Pure Planet – Greener Energy

Greener Energy Project Partners

B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

The Bu Effe

Bryn Jones, CTO Britain’s first app-on explains how digital the energy

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O at Pure Planet, nly energy company, is fast transforming y industry.

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With consumers increasingly keen to move to greener energy, Pure Planet was ahead of the ga when it launched back in 2016. ith the aim of helping to build a cleaner Britain, CTO, Bryn Jones, along with the company’s founders, have created a sustainable business model with digital at its core.

Bryn explained, “The way we looked at it, from a renewable energy perspective, was how can we offer green energy rather than power that pollutes? At the time, green fuel was around 20 per cent more expensive, so the challenge we set ourselves was to sell it cheaper so more people would take it up, helping towards the zero carbon footprint in the UK.” Energy companies typically have a culture of manual interventions, with a failure to focus on their members, but 4

Bryn Jones, CTO today’s tech-savvy consumer requires a platform that’s transparent and easy to use.

Bryn said, “We launched our app first, before moving to a wider digital platform. With a background in mobile, the founders and I looked at the energy industry and saw it was ripe for transformation. There was a real lack of trust, putting people on tariffs that were low at the beginning but allowed

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Making utilities smarter for everyone.

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customers to roll over onto high priced deals, often without them realising. We wanted to create a more transparent and honest business with a focus on the customer, whilst making green energy more affordable.”

Pure Planet’s proposition is paperless, resulting in a lower carbon footprint, but one of its biggest attractions is its zero mark-up single tariff. Using the strength of the company’s ownership (BP owns 25 per cent), all members are put on a single tariff that goes up or down according to energy prices.

Bryn explained, “All members, new and old, have confidence in knowing that they are not going to get ripped off. We also

A small IT team works alongside the partners who offer the expertise, allowing the company to focus on the member experience” without being tied down with the delivery of solutions. wanted to make sure that it was simple to set up, with members being able to join within two minutes of getting a quote. Our app and digital interface provide all the information you need to manage your account, send meter readings and understand the charges. The paperless bills are very clear to read.”

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Zero markup Zero hassle Zero Guilt But, Pure Planet’s journey has not been without the odd stumbling block. Bryn said, “One difficulty we faced was a cultural issue within the energy industry. When working with suppliers and people who joined us from other companies, we had the cultural issue of the failure to focus on customers and continuous service improvement. People having the right mind-set is crucial. The data in the industry is also poor, and when you have an automated business, the data behind you needs to be robust.”

With an emphasis on integrating with best of breed partners, rather than building the platform in-house, another big challenge for Bryn was to ensure all partners were

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working effectively together. He said, “We have lead the way in collaborating with our partners and helping to drive out industry problems. The key principles of our solution are digital, intelligent, and agile. We have taken an approach to integrate best of breed platforms and services to deliver that solution.”

Pure Planet is cloud-first, giving the business strength to make it sustainable and robust. A small IT team works alongside the partners who offer the expertise, allowing the company to focus on the member experience without being tied down with the delivery of solutions. An intelligent AI solution called WattBot enables interaction with Pure Planet’s members, as Bryn explained, “This is the first port of call for any help.

You ask the bot a question and he will respond with either the right answer, a link to the right answer, or if you need help with our member services, he will put you into a chat with them. WattBot has built up his capabilities over the last 12 months, so he is now answering 60 per cent of all questions instantly.”

“Bryn is very proud of the vibrant community Pure Planet has built, offering help to one another as well as discussing the wider issues surrounding sustainability�

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Bryn is very proud of the vibrant community Pure Planet has built, offering help to one another as well as discussing the wider issues surrounding sustainability.

He added, “We call them our Zero Heroes. They work with each other to solve questions and they have the ability to chat about topics such as plastic-free shampoos and electric vehicles.

We have over 25,000 people in that community.”

Two of Pure Planet’s trusted partners include Utiligroup and Torry Harris Business Solutions.

Utiligroup offer integration into the energy industry. Bryn explained, “As a supplier of energy, we provide the front-

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end to customers and the retail aspect of the business. Behind that, you have the distribution, wholesale etc. Utiligroup are responsible for all the integration via their platform. We are working closely with them on improving the integration of services to get a better end-toend experience.”

Torry Harris has been critical in the delivery of Pure Planet’s integration capability across all its platforms and operations management. Bryn said, “We wanted to make sure we knew about any technical problems before our members. A digital businesses needs to be 24/7, so Torry Harris have worked with

Forging Digital Ecosystems A recognized leader in API Strategy & delivery, we bring 20+ years of focused integration expertise to build meaningful digital ecosystems.

Torry Harris is helping Pure Planet, Britain’s first app-based renewable energy supplier, to build its API-driven digital ecosystem.

Learn more:

https://www.torryharris.com

Copyright Š 2019 Torry Harris Business Solutions

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The Founders

Steve Day

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Chris Alliott

en y Andrew Ralston

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us to ensure all our partners and systems are collating information that would tell us if there was a service issue, as well as helping to resolve it and notifying key business members.”

With the ongoing goal of establishing itself as a brand in the energy sector, Pure Planet aims to become a key player in the industry, having enjoyed recent recognition in The Times top tech companies to watch.

Bryn added, “We were very proud to be identified and listed.

It was perhaps surprising for us to be recognised as one of the companies to watch so early on.”

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“We are pushing h integrating smart digital experience to our members a that capability int digital service, an asking how we ca services into our p

hard on t meters into the e, rolling them out and integrating to our app and nd we are always an integrate other platform” – Bryn Jones, CTO

Adding new services so members can be even more sustainable, Bryn and his team are constantly thinking about the next step in working towards a cleaner Britain. He concluded, “We are pushing hard on integrating smart meters into the digital experience, rolling them out to our members and integrating that capability into our app and digital service, and we are always asking how we can integrate other services into our platform.”

For further information on Pure Planet, visit www.purepla.net

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www.purepla.net