ESG are an energy technology company focussing on the UK and North American energy markets.
ESG provides the most adopted technology platform in the global energy retail market, combining SaaS architectures, flexible integration, and constant innovation with sector expertise along with decades of experience.
ESG has been providing software solutions to the energy market for over 20 years. ESG acquired Utiligroup in 2017, combining the market leaders of the UK and USA under the same flagship ESG business.
Mathew Bridge is the Chief Financial Officer and has been a part of the financial team at ESG for over 6 years before taking up his current role as CFO in 2022.
CG Professional’s relationship with ESG started in April 2021, initially working parallel to the software developer’s previous firm for 12 months.
Mathew said: “We were struggling with the usual pitfalls of a city centre firm – the high labour rates and work size – it wasn’t where we needed it to be.
“We worked with our previous firm, and CG initially in tandem, but the better quality of service proved itself over the course of a year and we transitioned over to CG exclusively in February 2022.”
In an industry like software development, speed of service is vital due to the quick turnaround demanded by clients. CG’s dynamism and efficiency and proactive approach proved invaluable for ESG.
Mathew continued: “We were bottlenecked to an extent prior to CG – it would sometimes take up to a week to get draft contracts completed whereas with CG we can get it back within half a day or often, in a matter of hours.
“Once the customers have made the buying decision, they want to start getting into the project and get to “go live” as soon as possible, so the contracting process needs to be as short as possible.
“It started as commercial contract cover, but it has evolved into other things for us. CG act as in-house legal support, we bounce employment issues off them, and we’re set to start a HR retainer in the near future.”
ESG’s contribution to the energy market is significant – they have over 10m smart meters on their platform representing over 40% of all connected smart meters across the UK – making the speed of CG’s work integral to their success.
Mathew added: “You get the same quality, if not better, than the big law firms. A lot of the team come from that background, so you get a really good quality service.
They are realistic as well. If there are legal risks, CG will assess the real commercial risk to the business and advise in a business partner approach. I’d have no hesitation in recommending CG Professional.”