Origin to deploy RPA platform for commercial customers

Following a pilot staged earlier this year Origin Energy will roll out a white labelled robotic process automation (RPA) and analytics platform for its commercial and industrial customers.

Origin’s C&I customers include more than 14,500 organisations and 28,000 energy meters.

BidEnergy has signed a three-year contract with the utility for the deployment of its RPA platform, the company announced yesterday.

The RPA platform will be progressively rolled out for Origin’s C&I customer base from September.

“This is our first agreement where we are supporting a significant energy retailer to provide a friendly data-rich experience for their valued customers, with the high standard of service now expected in such a dynamic and highly competitive marketplace,” said BidEnergy managing director Guy Maine.

“This announcement today is yet another key step forward for BidEnergy’s platform becoming the industry standard for excellence in managing utility bills world-wide.

“Organisations such as Origin Energy with a large and diverse portfolio of C&I customers are ideal partners for our RPA solution.”

BidEnergy said that its platform would give Origin’s customers a “portal for bills, meter data, customised reports and analytics”.

BidEnergy entered a trading halt ahead of the announcement.

Yesterday the federal government pushed ahead with bringing the energy sector into the new Consumer Data Right regime. As a result, energy companies will be required to make usage and other relevant data available to their consumer customers.

The Australian Energy Market Operator will act as a central gateway for consumers (and authorised third parties) to access CDR data. Origin has indicated that it, in principle, supports the AEMO gateway model for data access.

Origin last week reported an FY19 profit of $1.21 billion, compared to $218 million in the prior comparable period.