| Strategic Direction: | | 1. While the number of energy brokers is rising, the business requirement is for energy consultants to help companies manage their Environmental policy that includes energy cost reduction. | | 2. Every company has a duty and legal obligation to have an environmental management audit every two years and to demonstrate an energy reduction over time. | | 3. The first step to become an environmentally responsible company is to manage energy usage in compliance with ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard (EMS). | | 4. Subsequent steps are to gather evidence that year by year energy consumption is reduced, even if energy costs increase. |
| Energy Brokerage: | | 1. While traditional energy brokers are obsessed with unit rates, they fail to provide organisations with the facts that will create an environmentally responsible company. | | 2. In a world were unit costs increased by inflation each year, then it becomes impossible to reduce annual energy costs just by looking at supplier tariff unit rates. | | 3. VAT, CCL and CCA factors become more and more important from a strategic long term point of view. | | 4. While an organisation may get a 90% climate change agreement discount on year, does not means they will get the same discount in future years unless they audit their usage and reduce their usage. | | 5. Many energy brokers lie about savings by suggesting that next year annual costs could be less than this years annual costs as if consumption was a constant. | | 6. In practice, environmental factors are more significant to the organisation and a very hot summer may increase air conditioning costs much more that the effect of switching supplier tariffs. | | 7. The effect of switching from halogen bulbs to LED lights can have more lasting energy cost reduction than switching energy suppliers. | | 8. This energy brokers that cannot manage the organisations climate change agreement in compliance with ISO 14001 cannot reduce energy costs as a strategic service. |
| Strategic Consultancy: | | 1. The estimated annual consumption of electricity and gas is one part of a strategic set of factors that are mandated to comply with ISO 14001 EMS to manage the environmental impact of the organisation. | | 2. Every company can ask a person to lookup the best prices offered on the Internet and may find a ten percent variance between tariffs. | | 3. In reality, the management of energy usage month-by-month and year-by-year is far more valuable because consumption varies a great deal depending on the environment. | | 4. A hot summer can increase air conditioning consumption. A cold winter can increase heating consumption. An overcast month will have higher lighting costs. | | 5. Cooking costs can increase in winter months, but fridge/freezer costs increase in summer months. | | 6. Energy consumption may be low where the winter was mild and the summer was cool, to the point that annual energy savings for a subsequent year will be impossible. | | 7. where an oranisation is looking for a realistic budget forecast, the energy broker who only understands unit rates will not be able to provide any sensible budget forecast. |
| Price Comparison Lies: | | 1. Many price comparison companies tell lies by suggesting that hundreds of pounds may be saved by switching suppliers - the small print excludes environmental factors like a cold winter that increase consumption and increases costs. | | 2. It is unwise for any brokerage to suggest a "saving" when the current supplier tariff details are unknown and the future consumption is only an estimate. | | 3. The service wanted by a company is a fair and reasonable estimate of the monthly direct debit that is expected to cover the costs of consumption for a typical year. The fair and reasonable estimate should include a variance for a cold winter or/and hot summer so the organisation can operate a sensible annual budget account. | | 4. Where a broker states that 200 GBP can be saved by switching supplier, they are being deceitful if they do not state that annual costs can increase by 400 GBP if the winter is cold. | | 5. Only an Energy Consultancy who has audited the organisations energy usage are in a position to estimate the annual variance due to environmental factors. Only an energy Consultancy can identify when a more efficient heating boiler will reduce future costs by more than switching supplier tariffs. |
| Energy Management Service: Brokerage Process. | | 1. Brokerage is an intermediary to bring together a customer and a supplier. | | 2. Brokerage may use an exchange that trades customer requirement information with supplier offering information. | | 3. Brokerage is a trade service undertaken by brokers on behalf of both the customer and the supplier. | | 4. Brokerage may be paid by both the customer and the supplier. | | 5. Brokerage is a process that involves many procedures where each procedure has an outcome that contributes to the benefit of the process. |
| Productivity: | | 1. Eliza helps a good broker to become even more effective and worth a lost more. Eliza simply adds value to what the broker does. Eliza ensures that errors are not made and events are not forgotten. | | 2. A good Broker understands the supply market and buys from a few of their favourite suppliers. Eliza has not got favourites and is happy to request complete and correct quotations from every supplier. Periodically a supplier is willing to buy a customer with good rates to match internal wholesale consolidation in a specific region or market. | | 3. Eliza does what any broker could have done, except that by working 24*7, more work is done, more proposals are collated and the best rates are more likely to be discovered for every contract. This leaves the broker to do the more interesting bill analysis, CCL&VAT negotiation and equipment upgrade to save costs. | | 1. Sales people can be rivals with one another or can work as partners for the benefit of the overall business. No one sales person can act as a partner without loosing out on some commission opportunities. | | 2. Eliza has the power to change the dynamics so all sales people who cooperate will earn more commission and those that do not cooperate are on their own. When people work as partners, they can feed off one another, can learn from one another and can present the most effective benefits to the customer. | | 3. Eliza enables the sales person to be more productive by working 24*7 to do a lot of the basic qualiification and quantification work. Customer take time to get into a buying cycle and Eliza can keep in regular contact so when the customer is ready, Eliza can tip off the account manager. | | 4. The account manager with Eliza is like an Account Manager with ten assistants to do what is needed without error and without delay. When each account manager has the power and capability of ten competent people working with them; they will be more productive, more effective and earn more commission. |
| Email Procedure: | | 1. It is a business requirement not to leak private, confidential or sensitive business information by email or phone. The wise customer would instantly stop dealing with a brokerage that is not able to protect the customers business data. | | 2. An email is like a postcard to be read and processed by agencies in most countries before it is sold to the highest bidder. The letter in an envelope was designed to keep sensitive letter contents confidential. Email can be treated as the envelope with links that ask the recipient to consent or unsubscribe from the encrypted contents. | | 3. Privacy and electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) is the UK law that places legal obligations on how a company manages its emails. Evidence is the most stringent aspect of PECR - the company is assumed to be guilty unless they have evidence of consent. | | 4. Business Message Service (BMS) exists to demonstrate to customers and suppliers that the brokerage is professionally protecting its business data. All private, confidential and sensitive information is only communicated using encryption after evidence of consent has been recorded. All private documents are only communicated using encryption so copies cannot be taken by agencies monitoring email servers. | | 5. Business Message Service (BMS) is an interactive online service where the recipient may respond using encrypted facilities so private data is not leaked. Evidence of what the recipient did is shared to ensure that all parties fully understand that adequate data protection is being used at all times. | | 6. The Information Commissioners Office can easilly see if a broker is complying with PECR by testing the "unsubscribe" link in every email. Where the broker is not granting the recipient the right to with-draw consent, then the ICO may have reason to immpose a fine and order compensation to be paid to those affected. | | 7. Business Message Service (BMS) is monitored so messages can be changed after they are sent and can be expired upon request. The risk of sending sensitive private information to the wrong person is dramatically reduced because the email address must be taken from the Bespoke Application Service without manual intervention. |
| Document Control. | | 1. Document Title: Strategic Direction. | | 4. Description: Strategic Direction. | | 3. Keywords: EMS, Strategic Direction. | | 4. Privacy: Shared with approved people for the benefit of humanity. | | 7. Edition: 1.1. | | 8. Issued: 24 Sep 2017. |
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