At TEAM we recognise that outsourcing any internal function can be a daunting prospect. Quality is paramount and we endeavour to provide our customers comfort in the assurance that all our products and services meet the required standards of ISO 9001 & 14001.
Outsourcing your utility bill processing & validation to the TEAM Bureau will help you reduce administration costs and could save you up to 3% of your total energy costs. The TEAM Bureau service can provide:
- Invoice Validation, Query Management and Cost Recovery
- Data Collection and Management
- Financial Reporting
- Energy Management Reporting
- Portfolio (Database) Management
- Project Management
- Web M&T with TEAM Signet
SAVINGS AND BENEFITS
Energy management – 5 to 20% savings can be identified in your consumption through, effective Monitoring and Targeting
Bill processing – A Review undertaken by HM Treasury estimated that moving from paper to electronic utility billing (EDI) can save organisations £28 per invoice
Bill Validation, Query Management and Cost Recoveries – Identifying billing errors can save up to 3% of your total energy costs. Prompt identification and management ensures that all errors are detected and savings are realised. In 2009 our customers benefited from total recoveries exceeding £4m
Project management – A service team lead by an experienced Project Co-ordinator will be assigned to assist with identifying potential energy savings and energy related projects
Resource Allocation & Deployment – freeing up resources within your organisation allows staff to concentrate on implementing energy saving measures
Invoice validation, Query Management and Cost Recovery
All bills are checked and where appropriate, overcharges are recovered from your utility company. You are kept informed of all activity, for example; which need to be paid, those, which are being withheld, and those, which are in dispute. In many cases, the cost recovered through effective bill validation can exceed the cost of your bureau service.
Data collection and management
The TEAM Bureau collects utility data directly from your supplier and tracks the history of your energy consumption. All bills are checked and entered onto the TEAM Bureau databases. They may be received in paper format, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or as half-hourly data. Utility bills are scanned into electronic documents and can be sent to you in order to make the process fully ‘paperless’.
Financial reporting
A range of finance and account related reports are available. Typical examples include, end of month forecast, budget v actual and detailed accounting reports for the accounts payable department. TEAM’s Accounts Link software allows electronic files to be dispatched from your utility supplier for direct input into your accounts payable system, thus avoiding manual input.
Energy Management Reporting
Using Energy Management reporting allows you to utilise the high frequency data available from both Half Hourly and AMR meters, and invoiced consumption. TEAM’s Energy Management reporting can both identify and use benchmarking figures, create exception reporting, assist in regression analysis and produce a large number of key reports highlighting under and over performing sites. By focussing the reporting on energy consumption, companies can benefit by potentially lower energy usage and costs across their portfolio.
Portfolio (Database) Management
For some businesses site ownership remains relatively static. However, for a large proportion of multi site operations, the acquisition and “moving on” of sites is commonplace. In these instances maintaining an accurate picture of a company’s portfolio is imperative and demands rigorous processes and a high level of attention to detail. With resource dedicated to the task of database management & documented processes produced from experience built from a diverse customer base, TEAM Bureau is able to facilitate this function for you.
Project management
We will appoint a Project Co-ordinator as your main point of contact supported by a service team responsible for delivering the services you subscribe to. They will have an in-depth knowledge of your portfolios energy performance and will be able to advise you where savings can be made. In addition, each Bureau customers has access to TEAM Signet providing online access to your energy & billing data.
Web M&T with TEAM Signet
TEAM Signet provides you with access to your consumption & billing data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and also allows you to track the achievements of your Bureau.
Using Signet is like operating your own TEAM M&T software on the web but with all the time-consuming data processing removed. All you have to do is log on, input your password and select the reports your require.
Signet features a wide range of interactive reports allowing you to run reports yourself or, if you prefer, your Bureau Service team can pre-schedule them to be despatched by email or stored on a dedicated area of Signet for you to review at your convenience.
Signet has the following features:
- M&T reports – presenting consumption, costs and emissions
- Automated report production and distribution
- 24 hour secure access to your day plus one utility consumption data
- Savings to date log
- Access invoice and interval meter data
Public sector organisations can appoint TEAM Bureau and Consultancy Services through the Buying Solutions framework agreement, which avoids the need to go through a tendering process. 
