The upgraded intelligence platform tackling the utilities sector’s debt crisis and COT fraud.
Powered by Experian credit data and AI-driven enrichment, BD Portal PLUS delivers earlier occupier detection, stronger COT validation and risk-based segmentation, helping utilities cut debt, reduce fraud and improve billing accuracy.
IDenteq, the data-driven solutions provider purpose-built for the UK utilities industry, has announced the launch of BD Portal PLUS, a significantly upgraded version of its occupier intelligence platform that integrates Experian commercial credit intelligence, AI-powered enrichment and advanced risk segmentation into a single, unified solution.
The announcement comes as UK utilities face mounting pressure from two interconnected challenges: a growing commercial debt burden and an increasing volume of Change-of-Tenancy (COT) fraud, where unverified or incorrect occupier records result in unbilled supply, revenue leakage and costly recovery processes. BD Portal PLUS is designed to address both issues head-on.
A SECTOR UNDER PRESSURE
Commercial debt across UK utility portfolios continues to escalate, driven by delayed occupier identification, poor data quality at the point of COT and the difficulty of confirming trading activity at individual supply points. COT fraud, where a business vacates a property without notifying the supplier or where incorrect occupier records are accepted, compounds the problem, creating backdated billing exposure and increasing bad debt.
Traditional approaches to occupier validation rely on static business datasets that are often out of date by the time a COT event is processed. This leaves utility suppliers operating with incomplete information, making it harder to identify who is responsible for a supply point, when they moved in, and whether they represent a financial risk.
INTRODUCING BD PORTAL PLUS: SPEED, ACCURACY AND SEGMENTATION
BD Portal PLUS combines 18 data sources, Experian commercial credit intelligence and powerful AI processing across 12 targeted modules, giving utility suppliers unprecedented depth of supply point insight within a single, integrated platform.
The platform delivers three core capabilities:
Earlier Occupier Detection. Live Experian credit account signals, including bank accounts and finance agreements, often surface before traditional business datasets, enabling suppliers to identify incoming occupiers sooner and reduce the backdated billing window. In live trials, BD Portal PLUS identified earlier move-in dates for 57% of new occupiers on COT leads, and found 30 new occupiers per every 100 records tested versus standard benchmarks.
Stronger Occupier Validation. AI-powered contact enrichment raises phone capture rates from 20–40% on legacy solutions to up to 90% with PLUS, and appends live email addresses in over 90% of cases. Higher contactability means more occupiers can be validated directly, reducing forced or incorrect COT decisions. The platform delivered a 142% uplift in high-accuracy (5-star) occupier matches and a 153% uplift in 4-star matches versus benchmark performance.
Smarter Customer Prioritisation. Experian’s Financial Strength Score (FSS), Delphi commercial risk score and Propensity to Pay indicators enable risk-based segmentation at the point of COT. In live data, BD Portal PLUS segmented 41.1% of records as low or very low risk, while flagging 50.6% as high or maximum risk, enabling debt and collections teams to prioritise intervention before accounts deteriorate.
“The launch of BD Portal PLUS is a significant milestone for IDenteq and for the utilities sector. Commercial Utilities have traditionally lacked real-time visibility into customer risk and occupier activity. BD Portal PLUS changes that by bringing together advanced credit intelligence, AI enrichment and over 20 data sources in one platform, helping organisations reduce debt, improve collections performance and gain far greater confidence in the customers behind every supply point.”
Andrew McKinney, CEO, IDenteq
MEASURABLE RESULTS FROM LIVE DEPLOYMENTS
BD Portal PLUS has already demonstrated significant commercial impact in live utility environments. Clients have reported a 75% reduction in time spent on manual COT checks, and one client cleared £500,000 of debt over a three-month period across their full debt book. These outcomes reflect the platform’s ability to accelerate collections workflows, reduce trace costs and improve the speed of first invoicing for new occupiers.
BD PORTAL INSIGHT: PORTFOLIO-LEVEL BEHAVIOURAL INTELLIGENCE
For organisations requiring deeper strategic control, IDenteq is simultaneously introducing BD Portal INSIGHT, a further tier of the platform that extends PLUS with full behavioural credit monitoring. INSIGHT provides expanded visibility into payment behaviour across contributing organisations, outstanding balances, credit limits and utilisation, CCJ status and credit score trajectory over time. BD Portal INSIGHT also facilitates enhanced credit data sharing with Experian, enabling organisations to reinforce payment behaviour signals and strengthen the accuracy of the shared commercial credit pool over time.
Portfolio analysis using Experian’s FSS data reveals the scale of the challenge: only 14% of a typical UK SME utility portfolio sits within the strongest financial bands, while 54% fall into weak or failing cohorts and approximately 19% are inactive, ceased or insolvent. BD Portal INSIGHT enables organisations to identify deterioration before it escalates, prioritise recovery activity and strengthen governance across the full portfolio.
AVAILABILITY
BD Portal PLUS and BD Portal INSIGHT are available immediately to UK utility suppliers. The BD Portal Suite is delivered through IDenteq’s secure, scalable software platform and can be integrated with existing Billing and CRM systems. To find out more or arrange a demonstration, contact IDenteq directly.
