Due to the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, various internal processes at VERBUND, such as signature processes, that had previously been solved in analogue form had to be digitised quickly. Austria’s most important electricity producer relied on MOXIS for this. Outcome: The solution impressed not just the end users at VERBUND. In the future, electronic signature processes will be rolled out further internally.
MOXIS in the energy industry.
The energy industry is the key industry of the digital transformation. Without high-performance supply and the expansion of the associated infrastructure, there would be no basis for the profound change processes that connect companies across all industries. At the same time, energy suppliers themselves have arrived in the midst of digitising their own processes.
Verbund is no exception to this rule. The leading Austrian electricity company is one of the largest producers of electricity from hydropower in Europe. Almost 100% of the electricity generated comes from climate-friendly, renewable hydropower. For the “business behind the business”, the energy producer has been using electronic signatures with MOXIS since 2020. Digital signatures for internal administrative processes were nothing new for the company, which has around 3,000 employees. However, the solutions that VERBUND had been using until March 2020 could not be adapted quickly enough for the new situation, as it became clear at the beginning of the first lockdown.
Media break free in lockdown
A solution was therefore sought that met the need for decentralised organisation of signature processes with absolute “mobility guarantee”. The challenge was simply to guarantee all signature processes from the home office at any time and without media discontinuity. In the first step, XiTrust made the MOXIS electronic signature folder available to its “energy-rich” customer as a cloud solution (“MOXIS as a Service”). Somewhat later, the switch to the on-premises variant took place. In this way, it was possible to pragmatically ensure that the company asserted its new digital ability to act in the shortest possible time. The main fields of action for internal process digitisation are qualified electronically signed C-level documents and approvals with simple signatures.
A recent study by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) sheds light on the digital self-image of an industry without which the lights go out everywhere. First conducted in 2016, “Digital@EVU” has now been expanded to cover the entire DACH region. In collaboration with the energy associations Oesterreichs Energie and the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies, Austria and Switzerland were part of the “Digital@EVU” digitization barometer for the first time.
Study on digitisation in the DACH region
More than 120 energy utilities from all stages of the value chain and of all sizes took part in the benchmark study. More than 85 percent of them expect their digitisation budgets to increase in the coming years. 77 percent of them already have or are planning a digitisation strategy. However, only 18 percent of employees are already satisfied with digitisation in their company.
High MOXIS acceptance
MOXIS scores highly with VERBUND users in terms of usability and the self-explanatory layout. Currently, approx. 15,000 qualified electronic signatures are executed annually with MOXIS. This compares to approximately 10,000 simple signatures. With a strong upward trend, MOXIS has become an integral part of VERBUND’s digitisation agenda. The further internal roll-out will soon provide the document workflows with fresh energy for signing.
Christoph Schomberg, Senior Editor at XiTrust
