The UNI 11782 standard is a standard of theItalian Standardization Body (UNI) published on 16 April 2020 which establishes the training path and the necessary skills of a certified Utility Manager. But what is a Utility Manager? It is essentially a consultant who seeks to build a lasting relationship between the parties, based on credibility and transparency, which goes far beyond the simple signing of the supply contract.
A Utility Manager should therefore know the market, foresee its developments and be able to support a company and/or a family in a choice that is of fundamental importance in the management of the business or domestic economy. From this consideration therefore arises the need to regulate the sector and give credibility to the professionals who work there. A regulatory aimed primarily at consumers and companies. In fact, the UNI 11782 standard describes the obligations, knowledge, skills and abilities of the "utility professional", ie the utility manager. Obtaining the certification also becomes reason for distinction among industry professionals.
What is the rule for and how is it applied?
In detail, the standard defines the profile of the Utility Manager by identifying around 41 knowledge, 42 skills and 15 competencies, in compliance with the European Qualifications Framework (European Qualifications Framework – EQF, Recommendation 2017/C 189/03 of 22 May 2017). Two years after its publication, thanks also to the constant dissemination work of Assium, the first association in the Utility Management sector engaged in market surveillance and in the protection of members (consumers, professionals and companies), the first results have arrived in terms of dissemination and awareness of the cause.
It is no coincidence, in fact, that a political discussion table has been opened which should lead to convert the law into a law decree and which will define the mandatory nature of the certification as a sine qua non condition for carrying out the job of utility manager. In short, the utility management market, in the coming years, could be more and more a guarantee for families and entrepreneurs, thanks to the establishment of a professional register of Utility Managers. This is what they hope for from the Assium association working on this point.
What guarantees the continuous training of Utility Managers?
The training, which takes place in authorized structures, such as for example Utility Manager Academy, guarantees knowledge of all regulatory, historical and technical aspects of the energy, gas and telecommunications market. Three contiguous sectors, but with profound differences from each other. However, obtaining the certification through a qualified exam is not enough to be defined as a certified Utility Manager for life. In fact, the training course includes a periodic updating, to keep up with the times.
Certification, in addition to creating credibility and trust, also provides a series of advantages: continuous training, vision of changes in the sector, effective negotiation and definition of lasting relationships with consumers, who will finally have a contact person for every issue concerning bills exactly as happens for a lawyer, a family banker, an accountant.
The path that led to the signing of the law
The path to reaching the publication of the UNI 11782 standard was complex and long. The idea was born at the end of 2018, by the two entrepreneurs, Federico Bevilacqua and Davide Bussini, both co-founders of FBC Italia, a company specialized in providing services related to the management of utilities for companies. The question from which they started is this: why in Italy, contrary to what happens to insurers, real estate agents, financial advisors, can anyone intermediate telephony and energy supply contracts without having any right to do so? To sell energy and/or telephony supply contracts on the free market, all you have to do is answer one of the many ads and after a brief interview in which the sales "capacity" is assessed, you can start selling contracts to everyone, without a real knowledge of what is being sold or – even more serious – of the customer's needs.
After submitting the documentation to the UNI, already in 2018, a parliamentary commission meeting in Rome, accepted the standardization request. At that point, Bussini and Bevilacqua set up a group of professionals in the sector, a technical-scientific committee who worked on drafting the standard for a year. In 2019, the Assium Association was born which embodies the mission and objectives that the group of professionals carried out in drafting the standard. In January 2020 the draft of the standard arrives at the commission and after three months - it is 16 April 2020 - the Uni 11782 standard finally sees publication.
Two years after its publication, albeit slowly, agents, operators and companies are adhering to the founding principles of this law, but it is legitimate to think that the process must be speeded up because in recent months, households and businesses have begun to manage almost in "solitude" the complexity of the increases in the bill, deriving not only from the increase in the cost of raw materials, but also from the effects of the conflict.
