Customer Stories
CASE STUDY
Exposing APIs Securely to Increase Customer Service Offerings and Build Stronger Customer Relationships
HIGHLIGHTS
ScottishPower exposed their APIs securely with external parties, introducing new services for customers and strengthening relationships with stakeholders.
Goals
- ScottishPower needed to expose their data and services securely with an increasing number of external partners and third parties that work with their business units.
- Provide customer-friendly, efficient services and improve customer communications.
Industry: Energy and Utilities
Location: UK
About ScottishPower
ScottishPower secures affordable and clean energy, modernizes networks to improve the quality of service, and increases customer choice through digital enhancements to put their customers in control of their energy usage. A part of the Iberdrola Group, a global energy company and a world leader in wind energy, ScottishPower employs over 6,000 people to work on cutting edge innovation projects in their business networks and to build offshore wind farms.
Deployment and Approach
The team at ScottishPower evaluated several API management solutions at the start of this project and they eventually decided to start a pilot project with WSO2 API Manager. Several factors contributed to this decision - one was that WSO2 API Manager was recognized as a “Visionary” in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and the other was that a version was available for download and use, at no additional cost. Since WSO2 API Manager is an open source, full lifecycle API management solution, the team at Scottish Power had the flexibility to adapt the solution according to their enterprise needs by themselves and test the solution within a short time frame. Following a successful pilot program, ScottishPower decided to proceed with a production deployment of WSO2 API Manager.
WSO2 API Manager was deployed across two data centers in Glasgow, UK. Customer communications play a vital role in the business operations at ScottishPower. They communicate with customers in multiple ways, including via SMS. WSO2 API Manager plays an important role in enabling omni-channel customer communications whereby all incoming SMS messages from customers are routed through WSO2 API Manager before they are processed by the backend systems.
Furthermore, ScottishPower has set up pop-up shops in public spaces across the UK where customer care agents use tablets to facilitate the sign-up process for customers at their convenience. WSO2 API Manager comes into play here too, providing greater accessibility to customers. These tablet devices communicate with the Scottish Power systems through WSO2 API Manager. WSO2 API Manager functions as the central point of contact for all backend services at ScottishPower, enabling the organization to provide customer-friendly, efficient services.
RESULTS
- ScottishPower can now proactively work with external partners and third parties as they’re able to expose their APIs securely.
- Exposing APIs securely has enabled them to expand services offered to their customers.
- Working with their business network proactively coupled with increasing customer service offerings means better connections with all ScottishPower stakeholders.
(Case study contributors: Himasha Guruge from WSO2 and ScottishPower)
“WSO2 API Manager performed well. As we deployed and configured this product in-house, we have been reliant on support from WSO2 via the support portal and calls. WSO2 has been very responsive to incidents and queries that we have raised; their advice was key to our initial deployment.”
A spokesperson for ScottishPower
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