The retail market operator has set out its intentions to improve the non-domestic water sector in a three-year plan that will address metering issues and simplify market codes.
Improving communication between wholesalers and retailers was also identified by MOSL as one of the “pain points” in the market, which its strategy aims to fix.
Since it opened up in April 2017, the market has experienced problems related to meter reads, billing and levels of customer service. In May, MOSL’s annual report found that “persistent problems” were not being addressed quickly enough, meaning customers were not receiving the benefits they should.
The operator of the non-household market unveiled its vision to move the market forward and meet the goals of providing simple and effective, easy-to-use services.
Sarah McMath, chief executive of MOSL, described the market as “young” and said the strategy was “about defining what we want to be when we grow up and being really clear on how we aim to get there”.
It identifies four priorities to make the sector better performing for customers, retailers and wholesalers:
- Service excellence – Simple and effective services that are easy to access
- Data insight – Evidence based decisions, driving value for customers
- Market improvement – A successful market that is continually improving
- Organisational capability – a high performing team set up to deliver change
To improve the market, the roadmap proposes to address the “pain points” that exist in market transactions, such as inefficient communications between wholesalers and retailers; metering issues; and the complexity of the market code.
Over the coming three years, MOSL said it will address governance, sustainability and emerging or future market issues to ensure it is continually improving and can be resilient for the future. To make the market more efficient, lessons from coronavirus will be used to inform future plans and establish a way to find and fix issues that could become future “pain points” as they emerge.
Its focus on service excellence will see transparent reporting of performance as well as harnessing technologies such as automation of high-volume processes and working towards an efficient IT estate.
Another area of focus will be to use data to make decisions and drive meaningful insight by exploring opportunities to share data information.
The plan is designed to include longer term goals than previous MOSL strategies, which the operator said is to reflect that some initiatives will be delivered over multiple years.