ONZO Announces New Release of Consumer Engagement and Insight Platform

LONDON and DENVER, September 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Enhancements Increase Customer Participation in Utility Programs; Drive Improvements in Efficiency, Marketing Effectiveness and Churn Reduction 

ONZO, a global provider of data science-based energy analytics solutions for the utility industry, today announced a new version of its consumer engagement and insight platform. The latest release includes several new features and enhancements designed to further improve the effectiveness of utility programs whose success requires customer engagement and participation.

The new release is a result of strong continued investment in increasing the depth and breadth of household-specific personalisation included in the ONZO platform, along with the variety and effectiveness of goal-specific customer engagement applications.

"Because we combine the power of energy analytics, load disaggregation, lifestyle behavior analysis and probabilistic forecasting, we are able to give utilities and their customers much more detailed, relevant and personal insights about their energy usage than they can achieve through alternative approaches, which are typically based on aggregated averages and generalised assumptions," commented Spencer Rigler, ONZO CEO. "We have now added new intelligence and features derived from working with energy providers around the world over the last 18 months to further enrich the platform."

The latest platform release incorporates a more intuitive and structured process designed to take each customer through a personal energy journey tailored specifically for his or her household, from learning more about actual energy use, to taking an active role in changing consumption patterns, to receiving practical advice on how to further improve energy efficiency and demand response results.

The new platform also includes several engagement apps such as:

• "What do I consume" whole bill breakdown of energy use by household activity and the costs associated with each category to clearly illustrate the key drivers of cost.
• "How do I compare" - intelligence on energy consumption on a per household basis allows the customer to put energy use into context.
• "Personalised Messages" - educates customers on important aspects of their use so they can take more control of their energy consumption.
• "Rewards and challenges" - a set of incentives to encourage the customer to change consumption patterns and, in the long run, stimulate long-term behavioural change.

The solution includes ready-to-use algorithms designed to enable utilities to clearly understand energy use per household, which allows them to:

• Accurately segment customers based on real intelligence around their use in order to maximise the effect of marketing campaigns. 
• Identify users putting excess strain on the system to optimise the grid network and reduce the risk of outages.
• Target households with load that can most easily be shifted to help maintain grid reliability.
• Protect against bill shock by proactively identifying higher than usual energy costs before they become a problem.

The ONZO platform operates with AMI consumption data at 15-minute to hourly intervals as well as non-AMI consumption data being captured as often as one second or one minute. 

By combining insights from consumer data at household level with sophisticated engagement apps ONZO provides a complete solution to utilities.  ONZO's existing customers who have been testing the solution achieved increased in engagement levels, which are expected to improve customer loyalty and responsiveness towards marketing campaigns.  The new platform release will be available for general release on September 15.

About ONZO  

ONZO is a global leader in consumer energy data and analytics. ONZO combines the science of energy analytics with load disaggregation, lifestyle behavior analysis and probabilistic forecasting to give utilities and their customers unprecedented insights into how, where and when energy is used.  Leveraging granular smart meter data, ONZO's patented algorithms result in richer, highly accurate, customer-specific insights that help utilities improve customer engagement and energy efficiency, while reducing churn and creating new revenue opportunities. 

Visit ONZO.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

For Additional Information: 
In Europe:            
Steph Reynolds
onzo@cubaneight.com
+44(0)1869-238089
 
In North America: 
Ginger Juhl 
Ginger.juhl@ONZO.com
+1-303-955-4771