| Glossary: |
| Prospect is a company that have no fiduciary relationship with the broker. |
| Customer is a company that has a trade relationship with the broker. |
| Client is an optional name for a customer. |
| Consumer is an optional name for a customer. |
| Supplier is a company that provides energy services to a customer. |
| Provider is an optional name for a supplier. |
| Contract has a state transition as: |
| (1) Existing after start date and before end date but with another broker. |
| (2) Proposal that may be accepted or rejected. |
| (3) Accepted but not yet started. |
| (4) Rejected and never started. |
| (5) Current after start date and before end date. |
| (6) History after current or existing has expired. |
| Reading records meter readings by date and deduces or records consumption evidence by date. Each meter service will have many reading-consumptions identified by date. |
| Service is a meter with an address and optional contact person who can check meter readings. |
| Finance is a scheduled contract transaction by date with a state as: |
| (1) Scheduled cash flow derived from current contract. |
| (2) Proforma Invoice to verify actual consumption with supplier. |
| (3) Sales Invoice to supplier or customer. |
| (4) Revenue paid by supplier or customer. |
| Procedure Outline. |
| 01. Prospect is to find a company that may require a brokerage service. Add customer form. |
| 02. Qualified is where analysis of the company identifies a match with a typical customer. Change customer form. |
| 03. Quantified is where deep analysis of consumption and rates shows that benefits can be provided to the prospect. Add service form. Add (reading) consumption form. |
| 04. Objections are overcome with the prospect able to sign terms of business (ToB) and letter of authority (LoA). Change customer form. Upload ToB. Upload LoA. |
| 05. Customer is the new status with an agreed short term objective such as reduce monthly energy direct debit. Change customer form. Add customer task (objective). |
| 06. Bill Analysis to identify meter addresses, meter numbers and existing supplier contracts. Add contract (existing) form. |
| 07. Request Consumption for each identified meter from the existing supplier based on a letter of authority. Email customer LoA and service list. |
| 08. Enter Consumption and estimate current customer spend for each meter and overall. Change (reading) consumption form. Change contract (existing) form. |
| 09. Request Rates for each identified meter with consumptions from a set of suppliers. Email service and consumption list. |
| 10. Enter Rates as proposed contracts from each supplier or as copied from tariff books with commission uplift. Add contract (proposed) form. |
| 11. Customer Quotation with one or more proposed contracts from a set of suppliers. Email proposed contract list. |
| 12. Customer Approval of one proposal with start date and rejection of the other proposals. Change contract form. Email proposal approval to supplier. Email proposal rejection to suppliers. |
| 13. Termination Notice is sent to existing suppliers. Email LoA and service list. |
| 14. Live Contract is monitored with a start reading. Schedule commission, renewal and termination tasks in diary. Email customer with advice and thanks. |
| 15. Verify cash flow as schedule of customer and supplier payments. Change finance form. |
| 16. Proforma Invoice for optional periodic commissions from supplier. Email proforma invoice to supplier as scheduled. |
| 17. Sales Invoice for optional periodic payments from supplier and/or customer. Email sales invoice to support and customer as scheduled. |
| 18. Upload Payment advice from supplier and/or customer. Change finance form (invoiced to paid). |
| 19. Customer review in compliance with UK Subject Access Request laws. Email access code to view, change or delete their own information. |
| 20. Supplier review in compliance with UK Subject Access Request laws. Email access code to view, change or delete their own information. |
| 21. Contact Us has been improved with GDPR compliance demanding online service or a call center. A legal obligation is that people can ask the Data Protection Officer questions. |
| 22. Complaints procedures are mandated by all trade associations. An online form has proven to be the most effective method to demonstrate compliance with expectations. The brokerage has a duty of care to protect people from abuse and inappropriate language - online forms demonstrate help to protect staff. |
| 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 processionally 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 withddraw 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. |
| Automated Procedures: |
| Procedure 07: Request Consumption from existing supplier using meter list and LoA with email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 08: Enter Consumption by meter by existing supplier with encrypted form. |
| Procedure 09: Request rates from potential suppliers using meter consumption list and LoA with email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 10: Enter rates by meter by potential suppliers with encrypted form. |
| Procedure 11: Request acceptance from customer using list of proposals with email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 12: Enter acceptance and rejection of proposed contracts by customer with encrypted form. |
| Procedure 13: Send contract termination notice to current supplier with scheduled email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 14: Send contract start notice to customer with email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 16: Send proforma invoice for actual consumption to current supplier with scheduled email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 17: Send sales invoice to current supplier and/or customer with scheduled email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 19: Send access code to supplier making SAR enquiry with email envelope and encrypted form. |
| Procedure 20: Send access code to customer making SAR enquiry with email envelope and encrypted form. |