Essent is also the leading producer of renewable energy in the Netherlands and a responsive, socially conscious supplier of products and services for today’s mobile society. The company shares its expertise with universities, entrepreneurs, and venture funds. Essent seeks solutions to “flesh out the future,” meeting needs and demand in fuels, production, processing, energy storage, supplying, and mobility. 
Fruits of Essent’s drive for innovation have included a fast charging system for mobile phones; web-based customer-company communications via WhatsApp; a thermostat that learns individual household energy needs and meets them automatically; and a solar-powered, mobile computer lab for school children in rural Africa. 

Needs and challenges
Changes in both the marketplace and the regulatory climate brought Essent to a decision point about its system of billing and collections. Many customers were chronically late in remitting their payments via mail. New payment regulations and cross-border mandates eliminated traditional paper-based bills and payments. All billers would need to install a secure, digitally-compatible system.
Essent executives knew that their next billing and payment solution would have to be both user-friendly and future-proof, addressing customer needs and preferences for many years to come. They also had to act quickly; they couldn’t afford a lengthy period of conversion and testing before going live.

Convenience for Customers, Easy Integration for Essent
AcceptEasy’s power lies in its simplicity, both for businesses and their customers. AcceptEasy works with existing systems and file formats, without the need for complex system integration or adjustments. It took only six weeks to implement AcceptEasy with Essent’s billing and collections platform. No investment in hardware was needed. The system is fully web-based. 
“This was a great opportunity to inform our customers about the effects of the new regulations and to replace a high-maintenance method of payment with a new and innovative digital replacement for paper bills,” said Marco van Katwijk, Manager Tone of Voice with Essent.
Essent’s customers now get their payment requests by email. They can pay their bills directly from the email in just a few clicks. It’s quick and convenient. Customers can take care of business anytime, from anywhere.
Even the most tradition-minded Essent customers have taken to the AcceptEasy method. “In the beginning it took some time to get used to paying bills via AcceptEasy. For some customers it was not immediately clear that they had received the bill by email,” said Mr. van Katwijk.
“Our solution to that was to re-send the acceptemail so the email would be back on top of the inbox again. In the cases where that still didn’t work, our fulfillment partner would send a reminder by mail. As we work with the fulfillment partner and AcceptEasy, we continue to evaluate and improve the process. AcceptEasy offers so many opportunities.”