One crisis is currently chasing the next, and especially in the current Ukraine-Russia conflict, energy supply companies are facing extraordinary challenges – depending on the type of production or procurement. Forward-looking planning, impact assessment and recommendations from controlling as a business partner of management are worth their weight in gold here. Bold decisions and alternative ways to ensure the security of supplies must be examined. Integrated FP&A systems that are precisely tailored to the requirements of energy supply companies, e.g. scenario analyzes and rolling forecasts, help here. With over 20 years of experience in the energy supply sector, we at smartPM.solutions have witnessed all developments in the utility industry in many projects and incorporated them into our integrative energy supply performance management system. This has resulted in a practice-proven, fully integrated energy supply management system that enables agile decision-making even in turbulent times.
What requirements does the performance management package for energy supply companies cover?
- The creation or mapping of unbundling-compliant planning structures and processes (divisions/activities/P&L/balance sheet/cash flow)
- Strategic (long-term) and medium-term as well as operative planning (business plan) and budgeting, rolling and/or with forecasts during the year
- The simulation of scenarios and initiatives, for example on the offer portfolio and company results
- The identification of value drivers and the impact analysis of changes (what-if analysis), e.g. in the event of massive price changes for electricity/gas
- Cost management, e.g. in the course of the imputed valuation of fixed assets
- The calculation of grid usage fees and their consideration in planning
- The preparation of data for presentation in the regulatory reporting forms
- Sales controlling, ongoing monitoring using key figures and sales forecasts (e.g. based on the balance sheet accrual)
- Investment controlling, including profit transfer and consolidation
- Risk management: identifying and evaluating risks, taking forward-looking measures
- Ongoing process optimization and strategy development, for example by identifying and introducing new business models (such as cloud subscription)
The smartPM.solutions energy supply performance management system provides comprehensive support from the definition of corporate strategy using scenario analyzes and forecasts to operational implementation. It covers budgeting, analysis, planning, forecasting, reporting and consolidation in a single seamlessly connected system. Operation is intuitive and allows data aggregation as well as drill-down and drill-through at the detail level. The energy supply system also contains the individual depiction of the company structure, including all holdings (subsidiary, ancillary businesses, etc.).
How to buy smart energy supply performance management knowledge and what system users from energy supply companies say about it
In crisis situations in particular, you often have to keep a cool head. Decisions are best supported by data and forward-looking planning. Energy supply companies that already have an integrated performance management system can deal with analyzes, forecasts and scenarios instead of preparing Excel files. This favors agile action and control.
Martin Schack, Head of Commercial Services, on the replacement of the old system: “Planning with Excel no longer met our requirements and we decided to introduce a professional performance management tool. The smartPM solution is uncomplicated and clear, has accelerated our reporting and increased out data quality. Thanks to the quick and easy implementation, our power users were able to work with the software early on and save working time. The project has really helped us. The high level of user-friendliness of the system, the good price-performance ratio and the comprehensive advice convinced us of the Unit4 FP&A solution and smartPM.solutions. The quality of our data and forecasts as well as the speed, has increased significantly. We are able to apply new capabilities and ways of thinking that the tool enables us that we previously found difficult to implement with Excel.”
More about energy supply case studies, videos and webinars can be found on the Energy supply and Public utility performance management knowledge platform >>
What makes a good sparring partner in joint digitization projects in controlling?
Karin Kray, Head of Group Controlling DSW 21, says: “The consultants from smartPM.solutions have a very high level of expertise both in the field of business administration and in the specific topics of transport and energy industry in relation to the requirements for planning and reporting. This is of particular importance for our Group. They guarantee fast reaction times and unbureaucratic help in an emergency. In addition, they take care of technical details in the background. That makes them the ideal partner for us …”
Bastian Kubik, Strategic Controlling Stadtwerke Bochum: “By using smartPM, the use of resources by those responsible for planning could be reduced by 25% and the focus could therefore be placed on content and up-to-date forecasts. smartPM particularly impressed us with the fast processing times for ad hoc inquiries and the specialist knowledge of the consulting team, which supported us with their experience and their own ideas.”
We are currently supervising 17 projects in the energy supply sector and another 5 are in the starting blocks. Especially in times of crisis, many people recognize that an integrated performance management system massively supports agile and secure corporate management. In this way, the energy supply controller can assume his role as a business partner and provide management with data-based decision-making recommendations.
Recently there has been a trend towards pre-projects. Seeing your own data in the system and being able to compare the results with the old system helps many in their decision-making process. In a very short time, it becomes very clear whether all requirements can be covered and how great the benefit is. The risk is reduced for everyone involved.
Do you have any questions about the energy supply performance management system or about individual new features? Let’s swap ideas. Simply choose an appointment with our energy supply experts in the online calendar: To the online calendar >> A message via LinkedIn works just as well.