Transforming Utilities: CKW's Journey with NOUMENA

CKW's Vision for Digital Transformation 

CKW has long been vocal about its commitment to digitalizing and decarbonizing the Swiss utility landscape by providing new digital services that meet changing client needs and incentivize renewable energy adoption. 

One of the first client-centric services CKW focused on launching was a new billing approach for "ZEV" - Zusammenschluss zum Eigenverbrauch, or Association for Own Consumption.  ZEVs enable property owners with solar panels to measure and bill their tenants' energy consumption and are a good lever to promote renewable energy. However, orchestrating the multiple parties and involved data flows can be complicated, and existing solutions are often fragmented and time-consuming. 

To offer a new, streamlined solution, CKW realized it would need an agile and adept technology partner to help launch an energy business platform that would:

• Serve as one integrated platform for tenants, building managers, CKW billing team, and relevant contractors;

• Quickly and securely share real-time data;

• Enhance overall operational efficiency; and

• Set the foundation for expanded, smart billing options. 

When CKW found NOUMENA, it was clear that NOUMENA’S expertise in digitizing and automating multi-party interactions was the ideal complement to CKW’s ambitions. 

NOUMENA's Role and Technical Expertise

NOUMENA’S protocol-oriented architecture allows for swift prototyping and seamless scaling of successful prototypes into enterprise applications. This agile approach helped CKW to successfully launch a minimum viable product (MVP) that: 

• Captures the business logic around complex billing processes 
• Sets granular access and permissions to define who can do what, when 
• Ensures the secure transfer and storage of data, guaranteeing data privacy and protection
• Integrates with existing infrastructure, including smart meters and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems via API

Reflecting on the benefit of working with NOUMENA, CKW’s Christoph Haene (Head of Customer Business Applications) explained, “we profited a lot from Noumena's ‘can do’ approach and were able to deploy an MVP quickly on the market.” 

With the platform MVP live, CKW could quickly test the market and begin tailoring the solution to meet the needs and expectations of customers.  Since the ZEV and energy solutions market is, according to Christoph, “fast growing and very interesting” to CKW, the MVP’s quick launch, flexibility, and scalability gave CKW a competitive edge in increasing its potential market share.

CKW's Commitment to Innovation: Building an internal development team

Following the MVP’s launch, CKW realized the long-term potential for NOUMENA’s technology to accelerate business innovation. So, in a strategic move, CKW established an internal development team to support the development and operations of the platform. The team started with a product owner and has been expanded to include frontend and backend engineers.

The growing team is currently being trained in NOUMENA’s technology to expand the energy business platform to include other utility types like heating, cooling, and warm and cold water. This internal team will initially co-develop new products on the platform with NOUMENA.  Mid- to long-term, the CKW team will take over increasing responsibility for development, as well as for the operation and maintenance of the system. However, CKW will still look to NOUMENA for support and enhancements to the technology as NOUMENA releases new platform features. 

The transition enables CKW to harness NOUMENA’s technology like a customized toolbox and quickly launch and scale new digital products and services that CKW’s customers need and want. 

Looking Ahead: CKW’s vision for the future 

The infusion of NOUMENA’s technology has been a catalyst and a trusted partner in CKW’s digitalization journey. But CKW's story is still unfolding. With its empowered internal development team and ongoing synergy with NOUMENA, CKW is ready to enhance its product and service landscape continuously. 

Simultaneously, NOUMENA remains committed to adapting and providing technological solutions that support CKW's evolving aspirations.

Through collaboration with CKW, two core tenets of NOUMENA's own vision have come to the fore:

• MVPs built on the NOUMENA platform are not just pilot projects — by design, they are always capable of seamlessly transitioning to full-scale enterprise applications.
• New products launched on NOUMENA’s platform are easily integrated, creating new business ecosystems and unlocking the synergies of federated digital businesses 
• With the right training and resources, NOUMENA clients can ramp up developer teams, allowing them to independently develop, operate, and expand applications on the NOUMENA platform.

Building with NOUMENA

CKW’s journey towards customer-centric digitization highlights NOUMENA’s commitment to empower businesses like CKW to innovate faster, build effectively, and define tomorrow. 

To learn more about how your business can accelerate innovation with NOUMENA, reach out to our team at info@noumenadigital.com.