Helping our client reduce operational costs and expand into a new market with an innovational product
Executive Summary
Challenge: Our client faced operational inefficiencies in their existing, distributed systems and aimed to enter the SME market with a new energy advisory product to improve their market position.
Approach: We provided consultancy services, conducting technical, security, and data audits to identify inefficiencies and propose solutions for system integration. We also led workshops to gather requirements for the new product.
Result: The client received detailed recommendations to enhance system performance, develop an SME-focused product, and explore data monetisation opportunities, helping them reduce operational costs and expand into a new market.
Table of Contents
About the client
Our client specialises in providing energy and utility management services for large organisations. They assist their clients in managing energy consumption, reducing costs, and delivering efficient energy solutions.
Business challenge
As our client was losing customers, they aimed to enter the SME market with a new energy advisory product designed to help both smaller and current larger clients manage their energy data and reporting autonomously.
This innovative solution would enable them to retain existing customers and compete for the new ones against larger companies offering similar services.
To support this new product, they needed to integrate their existing, distributed systems, including their invoicing system, telemetry system for energy consumption measurements, and a system for purchasing energy and gas on the stock exchange.
Additionally, due to a lack of standardisation and an over-reliance on manual processes, they faced inefficiencies in their administrative department – the largest and most cost-intensive part of the business – which they aimed to streamline.
Having previously worked with smaller companies, they turned to us, confident that our expertise and scale would help them tackle these challenges effectively.
Existing systems evaluation
We conducted thorough technical, security, and data audits of the company’s existing systems. This audit included:
- A technical review of code and system architecture;
- Security assessments to identify vulnerabilities and provide recommendations for improvement;
- Data audits to evaluate data usage and propose methods for more efficient storage and monetisation.
Based on this analysis, we provided detailed recommendations for system optimisation, including mock-ups to visualise the improvements that would help the team fully leverage the system in the new energy advisory product as well as administrative department.
Data monetisation and reporting
One key focus of our collaboration was to unlock the potential of the client’s data assets. Through our audits, we discovered that their current data reporting processes were mostly manual, often inefficient and time-consuming, particularly when preparing reports for executives and clients. To address this, we proposed a Business Intelligence solution and data warehouse to streamline reporting, automate data extraction, and enable clients to generate reports independently.
In addition, we delivered a comprehensive report on data monetisation, offering 18 actionable ideas on how the client could capitalise on their existing data sources for business and operational purposes.
New product development
We helped define business requirements for the new energy advisory product. This involved:
- Organising strategic workshops to align business goals with technical requirements;
- Conducting user research, including interviews with our client’s employees and key clients, to gather insights and shape the system’s design;
- Delivering mock-ups, which enabled our client to validate the concept and refine the system based on user feedback before moving to implementation.
Our expertise
Being experienced business and technological consultants, we guided the client in system optimisation and product development, helping them make informed decisions about their technology investments.
The reports we delivered were technical, but each included a concise summary to make key insights easily accessible to all stakeholders. Furthermore, our structured project timeline was carefully aligned with the availability of critical team members, allowing us to navigate the complex schedule efficiently.
The client expressed high satisfaction with our structured and professional approach. They appreciated the depth of support we provided during workshops and system audits, as well as our commitment to meeting deadlines. The client acknowledged that without our clear guidance and efficient project management, achieving their goals would have been significantly more difficult.
Main benefits of our partnership
- Operational efficiency: thanks to our detailed recommendations, audit reports, and workshop summaries, the client is now equipped to optimise their systems, automate processes, reduce manual errors, and improve data accuracy and security;
- Data monetisation: by providing 18 business ideas for data utilisation, we helped the client explore new revenue opportunities and better understand how to leverage their data for operational and business gains;
- Market expansion: the client received a comprehensive specification for a new energy advisory system, including functional recommendations, mid-level backlogs, workshop summaries, and interview feedback, positioning them to enter the SME market competitively;
- New system design and mock-ups: we provided business requirements and mock-ups for the SME-targeted product, helping the client effectively present the concept to customers and stakeholders;
- Project process knowledge: our collaboration gave the client a solid understanding of project management, guiding them through each stage from planning to execution.