"The new company had inherited various system landscapes that we had to harmonize and frequently adapt. The complexity resulting from the system diversity made it extremely difficult to react quickly to new market requirements and launch new products. Long response times are no longer acceptable in the liberalized energy market - especially in the B2B sector. The agile approach supported by consistency has helped us make significant progress here."
"What made the project approach different from other IT projects was the way the project was organized and the model of collaboration. Everyone involved fully identified with the project. The agile values and principles were exemplified by the project management and thus transferred to the entire project. When tears of joy flowed in the team - including mine - after the successful completion of the project, it became clear to me that emotionality and solidarity in the project team are key success factors."
For the introduction of a CRM industry solution in the B2B area of RWE Vertrieb AG – now Retail innogy SE – an agile project team started working according to the SCRUM framework for the first time in 2014. In this way, the pilot installation for new customer processes went live on time and within budget after six months. In addition, the target extension to all sales processes, including the migration of customer data from the former CRM system, was completed in December 2015.
As part of the restructuring of RWE Vertrieb AG’s sales processes, the CRM industry solution EVI was to be implemented as the main component of an end-to-end solution based on standard products, which supports all processes in B2B energy sales from initial customer contact to billing. consistency was commissioned by RWE Vertrieb AG, which was merged from three regional RWE sales companies in 2009, to introduce, coach and responsibly manage agile project management with Scrum.
In order to realize the extensive and ambitious project organizationally, financially and in terms of time, new paths had to be taken. Based on a jointly defined IT target image, the optimized functional and process landscape was to be planned and implemented using agile processes for the first time and the various internal and external project participants were to be managed in an interactive cooperation model.
The overall project with a total duration of 18 months was divided into two project phases: A six-month pilot phase and subsequently the expansion to target scope in 12 months. The pilot phase included the go-live of the processes for acquiring new customers, including the necessary market communication and billing processes. Through strict prioritization in line with the “Agile&Lean” principles, only the two most profitable products were initially implemented in the systems, which together accounted for around 90% of the customer’s gross profit.
consistency introduced a scaled Scrum approach to implement the project order, which comprised a total of four Scrum teams working in parallel – CRM & Calculation, Product Mapping & Billing, Market Communication and Reporting. The teams were made up of technical experts on the customer side as well as internal and external IT service providers. The Scrum framework helped the teams to obtain regular feedback, ensure close cross-team coordination and guarantee a high level of quality in software development.
After the six-month implementation phase – structured in 3-week sprints – the executable pilot for acquisition in a selected B2B sales area for electricity customers was successfully put live and provided important insights for the further course of the project.
In the second project phase, the optimized sales process with all processes and products for all eight sales locations was successively put into production in regular delivery cycles and the migration of customer data to the new system environment was carried out. The training of around 250 users was a mammoth task.
The overall project was completed on time, within budget and to a high standard of quality, and was then transferred to a continuous work program for the further development and maintenance of the entire B2B and B2C process and system landscape.
In addition to increasing the performance of the sales processes and harmonizing the system landscapes, the agile project also drastically reduced IT and process costs. The results of the first project phase, which was completed ahead of schedule, were not only unanimously recognized at the technical level. Achim Südmeier, CEO of RWE Vertrieb AG, and Michael Neff, Group CIO, who closely followed the project from the outset due to its immense importance, were also extremely satisfied: “We can be very proud of this project team – and the emphasis is on team. It is sensational that a newly assembled team has been so successful from a standing start. This innovative project is a prime example of how we understand and live our motto ‘VoRWEggehen’.”
4
B2B implementation teams
> 60
Project staff in the B2B sub-project
approx. 5
Mio Euro Budget
approx. 6
million euros in savings per year
after 6
Months Pilot-Gloive
18
Months Implementation phase
Arrange a personal consultation now and let our experts advise you. We will be happy to give you an insight into current projects and talk about your specific ideas and needs.
Our core competency lies in the combination of agile methods and stable solutions for challenging management, organisational and transformation tasks. With this experience-based advantage and our very special cohesion, we achieve effective results and sustainable changes.