Fujitsu has been forced to escalate problems with a key IT system used by Airtricity in the Republic of Ireland (RoI) to avoid potentially impacting the energy company’s customers, Computer Weekly has learned.
Fears over the billing application developed for SSE Airtricity RoI by Fujitsu have raised alarms in Fujitsu’s leadership.
According to a source, the issues should have been fixed as part of a Fujitsu initiative, known as Project Ivy, launched after the Post Office Horizon scandal, which seeks to tackle critical software defects, and improve testing and governance across its systems. “It has had to be escalated for urgent attention before it does real harm to customers,” they said.
Fujitsu said it’s reviewing its software for potential problems in response to the Post Office Horizon scandal. In his fifth witness statement to the scandal public inquiry, Paul Patterson, the CEO of Fujitsu in Europe, stated that the company is addressing the remediation of systems and technology under the Rebuilding Trust Programme.
After multiple attempts by Computer Weekly, Fujitsu refused to comment on the alleged problems with its application. SSE Airtricity said: “The other SSE Airtricity services which utilise the all island billing system supplied by Hansen and the proprietary system supported by Fujitsu include the Republic of Ireland business. There are no issues related to system performance which are materially impacting customers.”
There is no suggestion the Hansen system is causing the issues. According to the source, “the billing application is separate from Hansen’s billing system but integrates with it, processing key data before passing it on for billing and account reconciliation”.
The source told Computer Weekly that Fujitsu is concerned, and that the issue has been escalated to Fujitsu in Japan.
Airtricity would not comment on whether Fujitsu is addressing these issues, stating that “any queries regarding Fujitsu business operations should be directed to the company itself”, but Fujitsu refused to comment, citing customer confidentiality.
In March 2024, Fujitsu closed down its Republic of Ireland business for new business after a review of the operation’s performance and market outlook, with the contract with SSE Airtricity transferred to the UK business.
“It is with regret that we have taken a difficult decision and plan not to pursue new business in the Irish office,” the email stated. “Going forward, Fujitsu plans to refocus its Irish operations on the fulfilment of existing customer contractual commitments.”
Long-term partners
Fujitsu and Airtricity have a long relationship, with Fujitsu playing a key role in its operations across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Fujitsu developed and integrated a Customer Information System (CIS), automated billing and customer communication processes and managed the system integration and selection of IT suppliers.
In December 2023, a senior SSE Airtricity employee in RoI publicly praised Fujitsu’s role in supporting its operations, presenting a Certificate of Excellence to the IT development team on behalf of SSE Airtricity’s business and IT customer support teams.
The billing application concerns come months after Centrica chose not to award a deal worth about £45m to Fujitsu, citing concerns about the reputational damage stemming from its involvement in the Post Office scandal.
CRM migration issues
Separately, last year, problems were experienced by SSE Airtricity customers when a CRM software migration caused service issues in Northern Ireland. The source told Computer Weekly: “The CRM migration was part SSE Airtricity RoI’s Project Genesis programme, which included upgrading core billing and CRM systems.”
Local reports described problems, which were unrelated to Fujitsu, being experienced by customers in Northern Ireland. SSE Airtricity said this happened during a CRM system migration.
In November, The Belfast Telegraph reported that SSE Airtricity had sent elderly and vulnerable residents in a social housing development gas bills despite them not having gas boilers installed, and this continued even after the company was told as much.
Airtricity said the issues in Northern Ireland have been resolved. “SSE Airtricity Gas Northern Ireland undertook a CRM system migration to a new platform which was completed in May 2024 for all gas customers in Northern Ireland,” said an SSE Airtricity spokesperson. “We took a phased approach to migrating customers to the platform in order to minimise disruption. While some customers experienced service issues as the systems bedded in, these have since been resolved.”
