DTEK revamps debt management with Microsoft Power Platform

In the heart of Ukraine lies DTEK, the country's largest private investor in the energy sector. DTEK, runs solar, wind, and thermal power plants, extracting coal and natural gas. Its subsidiary, D.Solutions and other three provider companies, altogether work under the YASNO brand, supply their clients with electricity, gas, and developing efficiency solutions and a grid of supercharger stations for electric vehicles. Over the years, YASNO has established itself as a major player in the energy market, tirelessly serving 3.5 million Ukrainian individuals and businesses.

When Ukraine was faced with war in early 2022, its citizens and industries were thrown into turmoil. Sergii Kovalenko, Chief Executive Officer of D.Solutions, vividly recalls, "Saving their lives was top priority, so citizens and businesses were forced to suspend day-to-day activities. Paying the bills was definitely not the main concern." 

This led to a significant challenge for DTEK—a drastic increase in overdue accounts receivables. Prior to the war, DTEK had planned to implement a large debt collection solution. All that changed. "We didn't have time to go through tender procedures for selecting a vendor company, prepare numerous criteria, and go through regular procedures,” Alex Vygodski, Head of Enterprise Applications and Technologies, IS&T at DTEK explains. “We needed to implement a solution immediately."

Providing a rapid response

In the time of uncertainty and upheaval, DTEK was committed to continue bringing light and warmth to Ukrainian people. Mr. Vygodski championed a forward-thinking solution to address debt collection and keep the business running, which was Microsoft Power Platform. "Because it's a cloud-based solution, which has embedded workflows, we didn't need to spend time setting up and deploying Power Platform. With just a team of two, we developed and implemented the solution in five months,” he shares.

The solution centered around two key components: integration of multiple apps and having one interface to manage activities. "We have more than 100 in-house solutions and independent vendor software,” Mr. Vygodski explains. “Consequently, each person works with maybe 10 or 20 solutions daily. This native integration between Power Apps, Power BI, and Microsoft Teams enabled us to save time, and the single interface simplifies management and operations." 

With a cloud solution, all users gained the ability to work remotely using their PCs, tablets or phones to access PowerApps when needed. “We created work groups to improve collaboration among those who use the software. Right now, we have 550 active users and the ability to access a customer database of over 200,000 entries from any location,” says Mr. Vygodski. 

Powering ahead amid crises

The cloud-based solution rolled out by DTEK yielded transformative results. Thanks to the integration of Power BI, DTEK’s debt collection department could analyze the statistics for each customer and generate reports faster. “Before we used Power Platform, we could only create debt collection reports bi-weekly. Now, we can get reports every day in a matter of minutes,” says Mr. Vygodski. “It’s really given managers the flexibility and speed to make important business decisions.” 

Through data aggregation and customer segmentation, Power Platform enabled DTEK to categorize debt customers and assign them to specialized managers. Using this information, DTEK can create tailored plans centered around a promise-to-pay date. 

The company also leverages Power Platform to forecast expected cash flow for the next three months. More importantly, it helped DTEK identify customers who are most likely unable to pay for various humanitarian reasons and adjust the company’s resource management accordingly. 

With a clear vision of the expected cash flow and a fine-grained understanding of each customer’s debt, DTEK is on track to regain stability while continuing to serve its customers’ best interests.

With the successful implementation of Power Platform, DTEK saw a shift in its financial health. “After implementing a system-based solution on Power Platform, the company managed to collect UAH 40 million of debt in 2022,” states Mr. Kovalenko. It is a testament to the effectiveness of the system and the resilience of the DTEK team amidst an unprecedented situation.”

In addition, with customer history easily accessible from the cloud, DTEK customer service can improve its communications. “With the right knowledge, we can establish models of cyclicity and prioritization of communications, which has improved our call process. We can also analyze the performance of call center operators thanks to real-time analytics, which really drives quality customer care,” shares Mykhailo Samokhvalov, IT Business Partner at D.Solutions. 

Planning for a solid future

The solution not only solved an immediate crisis but also affirmed DTEK's commitment to innovation. "We created a working solution using the Power Platform," adds Mr. Samokhvalov. “It has modernized our business practices and we found that we could expand this solution to other business units, if required.” 

All this ties in with DTEK’s future plans. "We’re looking to integrate metering data and use Power Platform to prepare statistical data. We also want to enhance the solution’s communication capabilities by enabling people to use their phones with Microsoft Teams," lists Mr. Vygodski. His optimism shines through as he envisages a future enhanced by even more Microsoft solutions “We're preparing to use a variety of Microsoft services across different areas, such as productivity, business applications, artificial intelligence technologies, and cybersecurity.” 

Mr. Samokhvalov echoes this enthusiasm, citing the good working relationship with Microsoft, "Microsoft’s support has been instrumental in implementing new concepts and ideas. We would not have been able to achieve all this without their help." DTEK's unwavering commitment to the Ukrainian people and to innovation sets the foundation for a promising future.