Stadtwerke Neuss
One of Germany's largest utility services suppliers saves 2,000 hours of labor each year with Hyland RPA.
The challenge
Stadtwerke Neuss is one of the largest utility services suppliers in Germany, providing customers with electricity, natural gas, district heating, water and other municipal services. As part of its regular maintenance schedule, the company replaces its customers’ electricity meters, either to help ensure accurate meter calibration or to replace defective equipment.
Part of this process includes the transmission of all relevant data from service agents in the field to Stadtwerke Neuss via an XML file. Making this information accessible and easy to read, however, was a laborious process for Stadtwerke Neuss employees. First they had to convert the XML file to an Excel file, and then take the additional time to filter out non-relevant meter data. Only then could they create a new meter request in the company’s energy management system.
To top it off, the time-consuming manual conversion and filtering of data meant that service providers were getting paid even if a meter was not successfully changed. Inconsistent billing negatively impacted customer satisfaction.
Stadtwerke Neuss turned to Hyland for help.
The solution
By implementing Hyland RPA from Hyland, Stadtwerke Neuss was able to automate the meter change workflow, giving the company greater control of the business process while speeding meter repair and replacement. Field agents can now adjust meters automatically without negatively impacting invoice processing.
The new, automated meter change process still begins when service agents transmit the XML file to Stadtwerke Neuss. However, employees no longer need to translate the file to an Excel document. Instead, Hyland RPA reads the transmitted XML file directly, collects all data relevant to the change request and sends it to the back office.
The back office then registers the new meter and, based on the location of the meter change measurement, locates the correct customer, tests meter readings to ensure proper calibration and, if necessary, enlists a human counterpart to review any anomalies. The RPA solution is flexible, as well. If the changed meters report arrives late, the solution can act in real-time to accelerate the meter change process, which, in turn, improves the customer experience.
Hyland RPA performs all steps of the business process, from data collection and validation to final processing, across several applications. The automated workflow is completely self-sufficient and scalable, and it meets the highest security requirements.
By automating the complex, manual meter change process, Hyland RPA has saved our employees more than 2,000 hours of labor each year. This means they can now devote more attention to valuable tasks like customer service and new customer acquisition.
— Stefan Isselhorst , CIO, Stadtwerke Neuss
Benefits of the solution
Since implementing Hyland RPA, Stadtwerke Neuss has automated five business processes relating to meter changes, saving up to 2,000 hours of human labor each year.
Stadtwerke Neuss employees enjoy the benefits of all features of the Hyland RPA solution, including the Hyland RPA Designer, Analyst and Manager. Hyland RPA Designer is software that allows users to build automated processes without needing to write code. Users can, for example, make changes to bank data or transfer meter readings through RPA to digital partners. Hyland RPA Analyst enables any employee to document their existing business processes with just a few clicks, laying the groundwork for automating that process. With the Hyland RPA Manager, Stadtwerke Neuss can see a complete overview of its “digital employees’” activity at all times, prioritize their tasks and generate reports.
During the implementation of Stadtwerke Neuss’s pilot, Hyland trained employees to use each tool, engaged those employees to build the company’s automated processes on their own and then made sure each solution was sufficiently effective to deliver real ROI. This hands-on approach not only taught customer employees how to use the Hyland RPA tools, but also enabled them to become comfortable and confident in deploying them on their own.