Stadtwerke Velbert demonstrates the importance of rapid end-to-end digitization with the right partners to meet the growing demand for charging infrastructure. The number of wallbox requests has doubled in Velbert since the start of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure’s funding program in November 2020. Through forward-looking planning and rapid implementation of sales digitization, it was possible to efficiently meet the increasing demand and exploit the potential.
Sales digitization and support program lead to doubling of inquiries
Since 2018, Stadtwerke Velbert has already been using the epilot eCommerce solution to map wallboxes and charging stations, both for private and business customers, in a modern online ordering process. Every inquiry or order via the online click path is created as a digital end-to-end process in the central platform, resulting in greater transparency and efficiency.
In view of the expansion of charging infrastructure promoted by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Stadtwerke Velbert strategically developed the sale of charging infrastructure. With measurable success:
In 2020, 79 wallbox requests were received – 25% of which were received after the grant program announcement was launched. So far in 2021, more than 160 wallbox requests have been received in epilot. So the number of requests has doubled.
Smart expansion through smart planning
The expansion included a potential and location analysis of the charging infrastructure in Velbert, by the energy service provider ENEDI*. In addition, fully automated digital lead generation and processing, including partner management, was expanded.
The planning of the charging infrastructure took into account which vehicle types with which charging technologies and which user behavior can be expected at specific locations. From this, the requirements for the charging infrastructure and for the locations could be derived.
The locations were determined in such a way that a high frequency of use was to be expected. In particular, the focus was placed on the so-called points of interest (POI). Among the locations are schools, sports fields, shopping stores, parking lots at shopping centers and the town hall square.
“With the increasing number of electric vehicles, it is important to adapt the charging capacities of local sites to the user’s demand,” said Dennis Schmitter, project manager at ENEDI GmbH.
As a result, 20 normal charging stations (AC charging) were installed, each with 2 charging points of 22 kW charging capacity. In addition, 8 fast charging stations (DC charging) were built, each with one charging point with 22 kW and one charging point with 50 kW charging power.
Digitized distribution with automated fulfillment
The expansion also included fully automated processing of inquiries including partner management in the epilot online platform. ENEDI was additionally involved here as a fullfillment service provider in process management. It enables to meet the increasing requests through efficient and clean processing.
“Through many years of working with epilot, we’ve been able to digitize and automate sales and cover specific customer needs in an all-encompassing way to handle inquiries quickly,” adds Schmitter.
Quotation and contract documents are directly stored and processed digitally, internal processes become more efficient and documents and process steps are collectively accessible.
“The joint path with Stadtwerke Velbert shows how epilot works: Everyone can benefit from each other. With our ecosystem mindset and numerous valuable collaborations, the various customers can benefit from a fast implementation of their sales digitization,” says Michel Nicolai, CEO epilot. “We don’t have to start with a completely new development process for every customer. We can deploy and customize our software-as-a-service solution individually, depending on the customer’s needs – we save time and, of course, costs for the customer as a result.” Stadtwerke Velbert, for example, also uses the epilot click route for an interest survey of gas connections.
Find out more about smart sales of energy services with epilot on our EDL solutions page.
You can find more about ENEDI on our ecosystem page.
*ENEDI GmbH, a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Velbert, advises on the implementation of sales and settlement processes, starting with lead generation, through order creation and realization, to transfer to the respective billing system.
