Rapid
change-impact analysis
Thousands
saved in customer operations overhead
Painless
personal data inventory
To lead New Zealand’s energy sector with future-ready business practices and next-gen services, Genesis Energy centralized its data governance, quality and catalog with Informatica. Empowered by trustworthy data, its teams uncover new efficiencies each day.
Angela Zhao
Our strategy is around sustainability, but in three Ps, if you like. So people, profit and planet. They have asked us to take more of a lead in the data team to help the company innovate. We recognize that this is the data age, it's the power and the fuel for everything from our systems in the operational sense to advanced analytics. We have quite a large range of systems and technology in our ecosystem. We use Azure and we have both a legacy data warehouse and a new data lake, and so it's even more complex in the source system environment. The Informatica and Azure systems work well together, which is a huge benefit for us. Our biggest number one project at the moment for Genesys is a modernization project in one scenario where traditional tasks that were performed by analysts that could take months, we've cut it down to days, and this is tangible cost saving for projects in the operational team space, we have done work in the data quality where we saved our customer operations team thousands of dollars each month because of higher data quality, and then they were able to use the data to do their day-to-day jobs.
We were able to use Informatica classification more specifically to help with privacy concerns, earn trust from our customers, and help us protect customers personal data and the regulators using Informatica and data governance to help prepare for ai, mostly to help improve the data quality, improve the quality of the ingredients that will be powering ai. And secondly, we use Informatica and data governance to drive literacy in the business, to help the business really understand what it means to be AI ready. Next on the roadmap for me would be to really experiment with Marketplace as well as a clear GPT. Clear. GPT to me is going to help democratize the use of Informatica and data management and data governance in general into the hands of the users, end users, business users, as well as data professionals, like data engineers, data analysts. Modern data governance is different, is evolving, and as Informatica has shown us as an organization leading in this space, they are constantly creating, innovating, and changing as well.
“Quality insights start with quality ingredients, which means quality data. With the foundation that we are building alongside Informatica, we can start experimenting with advanced data and AI use cases for our customers.”
Energizing an iconic business with data-driven growth
Genesis Energy is one of New Zealand’s largest energy companies, supplying nearly 500,000 customers with electricity, natural gas and LPG.
Angela Zhao, Platform Owner of Genesis Energy’s data governance and quality function, understands that centralized and trustworthy data is crucial for the company’s future success. This foundation provides a competitive edge in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). Zhao and her small team of experts are transforming how Genesis Energy uses data to empower its employees and foster innovation.
“We are looking to use data to improve operations and differentiate customer services, and the ability to access and analyze accurate data is essential,” says Zhao. “We want to bring good, quality data closer to the decision makers and subject matter experts.”
“We work closely with Informatica and Microsoft. Having partners that support us while also collaborating well together is a major advantage, especially when taking on an enterprise data governance initiative that involves so many moving pieces.”
Powering through a complex data environment
Essential to success is a robust data foundation to help Genesis Energy achieve its strategic goals. This included using data in new ways to support both their generation and retail businesses.
First, the company faced the challenge of integrating data from a complex and distributed ecosystem. This includes a Microsoft Azure data warehouse and data lake, multiple Oracle SQL databases and various proprietary software solutions supporting each business line’s operations. In addition, the team supported the company’s major project to replace the customer billing and CRM platform. Operational and data silos between the company's generation and retail business units further complicated this environment.
To help tackle these issues, a new data governance framework was implemented across the organization, powered by the capabilities of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud™ (IDMC).
“To succeed, we need to be able to track, manage and leverage all the information across our organization,” says Zhao. “That’s where Informatica comes in, allowing us to connect and validate data across every domain, cloud and warehouse in our ecosystem.”
Timeline of Genesis Energy’s data governance journey.
Building trust through data quality and compliance wins
In under 12 months, Genesis transitioned its data environment to IDMC, incorporating the platform's Cloud Data Governance and Catalog and Cloud Data Quality modules. By year's end, Genesis had not only established new data management capabilities but also achieved significant advancements in compliance and privacy practices.
For example, inaccuracies in customer data—such as incorrect postal addresses and pricing information—had previously slowed down operational and compliance workflows. Using Informatica CDQ scorecards and exception reports, the Genesis customer operations team was able to save thousands of dollars in monthly operating costs and reduce pricing compliance risk.
The savings didn’t stop there. The team also identified a way to streamline the major billing and CRM transformation project. IDMC made it easy to perform downstream change impact analysis using data catalog and lineage, reducing timelines from months to mere days.
Genesis Energy also uses IDMC to identify customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) in its structured Data Catalog and combines it with other tools to identify personal data in its files, documents and folders. These enhancements help the business achieve new levels of trust with New Zealand regulators for its data privacy practices.
Reflecting on the challenges of managing a complex multi-vendor data ecosystem, Zhao was impressed by the close partnership between Informatica and vendors such as Microsoft, and the simplicity it brought to building a unified data catalog. Built-in connectors between the vendors’ platforms made building a unified catalog easy, with both companies available to answer questions and guide the Genesis team through their data management needs.
“We work closely with Informatica and Microsoft. Having partners that support us while also collaborating well together is a major advantage, especially when taking on an enterprise data governance initiative that involves so many moving pieces,” she says.
Empowering business teams to manage their own data
One of the fundamental benefits of the modern data and AI governance approach embraced by Genesis Energy is empowering business teams to manage their own data. Crucially, the cloud deployment of IDMC laid the foundation for greater data democratization.
Genesis Energy nurtures a culture of data literacy with IDMC. Employees integrate governance into their daily work via self-service portals and the data stewardship program. Citizen analysts across the business attend regular guild meetings and industry meetups to boost their knowledge and expertise.
With IDMC providing centralized data definitions, business units can communicate and share valuable data insights in a common language. This improves collaboration among departments that traditionally worked in silos, while allowing data stewards to crowdsource insights from other business functions.
The team has also focused on making data governance unobtrusive and accessible. Through their IDMC implementation, they are creating enthusiasm and community around data management and data-driven decision making.
“Implementing data governance is like cultivating a brand,” says Zhao. “You need to engage the right people, build a community of ambassadors and then empower them to get involved and spread the word, which is what we did by creating a Centre of Enablement model using IDMC.”
Democratizing data for the age of AI
To take advantage of advanced data and AI technology, teams need confidence in the quality of their data and the literacy required to understand how algorithms work. While these are early days for Genesis Energy’s AI strategy, Zhao and her team are encouraged by their success with IDMC.
“Quality insights start with quality ingredients, which means quality data,” says Zhao. “With the foundation that we are building alongside Informatica, we can start experimenting with advanced data and AI use cases for our customers.”
Next, Genesis Energy plans to explore Informatica Cloud Data Marketplace and the generative AI-powered assistant, CLAIRE® GPT. This initiative aims to reduce complexity, enhance scalability and expedite data delivery to internal teams. By doing so, Genesis Energy hopes to democratize the use of data for both business users and data professionals, including software engineers and analysts.
“Data governance continues to evolve and the rise of AI will only accelerate that change. Don’t be afraid to rewrite your job description to stay one step ahead,” she says. “Informatica consistently shows us how continuous innovation and improvement leads to better performance for our business and better outcomes for our customers.”
Inside the solution
Intelligent Data Management Cloud
Cloud Data Integration
Data Quality & Observability
Cloud Data Governance and Catalog
Microsoft Azure
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