Balancing operational cost and consumer value creation.
Greg Guthridge is an executive-director with Accenture and the managing director for Accenture retail and business services for utilities. Nicholas Handcock is a manager who leads Accenture’s new energy consumer research program for the utilities industry.
For today’s utilities, the only constant is change. We’re in the midst of a significant transformation in the energy marketplace, and the shifting landscape increasingly is defined by the values and preferences of the new energy consumer. Energy providers face a confluence of consumer preferences, increasing technology innovation, shifting regulatory trends and the entrance of new market players looking to stake a claim as the energy value chain extends into the home. At the same time, economic challenges in recent years have driven an increased focus on the bottom line for utilities and consumers alike. Within this environment, many energy providers are being challenged to rethink their role in consumers’ lives, their strategies for customer operations and, more broadly, their position in the energy marketplace. In light of the pressure to maintain or reduce operating costs, providers are in the position of having to do more with less.