How to Use Urjanet Connect

Earlier this year, we announced a new tool to enable easier access to utility data: Urjanet Connect. Just as you might link your bank account to Venmo for simple, secure payments, customers can use Urjanet Connect to link their utility accounts to the Urjanet platform – for simple, secure utility data management. 

But before you’re ready to use Urjanet Connect, you need to know how it benefits you and how it works, step by step. So let’s dive in to the details. 

Why use Urjanet Connect?

Efficiency

First off, the utility credential collection process as it stands today is more disorganized than it needs to be. In order to access all the utility data you need, you have to collect account credentials from each of your customers, or from various departments and facilities across the organization. 

How you do this matters: you might be asking for and recording credentials over a chain of emails, or by sharing and continuously updating a central spreadsheet. Either way, the burden of work is on you to keep all of the credentials organized and accurate, taking up your valuable time with a simple administrative task. 

With Urjanet Connect, you can streamline this process and simply send out a link to the Urjanet Connect interface. Rather than collecting everything yourself, each of your end users can enter their credentials and onboard their utility accounts, without any additional effort from you. And when they’re done, you’ll have access to data from all of those accounts in one place. 

Security

Another drawback of passing credentials around over email or spreadsheet is the lack of security, which means you’re putting your data or your customer’s data at risk. Urjanet Connect’s secure web interface is protected by industry-leading security standards, with encryption of usernames and passwords. 

Flexibility

Urjanet Connect was created to be customized. You can build the ideal user experience for your team or your customers, based on what makes sense for the end user and what’s easiest for you. You can share the Urjanet Connect interface in one of three ways: 

1. Direct link to an Urjanet-hosted landing page
2. iFrame widget embedded in an email or on your website
3. Fully customized interface within your website or software application

How it works

So you’re bought in. You understand the benefits of using Urjanet Connect, both for you and your end users. How do you get started? 

The first step is to share Urjanet Connect with your end users, using any of the methods mentioned above. An important piece of this step is to clearly communicate with your clients or colleagues. Only if they understand how onboarding their utility accounts this way will save them time and keep their data secure, will they adopt Urjanet Connect at the rate you want to see. 

Next, the end user links their account to the Urjanet platform. They’ll be prompted to select their utility provider, and then enter their login credentials. Urjanet Connect mirrors the exact experience of the utility website, including the specific form fields. 

Once the end user hits submit, their credentials will appear in the Urjanet system, ready for onboarding. Our system validates credentials in real time, alerting the user immediately if their credentials were incorrect. This way, you’ll get the right credentials the first time around, without having to go back and ask again later. 

If the end user has forgotten their password – or doesn’t have online credentials to begin with – they can click a link at the bottom of the page that takes them directly to the utility provider’s login portal. There, they can reset their password or set up an online account, and then come right back to linking their accounts with Urjanet Connect. 

Working with utility data doesn’t have to be hard

In your day-to-day, you’ve digitized so many aspects of your personal life: how you shop, how you keep up with your friends, and how you get around town, to name a few. With Urjanet Connect, we’re bringing that same ease of use to the B2B world, so that you and your customers can unlock the power of utility data with the click of a button. 

To get started with Urjanet Connect, reach out to our experts today.

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• Testimonial: Bright Power Flips the Switch on Scalability
• 7 Shortcomings of Manually Entering Utility Bill Data (And the Benefits of Automation!)
• Webinar Recap: Bridging the Data Divide

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