IT Power Players
ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY HELPS IRELAND’S BORD GÁIS
CAPITALIZE ON ENERGY DEREGULATION.
Famed microbiologist Louis Pasteur once said that “chance favors only the prepared mind.” And while
the management of Irish energy provider Bord Gáis
may not have been thinking of the French scientist’s
formula for luck when energy deregulation came to
Ireland, it certainly was ready to match market
opportunity with IT preparation.
Ireland’s electricity market opened to broad
competition in 2005 after years of government
control, allowing customers to change energy
providers on demand. This introduced competitive
pressure and created a whole new market. Bord Gáis
was a major single-fuel gas player in this market, and
as deregulation unfolded, the management of Bord
Gáis initiated a complete IT overhaul to deliver better
integration of customer service and billing for the
company’s 650,000 gas customers and to equip the
company to also supply electricity, offering a complete
suite of energy services to Ireland’s 4. 5 million
residents and numerous industries.
