{"id":385,"date":"2015-12-07T17:12:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T17:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/industry\/2015\/12\/07\/agl-leads-cloud-innovation-in-utilities-3\/"},"modified":"2018-09-20T20:04:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T20:04:03","slug":"agl-leads-cloud-innovation-in-utilities-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/manufacturing\/2015\/12\/07\/agl-leads-cloud-innovation-in-utilities-3\/","title":{"rendered":"AGL leads cloud innovation in Utilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
A power shift to consumers is well underway, with today\u2019s customers having more information and new ways to access energy.<\/p>\n
Consumer demands and expectations are causing utilities companies to reimagine their services and offerings. As energy alternative products, markets, regulations, and customer needs continue to evolve at a faster rate, the industry must be able to proactively listen to consumers, and become more agile and insight driven, reacting at consumer and community speed.<\/p>\n
One company who is not only responding to, but leading such a transformation, is AGL Energy Limited (AGL), one of Australia\u2019s largest energy retailers. With the growing choices of providers and cost-saving options available to local energy consumers, AGL knew it needed to find ways to differentiate its offerings in a more dynamic and competitive environment.<\/p>\n
Early on, the company saw the cloud as a way to drive new opportunities to differentiate itself beyond pricing by enhancing the value and delivering personalised experiences to customers.<\/p>\n
Rolling out smart meters was one of the first ways AGL drove this transformation, subsequently empowering consumers to better understand their energy consumption, as well as lower costs and increase energy efficiency.<\/p>\n
As Utilities became more data driven, AGL furthered its investment in the cloud by consolidating its independently-managed business websites into one platform based on Microsoft Azure. Working with Avanade and Accenture, AGL implemented a customer experience solution from Sitecore running on the platform. This enabled the company to take advantage of rich and scalable features, while leveraging existing investments in Microsoft technology, such as Office 365<\/a>, which the company rolled out as part of the cornerstone of its cloud strategy. Office 365 allows AGL to take advantage of public cloud services and bring together its operations and employees, providing business-critical mobile connectivity and improved collaboration. Office 365 has enabled AGL to save money, control costs and simplify email support.<\/p>\n