On May 12, 2023, the draft law on the digitization of the energy transition, including the new Metering Point Operation Act, passed the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German parliament, after it had decided on it on April 20. With the amendment to the Metering Point Operation Act (Messstellenbetriebsgesetz, MsbG), the legal framework for the nationwide rollout of smart meters by meter operators (MSB) is now established.
In addition to the actual meter rollout with corresponding capex and opex, the implementation of complex processes, and the establishment and expansion of the necessary IT landscape, the basic and competitive metering point operators (gMSB, wMSB) also face new requirements in the areas of billing, dunning, and the collection of metering charges. Especially in the segment of lower electricity use, which is decisive for the majority of households in Germany, the statutory price cap determines the financial leeway for the MSB and demands an efficient solution in debtor management as well. Here in particular, there is often a lack of efficient processes and solutions, e.g. for sending invoices, possible address research, commercial dunning, payment allocation, and collection. The MSB often has no or few operational resources to perform these tasks or experience in the previously mentioned sectors.
"Already in 2019, we designed collection4msb a complete collection management solution for MSBs. With a first pilot customer from NRW, we implemented this solution at an early stage and already in 2020 we were able to win one of the largest network operators/MSBs with more than 2.5 million end customers," comments Dr. Lutz Reingen, Head of Key Account Management at coeo Inkasso.
collection4msb offers measuring point providers a smart collection solution customized to current requirements with flexible, integrated and expandable options as well as digital, transparent evaluation of all with a comprehensive dashboard. Specifically, MSOs can choose from different modules:
- Address research and invoice re-dispatch using intelligent, cascading research logic,
- Dunning dispatch (if necessary also with upstream address research),
- Payment allocation from these process steps (cash clearing),
- Execution of debt collection (out-of-court, legal, judicial) with reputation-preserving, lowered fees,
- Provision of digital and innovative communication and payment channels for the connection user,
- a central dashboard in the portal for the MSB that provides a transparent overview (of billing, dunning & collection stages, revenue assurance, etc.),
- as well as comprehensive reporting.
Meet us at this year's E-world in Essen, Germany, May 23-25, 2023.
Your contact for any further questions
coeo Inkasso GmbH
Sarah Lehmann
Head of Marketing & Public Relations
Tel.: +49 2133 2463-0