Harnessing digital for successful energy management

COVID-19 has forced everyone to rethink their relationship with technology. As organisations have found themselves forced into accelerating their plans for digital transformation to enable remote working and continue operating effectively, if you haven’t already, now is the time to consider how digital can support your energy management.

There are numerous benefits to digitising your energy management. Consolidating vast amounts of data into one place will simplify the complexities of managing energy across your portfolio as well as helping to cut carbon emissions, streamline resources, reduce overheads and implement new processes and policies. All positive steps when it comes to staying ahead of the game and differentiating yourself from key competitors.

As the UK Government looks to harness a green recovery to rebuild the country post the pandemic, recognising the positive impact digital technology can have on your own energy management will be invaluable.

Choosing the right energy management solution

Before you rush into choosing a software solution for your energy management, it is important to understand what you want to achieve. Knowing your long-term goals will help you to create a plan and set objectives before configuring your software, ensuring it becomes an integral part of running your organisation.

You will want to consider how your organisation operates and how your energy management software can help you to achieve internal targets. It is important to keep in mind the type of consumption you’re tracking and the data you would like to be seeing through target setting and monitoring.
Ensuring a smooth transition is essential when implementing any digital solution into your organisation. The importance of seamless onboarding of an energy management system will ensure your operations can continue without disruption. The system should be monitoring your operating hours to ensure no data is lost.

One of the key drivers for implementing an energy management solution is to ensure your organisation has the data needed to comply with legislation and regulatory requirements. A good digital solution will help you aggregate your data, and fill in missing gaps so you can produce accurate environmental reports to achieve successful compliance. With increasing public pressure on organisations to take climate action and with the Government’s target to reach net-zero by 2050, managing carbon emissions with complete transparency has never been so important.

You should also consider your organisation’s communication and engagement needs. With all your organisation’s data in one place, an energy management solution will have the capability to provide compelling consumption insights for all areas of your business. Dashboards and reporting tools can give you the ability to share and publish energy and utility related information with stakeholders and colleagues. Engaging the right people through sharing information in a simplified format, giving you the ability to present statistics and usage to a diverse audience.

Investing in the future

Despite the initial cost of moving to a digital approach, investing in technology to support your organisation’s plans for the future can ensure payback. Helping you to save money in the long term as you use your energy more efficiently, maximising your cost recovery opportunities and saving staff administration time.

To futureproof your investment, you want to look for a provider that is demonstrating a commitment to develop and grow their system, enabling you to continue to benefit from advancements in the technology. Our commitment to evolve and improve our solutions is written into our mission and values as a business. Our suite of Sigma solutions is continually adapting to meet changing industry needs, and incorporates customer feedback into the development pipeline.

Digital and technology are not only becoming more affordable but also easier to implement and with greater accessibility, meaning organisations can monitor and manage energy remotely. A feature which is becoming increasingly important as working from home continues to be the new normal for many. The flexibility of a digital energy management solution means that you can identify anomalies in utility bills and generate cost recoveries from wherever you’re based, increasing the level of visibility and accessibility you have to your energy data.

Initiating change within an organisation can come with challenges. As an energy management solutions provider, we still regularly see organisations with many years of consumption data tracked in spreadsheets, so we recognise that the move to using one solution for managing, monitoring and reporting is a big change to an organisation’s processes and team function.

To help make sure your move to digital is successful, it is important to ensure buy-in from not only top-level management but also employees who will be working on the system. Gaining confidence and support in a digital strategy can take time, and it is important to provide a greater understanding of the benefits of the systems and invest in training for those who will be using the software. Using customer service support, software trainers and Key Account Managers, you can also ensure your employees remain up to date with the system, including any new updates and features. This will ensure you will always be getting the very best out of the software.

As we look to the future, the importance of digitising operations will become increasingly important. As the pressure builds on organisations to more proactively reduce their carbon emissions, many will need to adapt their current operations to ensure they can keep up. Through taking advantage of the digital technologies that are available, such as energy and sustainability management solutions, you can work towards meeting your internal sustainability goals and the wider target of net zero before further regulatory changes are imposed.

Starting off on the right foot is key to be able to utilise future technologies, by starting to prepare now, laying the foundations and investing in digital solutions early on, will ensure you are prepared for the future of energy and carbon management.

What’s next for your digital transformation plan?

In the current climate, we are seeing the UK Government increase funding around climate action as they aim to build back better and greener. The expectation is that we will also see further regulations surrounding climate action to be introduced. With this in mind, now is the perfect time to transform your energy management and invest in a monitoring and targeting solution, that can help you to meet the demands of your organisation, manage your energy usage and cut costs in the long term. Laying the foundations for a future in which your organisation’s operations are run digitally.

Business leaders must start to consider how they are managing their energy and how they can harness digital to become more energy efficient. Making the necessary reflections and changes to their structures; incorporating the right people, processes and technologies to ensure they can continue to grow in an ever-changing landscape.

If you’re interested in learning about what a digital energy management system could do to help your organisation, then get in touch with one of our expert team for tailored advice.

Power to make change

We believe that people power can change the world. We are here to help you have a positive impact on the planet. Together we can make a difference.

Take the next step

Becoming Net Zero

Leading by example, we became carbon neutral in 2023 and are committed to achieving net zero business emissions by 2030.

Read our strategy

Employee Ownership

As an Employee Ownership Trust we embrace the three pillars of good communication, governance and leadership, putting our people first.

Learn more about us

We will be by your side

Staying at the forefront of industry, we embrace and drive change, delivering solutions at pace and scale to meet the modern challenges of energy and sustainability.

Meet our people