You’ve got a bit of time to prepare for the post Opus world. 🖇 Take in the news and seek to understand your redundancy terms as soon as possible. ✅ Lots of people in the energy business get made redundant. Good people will find new roles quickly. 💪 Don’t wait for somebody to knock on your door, take control of the situation. 🖊 Make sure your CV is absolutely up to date and slick. 📝 Make a list of your key skills and the things you love doing. 🤝 Connect with industry specific recruitment agents, there are plenty of good ones around*. 🤓 Start to revise interview questions and answers. Plenty of examples online. 📞 Ask for advice. You’ll find people are generous with their time. 📃 Produce a single paragraph summary of who you are, what you’re great at doing, your achievements, and what you want to do next. It’s useful to share with people. 💡 Consider if you have options outside of traditional employment. Will any redundancy payment be enough to buy you time to start your own business? Is it time to pursue a passion project? ❌ By the way, don’t do anything daft to jeopardise any redundancy package. Finally, here’s an offer. I dedicate two hours a week of my time to individuals, small businesses and not-for-profits that need help. If you want any advice, even if it’s just five minutes, or you want to talk in confidence about your next career step, then get in touch. https://energymentor.uk/ I would wish everyone at Opus good luck, but you don’t need luck, you need to take control of the situation, work hard at creating your own good fortune, and steer things the way you want them to go. * Try Stuart Dawes Alice Heffernan Lisa Weston Lee De Souza Russ King Malvin Kamara Kerry Porter for example.

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Want to get a view of what is coming? Sign up for the Future Energy Scenarios (FES) webinars from National Grid ESO and let us know what you think. The modelling detail is beyond me but I know it is necessary to produce such high quality, challenging, interesting and useful outputs. Highly recommend! #datascience #FES #FutureEnergyScenarios #datamodelling #possiblefutures #energy

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🚀 Join us for an essential Masterclass at Chief Disruptor LIVE this Thursday! Masterclass: "Accelerate your route to market; developing an agile data insights strategy and roadmap" Featuring: - Nick Read, Head of Product UK&I, CBRE - Natascha Bowen, Head of Data Management & Delivery, BUK Channels, Barclays - Hanna Mayhew, Director of Product Management, Shell 🔍 Key Learning Objectives: - Setting goals: Defining business value and strategic outcomes from data usage - Aligning data management with overall business strategy - Ensuring rapid access to relevant data for decision-makers beyond analysts - Establishing data flow consistency and agility with advanced tools like data mesh and data fabric - Understanding data scope and managing diverse data types effectively - Addressing data governance, privacy, and compliance requirements Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your data insights strategy and drive business agility. See you there! 👩‍💻📊 https://lnkd.in/ebwEKkpf #DataInsights #AgileStrategy #ChiefDisruptorLIVE

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⚡ How do forecasting teams operate in one of the UK's biggest energy companies? ⚡ On the latest episode of the Hypercube Podcast, Adam Sroka is joined by Sallyann Blackett, Head of Volume Forecasting at E.ON, as she discusses her team's complex work predicting gas and electricity demands both long and short-term. Learn how forecasting is about more than just data... Check out this episode wherever you get your podcasts. #Energy #Podcast #WeAreHypercube

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There was a great discussion this morning at #DataComms conference in London about a recent Wadds Inc. report funded by NewsWhip on the impact of societal polarisation along with NewsWhip's Paul Quigley, Merlin Entertainments' Sarah Brown and UCL's Georgie Cade. Polarisation is one of the biggest issues facing corporate communications teams, along with alignment with management, AI, misinformation, and skills. Speaking out can enhance reputation and trust with some stakeholders, but it is equally likely to alienate others. Companies increasingly find themselves at the centre of socio-political issues, negatively impacting their reputation, customer demand, employee relations and tie-up management resources. The issue of companies speaking out on societal issues can be traced back to the 1950s and follows the arc of the CSR and ESG movements. Activitist leadership peaked during the pandemic. The geopolitical situation has brought about rapid change. Polarisation plays out for organisations as a media effect. The interplay between social media and mainstream media is a key driver of how issues become part of the public conversation. Media laundering and amplification are also factors. Unfortunately, the situation won't change soon because politicians and the media have an incentive, in terms of attention and income, to benefit from the effects of polarisation. Companies are becoming more selective in addressing issues that align with their purpose and stakeholder expectations. Issues are evaluated based on factors like alignment with values, risk assessment, legal compliance, employee engagement and cultural sensitivity. Real-time and predictive data allow companies to benchmark public interest, contextualise emerging issues, predict their trajectory, and decide whether and how to engage. We codified a management framework as part of the project set out in the report that helps get ahead of the issue. I'm grateful to NewsWhip for funding this work and building a community of corporate communications leaders to explore these issues related to my PhD studies on corporate communications' contribution to management. Thanks to Andrew Thomas and the #DataComms teams for the opportunity to participate in today's conference. Good luck to everyone at the awards tonight. I've had to skip it as I'm heading to Helsinki for another event tomorrow.

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The market for low carbon technologies is rapidly growing. The pace of innovation is accelerating and there is little regulatory protection for consumers. Additionally, information is often confusing or difficult to navigate, causing consumers to find it challenging to understand. We are at a stage in the development lifecycle where early adopters will pave the way for mass roll out of these solutions. Ultimately, we need all consumers to benefit from affordable and accessible installs if net zero is going to be delivered in a fair way (in just 308 months......). #netzero #innovation #lowcarbontechnologies #energytransition #sustainablefuture

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It's great that we're seeing trust being regained in energy suppliers. They have an important role to play in the energy transition, and with their intimate customer touchpoint are well placed to be supporting the move to net zero by engaging customers with excellent experiences, information and support. Let's hope that reports that electricity smart meter installations plummeting to their lowest levels since 2020 is just a blip, and retailers can continue to drive installs to support better data, and unlock flexibility opportunities at scale. #energytransition #netzero #retailenergy #customerengagement https://lnkd.in/e3A_jeHe

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The first of our new series - TNEI on Grid! Looking forward to contributing to these articles and let me know if you'd like to chat through any of them or have ideas for topics.

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Yesterday, I attended Reset Connect at Excel London. There were loads of fantastic exhibits and talks, but for me there were two key highlights: The first was an insightful workshop led by the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) featuring a fantastic case study from Matt Bullivant on how OakNorth have been applying the PCAF standards to their own portfolio. It was very encouraging to see others sharing the belief that we must not let perfect be the enemy of the good in carbon calculation - it is all too easy to get hung up on some of the minutia of carbon accounting and forget that we need to start taking steps to decarbonise, now. The most important step is the first one. Measure your emissions ASAP, because even if it's a ballpark figure, it will show you where your key emitters are and where you need to focus your reductions on. You can refine the granularity of your estimate as you go. The data quality tiers in the PCAF Financed Emissions standard continues to be a good example of how financial institutions can (and do!) apply this. Thank you to Hetal Patel, Nia Bell, and Phillip Schauer for organising! The second was the Carbon Accounting Alliance roundtable where Andrew Griffiths guided a great discussion on some of the biggest challenges of SME carbon accounting as it currently is. Some of the major SME pains we discussed were: 📊 SMEs not having access to reliable data on their activities 🤔 differences in methodologies being confusing for SMEs ⏳💰 the significant time and financial cost involved 🤝 getting organisational buy in, since the data collection process requires a lot of collaboration within an organisation These challenges plus the fact that carbon measurement will be a key part of avoiding disastrous climate change underscore for me the importance of developing tools to support SMEs in their decarbonisation journey.

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Great to join the panel today to discuss the learnings and challenges to date and the next steps in the maturity of the Ofwat Innovation fund! Looking forward to tomorrow to share more about our innovation project which looks to address a gap in the way we “connect” with faith and diverse communities - Do join us to find out more! #UWL24

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While the outcome of the forthcoming #generalelection won’t be determined by #energy policy, it’s useful to know what we can expect as an industry from the parties competing to form a government. Current opinion polls show a #Labour landslide so let’s start there first. I’ve shown the top five parties as predicted by percentage of votes cast. Labour - At the heart of the labour energy #policy is the creation of Great British Energy, “a publicly-owned clean power company, to cut bills for good and boost energy security, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.” This aspiration severely underestimates what it takes to run an energy company in terms of working capital, risk management capabilities, long term planning, and middle and back office operations. Unless they’re willing to break out of public sector pay structures they’ll find themselves in a battle to acquire the requisite talent to operate and run such a business. https://lnkd.in/eDfG_aND #Conservative - Energy doesn’t appear to be a priority for the Conservatives and as far as I can see they’re not at all clear on their energy policy, far more interested in right wing pursuits. If anything they seem to be rowing back on most #renewable and #netzero aspirations, whilst nodding at existing policy, and favouring new North Sea oil and gas. https://lnkd.in/ephGReuG #LiberalDemocrats - They rightly recognise the importance of the #climate crisis, and their policy is packed full of the right aspirations, but it seems very light on how they’ll get there. https://lnkd.in/efBAknYe #ReformUK - Reject that we can do anything about global warming and suggest we learn to live with it. The party helpfully reminds us that carbon dioxide “is essential for photosynthesis”. Scrap renewables, scrap net zero, develop new #oilandgas and new #nuclear. https://lnkd.in/eDBwZhdb #GreenParty - Arguably the most well developed and consistent policies on the climate emergency, energy and the #environment, but unfortunately unlikely to secure enough votes for any of it to see the light of day. Perhaps the most contentious point is the aspiration to phase out nuclear which all other parties see as an essential part of the journey to net zero. https://lnkd.in/eiH2kbUS #generalelection2024

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Hey LinkedIn AI Bot- How significant is the upcoming connection reform? LinkedIn AI Bot: The upcoming Connection Reform is highly significant for energy stakeholders. It introduces a shift from the 'First come, first serve' system to 'First ready, First Connect', aiming to streamline grid connections. This change is crucial for meeting renewable energy targets and ensuring efficient energy transition, impacting investors, developers, and anyone seeking grid connections. LinkedIn AI Bot know's the score- This is Big. Our 2-part podcast below aims to round up all the key points into a easily digestible listen for any developers, investors or other stakeholders involved in getting projects connected to the Grid.

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At Mansion House for a fascinating first look at the new Plain Numbers report, which outlines their transformative approach for communicating financial information to customers. Now energy bills occupy more of everyone’s time and attention, it's never been so important for our industry's often unique account management processes to be understandable by its customers (solidarity to anyone who's tried to explain a monthly Direct Debit in a quick couple of lines!). As panelist Sheryl Steele (PayCaptain) pointed out, it's tempting to rush towards explainers and glossaries as a solution when transformation of language at the UI/system stage would save customers *and* companies a ton of time. And for anyone feeling as if the complete transformation of a huge body of existing comms feels like a Bit Much: PN's experts recommend starting with a few pieces that matter the most, and building on learnings over time.

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"You can't build a revolution on dodgy foundations" Not a post on the UKs general election, but on Data Foundations...naturally! There's no AI strategy in isolation, without a Data Foundations strategy - despite the ambitions of many organisations. Great to see this being spoken about more frequently. Link to the article in the comments 👇 #ai #datafoundations #datastrategy

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