Electralink Customer Survey DTS User Group Presentation 20 th January 2009

1. R Electralink Customer Survey DTS User Group Presentation 20th January 2009

2. Research Method Combined Approach Quantitative Qualitative CATI Telephone Interviews: 46 DTS (GOMs/ CM’s) 45 Minute Face-to-face Depth Interviews: 6 DTS (GOMs/ CM’s)

3. Quantitative Qualitative + Key Headlines • In all areas the high standards already reached by Electralink have been consolidated further, with only limited suggestions for improvement. In particular, the quality of service and people drive this. In turn, maintaining continuity is of concern to customers. • Delivery of the DTS has gone from strength to strength, with a clear sense of improvement over the past 12 months coming from a combination of initiatives and service improvements (web tools, gateway reports, managing fault situations). • For all 3 services, value for money is of no real issue, with the office move only serving to re-enforce this view.

4. Quantitative Rating Versus Other OrganisationsSummary DTS Mean Change Score vs 2007 Electralink 8.11 +0.06 GEMSERV / MRASCO 7.35 +0.35 Elexon 7.45 +0.85 National Grid 6.14 +0.47 *JOINT GAS OFFICE N/A N/A OFGEM 6.36 +0.36 Xoserv 5.33 +0.08 Base: All Who Use Each Company (Various) * Asked of OFGAS in 2007 Overall Satisfaction Mean Score out of 10

5. Quantitative Satisfaction With Electralink ServiceSummary DTS Mean Change Score vs 2007 Overall Rating 8.11 +0.06 Overall Professionalism 8.35 +0.40 Being Responsive 8.07 +0.58 Being Easy To Deal With 8.22 +0.59 Being Highly Efficient 7.98 +0.59 Communicating Clearly 8.02 +0.39 Understanding Your Business Needs 7.54 +0.59 Providing Valuable Expertise Resource 7.26 +0.09 Base: Total Sample (46) Mean Score out of 10

6. Quantitative Summary Versus Previous Years Comparisons are made only across those ratings present in all years shown: Average No Of Ratings Year Base (Mean Score) Compared DTS Survey 2006 38 4.04 23 2007 41 4.01 23 2008 46 4.12 23 The above is like for like comparison on statements scored as follows: Rating Score Very Good 5 Good 4 Adequate 3 Poor 2 Very Poor 1 Those with no experience or not using services / features rated are excluded from the mean scores.

7. Qualitative Overall Impressions & Observations • Core roles are seen as secretarial and administrative, change management and administration, and looking after the website - All done well, little that could be improved. • The quality of the people is key to this - very approachable, helpful and knowledgeable, open and appropriately friendly and proactive. • Happy to see Electralink move into new areas, as long as quality of service is not compromised. • Contact lists: • Need to be up to date • Online less complicated than spreadsheets, and slightly preferred

8. Qualitative Overall Impressions & ObservationsContinued • Helpdesks – generally very good • Many don’t recognise the idea of a helpdesk – deal with their contacts • Email best for concise enquiries, telephone otherwise (for immediate response/ acknowledgement) • Some confusion between EDS and Electralink helpdesks (smaller supplier) • Newsletter – Some got it, most said they didn’t, most valued/ would value it. • Value for money - generally seen to be very good, raised by only one respondent as an issue. • Mainly seen as at least as good as, and sometimes better than similar industry organisations.

9. Qualitative Electralink’s Key Strengths • Open and co-operative attitude, working in support of the industry, in partnership with it (very approachable, helpful and knowledgeable). • Very good communication and administration skills. Helpful, efficient and timely communication in support of: • Meetings & events, including user groups, board meetings, expert groups etc. • Fault situations, outages/ downtime etc. “Suggesting possible service improvements - we may be covering them internally, but it’s always good to see them thinking about this and putting them forward. … (Electralink is) consultative – less formal than other organisations – canvassing opinion before they put something out for impact assessment. Even they’re income generating, it says they are thinking about how to improve the service.” “Very independent, give lots of helpful advice on how various clauses & processes work .. very helpful in an explanatory way … the ways in which the constitution works.” “There’re lots of emails … But it’s relevant stuff. You can’t complain don’t know what’s going on. … I want it … I’m a fan of being told things, and deciding if I need to know. .” “They send out newsletters, documentation – they keep us informed. If something goes wrong it’s usually if someone’s not read things. … They’re very proactive. They take note of anything that doesn’t work – change their process .”

10. Qualitative Electralink’s Key Weaknesses • Very few raised, often relatively minor or transient issues e.g. A recent failure of both the main and back up gateway. • Outsourcing of IT/ Data Processing (particularly offshore) • Not seen to be Electralink’s problem necessarily, but makes any process where access to hardware is involved more difficult and complicated. • Effective lines of communication key – gaining permissions/ co-operation can be complex and difficult. “… It happened late in the afternoon, and we have agreed service standards with our customers that we have to return meter readings by 1am on the day after they are taken … we were prepared to be on site 24/7 to enable the engineer to come in … their response was 9am the next morning ... we were looking for more than that. I know it’s EDS on behalf of Electralink, but in my head it’s Electralink … We want 24 hour service for something as extreme as this – both the main gateway and the backup failed, and therefore we had no service. It’s very rare, I would have expected them to drop everything.” “We don’t house the gateway – it’s offsite in a data centre. That’s one of the issues, it’s a real nightmare getting permissions for people to see the gateway … Everything is virtually outsourced.” “We had a bit of a problem around scheduled maintenance downtimes, but to be honest that was more our problem, making sure the internal contacts knew about it …. people in India. We put some additional people on the contact list that comes out from Electralink – it’s better now.”

11. Qualitative Electralink is generally felt to be at least as good as, and in most cases better than, other industry bodies – but hard to compare “Technically, the performance we get out of data transfer network gives us less issues than the gas equivalent .” “They compare very favourably to xxxx - xxxx are a bit top heavy, a huge business. xxxx could probably benefit from some process re-engineering and could streamline things .” • Elexon & MRASCo – have workshops for new market participants – an introduction for new people. • One small supplier had a different view, reflective of their knowledge and experience of Electralink in comparison to other electricity industry bodies: “xxxx – is not user friendly. … Don’t keep email circulation lists as up to date.” “could think of couple of things xxxx could lean from Electralink! … Electralink has a better website.” “My personal opinion is that Electralink is much better. The xxxx & xxxxx processes can be overbearing at times, and change management is once a month. But they are different, it’s hard to compare directly … DTS is techy, and the others are legal. If the DTS makes a change, it’s not likely to affect your business processes. And it tends to be at the end of the other processes.” “It would be good if they were as informative as xxxx or xxxx – I know so much more about them than Electralink. What do they (Electralink) do other than sit there & run a server? .”

12. Quantitative Qualitative + The Office Move • The majority are aware of the move, with DTS customers slightly less so. • Although response is generally positive, only a minority feel it has improved their opinion. • The main positives are its central location, and good quality, efficient, effective offices that are not over the top. • With no impact on perceptions of value for money • Other positives include the good meeting room and catering, Internet access, and the opportunity to dial in to take part in meetings (one person wondered if video conferencing would be possible). “They’re practical offices, good central location (which is important), functional. No issue. They’re very conscious of their costs.”

13. R Focus On The DTS

14. Quantitative Qualitative + DTS - Key Headlines • Perceptions of Electralink have, if anything, strengthened further, still rated well ahead of other organisations. • Its strengths are the efficient, fast and professional service it provides and good, responsive communication at all levels – particularly the Helpdesk. • There is a strong sense of improvement over the past 12 months, particularly amongst GOM’s (but also CM’s): • New web tools (but could be made more visible) • Gateway reports • Fault situations • Value for money • There is some confusion between the EDS and DTS Helpdesks and some feeling that levels of expertise might be in decline. • Otherwise, very limited opportunities for improvement.

15. Quantitative DTS: Perceived Improvement Over Past 12 Months % Improved a little/ a lot Total DTS DTS DTSSample CM’s GOM’s Electralink Service Value For Money Main reason given for perceived improvement in Electralink Service: Facilities/ Web tools have improved 60% Base: All saying services improved (10)

16. Quantitative Average Rating Of Main Service AreasDTS Sample No. of Mean Change Service Attributes Score Attributes Since Area Rated 2008 Compared* 2007* All Ratings 29 4.13 23 +0.10 DTS Web Tools 8 4.26 4 +0.09 Electralink Helpdesk 5 4.24 3 +0.09 The DTS Itself 5 4.19 5 +0.15 Electralink Reporting Tools 4 4.14 4 +0.10 Electralink Services 6 4.06 5 +0.19 Gateway Connection 5 4.05 1 +0.09 EDS Helpdesk 3 4.01 3 +0.14 Electralink Website Overall 5 3.92 4 +0.06 Base: All rating each attribute * Change compared only on ratings in both 2007 and 2008

17. Quantitative DTS - Key Service Changes Since 2007 The content of the daily gateway reports +0.40 The value for money the DTS provides your organisation +0.36 Managing fault situations +0.29 The quality of written communications (including operational emails) +0.26 Being able to meet the needs of your current business +0.25 Being able to cope with the needs of your business in the future +0.24 The quality of response you receive from the EDS helpdesk +0.23 Being kept up to date (on the Electralink website) +0.22 The content and format of the Electralink newsletters +0.22 There were no decreases of more than - 0.16 NB: All other changes were less than +/- 0.20 Change in mean score since 2007

18. Quantitative How Well DTS User Group Provided Feedback On Topics And Issues Raised At The DTS User Group 15% are elected members of the DTS user group* Electralink User Group Feedback Reps Feedback* Very Well Quite Well Not Very Well Not At All Well Mean Score 1.02 0.65 Base: Total DTS Sample (46) *New questions added in 2008

19. Quantitative Awareness & Claimed Uptake Of New Initiatives Already Aware & Aware But Unaware Using Planning To Not Planning Use To Use Ability To Re-collect Files Previously Delivered Ability To Identify Files Held In EMS (Audit Tool) Ability To See No. Of Instances Of A Flow Within A File (Within Audit) Ability To Upload Bulk Search Requests Into Audit Technology Refresh Programme Enhanced MPAN Search Facility In Audit New Gateway Summary Screen Within ACMT

20. Qualitative DTS – Possible improvements • Helpdesk– logging of email queries • Attention to detail on Gateway reports • Continuing focus on lines of communication – sometimes there are multiple parties on the client side, which can create confusion. • For Electralink to be aware of, and electricity industry parties to manage? • Consider ways to make all web tools equally visible on the front page • More flexibility over the nature of the housing of the gateways – to fit with client’s / client's contractor’s corporate style (feels out of step with Electralink in other arenas – inflexible and unreasonable) • ‘Introduction to Electralink’ / DTS – could this be available more often (?) via workshops / or on website? For people new to the role and to Electralink • One was aware of a possible change to a web-based service coming well down the line? “Come & talk to us – tell us what they do. I spoke to xxxx (predecessor in the role) – he’d never met anyone from Electralink – I thought this was odd. An induction would be useful.” (Small supplier)

21. R Conclusions

22. Quantitative Qualitative + Conclusions and Next Steps • High existing standards maintained or improved. • Core to this is efficient, responsive service epitomised by Helpdesks and general communication and management. • Limited yet specific suggestions for improvement. • The wider challenge: • Maintaining continuity of expertise at an individual level whilst still being seen to be proactive and moving the service forwards.

23. R Electralink Customer Survey DTS User Group Presentation 20th January 2009