Helen launches new app for monitoring energy consumption – Oma Helen promotes smarter energy choices
Helen has launched a new Oma Helen mobile app for its customers. With the app, Helen wants to increase the transparency of the customers’ energy consumption and that way empower them to make their own choices. The first version of the app is available to customers who have an electricity contract with Helen, but the use will be extended in the next version of the app.
The Oma Helen app is an important step in the digitalisation of the energy company and the improvement of customer experience. Oma Helen introduces the trend of utilising digital services and use of data, which has been available in the financial and retail sectors, also in the energy sector where the use of digital services has been fairly low until now.
“For many people, the electricity bill has been the only user interface for monitoring household energy consumption. We wanted to lower the threshold, increase transparency and make technical data easier to understand and more interesting,” Kaisa Sundman, Helen’s Head of Digital Channels, explains the starting points of designing Oma Helen.
With the Oma Helen app, users can review their own energy consumption with a longer-range trend level and at the hourly, daily, weekly and yearly levels. It also provides interesting data, for example, the weekdays with the highest energy consumption. In addition, all key data in terms of the customer account and contract is also found in the app.
“Helen’s customers have wished for an easy-to-use service for monitoring their consumption. This is now possible in the first phase of the app. In future, we will introduce new functionalities in the app and develop it into a digital platform for all energy solutions. With this platform thinking, we at Helen want to be forerunners in the digitalisation of the energy sector,” Sundman emphasises.
Especially this year, it may have come as a surprise to many people how much energy consumption has increased, for example, as a result of working from home in the longer term. With the app, we have also wanted to make everyday budgeting easier for our customers as the amount of the next electricity bill can be checked in advance on the basis of consumption.
“We at Helen are convinced that online services will become easier to use and the customer experience will improve as a result of digitalisation. Oma Helen is a significant step for us to that end. Attractively presented energy usage data offers our customers insights for making better choices. The first customer feedback on the app has been really encouraging and tells that we have addressed the right issue. We will develop the app further in close cooperation with our customers,” describes Tuomas Teuri, Chief Digital Officer at Helen.
Transparency in energy production and customers’ own energy choices
In addition to the further enhanced customer experience that Oma Helen offers to Helen’s customers, the possibilities to make sustainable energy choices with the app are also significant. Helen is committed to a carbon neutrality target by 2035. In practice, this means, e.g. phasing out coal use by 2029 and substantial investments in renewable energy forms and new ways of utilising waste heat in heating.
The Oma Helen app increases transparency not only in the customers’ own energy consumption, but also in energy production forms, which is a key factor in choosing the best electricity contract for many of our customers.
“A more sustainable future and energy are important to us all. With this app, we want to also encourage our customers to take part in the joint effort. The transparency of energy use is important to our customers. Information must be easily available in everyday life in order to make choices about your own consumption. Oma Helen has been developed together with our customers to meet this need,” Teuri says.
The Oma Helen app can be downloaded free of charge from app stores (App Store and Google Play). In the first stage, the app is available to customers who have an electricity contract with Helen.