360-Energy

How we developed a self-service utility monitoring app for an energy consulting company?

360-Energy is a cloud application to monitor, track, and visualize energy efficiency data across different facilities on a single dashboard.

Requirement:

An automated solution that empowers clients to track energy efficiency across multiple facilities.

Tech Stack:

Java, Spring, Thymleaf, Bootstrap, PostgreSQL

Results:

A cloud-based app that transformed manual client operations into a self-serving automated solution for end-users

“The applications developed by the WebsOptimization team are always high quality, delivered on time, and in line with the requirements. They are honest and transparent about their work, maintaining good communication through the project manager.”

Abtar Singh, President

Project Overview

The client, an energy optimization company, aims to help companies conserve energy in their facilities without increasing costs. The company conducts energy-use audits and recommends energy savings measures for sustainability and cost savings across multiple facilities.

The company was looking to offer absolute transparency in its operations to its high-profile clientele spanning retail, commercial, hospitality, education, and industrial segments. The client wanted to build an app for end-users to track and monitor energy utilization across its various facilities.

We developed a cloud application that empowers the company’s clients to monitor, track, and visualize energy efficiency data from a single dashboard and reduce manual effort in managing operations.

Challenges

Prior to the app development, the company used multiple spreadsheets to capture energy utilization data and monitor the changes in energy utilization. The manual nature of the process made it hard for any facility owner (or business owner) to discover the least-efficient facility/site in terms of energy consumption.

Moreover, the current system didn’t account for weather changes, which directly impacts the energy efficiency in a facility. The system also didn’t provide a historical representation of energy efficiency (and cost savings), making it hard for the company to justify its recommendations.

There was an immediate need for a total overhaul leading to the development of a client-facing app that shows the energy utilization, cost savings, and other useful metrics for a facility’s electricity, gas, water, trash, and fuel consumption.

Solution

Our team developed a SaaS web app to track the energy efficiency for its client locations based on the initial requirements and industry understanding to tackle the challenges.

The solution allowed the company to add information about its clients and facilities. The interface, features, and internal algorithm gave the end-users (clients) the ability to manage/view/identify the least and most efficient facilities.

Users can log the utility billing data and the app automatically conducts calculations to present energy efficiency data in the form of graphs and statistics. The app could also fetch billing information from energy providers to simplify operations and minimize intervention.

The proprietary algorithm was developed after a deep understanding of the client’s operations and turning all manual calculations into a logic flow.

Post the deployment, the solution helped the client automate energy efficiency audit operations and recommendation delivery via the app. Users can view all data in multiple views (Map view or Chart View) to discover insights, and compare data from multiple facilities. The app also allowed users to compare data between base year (the year the solution was implemented) and the present day, which allowed users to understand the increase/decrease in energy efficiency metrics, efficiently.

The solution factored in the weather data for a particular facility and provide detailed statistics to ensure an accurate representation of energy efficiency metrics.

One can check the projected savings, approximate consumption, and billing amount in advance by using the app and take corrective actions to save costs.

System notifications alerted the end-user in case of deviations such as high consumption, increased utility billing, and missing utility bill data to prevent issues later.

Major Modules & Features

Module	Features	Suitable for
CRM	Add new customers Update customer details Smart Search Filter customers based on their status/membership type Assign membership badges based on spending Define cashback percentage based on membership tier Deposit cashback reward points based on membership tier, spend and cashback percentage on every purchase	Recording and managing customer details to enhance customer delight
Employee Management (HR Module)	Manage employee listing directory Employee Check-in and Check-out time reporting Employee leave management Create and Update Employee Group for permission management Set commission rates for employees	Manage your workforce and provide permissions to use platform functionalities based on their designation
Service Order Management	Manage Service Orders Manage Order type Manage Service Status Save. record and input different product types and product accessories for future use	Streamline order management with a well-organized order dashboard for quick updates about service orders.
Inventory/Warehouse Management	Manage multiple warehouses differentiated by unique identifier ID Quick Search by identifier ID and Filter by Status. Allocate warehouse identifier automatically at the time of order Automatic inventory management (increase/decrease) on service order completion.	Manage inventory for multiple warehouses or branch stores.
Reporting & Analytics	Employee work schedule report Detailed Customer Cashback report. Sales report based on particular period Consumption report to discover fastest-selling products or services	Statistical reporting dashboard for discovering sales, work, and consumption patterns for improving service efficiency
Admin Portal	Create a new store Assign a particular module (CRM, employee, inventory management) to a store Reporting and analytics Secure login with 2FA functionality Store statistics dashboard for a complete view of the total number of registered stores and active/inactive stores Multilingual dashboard in English & Swedish	Powerful admin portal to scale and expand operations and manage multiple stores from a single dashboard