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atriga Industry Insights by and with Michael Fait
New challenges for energy suppliers
He is considered a qualified energy supply company expert: Key Account Manager Michael Fait. Thanks to his industry expertise, he is a sought-after discussion partner at atriga for energy suppliers who value innovative services in receivables management and debt collection. He has been familiar with the special challenges of the industry for many years and combines his personal know-how with atriga’s unique solutions. We talked to him about current developments and also took a look into the near future.
Corona and the energy sector
The German government has decided to cover the EEG apportionment for the years 2021 and 2022, which will be financed by the Corona aid package. The reason: because of falling demand due to the pandemic, electricity prices fell sharply last year. We would like to know from Michael Fait how he assesses the current situation against this background: “I fear a wave of insolvencies, especially in the SME sector, since the suspension of the obligation to file for insolvency expired at the end of April 2021. This could then primarily affect small and medium-sized businesses that have purchased between 10,000 and 60,000 kilowatt hours per year from basic suppliers or municipal utilities.” Fait continues: “How big the losses will actually be for the affected energy suppliers cannot be predicted, since no comparisons from the past are available. We cannot yet foresee whether there will be state intervention here, as was the case recently with the EEG apportionment. And whether that would be useful is a completely different question.
“I am convinced that a call to me and my colleagues is always worthwhile for those responsible at energy suppliers”
atriga key account manager Michael Fait is a sought-after contact for energy suppliers. He has known the special challenges of the industry for many years and combines his personal know-how with the unique solutions of atriga.
The year of the cloud
According to the ‘Digitalisation Barometer for the Energy Industry Digital@EVU 2020’, digital transformation has become a central pillar of corporate strategies. Michael Fait differentiates: “The big players are already quite far along with their digital transformation. However, it can be stated across the board that the energy sector has some catching up to do in terms of digitalisation. For example, I am sure that the deeper implementation of cloud technologies will also play a major role for energy suppliers in the coming years.
Are short contracts also an issue for energy suppliers?
Customer behaviour is changing massively; even cars are now available on a subscription basis. Contract periods are getting shorter and shorter, mobile phone contracts, for example, can be reconfigured or cancelled at the touch of a button. With the ‘Fair Consumer Contracts Act’, there is now also a draft law that ties contract terms of more than one year to extra conditions. In addition, a text form requirement for energy supply contracts is being discussed. But what does this mean for the industry? Michael Fait has a clear assessment: “It depends on how the grids develop, but the industry will become much more flexible. With regard to tariffs, the adjustment of instalment payments, but also contract terms.”
What does a new customer cost?
“New customer acquisition is only a big issue for companies that depend on new customer business for their existence – and these are not necessarily the small municipal utilities with their loyal clients,” says Michael Fait. “All the others have to calculate very precisely what a new customer will cost them. Especially if contracts with short terms are still rewarded with white goods, smartphones or tablets. The same applies to sensible investments in customer loyalty activities.”
Timely hedging protects against sales losses
“With these new types of small-scale and short-term contracts, reliable credit checks, address validation and fraud prevention systems are becoming increasingly important. This is because a faulty check in advance leads to an immediate loss that can no longer be compensated for over a longer contract period,” says Michael Fait and continues: “For this purpose, it is necessary for EVU to develop their own features for risk assessment to offer certain customers contract alternatives very flexibly if necessary. However, this flexibility in contract design will only be possible if correspondingly meaningful data and reliable forecasts about the customer are available. The atriga receivables management platform can handle this as a digital ecosystem, including all current and future payment types as well as a systematically controlled, highly personalised communication with customers on all analogue and digital channels. I am convinced that a call to me and my colleagues is always worthwhile for those responsible at energy suppliers,” Michael Fait concludes the conversation with a smile.
Michael Fait
Key Account Manager
atriga GmbH
Telefon +49 (0)6103 3746-314
E-Mail
