Speed isn’t everything in business, but it certainly brings an edge of competitive advantage to the table. The faster and more skillfully you can move, the more likely you are to get ahead of the game. At Flux, we pride ourselves on developing and building intuitive software that can keep in step with a rapidly changing energy sector. Given the global imperative for decarbonisation, speed is more important than ever.
Speed is crucial in a changing energy sector...
The exponential growth of distributed energy resources is adding huge scope to an already hugely complex industry. While there is massive ongoing investment in exploring new methods of energy generation, the ‘back end’ of getting that power to customers has been left behind. Traditional platforms are being outpaced by the rate of change because they don’t allow for the flexibility or innovation required in today's market. Outdated legacy systems are putting the handbrake on innovation and preventing retailers from creating real change - and real value - for their customers.
Flux’s suite of products is built to keep pace with the rapidly changing nature of the energy industry. We're hyper-aware of the evolving nature of the industry in which we operate. We’re highly focused on meeting the needs of a future energy market and all the inherent regulatory challenges associated with it.
Flux is built to enable clients to configure all common functionality to their needs, as and when they need to. We don’t believe retailers should be held hostage by systems that require them to spend huge sums in order to make slow, small changes to their platform. Instead, our focus on microservices and an API-based approach mean retailers benefit from reduced cost to acquire and serve, while efficiently deploying added features that continue to add value for customers.
Reducing manual handling and automating error management allows innovative retailers to make huge gains against slower-moving companies. Flux’s payments engine allows operators to perform all billing functions within one app - giving them total oversight of the customer life cycle. Everything from forecasting potential debt to invoicing customers is served within Flux, a fully compliant and PCI compliant product.
… but speed isn’t everything
Speed by itself isn’t enough. If you’re racing towards a dead end, it’s still going to be a dead end. While Flux can help retailers move faster, our products are also designed to help them price smarter and be able to integrate widely. With Flux, retailers have increased options to create exceptional customer experiences.
Thanks to our wide experience in the energy sector, we know that the relationships between the parties who make, move, sell and use energy are constantly changing. As a business, Flux wants to support the growth of more sustainable and resilient forms of generation, and enable energy retailers and their customers to do the same. That’s why we offer products for all ‘in life’ functions, created with modern architecture and tooling that supports all customer segments, including Commercial and Industrial customers.
The star of the show is FlexiBill, a product designed by Flux to automatically bill any tariff and price any plan. FlexiBill allows retailers to move faster, price smarter and provide a wider range of offerings for customers, whether they’re feeding energy into the grid or taking it out (or both) by automatically processing any interval data it receives.
FlexiBill’s enhanced pricing and rating capability supports all iterations of demand and time-of-use pricing. With FlexiBill on board, retailers reprice multiple connections within 30 seconds. Flexibill enables retailers to capitalise on the exponential growth of solar and home generation, battery storage, virtual power plants and other non-metered products. Retailers can design new consumer propositions without limitation, enabling competitive advantage.
With FlexiBill, energy retailers can introduce promotional price-based products such as time-of day/day-of-week pricing and wholesale price-based products in a simple to manage process. They can simultaneously take pressure off infrastructure by shifting consumer demand away from peak use times of the day.
There’s no risk to retailers who want to experiment: our deployment infrastructure allows clients to experiment with new tariffs in a safe test environment. Data held in Flux is clean and securely handled (we are proudly ISO 27001 certified) and feeds to industry-standard data warehousing tools for client analysis. Flux is Cloud-native - we are AWS-hosted, meaning zero downtime releases at least daily across all markets using cloud-based deployments.
Because Flux products know how to play nicely with others, FlexiBill can either be deployed in parallel with retailers’ existing infrastructure, or as a system replacement. We know collaboration is where the magic happens; we’re proud to partner and integrate with leading global software companies including Gorilla, SendGrid, Securiti.ai and Windcave.
How we get new propositions to market
Flux Federation was built by energy retailers for energy retailers, so we have a deep understanding of the industry we’re operating in. We’ve been a digitally-native company ever since we launched challenger brand Powershop back in 2009. Since then, we’ve developed a solid track record. In New Zealand, we have more than 350,000 connections running through Meridian Energy (New Zealand’s largest renewable energy retailer). Flux Federation has form across the ditch too, standing up and servicing more than 190,000 customers through Powershop Australia. And in the UK, we’ve got 160,000 connections via Powershop UK, nPower and Sainsbury’s Energy.
We’ve got intimate knowledge of what it takes to propel an energy retail business from good to great in a world where decarbonisation will be key to our collective survival. If you want to be part of that future, talk to us.
