Use Case
enercity: Automated district heating connections
In 2022, enercity’s district heating sales team handled around 60 customer enquiries per year. Today, that figure has risen to over 2,000 – and the best part? Thanks to the full automation of the process, including integration into enercity’s existing IT system landscape, this figure can be scaled as required.
Success Story
Low-code as the foundation for the district heating sales of tomorrow
For one of Germany’s largest energy suppliers, which provides electricity, heating, gas and water to almost a million people, the growing interest in sustainable heating has revealed a digital gap. There was no central overview of the district heating network, and the rapidly increasing number of customer enquiries was becoming an ever-greater challenge.
Low-code – and ultimately Mendix – provided the solution. What began as a project to improve quotation processes evolved into a comprehensive digital infrastructure that connects customers, partners, network operators and internal teams. The platform is based on a shared, map-based view of the network and brings together all relevant data and processes in a single, centralised interface that automatically accesses a wide variety of back-end systems. This provides enercity with complete process reliability and maximum scalability in response to the rising demand for district heating connections.
From manual processes to a digital platform
- Sharp rise in district heating enquiries; processes not scalable
- Customer data and network information are scattered; there is no central overview
- A lot of manual research, resulting in longer processing times
A map as the foundation for digital transformation
District heating is, by its very nature, localised. The pipes run beneath the streets. Capacity depends on the network topology. Availability for customers is determined by proximity. The team at enercity had a clear objective for the development of their software: a cross-regional, map-based view of the entire district heating network. Before integrating Mendix, this centralised data view did not exist. The sales teams manually collated information from emails, spreadsheets and various systems, which led to long processing times and hampered effective planning.
"We don’t work on one building and then move on to another. We need to look at the network as a whole. Traditional CRM systems weren’t capable of doing that, but low-code gave us the flexibility to develop exactly what we needed."
Business Account Manager at enercity
What began as a measure to improve sales efficiency quickly developed into something far greater: a shared digital map designed to serve as the backbone for district heating sales, network expansion planning and cross-team collaboration. Mendix’s modular design, which allows it to scale flexibly with changing requirements, also played a key technological role in creating efficient solutions.
In 2024, enercity, in collaboration with the d.u.h.Group, began automating its processes using low-code technology. Our experience from projects with municipal utilities and energy suppliers, combined with our long-standing expertise in IT and process consultancy and Mendix implementation – all provided from a single source – helped to transform this vision into a scalable, future-proof platform.
Building a scalable IT infrastructure
Demand for district heating connections had skyrocketed within just a few years, and Mendix became the central development and operations platform for applications designed to make enercity’s processes more transparent and efficient – all whilst remaining fully compatible with the existing system landscape and data models. This meant, for example, that there was no need for time-consuming and error-prone data migrations.
With Mendix and the bespoke development of applications, automation measures could be implemented with a razor-sharp focus on the problem at hand, meaning that interactions with other systems did not have to be laboriously taken into account. This was crucial in ensuring that solutions could be implemented quickly and that no lengthy planning phases were required. “Demand for district heating connections has risen so sharply that even a significant expansion of the enercity district heating sales team would not be a sustainable solution without better processes and tools.” – Marc Scheil, Project Manager, d.u.h.Group
At the heart of the new district heating sales tool is an interactive map that brings together information from more than five systems in a dashboard view for quotation calculations, with a view to optimising the use of existing civil engineering capacity. This map is based on a ‘widget’ developed in-house by the d.u.h.Group, which, thanks to the unique capabilities of Mendix, enables the integration of high-end developments even beyond low-code.
Instead of laboriously consolidating data from multiple systems to obtain the necessary information on customers, buildings and expansion plans, this data is now provided in real time via Mendix – enabling rapid decision-making and quick response times to customer enquiries.
enercity users can now view customer status, current heat generation and planned connection schedules – all in a visual, centralised overview that streamlines workflows and supports strategic planning to optimise costs and capacities.
"User feedback was crucial. For example, users suggested managing each product individually rather than using a combined view. Thanks to Mendix, we were able to implement this change quickly, making the overview much clearer and more user-friendly."
Business Account Manager at enercity
This is how the process works today:
Prospective customers submit a contact form.
Mendix displays the enquiry on the district heating map.
The connection to the district heating network will be checked immediately.
The sales teams draw up binding quotations based on real and up-to-date infrastructure data.
Development ran from December 2024 to June 2025, and the results speak for themselves: Retrieving data now takes just a few clicks, productivity has improved by more than 20 per cent, and teams can make strategic decisions more easily. enercity is now expanding the platform to support field teams using smartphones and tablets.
"With the next sprint, sales staff will be able to record customer information on site, take photos of entrances and provide immediate feedback for infrastructure planning. A real revolution and a huge saving in time and money.
Project Manager, d.u.h.Group
Expansion of the digital infrastructure for enercity AG and enercity Netz GmbH
As the district heating platform was further developed, enercity began to apply the same low-code approach to other business areas within enercity AG and enercity Netz GmbH. “In view of growing volumes and stricter regulatory requirements, we needed processes that were just as transparent and flexible for our partners as they were for our internal teams.” – Leon March, Business Account Manager at enercity. The result was a series of interconnected applications which, whilst differing in purpose, are all built on the same digital foundation and share data efficiently with one another.
enercity AG’s Sales Partner Portal (VPP) centralises collaboration with internal and external sales partners. Partner management, contract processing, tariffs, quality assurance and commission settlement are now managed within a single system. Standardised communication and clear workflows have led to the following results:
- Reducing errors at all levels
- Reducing processing time
- Improving transparency for all stakeholders
For installation companies, enercity Netz GmbH’s Commissioning Order Portal (IBA) offers guided, digital workflows for submitting meter readings for electricity, water, gas and district heating.
Staff check and manage these requests in a Mendix-based application, whilst the workflows can be customised independently of one another to accommodate new business or regulatory requirements.
The enercity NetzPortal (eNP) from enercity Netz GmbH serves as a central digital access point for network customers, through which they can:
- Register PV systems
- Apply for new property connections
- Manage controllable consumer devices
- Carry out smart metering processes end-to-end
Together, these applications build on the same principles that apply to the district heating platform: comprehensive transparency, clear workflows and scalable, digital processes.
Outlook for innovation, including in the field of artificial intelligence
With Mendix as an integral part of its IT strategy, enercity is focusing on next-generation capabilities that go beyond back-office applications. “We equip our field teams with tablets for on-site customer meetings. This enables them to inspect basements, take photos, annotate details, access data remotely and enter information directly into the system.” – Leon March, Business Account Manager at enercity
Photographs, annotations and AI-driven insights will further improve planning and decision-making. AI will help to uncover patterns in complex data sets, highlight priorities and make it easier to access information.
The aim is to process highly complex data and make it easier to access information that is not easily processed manually. These features are designed to support our sales team in prioritising tasks with the help of AI. For example, they can quickly view the status of contracts or other key metrics and provide customers with the best possible advice. It is a useful tool that makes their work more efficient and well-informed.
– Leon March, Business Account Manager at enercity.
New digital projects are now being developed in Mendix, which is helping enercity to redesign the entire customer experience, with the strategic aim of always being the most customer-friendly energy supplier.
The digitalisation of district heating connection sales was just the first step. We’re thinking on a larger scale so that our customers ultimately benefit from a unique and environmentally friendly service experience.
Are you interested in bespoke low-code solutions?
We’ll show you how complex processes can be mapped digitally in a flexible and scalable way.