Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 7TH - 13TH SEPTEMBER 2018 | 9 Interview C hris Scoggins is a problem-solver. That's just as well, because his latest role involves transforming the water retail market operator from a dynamic but makeshi start-up into a slick "enduring organisation". The chief executive of Market Operator Services Lim- ited (MOSL) meets Utility Week at the Institute of Direc- tors on Pall Mall to discuss the first year of the open water market, and MOSL's role in such a complex operation. What exactly does he see as MOSL's enduring role? "To provide the infrastructure for the market to operate, to provide the information services to enable the market to operate, and to provide the governance services – pri- marily focused around the panel and the code manage- ment, market performance monitoring and reporting, providing information externally and transparently to drive improvement through reputational pressure by reporting what we know about the market transpar- ently," he says, and then laughs. "Sorry, that wasn't very concise." Scoggins – a graduate in archaeology and anthro- pology from the University of Cambridge – speaks deliberately and precisely, using archaic terms such as "primordinate" when describing MOSL's main goal before the market opened. Now, 12 months in, the vision for the second year is to make sure all market partici- pants are collaborating for the betterment of the sector, which should, among other things, help to reverse a steep rise in customer complaints. Scoggins' love of complex challenges is evident from his career choices. He started out in advanced IT and artificial intelligence, and worked in financial services as a management consultant and as a qualified fund man- ager, before taking up his previous role in the transport sector. "I've always liked going into new sectors. I'm adept at picking up new things, new industries. I like challenging areas of complexity," he tells Utility Week. "In transport, I particularly enjoyed the organisation that was owned by the members of that market in rail [National Rail Enquiries]. I enjoyed the satisfaction of navigating the challenges of bringing in change across a market with so many different trading parties and different points of view, along with, of course, the government, the regulator and the other stakeholders." He led National Rail Enquiries from the beginning of its digital life, transforming it from a pure contact cen- tre to 99 per cent online with 17 million customers. He also built its business-to-business division from scratch, which now provides 1,200 services to third-party clients. So, on to his next challenge – transforming MOSL into a permanent company, a role he took up in June 2017. "When I was approached about this role, it seemed like a very good fit and a great opportunity to do that in a brand new market." The story of MOSL's evolution is fascinating. Few com- panies are formed with the sole purpose of introducing competition into a monopoly market. To do this, the mar- ket operator has been forced to adapt in a unique way. "We have to move very quickly. People expect things to improve in the market quickly and we'll play our part in that. But we need to do that at the same time as bedding down our organisation, and bedding down the processes and systems across the market," he explains. MOSL was formed out of necessity in February 2015, aer the previous organisation tasked with procuring the central IT system – Open Water Markets Limited – was deemed to be a public body and therefore restricted in its

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