Utilities Management: A Critical Area That Has Long Been Overlooked

Utilities management — electricity, gas, water, internet — has always been a critical function for businesses. Yet, it has rarely received the strategic attention it truly deserves. And this is no coincidence.

The energy and utilities sector is complex, opaque, and highly technical. As a result, many organizations struggle to fully understand what they are paying for — and why.

After years working alongside companies of all sizes and across multiple industries, we identified a recurring pattern: lack of visibility, limited control, and heavy reliance on manual processes.

Incomplete invoices, inconsistent data, non-standard formats, and human errors in data entry turn utilities management into a slow, costly, and often frustrating task.

At Polaroo, we were aware of this challenge from day one. But more than two years ago, we realized that solving it properly — and at the scale our clients required — meant building something entirely new:
a solution that was more robust, scalable, flexible, and capable of handling the real complexity of the market.

That realization marked the beginning of Polaroo 2.0 (Athena): a service that combines advanced technology, reliable data, and the support of an expert team to turn sector complexity into clear, actionable decisions.

Today, for the first time, we are sharing the story behind that transformation.

The Hidden Complexity Inside an Invoice: A Problem Few Want to Tackle

For most people, an invoice seems simple: consumption, amount due, payment method.
But for those managing dozens or hundreds of utility accounts, invoices are among the most technical and least standardized documents in existence.

Over time, we’ve identified several recurring issues that make invoices particularly difficult to manage and understand:

1. There Is No Real Industry Standard Across Utility Providers

Each supplier uses its own format, terminology, and structure — and frequently changes them. Concepts are reorganized, labels are renamed, and data placement shifts without warning.

This makes data extraction difficult, interpretation highly technical, and comparisons across providers extremely complex.

According to the European Commission, 79% of energy consumers do not fully understand their bills due to their complexity.

2. Manual Invoice Entry: Frequent and Hard-to-Detect Errors

At Polaroo, we have analyzed thousands of invoices, and one conclusion is clear:
inconsistencies are the rule, not the exception.

Common issues include:

• Duplicate charges
• Incorrect tariffs or contracted power levels
• Billing periods wrongly applied
• Incomplete or contradictory information
• Unilateral changes the client was never informed about

Without structured and normalized data, these errors often go unnoticed for years — leading to significant financial losses.

3. Lack of Visibility Has a Direct Impact on Operating Costs

When data is inaccurate or fragmented, companies lose negotiating power, delay strategic decisions, and take unnecessary risks due to expired or poorly configured contracts.

Without updated benchmarks, it becomes impossible to know whether prices are fair or to optimize consumption and contracted capacity.

In sectors such as retail, gyms, and hospitality, utilities account for 8% to 18% of total operating costs. Optimization should not be optional — it should be a priority.

The Deeper Issue: Market Ignorance and Unnoticed Abusive Clauses

Beyond operational errors, we have identified a more serious underlying problem:
a lack of real understanding of how the energy and utilities market actually works.

This knowledge gap leads companies to make poor decisions and accept unfavorable contractual conditions without realizing it.

Common situations include:

1. Misunderstood (or Misleading) Contracts

We have seen companies sign what they believed were “fixed-rate” contracts, only to later discover they were indexed fixed-rate contracts with two monthly invoices:

• One “fixed” base invoice
• One variable adjustment based on actual consumption

In reality, the price was not fixed at all.

2. Unnecessary or Disproportionate Deposits

Some asset-heavy clients have accepted deposits far above market standards simply due to lack of information or benchmarking.

3. Add-On Services That Are Difficult to Cancel

Many providers bundle:

• Mandatory maintenance services
• Unnecessary insurance
• Technical assistance plans
• “Premium management” services with little real value

Once added, these services are often intentionally difficult to cancel.

4. Abusive or Non-Transparent Clauses

Unreasonable lock-in periods, poorly explained penalties, hidden indexation mechanisms — all of these result in invisible costs that businesses only discover when it is too late.

The Operational Reality: Manual Processes, Human Error, and Lost Time

Most companies still manage utilities the same way they did 20 years ago:
manual Excel files, one-by-one invoice downloads, manual period checks, and visual anomaly detection.

This creates three critical problems:

1. Inevitable Human Errors in Manual Data Processing

Even the most experienced teams make mistakes when handling large volumes of data manually. This becomes a systemic operational risk.

2. Resources Spent on Low-Value Tasks

Countless hours are wasted on repetitive tasks that technology can solve in seconds — time that could be used to negotiate better contracts, plan ahead, or optimize operations.

3. Lack of Control Across Multiple Providers and Contracts

Most companies lack a clear view of:

• Exact contract expiration dates
• The impact of estimated bills and later adjustments
• Real costs for consumption and contracted power
• How their prices compare to market benchmarks
• Whether a tariff truly fits each asset’s consumption profile
• How to manage supplier claims efficiently

As a result, utilities management becomes reactive — when it should be strategic.

This is where Polaroo’s technology and expert team completely change the landscape.

Polaroo 2.0 (Athena): Advanced Technology + Expert Operations

Faced with these challenges — and recognizing the limitations of Polaroo 1.0 — we made a decisive choice:

To build the most accurate, scalable, and adaptive platform in the market.

This was not about adding AI for the sake of it.
It was not about designing a prettier interface.

It was about solving a real problem: bringing structure to data chaos.

Over more than two years, our team has developed:

• A far more powerful data ingestion engine
• A highly resilient and precise extraction system
• Automatic inconsistency detection models
• A data pipeline capable of processing thousands of invoices in minutes
• An environment adaptable to any asset type or client profile
• A modular, scalable, and integration-ready product

Polaroo 2.0 (Athena) is the result of this vision —
a solution 10× more powerful than anything we had built before.

Technology Alone Is Not Enough — Neither Are People Without It

At Polaroo, we believe technology without people is incomplete.
And people without technology are inefficient.

That’s why Polaroo 2.0 combines cutting-edge technology with an expert team that actively manages, negotiates, and optimizes.

This is the core of our value:

• Contract validation
• Detection of abusive clauses
• Claims and dispute management
• Audit support
• Optimization analysis
• Direct communication with suppliers to resolve issues

Technology provides the capability.
People turn it into real business value.

Real Data, Not “Real-Time”: Why This Distinction Matters

“Real-time data” has become a buzzword — but in the utilities sector, the real priority is different.

What companies actually need is real, verified, and structured data.

The key is not receiving data instantly, but ensuring that when it arrives, it is:

• Accurate
• Normalized
• Comparable
• Decision-ready

That is exactly what Polaroo 2.0 (Athena) delivers.

A system designed for companies to operate on reliable, auditable information, not estimates, intuition, or outdated spreadsheets.

From Gyms to Colivings: Built for a Diverse Market

Over the years, we’ve worked with companies across a wide range of sectors and asset types:

• Gyms
• Restaurants
• Retail
• Coworking spaces
• Coliving operators
• Hotels
• Short-, mid-, and long-term rental properties
• Multi-site operators with dozens of contracts

They all shared one challenge:
their needs were too diverse for a rigid, one-size-fits-all solution.

Polaroo 1.0 worked — but it lacked the flexibility required to adapt to so many use cases, tariffs, rules, and operational structures.

Polaroo 2.0 was built with a single guiding principle: adaptability and scalability.

A platform that adjusts to each business, its volume, its complexity, and its pace.

Polaroo 2.0 (Athena): Fast, Efficient, and Built to Run Your Operation

Beyond data extraction, Polaroo 2.0 delivers what the market has long demanded:

1. More Accurate and Complete Data

To detect errors, optimize consumption, negotiate tariffs, and make informed decisions.

2. True Automation

Eliminating manual tasks that consume valuable resources.

3. Operational Support

We handle supplier interactions because we understand the market, the providers, and each business model.

4. Frictionless Scalability

From 10 assets to 10,000. From one brand to multiple business units.

5. Technical Robustness for the Future

What once limited us is now our greatest strength.

Conclusion: Polaroo 2.0 (Athena) Will Redefine Utilities Management

Polaroo 2.0 is not a natural evolution.
It is a complete redesign — built to solve, at the root, the problems that have held this sector back for years.

More data.
More accuracy.
More control.
More efficiency.

Less friction.
Fewer errors.
Fewer invisible costs.

We built this platform because the market needed it.
Because our clients demanded it.
And because after analyzing thousands of invoices and speaking with hundreds of companies, we understood that the only way forward was to create something 10× better.

That is Polaroo 2.0.

The necessary evolution for a market that demands transparency, efficiency, and control.

And this is just the beginning.

Join the Evolution of Utilities Management

Polaroo 2.0 is designed to transform how companies manage their utility contracts.

If you want to be among the first to access this new generation of efficiency, control, and transparency, we invite you to join our waitlist.

👉 Reserve your spot on the waitlist and be the first to discover everything Polaroo 2.0 can do for your business.