Modern history is littered with stories of companies who failed to embrace change.
Everyone knows the example of Blockbuster and Netflix. But what often gets left out is the impact that these mistakes have on suppliers, customers and partners.
Blockbuster’s collapse didn’t just hurt customers, it sent shockwaves through its ecosystem. Studios and distributors lost a powerful buyer. Independent filmmakers lost shelf space. Franchise owners were left with worthless stock. And landlords faced thousands of empty stores.
By contrast, Netflix’s shift from DVDs to streaming created a new ecosystem of winners. Studios gained a powerful global distribution channel, and independents found an audience they’d never reached before. Technology suppliers scaled rapidly and device makers from smart TVs to streaming hardware thrived as streaming became the default.
And being a cloud-based platform, how could we not add an example of a company that failed to make the switch to cloud? Sun Microsystems built its fortune on high-end servers and proprietary systems. But as the industry shifted to commodity hardware and the cloud, Sun clung to its model. Partners built around Sun hardware found themselves obsolete almost overnight.
This is why, when a company sees the need to change, they must act on it. Yes, it is self-serving, but the impact of that change extends far beyond the company itself.
Following a change in ownership last year, EnergySys was always destined to go through a period of transition. But the point I’m making is that it’s not just about us. We have to be mindful of our customers, partners and suppliers for whom EnergySys is a critical part of their business operations.
Some things just shouldn’t change…
Change means identifying the things that are working well and should stay as they are.
EnergySys has always been delivered as a true cloud platform. No local installs, no hidden complexity, no on-premise headaches. That won’t change. Our customers can count on low cost of ownership, faster time to value, automatic updates, and the security and scalability that come from being born in the cloud.
We also won’t be positioning ourselves as the experts in the energy industry. Our customers and partners live here. Our skilled partners will be there to provide solutions to our customers and support them on the EnergySys platform.
By leveraging the common language of Excel, we make it possible for energy teams to configure, adapt, and check calculations without relying on hidden code or vendor lock-in. That approach keeps the system transparent and fully auditable. Customers can see exactly how numbers are created, trace them back, and trust the results, and that won’t change.
Operating in the energy sector means meeting the highest standards of data security and regulatory compliance. EnergySys already meets SOC 2 standards and holds ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications. We will continue to keep customer data safe and make sure that our practices meet or exceed global requirements.
Our commitment to reliability and uptime will not change. Customers can depend on the platform being there when they need it, with the resilience and redundancy required for mission-critical operations.
Change must be purposeful!
Championships are won in pre-season. Deciding the strategy, the disciplined preparation, the tactical planning and building a team that can. That’s what makes success look effortless when it matters.
From the outside, changes you see over the coming months may look sudden. From the inside, they’re the product of long-term strategic cycles. Since the change of ownership, we’ve been planning. Any change we bring will be purposeful and deeply thought through.
Our priority will always be the product, so we’ve created a dedicated product team, led by our Chief Product Officer, Andy Allison. Andy has worked in the energy industry before, managing teams and working on helping complex data products to scale. And we’ve already grown this function, adding Kristaps Romanovskis as our Senior Product Manager.
Our Product team’s role is to gather evidence from customers, partners, and support, and leverage it with our expertise in building a flexible and learnable platform, and turn it into a roadmap grounded in reality.
This is how the best product companies operate. AWS launched new services by tracking customer pain points and working backwards. We’re applying the same principle…evidence first, roadmap second.
We’ll be socialising these ideas and gathering evidence through a public roadmap showing what is under consideration, what is planned, and what is being worked on now. Our product work will align with the world of the Configurator and fall into four categories: model, configure, integrate, test & deploy.
A great product team can’t make the desired impact without a strong engineering team, so we’ve also invested in a VP Engineering, bringing in Sheila Hughes. Sheila has successfully run her own company, as well as engineering teams of all sizes across multiple organisations. She brings decades of experience to an already highly-experienced engineering function.
We’re also tightening our support process so that every ticket becomes a data point. Instead of simply fixing issues, we’ll be capturing them systematically, looking for patterns, and feeding them back into Product. We’ll be working on improving support processes, which will lead to better ticket resolution and more time for engineers to focus on what matters.
As more customers and partners build on EnergySys, the need to work with them to get as much value out of the platform has grown. To meet that need, we’ve added a new role: Platform Experience Manager. Nick Heffernan (affectionately known as “Heff”) has joined us to work directly with partners and customers configuring and extending the platform, helping them unlock its full capability and apply best practice. This is about making sure the flexibility of EnergySys is used to its fullest potential.
There are also some notable departures as part of these changes. Our Enablement Director, Stuart Brown, an EnergySys veteran of 13 years, has made the decision to join our partner Accord later this quarter. We are delighted that he has chosen to continue working with the EnergySys platform and wish him the same level of success there as he had enjoyed here. Our Principal Consultant, Justin Stirling, will also be moving on from the business at some point over the next few months.
What this really means
Change never delivers its full impact overnight. It happens in steps, through preparation, investment, and discipline. What may look sudden from the outside will, in reality, be the result of months of work and long planning cycles.
For customers, this means that as we evolve, you will continue to see a platform that is stable, reliable, and secure. It will remain transparent and auditable, giving you confidence in the numbers you depend on. Over time, you will also see a product roadmap that becomes clearer and more evidence-driven, so you can plan your operations with greater certainty.
For partners, this means that as the platform grows stronger, the opportunities to build solutions and deliver value will grow with it. Our investment in roles like Platform Experience Manager is about making sure you have the support and clarity you need to get the most out of EnergySys. Over time, our continued focus on technology will give you more space to innovate and expand your own businesses.
For the wider EnergySys community, whether you are a supplier, a member of the team, or even a competitor watching closely, this means you can expect us to continue acting with purpose. The changes we are making are deliberate, not reactive. They will accumulate over time, strengthening the company and the ecosystem around it.
