14
www.utilityweek.co.uk/fLeX
M
ike Young is two years
into one of the biggest
digital transformations in
the sector. "It has scale,
and complexity… it's not
for the faint hearted," says
Centrica's group chief information officer
(CIO), with dry understatement.
Since he arrived, Young has been
overhauling Centrica's IT systems to
ensure everyone who rings one of its 14
call centres, goes online or needs help
from one of its 15,000 engineers in the
field comes away feeling satisfied – not
put on hold, passed from pillar to post or
asked to come back later as in the not so
distant bad old days.
His biggest move of the dial has been
at British Gas, still the dominant brand in
the portfolio with more than 12 million of
Centrica's 25 million customer accounts.
Young has set his sights on Centrica not
only being best of breed in energy, but
the equal of big-name retailers too, up
there with John Lewis.
" e IT leadership that I inherited was
the British Gas team. I've had to help
them think of the world in a much bigger
way than they were used to. is is a big
company with a history that does not
necessarily lend itself to implementing
digital the way we need to," says Young,
who controls a team of 1,700 technology
and IT staff.
"It carried a lot of legacy technology
and process, and a capability that has been
very loyal to the brand over the years but
was not necessarily digitally fluent.
Centrica's global chief
information officer on
beating John Lewis at digital
transactions, partnering with
Microsoft, and using smart
meter data to tell customers
when their freezer is about
to break down
By Denise Chevin
I N T E R V I E W
M i k e
Yo u n g
"So one's being asked to change a
culture, and that's largely why I came."
Young joined Centrica in November 2016,
from a group CIO role at the media and
marketing group Dentsu Aegis Network,
to work with chief executive Iain Conn, the
former BP executive appointed in 2014.
He's on the board that has restructured
Centrica from operating as a series of
semi-autonomous brands – including
British Gas – to a group structure that
has three operating divisions.
e £28 billion turnover firm, which
operates in 14 countries – but mainly
in the UK and North America – is split
operationally into Centrica Consumer
(including British Gas and Hive), Centrica
Business, and Exploration & Production.
