CIO

Contact Energy now runs entire business ‘from the cloud’

“We now have real transparency around hosting and data storage consumption by using Spark’s Revera cloud platform and Amazon Web Services,” says Michael Dreyer, general manager, ICT.

A move to the cloud gives us the agility and flexibility we need to perform in a fast moving environment

Michael Dreyer, Contact Energy

Contact Energy has completed a large scale migration to Spark’s cloud services.

“A move to the cloud gives us the agility and flexibility we need to perform in a fast moving environment,” says Michael Dreyer, general manager ICT at Contact Energy.

“Spark is able to front this under a services model that takes complexity away and allows us to focus on our business needs at the application level,” says Dreyer, in a statement.

“We now have real transparency around hosting and data storage consumption by using Spark’s Revera cloud platform and Amazon Web Services. This allows us to rapidly adjust and fine-tune our environments even further and the significant operational savings opportunities will help to drive down our cost to serve each customer.

With millions of customer records to be considered, Contact worked with Spark in a nine-month long migration plan, developed with its applications management suppliers Deloitte, Wipro and DTL.

Critical billing processing, the call centre interface and customer queries to the back end systems through digital channels now run quicker than they have ever done. This improves customer experience through traditional channels like the call centre and digital channels such as web and mobile.

Now that the programme is complete and we move into 2017, we are in a position to deliver real value and innovation from technology for both our customer and energy generation businesses

Michael Dreyer, Contact Energy

“To go from selecting Spark as our new vendor, to having migrated all our systems to cloud, including changing operating systems, databases, and numerous application upgrades within nine months is an incredible effort for all the team,” says Dreyer.

“Now that the programme is complete and we move into 2017, we are in a position to deliver real value and innovation from technology for both our customer and energy generation businesses.”

Vanessa Sorenson, Spark Digital’s general manager, enterprise and Trans-Tasman, says the shift to the cloud was prompted when last year the company’s majority shareholding shifted from Australia to New Zealand.

Vanessa Sorenson of Spark Digital at a CIO roundtable discussion.
Vanessa Sorenson of Spark Digital at a CIO roundtable discussion.

The Contact executive team re-assessed its IT set-up and how they can better serve their half-million customers, in digital ways.

A wholesale change of this nature is a courageous step towards digitising and creating an exceptional experience for customers, says Sorenson.

“A total shift to cloud was a big strategic step for Contact to take, but one which is already benefitting the company in its effort to help customers ‘live more comfortably with energy’,” she states. “The ability to offer a highly digital customer experience in a safe, reliable and efficient, NZ-hosted environment, does just that.”


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