Cognizant to help Centrica stay agile in changing energy market

Energy services provider Centrica has selected Cognizant to develop future services – including electric vehicle charging, and IoT deployments – as well as regulatory change such a price-caps. The news extends a relationship with the consultancy dating back to 2005.

Centrica is a leading international energy services and solutions provider. In the UK and Ireland, Centrica supplies energy and services to over 10 million customer accounts, via brands such as British Gas and Dyno, supported by circa 7000 field engineers.

Since 2005, Cognizant has provided Centrica with a broad range of consulting, AIA, data, cloud and digital engineering services, including SAP business transformation services, addressing the need for accelerated digital transformation, agility, speed and infrastructure security. Now, as Centrica looks to tap into increasing demand for a new generation of digital innovation, it has extended that collaboration with a new contract.

“As the energy industry changes, our ability to adapt and evolve is of critical importance, so that we make things simpler for our customers and their busy lives,” said Darren Miles, Group Chief Information Officer, Centrica. “As such, we are pleased to continue working with Cognizant as a reliable and experienced technology partner that understands our business and is able to deliver mission-critical systems that are fundamental to our journey.” 

Centrica will task Cognizant with delivering business critical services encompassing application testing and management of its IT infrastructure landscape in the following years. As part of this, Cognizant will help develop future services from electric vehicle charging to IoT deployments and advanced analytics.

“We are incredibly proud of our long-standing relationship with Centrica and the opportunity to bring our expertise to bear at a time when the energy markets and utility industry as a whole are faced with unprecedented volatility and public scrutiny,” said Rohit Gupta, Managing Director for Cognizant in the UK and Ireland. “We are delighted to continue building on our relationship with the UK’s leading energy and energy services supplier.” 

In a press release relating to the deal, Cognizant also argued the new processes would “make Centrica more flexible at a time of huge pressure on energy companies”. In particular, ensuring it can “comply with new regulation quickly and easily.” 

The UK’s energy crisis has seen a growing list of mid-market energy providers collapse, as the rising price of gas prices them out of the market. Companies like British Gas have regularly picked up the customers of those firms though, while customers have encountered record bills – enabling them to post huge profits, even as inflation-squeezed households across the country are increasingly forced to choose between heating and eating. British Gas’ owner, Centrica, subsequently recorded £1.34 billion in profit in its most recent filing, while oil and gas giant Shell similarly returned billions to its shareholders.

Amid outcry over the rates at which energy companies are allegedly ‘exploiting’ the current situation, the UK Government has announced an intervention to freeze energy prices for households for two years. New Prime Minister Liz Truss meanwhile hopes to strike voluntary long-term deals with generators including Centrica and EDF to bring down wholesale prices. However, as reported by The Financial Times, if voluntary deals cannot be agreed, the Government has also threatened companies with legislation to further cap their revenues.