- Mannheim energy utility company uses BK 01 immoconnect for payment transactions with housing and commercial property customers
- Aareal Bank continues its success story in the housing and commercial property business in the energy sector
- SAP-based and standardised cross-sectoral solution
Wiesbaden/Mannheim, 14 December 2009 - MVV Energie and Aareal Bank will be working in close cooperation in future in the area of automated payment transactions. The Mannheim energy corporation is going to deploy the BK01 immoconnect software solution of the Wiesbaden bank. So as from Q1 2010, MVV Energie will be offering its housing and commercial property customers a considerably easier way of doing payments and booking processes and generating billing for running costs. Rolling out this product at MVV Energie means that Aareal Bank, the leading payment transactions service provider for the housing and commercial property industry, is enhancing its market position in the utilities and waste disposal market and honing its profile as innovative leader in automated payments.
Thomas Ortmanns, board member at Aareal Bank and responsible for the Institutional Housing Unit, explained: "BK01 is Aareal Bank's way of reconciling the needs of the energy sector and of the housing and commercial property industries." He added that this payments system, specially tailored to the business processes between the two sectors, offered high value added both for housing and commercial property customers and for MVV Energie. This value added consists mainly of the workflows for business management processes being streamlined on both sides.
Matthias Brückmann, who heads up distribution at MVV Energie, said: "We have an excellent Germany-wide position on the competitive power and gas market with our innovative distribution. Our distribution strategy focuses on efficient energy solutions for our customers and high service quality." He commented that process cost optimisation has been gaining significance in all areas over the past few years and in the processing of incoming payments. Brückmann: "Expanding our services in this fashion means that we can offer our housing industry and commercial property customers a one-off solution down the whole chain, from us supplying the utility through to individualised charging. This is a holistic energy supply solution."
Cross-sector interface
BK01 immoconnect functions as a cross-sector interface between energy corporation and housing industry or commercial property firm. The data are delivered by the energy corporation such that regular accounts payable for services such as e.g. power, gas, water or district heating can be allocated and booked automatically and by the nature of the service concerned in the accounting system of the housing industry and commercial property firm. BK01 immoconnect is a stand-alone sub-application of BK01 with SAP for Utilities, a highly-efficient procedure for processing mass payment transactions. Aareal Bank developed this procedure jointly with SAP for the energy sector. Another strength of the Aareal Bank product: BK01 immoconnect can be extended by adding modules as desired. For example an energy sector customer can use the advantages of the automated payment systems of BK01 in direct payment transactions processing with household customers.
Aareal Bank has many years of expertise in automated payments. In the German housing industry, it leads the market with its BK01 product family. More than 2,300 customers in housing and commercial property and energy, investment funds and insurance use BK01. Aareal Bank processes payments for a total of approx. seven million housing units. The cooperation with MVV Energie means that Aareal Bank is now also strengthening its access to the energy sector.
Professional energy management for housing and commercial property
In the last few years, MVV Energie has developed into one of the leading energy partners of the housing and commercial property industry. The company supplies innovative products that are tailored solutions for the price-conscious and efficient procurement of power, gas and heating for all its customers' properties. At the same time, the customers benefit from the know-how of an experienced energy supplier providing comprehensive logistics and service solutions such as are especially important for customers with a high number of properties.
The ongoing, personal and individual customer care right from the outset is the core element of a holistic supply concept that optimises energy management sustainably. MVV Energie's many years of experience in energy procurement mean that it can offer customers a sustainable and efficient purchasing strategy, advising its customers in key market phases to achieve attractive energy prices in the long term. Permanent online access to all accounting and usage data facilitates energy management, especially in regard of the controlling and reporting for a high number of properties. Separate, transparent listing of all locations, electronic invoicing and electronic invoice data importing all guarantee enhanced planning and budget security. Customers can also improve their own environmental balance sheet with variable "green electricity" components.
Aareal Bank
Aareal Bank AG is one of the leading international specialist property banks. The Aareal Bank share is included in Deutsche Börse's mid-cap MDAX index. Aareal Bank operates on three continents: leveraging its successful European business model, the bank has established similar platforms in North America and in the Asia-Pacific region. It provides property financing solutions in more than 25 countries.
MVV Energie
Since going public in 1999, MVV Energie AG plays an important role among the German energy companies. The company's unique business portfolio comprises the areas electricity, district heating, gas, water, energy-related services and environment. The horizontal networking and integration of shareholdings in local and regional operators with the same business fields is another outstanding feature of the group.
