Why are UK Energy Suppliers buying into the Kraken Technology Platform

[Deleted User]

The Kraken Technology Platform is the main pillar of Octopus Energy’s success. Why is it proving so popular with energy suppliers across the World?

https://kraken.tech/

To date, there are 30M customer accounts on the system. Octopus has a target of 100M accounts by 2027.

It has also just been announced that Cuckoo Broadband is moving all its customer base onto the Kraken Platform.

superkoopauk

Maybe it is just very good tech?

Mind you I don't agree with this claim - surely all suppliers offered EBSS at roughly the same time?

E.ON Next - Energy Bills Support Scheme

The UK government gave customers £400 credit towards their bills. Kraken enabled the implementation of EBSS for UK utilities in less than a month, meaning E.ON Next were the first in the market to offer it to their customers during the energy crisis.

Grizzlebeard

superkoopauk said:

... - surely all suppliers offered EBSS at roughly the same time?

.. Kraken enabled the implementation of EBSS for UK utilities in less than a month, meaning E.ON Next were the first in the market to offer it to their customers during the energy crisis.

Perhaps most did..    but many of those who don't use Kraken made a thorough mess of EBSS: Brit Gas is the obvious example.

Thanks for the link Dolor.

Always assumed Kraken was just a billing/accounting system. I guess it's big strength and success is that it seems to integrate everything, even Customer Service.

Scot_39

EOnNext's bills were much better than others in terms of clarity for EBSS and arguably even EPG discounting - if that was in part due to Krakken - then great.

Others required forensic analysis - we still see posts re EDF examples as 6m bills are still dropping through letter boxes.

Buying something proven - e.g. to handle 1/2 hrly smart slot flexible billing - is - unless you are involved in writing the alternative platforms code - a safer bet for many.

Spoonie_Turtle

Grizzlebeard said:

superkoopauk said:

... - surely all suppliers offered EBSS at roughly the same time?

.. Kraken enabled the implementation of EBSS for UK utilities in less than a month, meaning E.ON Next were the first in the market to offer it to their customers during the energy crisis.

Always assumed Kraken was just a billing/accounting system. I guess it's big strength and success is that it seems to integrate everything, even Customer Service.

That's a good point - if you phone using the number associated with your account, they have all your details available AND an awesome accessibility feature Octopus have implemented is you get to choose your hold music - so you can have something calming, or even just silence!  Which is absolutely incredible for people who get fatigued by auditory input (especially upbeat music), means you're not already completely exhausted by the time you get to speak to someone.  It is a bit weird at first sitting with silence on the phone but you can check your phone says the call is still connected for reassurance

gt94sss2

[Deleted User] said:

It has also just been announced that Cuckoo Broadband is moving all its customer base onto the Kraken Platform.

Cuckoo Broadband is owned by the Octopus Group.

bristolleedsfan

gt94sss2 said:

Dolor said:

It has also just been announced that Cuckoo Broadband is moving all its customer base onto the Kraken Platform.

Cuckoo Broadband is owned by the Octopus Group.

https://www.giganet.uk/2022/09/05/giganet-acquires-cuckoo-to-shake-up-broadband-market/

"Giganet – a multi award-winning ISP recently voted ‘Overall Fibre Provider of the Year’ at this year’s UK Fibre Awards – launched as a residential and business ISP brand in 2021 delivering full fibre connectivity across multiple platforms. Following a £250 million funding injection from Fern Trading Limited, advised by Octopus Investments, Giganet is now working to connect hundreds of thousands of UK homes and businesses through the deployment of its own full fibre network infrastructure as well as across CityFibre’s and Openreach’s nationwide footprints. Following today’s acquisition, Giganet & Cuckoo will accelerate their growth nationwide"

bagand96

I expect it's success is due to it being a modern system built from scratch for today's market. 

Many suppliers seem to have legacy systems that probably date back to before privatisation. They're creaking at the seams having been patched over the years to cope with changes in the market but essentially are way over due an upgrade.

I guess paying Octopus the licensing for Kraken is far cheaper than the capital investment required to build their own.

Happy octopus customer and like the billing system and user interface. That said some other former suppliers also had very simple and easy systems, Yorkshire Energy, PFP, Avro. Not Kraken but whatever they used was simple and effective. 

QrizB

bagand96 said:

Many suppliers seem to have legacy systems that probably date back to before privatisation. They're creaking at the seams having been patched over the years to cope with changes in the market but essentially are way over due an upgrade.

Yes, and we can see this by the way that the larger suppliers (BG, EON) have set up entirely separate platforms (BG Evolve, EON Next) running on Kraken and have in effect "switched" their existing customers from the old system to the new one.

[Deleted User]

the larger suppliers (BG, EON) have set up entirely separate platforms

E.oN Next uses the Kraken Technologies Platform. E.ON used the customers from NPower as ‘testers’ and based on the success of that evolution they moved all their existing customers onto the new platform. I am pretty sure that BG hasn’t bought into Kraken.

QrizB

[Deleted User] said:

the larger suppliers (BG, EON) have set up entirely separate platforms

E.oN Next uses the Kraken Technologies Platform. E.ON used the customers from NPower as ‘testers’ and based on the success of that evolution they moved all their existing customers onto the new platform. I am pretty sure that BG hasn’t bought into Kraken.

Apologies, I was sure I'd read somewhere that BG Evolve was Kraken but I can't find a source now. I must be mistaken