Streamlining Operations and Optimizing Costs in Energy with IoT

The client is one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers, powering nearly 5 million homes. The company is also one of the leading providers of home energy and heating equipment, offering the installation and maintenance of smart meters, boilers, thermostats, and more. In its commitment to 100% carbon-free renewable energy, the company plants nearly 1 million trees across the UK annually. The client wanted to improve their business efficiency and streamline cooperation with their affiliated company by developing a single platform that could be used for managing boiler insurance operations.

The client, one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers, was facing challenges in improving their business efficiency and streamlining cooperation with their affiliated company. They were using two separate back-office platforms to manage boiler insurance operations: one for their employees and another for their affiliated company. This led to inefficiencies and difficulties in managing operations. The client needed to build a unified platform that would include all necessary features and could be used by both companies. This would not only improve the efficiency of the cooperation with their affiliated company but also streamline operations for all employees. Additionally, the client aimed to enhance the accuracy, accessibility, and security of their data by combining and standardizing it in a single place.

N-iX developed a new boiler insurance back-office platform from scratch using the microservices architecture. The platform was aligned with the existing technology stack by migrating the architecture from MS Azure to AWS. All data from the client’s and the affiliated company’s systems was also migrated to the new platform. The platform was developed with several microservices, each adhering to the common clean architecture template which divides the solution into business logic, application, and infrastructure layers. N-iX also implemented a combined solution for manual and automated testing that facilitated the management of test cases, test plans, and runs. This significantly improved the speed and efficiency of all testing activities. Additionally, N-iX supported the client in developing a new website, implementing multiple features to streamline operations and provide a smooth user experience. Finally, N-iX assisted the client with maintaining the legacy system and transferring users to the new platform.

• The implementation of the unified platform significantly improved operational efficiency and streamlined cooperation with the client’s affiliated company. The new website developed by N-iX, visited by more than 100,000 users every month, increased customer satisfaction with its multiple useful features and intuitive UI. Employee productivity was boosted by automating payment collection and reducing the amount of required manual work. The client was also able to significantly reduce operational costs and infrastructure expenses by integrating with Bottlerocket OS and Karpenter cluster autoscaler. The successful implementation of the project demonstrated the effectiveness of the microservices architecture and the benefits of automated testing.

• Lowered management overhead and minimized operational costs by up to 70%

• Reduced infrastructure costs by up to 50%

• Accelerated the time-to-market by introducing automation tests and setting up the CI/CD pipeline