The energy sector is undergoing a deep transition, marked by changes that modify how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed. This creates challenges ranging from the decentralization of power grids to demand growth, which is driven by digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI). With this landscape in mind, a utility’s adaptability no longer depends only on physical infrastructure but on the platform that supports all its business and customer management processes.
Today, digital agility has become the key to business success: the ability to respond quickly to changes, innovate frequently while maintaining relevance and control, and lead the transformation with a flexible technological foundation. Utilities that manage to achieve these characteristics will not only survive the energy transition but will lead it.
It is precisely here that Smartflex, by Open Intelligence, establishes itself as the all-in-one modern platform to navigate the changes of the energy transition. Recognized in leading industry reports, such as the Gartner® Market Guide for Utility CIS, for its contribution to the modernization of utilities [1]. Smartflex brings together essential features on a single platform that empowers the utility of the future: non-siloed operation, embedded AI, digital agility, and native support for advanced business models.
1. All-in-one digital platform: the foundation of operational efficiency
In an energy ecosystem that is constantly redefining itself, technological fragmentation is the greatest enemy of efficiency. Each disconnected business management module represents an operational blind spot, a duplication of effort, or a risk of error in the system database. Smartflex breaks this paradigm with a natively integrated architecture that consolidates critical business and commercial customer management processes into a single environment:
- CIS – Customer Information System: Manages the customer lifecycle, from billing, metering, and collections management to digital interactions.
- MDM – Meter Data Management: Processes and validates advanced metering data (AMI) to improve strategic usage decisions.
- MWM – Mobile Workforce Management: Optimizes and orchestrates field operations to deliver a consistent standard of service during every customer interaction.
- DCX – Digital Customer Experience: Consolidates the omnichannel digital experience by empowering customers with agile self-service tools, such as intuitive portals and chatbots, guaranteeing fluid and personalized interactions.
This integrated platform creates a single source of truth, enabling a 360-degree view of operations and delivering real-time analytics built for a market in transition. It allows for faster, more accurate, data-driven decisions. Unlike a ‘best-of-breed’ strategy that layers modern add-ons over legacy systems, this unified approach avoids the significant integration costs and maintenance burdens that drain time and financial resources. As a result, utilities can redirect their focus from complex system maintenance to the innovative initiatives required to enhance essential service delivery.
2. Embedded AI
Smartflex’s evolution is based in Alexandria; its artificial intelligence engine integrates AI natively throughout the platform. Thanks to its agentic approach, it equips the system with intelligent digital assistants, designed for specific business objectives, such as accelerating collections, reducing unnecessary technical visits, or managing complex claims. These agents are not just predictive; they also decide and execute the best action within established rules and with human supervision when necessary. Thus, intelligence transitions from being a discrete element to becoming a catalyst that transforms data into automated decisions, driving efficiency, precision, and a more proactive customer experience.
Furthermore, Alexandria offers an instant and autonomous reaction capability to operational or commercial events by automating actions after predictive analysis. This translates into tangible benefits: reduced resolution times, more agile portfolio recovery, and processes that optimize every interaction. Its Trust Layer ensures the traceability and protection of data within a secure and governed environment, allowing the utility to maintain total control over the information and convert the complexity of AI into a competitive advantage with a high Return on Investment (ROI).
3. Digital Agility: Innovation at the Speed of Change
The regulatory and competitive landscape of the energy sector is evolving rapidly, leading to new rates, incentive schemes, electrification programs, or sustainability policies that require quick and flexible responses. However, most robust but rigid systems often operate under an inflexible structure, where each adjustment requires long development and testing cycles that increase operational costs.
Smartflex overcomes this limitation with a configurable business rules engine, which allows operational and business teams to design, model, and deploy new services, products, and programs without code-heavy adaptations. This capability puts innovation within reach of more people within the company, simplifying lengthy processes.
This agility significantly reduces operational complexity and enhances the adaptive capability of utilities. What once took months like adapting an offering or responding to a regulatory change can now be achieved by simply configuring and validating a workflow before launching it to market.
In other words, Smartflex turns the utility into an organization that is “adaptable by design,” capable of evolving and innovating at the speed of the market. Moving from a “system of record” philosophy to a “system of innovation” is what differentiates utilities that merely adjust to the environment from those that lead it.
4. Native Support for Emerging Models: Monetizing the Energy Future
The energy transition is part of a structural change in how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed. Today, utilities must manage bidirectional grids, prosumers, electric vehicles, and even complementary services that transcend the traditional sale of kilowatt-hours.
Smartflex was designed to operate in this new environment. Its modular architecture and advanced billing and collections management engine handles the most complex models with total transparency and flexibility. Its key capabilities include:
- Advanced Prosumer Management: Offers support for net metering and net billing schemes, compensating for energy injected versus energy consumed and adapting to the different regulations of each territory.
- Smart E-mobility: Allows the creation and management of electric vehicle charging programs, applying dynamic rates based on the time of day, and administering incentives or rebates according to regulatory changes.
- Service Packaging (Bundling): The platform facilitates the creation of combined products, integrating energy with non-traditional services such as connectivity, insurance, or energy efficiency programs for new commercial offerings.
These capabilities not only expand the commercial portfolio of utilities but also transform their customer relationships, enabling them to offer comprehensive and personalized solutions. Thus, Smartflex converts the complexity of the new energy market into a continuous source of value and growth.
Smartflex: The Technological Strategy to Lead Energy Transition
As digital transformation and energy transition converge, choosing the right software is a critical strategic business decision. Smartflex is not just a management tool, but a comprehensive platform that drives efficiency, innovation, and sustainability.
Its integrated architecture eliminates operational barriers, its rules engine accelerates adaptation, and its support for new business models enables diversification and commercial expansion. These three qualities make Smartflex the ideal digital core for utilities seeking to lead the new energy era.
Companies that adopt agile and resilient technologies will not only respond to current challenges but will also be prepared for future ones. In the new energy landscape, agility is not an option: it is the condition for leadership. With Smartflex, utilities do not just manage change: they master it, transform it, and turn it into their greatest competitive advantage.
