Enni: One Platform for Faster, More Efficient Customer Service
Success Story
Achieve a 360-Degree Customer View with the Energy & Utilities Template
Enni supplies energy to residential and business customers in the Lower Rhine region and provides municipal waste management services. Its customer-facing processes were previously heavily ERP-centred and spread across multiple systems. What was missing was a comprehensive view of each customer. At the same time, the company was preparing to migrate from SAP IS-U to SAP S/4HANA.
Together with Salesfive, Enni therefore implemented a Salesforce Multi-Cloud setup. The Salesforce Energy & Utilities Cloud provides the platform and builds on the Salesfive Energy & Utilities Template, which includes preconfigured processes for municipal utility providers. Customer service came first, as this was where the need for action was greatest.
Since go-live, Enni has managed customer enquiries centrally. Contracts, supply points, communications and service history come together in a 360-degree customer view. Guided processes are being implemented step by step, replacing system changes and media discontinuities, while team members complete their tasks entirely in Salesforce.
The Energy & Utilities Cloud was introduced as an MVP with gradual scaling. Marketing, B2B sales and a digital customer portal with self-service functions are set to complement the platform in the future.
Overview
What We Implemented
Enni migrated its service processes to a central Salesforce platform, laying the foundation for the next steps in sales, marketing and the customer portal. Salesfive supported the utility provider as an implementation partner and integration expert.
Implementation of Salesforce Energy & Utilities Cloud and Marketing Cloud
Accelerated Implementation with the Salesfive Energy & Utilities Template
Decoupled SAP integration via Apache Camel
Key user training and regular testing
Technologies
These Technologies Were Used
Systems are only as effective as the technology behind them. That is why we rely on modern solutions from the Salesforce ecosystem in our customers’ digitalisation projects. At Enni, we implemented the following technologies, among others.
Apache Camel
Apache Camel is an open-source middleware solution that connects decoupled systems via APIs.
Challenges
This Was the Starting Point
Disparate systems, a document management system used beyond its intended purpose and limited transparency made Enni’s customer service more difficult. At the same time, the aim was to create a platform that provides a 360-degree customer view and supports the transition to SAP S/4HANA.
Enquiries relating to energy, waste management or advance payments reach Enni through a range of channels. Until now, Enni has processed them in a document management system originally designed solely for archiving, with no capabilities for modern service management.
For address changes, meter readings or adjustments to instalment payments, team members also had to switch to the ERP system. Every switch took time and increased the risk of errors. This prevented an end-to-end process from the initial request through to final processing.
Requests could neither be classified consistently nor analysed systematically internally. As a result, the service team lacked a reliable basis for evaluating which types of requests were handled, in what volumes and within what timeframes.
Documentation was also incomplete: colleagues could rarely see who had handled a case or what action had already been taken.
While redesigning its customer service, Enni also prepared the migration from SAP IS-U to SAP S/4HANA in a separate project. Closely linking service processes to the ERP system would have meant that every backend change also affected the new platform.
The architecture therefore needed to ensure that both initiatives could operate independently of one another.
Enni’s business units had not previously worked with Salesforce. It was therefore challenging to define specific requirements for a system that had not yet played a role in their day-to-day work.
Starting a project on this basis would have required lengthy planning phases and carried a high risk of missteps.
Solution
Project Success in Detail
Enni consolidated its customer service on a central platform. Service processes increasingly run entirely in Salesforce, while existing systems return to their original roles. At the same time, this creates the foundation for further digitalisation of customer-centric processes.
Centralised Case Management for All Customer Enquiries
The service team can see at a glance which requests remain open, who is handling them and what action has already been taken. This is made possible by centralised case management, where energy and waste management requests are recorded, classified and assigned to the responsible person consistently. Every step in the process is documented.
The existing document management system remains in place, but focuses solely on its core function: archiving documents.
Faster Project Launch with the Salesfive Energy & Utilities Template
Rather than redesigning processes from the ground up, the specialist departments decided which standard processes required adaptation. The Salesfive Energy & Utilities Template provided preconfigured workflows for municipal utilities to guide the discussion.
This significantly shortened the design phase and enabled Enni to make decisions sooner. At the same time, it reduced the risk of specifying requirements that would not work in practice.
Guided Processes Instead of Switching Between Systems
The team will manage address changes, meter readings and instalment payments directly in Salesforce through guided processes. All required information is centrally available in the CRM, eliminating the need to switch to the ERP system.
This reduces the effort required for each request, minimises sources of error and helps new team members get up to speed more quickly. The relevant processes are implemented gradually.
Decoupled Integration with SAP
Contract and delivery point data is available in the CRM, without backend changes directly affecting the user interface. The open-source middleware Apache Camel connects Salesforce and SAP via APIs, rather than tightly coupling processes to the ERP system.
This architecture supports a parallel transition to SAP S/4HANA. The service processes remain in place while the backend is migrated.
Transparency Through Reporting and Dashboards
For the first time, it is possible to measure how many enquiries of each type are received, how long they take to process and how heavily utilised the team is. This is based on consistently classified cases. Leaders gain a basis for decision-making on resource allocation and process optimisation.
Enni developed the first analyses together with Salesfive. The team now builds out further dashboards independently.
Enablement Right from the Start
Even before go-live, the new processes achieved a high level of acceptance. Key user training and regular testing sessions supported the project from the outset.
Feedback from the business units fed directly into the development process, while the teams gradually built their own Salesforce expertise. This created processes that genuinely support day-to-day work.
All the Information in One PDF
How did Enni modernise its customer service, and what features does Salesfive’s Energy & Utilities Template offer? Download the PDF for free and get all the key information in one concise document.
Company
About Enni
The Enni Group is an energy supplier and infrastructure service provider for Moers and the Lower Rhine region. Around 600 employees supply approximately 140,000 people with electricity, natural gas, water and heating, while also providing municipal waste management services. The company operates nationwide in energy sales.
As a driving force behind the energy transition in the Lower Rhine region, Enni is increasingly investing in renewable energy generation. Its projects in recent years include the Mühlenfeld and Vinn solar parks, as well as the Repelen and Kohlenhuck wind farms.
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