Online Invoice Validation and Procurement

For all three activities there is a great deal of ‘people’ power not to mention the need to manage the communications with all third parties. This is one area that can be digitised. There are SaaS platforms that provide all this functionality and the Catalyst EaaSi™ platform is one such example.

Let’s start with procurement

A digital platform will consume your energy bills and allow you to forecast consumption based on previous use and a deviation as advised, then automatically put the contract online for suppliers to bid for some or all of your energy supply (gas, electricity, water, HH, NHH etc) needs.

The TPI/broker is removed from the equation and all the calculation of identifying the best deal is done programmatically and delivered to the energy manager and finance manager in a report that is easily understood splitting out commodity and non-commodity costs for ease of reference.

Next comes online invoice validation

A digital platform will seek the data direct from the supplier without any human involvement. Database to database. Reducing time to collect data and reducing the paper bills. The latter would require the energy manager or office manager to attend site and collect and scan – something staff don’t wish to do in the new normal if they are working from home.

The digital platform normalises the bills programmatically and any missing data or anomalies are instantly found and sends a request to the supplier’s database for missing data for example. Digital platforms remove the need for a third-party bill validation provider with online invoice validation who in the most part process the bills manually before inputting the data into their software platform. This could eradicate paper bills, no need for the postal delivery either with online invoice validation.

Finally, there is energy management

Not a simple process to digitise but with AMR and smart meters the data flow removes any need for someone to attend site and undertake a meter reading. With IoT devices and intelligent BMS for example, data from building activities can sit alongside meter data and digital platforms can interpret and deliver actionable insights from which maintenance teams or remote facilities management teams can make changes to building system operations for energy efficiency improvements.

With all the data in a database, these digital platforms can deliver reports on compliance, against efficiency standards and in the new normal, air-quality and maintenance reports to ensure the building is COVID-secure.

It is important to realise that digital platforms can aid businesses in their management of energy consumption and costs, procurement practices and ease cash flow.

In the new (office) normal, digital technology is helping businesses do more than keep teams communicating whilst working from home. Digital technology can dramatically improve the processes and functions for business. For energy managers, energy procurement and finance teams this means a streamlined, data driven process to procure, validate, manage and monitor energy consumption and spend digitally and programmatically.

Having visibility of the change Covid-secure operations can have on the energy consumption will allow you to better manage and forecast energy spend for your business and secure alternate energy contracts that better suit your new energy profile and your new normal post covid.

EaaSi is the UK’s only cloud based integrated digital platform to fully automate and validate your energy spend management across all departments, locations and energy output feeds. EaaSi uses RPA to provide a fully automated energy spend management platform delivering insights to businesses on utility bills and the data associated to your meter end points instantaneously.