EY

• New online system across five of the Scottish Government’s heat and energy efficiency grants and loans schemes.
• Customers can apply for and receive funding more easily, with all their information in one place – and no paperwork.
• Increase in customer satisfaction since the new platform was introduced.
• Stronger anti-fraud protection and control.

EY is a global corporation that provides consulting, assurance, tax and transaction services. Its worldwide revenue was US$49.4 billion in 2022/2023. EY’s team of 400,000 people works across a range of sectors to help clients capitalise on opportunities and manage risk, with the goal of building a better working world.

We have administered the Scottish Government’s grants and loans for heat and energy efficiency in buildings since 2008. With the contract coming up for retender in 2023, we were looking for ways to add value to our offer, both for our client and its customers.

In the past, the grants and loans application processes involved a lot of paperwork. This meant that:

• Customers had to keep track of multiple documents, and call or email us for updates on their applications.
• It was challenging to process large numbers of applications quickly when demand came in peaks.
• We had to manually link up applications, emails and other records for each customer.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, we had digitised some elements of the process. Now, driven by a desire to further improve the experience for customers, we wanted to bring the entire grants and loans journey online.

We’re always looking to collaborate with others to strengthen our services, and EY was the perfect partner for this work.

Its EY Grants Accelerator offers a secure, customisable online platform to manage grants and loans processes from start to finish. As well as digital product knowledge, EY brings leading expertise in fraud prevention and control, cybersecurity and other areas.

With EY on the team for our bid, we won the contract for another three to five years, and have since rolled out the new technology to customers.

This new digital platform is now in use for new applicants across five of the grants and loans schemes we manage for the Scottish Government. Existing service users are being migrated over in stages.

The platform offers a totally paper-free process that enables customers to do everything in one place, such as:

• make applications
• sign contracts
• upload evidence
• submit claims
• check for updates
• message our team

With the new online platform, customers can apply for and receive funding more quickly, and see the status of their applications and claims.

The system has also streamlined the process for our team, given us rapid access to all application and claim information in one place, and helped strengthen our protection against fraud.

Since we introduced the new platform, customer satisfaction rates have improved. Comments from people using it include:

• “I have found both HES [Home Energy Scotland] and Energy Saving Trust very helpful, and all of the assistants I have spoken to have been excessively well informed and able to look at the system and give me clear guidance every step of the way – thank you so much for that – it’s so nice to get a company who actually deliver[s] on customer service.”
• “I’m pleased to have received the grant and loan, and grateful for the polite, professional, and friendly treatment from EST staff.”
• “Very well assisted by the Services Delivery Team. I had friendly and helpful support throughout the process and each step was clear and straightforward.”

The strength of our partnership with EY has been central to the successful delivery of this project on behalf of the Scottish Government. Each organisation has brought different expertise to create a truly effective team working towards shared goals.

We’re exploring potential future work with EY and see them as key partners in achieving greater impact in our work to address the climate emergency.