Energy leader innogy drives sustainability by simplifying photo voltaic system customization with Power Apps

Many of us continue to rely on national power grids for our home energy needs. Yet more consumers are making the shift to a greener future of power. For energy leader innogy, helping Czech customers make the most of the country’s sunshine is a priority. “A few years ago, we made the decision to offer our customers new, greener services beyond merely energy and natural gas,” explains Petr Kalčev, Product Manager at innogy. “This included custom photovoltaic systems for residential building installation.”

Customers realized the value in being able to generate their own power sustainably, leading to a quick uptake of residential building solar systems. The growing number of green energy customers meant innogy needed a streamlined solution to generate custom proposals at scale. Specifically, the company needed a more efficient way to automate solar system design, quote customers accurately, and highlight the benefits of installing solar panels. Supporting innogy in creating the new system was technology partner ACTUM Digital, which provided the technical expertise needed to develop the solution.

"We needed a better way to serve our customers and drive sustainability in the country. After hearing about the capabilities of Microsoft Power Platform from our partner ACTUM Digital, we decided it was the right option,” says Jiří Riedel, IT application architect at innogy. “We needed a low-code platform that was easy to use. There was no better choice in the market.”

Cutting through complexity

Using Power Apps, the sales team at innogy creates a customer profile and gathers the necessary data for it to form custom proposals. “Using Microsoft Power Platform, we accelerated delivery of a fully custom solution, tailored exactly to the extremely specific needs and ways of working of the photovoltaics sales team at innogy,” begins Gianluca Turturro, Chief Solutions Officer at ACTUM Digital. “The solution takes into account specifics about the customer’s real estate, including the specific GPS coordinates, roof slope, and expected solar radiation levels. It then automatically starts to design the best solution for their unique needs,” explains Riedel. “The system also factors in important technical and business considerations, such as energy subsidies in different regions."

The new system also brings newfound clarity to pricing. “Once the design is complete, emails are automatically sent out to customers so they can clearly see the full price breakdown of the proposed system across every component, including batteries, power control box, installation cost and also panels,” shares Riedel. “The customer can also see their projected energy savings per year if they choose to install the system. The price also takes into account annual energy increases.” The data is very detailed, which allows customers to have a clear view of the system so they can make an informed decision when switching to a sustainable energy source.

Optimizing workflow for increased productivity

Using the new Power Apps-based system, innogy’s staff save up to 15 minutes on each offer they draw up, totaling up to several hours per week per person. “Thanks to the time saved, our sales managers’ sales capacity has increased by 10 percent, which also enables sales managers to serve more customers effectively,” shares Petr Kalčev. Plus, with Exchange Online integration, agents can seamlessly view the information sent to customers while remaining within the flow of the overall solution and in full control over the messaging. The success in sales also equates to driving a greater sustainability push in the country.

Employees are also able to easily access documents and communicate via the cloud due to the system’s integration with Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. “We can host online meetings through Teams with our installation team. It is convenient for both parties and saves on travel costs. Our workflow is also optimized as we can share data online easily and quickly among our employees or between sales and installation teams” says Riedel.

For the team at innogy, having a cloud-based platform has helped them focus more on the business to propel sustainable energy forward and less on upkeep. “We don’t need to worry about servers and system maintenance as the cloud system takes care of itself. It allows us to work together seamlessly without worries of lags or system freezes,” says Riedel.

Looking forward, innogy is excited about leveraging true 360-degree customer views by integrating the system with SAP. It is also exploring new ways to use Power Platform within other departments as well. Riedel says, “If we want to test or explore a new use case, we can prepare a prototype in just a few hours. Power Apps has opened up so many possibilities for us in terms of how we can serve and meet the expectations of our customers.”