Energy markets all around the world are going through a significant change and transformation, creating ample opportunities along with significant challenges. As is the case in any industry, opportunities are attracting more players in the marketplace, increasing the competition, and reducing the tolerances for less-than-optimal business decision making. Success requires creating and disseminating accurate and timely information to whomever whenever it is needed. For instance, if you need to easily track marketing budgets, balance employee workloads, and target customers with tailored marketing messages, you would need three different reporting solutions. Electrabel GDF SUEZ is doing all of that for its marketing and sales business unit with SAS'Analytics Visual Analytics platform.
The one-solution approach is a great time-saver for marketing professionals in an industry that is undergoing tremendous change. "It is a huge challenge to stabilize our market position in the energy market. That includes volume, prices, and margins for both retail and business customers," notes Danny Noppe, manager of Reporting Architecture and Development in the Electrabel Marketing and Sales business unit. The company is the largest supplier of electricity in Belgium and the largest producer of electricity for Belgium and the Netherlands. Noppe says it is critical that Electrabel increase the efficiency of its customer communications as it explores new digital channels and develops new energy-related services.
"The better we know the customer, the better our likelihood of success," he says. "That is why we combine information from various sources— phone traffic with the customer, online questions, text messages, and mail campaigns. This enhanced
knowledge of our customer and prospect base will be an additional advantage within our competitive market.”

Questions for Case
1. Why do you think energy supply companies are among the prime users of information visualization tools?
2. How did Electrabel use information visualization for the single version of the truth?
3. What were their challenges, the proposed solution, and the obtained results?