Romande Energie: Enhancing Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction through Process Automation

Romande Energie Group is the leading supplier of electricity in Western Switzerland, headquartered in Morges, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Romande Energie serves over 300,000 customers and is committed to renewable energy and reducing CO2 emissions.

To improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, they have embarked on an automation journey. Through a successful partnership with Inoshift and the implementation of the UiPath Platform, their organization has seamlessly incorporated robotic process automation (RPA) across various departments. This has resulted in significant gains in time efficiency and overall service delivery excellence. The initiative, which began with a proof of concept in the low-voltage team, has expanded to include 11 automated processes supported by 34 robots, with more in development. Romande Energie looks ahead to integrating AI with its automation efforts to continue innovating in energy services and sustainability.

Our automation program has improved legal compliance and boosted our Net Promoter Score, streamlining operations and ensuring timely, accurate service.

Aurélie Wiser • Front Office Grid Manager, Romande Energie

Key People and Challenges

Aurélie Wiser, the Front Office Grid Manager, spearheaded the automation program at Romande Energie. Her team embarked on an automation journey driven by several pressing challenges. Over the past two years, their workload had doubled or even tripled, resulting in high pressure, delays, and consequently, customer dissatisfaction. This situation underscored the need for a more efficient approach to task management. As a semi-public company, Romande Energie prioritizes efficiency, which directly translates to lower costs for the community they serve. Aurélie knew that automation technology could solve these problems. She took action. She frequently integrated new staff, including interns and temporary workers, and had established detailed written procedures for day-to-day tasks. These well-structured procedures provided a solid foundation for implementing automated solutions, ensuring a smoother transition and improved effectiveness in handling the increased workload.

Beginning of the Journey and Approach

Romande Energie's automation journey started in 2022 with a proof of concept (PoC) in the low-voltage team with Inoshift as implementation partner for the UiPath Platform. In May 2023, the topic attracted interest from the Front Office where the journey kicked off. The goal was to focus on demonstrating impactful use cases to gain management buy-in. Inoshift also provided training, allowing business users to find use cases and prepare them for automation.

Implementation and current status

Since the initial PoC, Romande Energie's automation program has expanded significantly. As of September 2024, 11 processes have been automated and are in production, supported by 34 robots, with two additional processes in testing and four under development. The Finance department has become a major user, ordering its own unattended robot license and virtual machine. The program has achieved substantial time savings, with an estimated 5,200+ hours saved since the beginning of that and a 96.83% transaction success rate. Around 20 to 30 employees are trained in lean methodology, aligning the automation initiative with a continuous improvement approach .

Romande Energie's automation program, implemented in collaboration with both business and IT teams by Inoshift, operates with robots running from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm. Use cases are identified and prioritized through workshops, with Inoshift estimating the workload. The business team then makes decisions on a go/no-go basis. While an official center of excellence (CoE) has yet not been created, the current process and working relationship with Inoshift are characterized as seamless, uncomplicated, proficient, and prompt, ensuring successful communication and synchronization with the business team.

Departments involved and use cases

Specific use cases have been implemented within multiple departments, including Front Office, Metering, Finance, Network, and Collection.

1. Certifying installations on Pronovo: This process involves automating steps across Outlook, Pronovo, and SAP to enhance efficiency. It launched between October and November 2023, and has successfully processed over 3,400 cases. This automation helps Romande Energie comply with the legal requirement of certifying installations within a three-week timeframe. In exceptional cases, the system automatically sends the case to the right person. This ensures timely and accurate handling.

2. Simplifying connection requests: This process handles annually about 2.500 cases, with each case traditionally taking 20 minutes when done manually. Now a case is done within 5 minutes by the robot. Automation not only speeds up handling time but also includes steps that involve interactions with customers, enhancing customer service and operational efficiency.

3. Retrieving Intra-Group invoices through an autonomous robot: This process involves tasking an autonomous robot with retrieving intra-group invoices from a web application using the invoice number. The robot then gathers historical data to identify the most recent milestone of the invoice and updates the report with this information, including the date of the last update. This automation streamlines the invoice management process, ensuring accuracy and timeliness in financial reporting.

4. Closing projects in SAP through an autonomous robot: This process involves tasking an autonomous robot with the responsibility for closing specific project categories with a "closing" status in SAP. It checks first, with different rules for each project type depending on the project category. If the check is successful, the robot proceeds to close the project. While some exceptions might stop closure, the robot can handle certain types of errors shown by SAP in alert messages. This will make sure that only projects that are eligible are closed, thus maintaining project integrity and compliance.

5. Managing documents on ElectroForm: This process involves managing two types of documents: installation notices and technical reviews. Automating the handling of these documents ensures efficient processing and proper storage, thereby minimizing manual errors and enhancing accessibility. (Process finalization is in progress.)

Benefits, results, and savings

Romande Energie has achieved significant benefits through automation, including improved compliance with legal response times and enhanced customer satisfaction. This is reflected in a better Net Promoter Score (NPS). In 2024, automation has saved 5,200+ hours until September 2024, with e.g. 453 hours saved in 30 days.

Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Romande Energie plans to integrate AI with their robotic automation processes and seeks management sponsorship to support their automation initiative. The company aims to expand its automation capabilities to further enhance efficiency and support their energy transition goals. The collaboration between Romande Energie, Inoshift, and UiPath shows how automation can make things better for energy companies. It can make them more productive and make customers happier. For those embarking on an automation journey, there are a few pieces of advice: Be bold with automation, ensure business user validation, and plan resources for quick deployment.

Partner:

Inoshift, a Swiss consultancy, specializes in innovation and automation to optimize business operations across industries like energy, healthcare, and public administration. With expertise in the UiPath automation platform, they automate manual processes to boost efficiency and reduce errors. Beyond implementation, Inoshift offers strategic guidance on digital transformation, ensuring tailored solutions that enhance productivity while creating rewarding work environments for teams.

© Image courtesy and copyright Valentin Flauraud for Romande Energie