It was good to welcome over 130 of you to the Stakeholder Forum yesterday, which was fantastic considering we’re still in the midst of the holiday season. So, thank you for coming along. 

As I mentioned yesterday, since our last gathering in July when I announced we were open for business, just six weeks later we are now firmly in business. Over 100 CPs have onboarded, and the test simulator (for connection and simple message testing) has been used by CPs representing close to half of UK residential customers. This is a significant leap forward. 

Starting Monday, we will be opening commercial onboarding. Completing both steps of onboarding is crucial for everyone, whether you’re already using or considering a Managed Access Provider. For more information visit our newly created ‘onboarding’ page on our website.  

The topic of Managed Access was a highlight during our discussions yesterday. For those of you who may not be familiar, Managed Access Providers offer a service to anyone seeking assistance in connecting to the TOTSCo Hub and managing messages on your behalf. Here on our website, you’ll find all the information you need about Managed Access, including a list of 10 MAPs we are working with. 

After enjoying the bank holiday weekend our attention turns to preparing for OTS integration testing starting from 4 September. We encourage as many of you as possible to come and onboard, complete testing in our simulator and then progress to integration testing. If you have any questions or need any help at all, please reach out to us. We are here to help.   

If you couldn’t make it to yesterday’s event, please visit the new Testing section on our website. As delivery of a functioning hub is just round the corner, our thoughts turn to the testing programmes that will get us to OTS go-live. While there is plenty of detail still to come, this material outlines the test approach for all CPs and shows what to expect and how to prepare for each stage. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has provided feedback on the proposed charging structures published in Bulletin 20. We will be reviewing all comments and providing a response as soon as we can.  

That’s it from me this week folks. Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend. I look forward to welcoming you to commercially onboard from Monday. 

All the best, 

Paul