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Apps Across the Enterprise - MAIN Energie Delivers Business Transformation With Speed and Scale

MAIN Energie, an energy supplier in the Netherlands is transforming their business one app at a time. From sales to purchasing to customer facing portals, MAIN Energie is using an innovative combination of low-code development and agile methodology creating apps 4-6 times faster than traditional development. To deliver these custom, industry-specific services and applications — and ultimately differentiate itself from its competitors — MAIN Energie relies on OutSystems.

 

“Working with OutSystems, we built a fully functional customer portal for the real estate industry in just three months. Without their help, the same project would have taken us at least a year.”
Eric de Bruin, Delivery Manager at Main Energie

The Strategy - OutSystems + Agile

How it started - MAIN Energie has been using OutSystems for a long time. Initially, the company turned to OutSystems to help build its internal Energy Management System (EMS) to support internal operations. The first version of the EMS was built and delivered by a team of OutSystems developers and maintained by a local team of MAIN Energie developers. Wait, there’s more...
It soon became clear that OutSystems could be used for any application. From internal operations like purchasing and sales to customer-facing applications like a new customer portal, MAIN Energie uses OutSystems for all kinds of development projects delivering solutions 4-6 times faster than traditional coding.

MAIN Energie works with OutSystems combining agile designs in a scrum team. Special team members are involved in specifying business needs, while others specialize in building applications. It’s a powerful combination of method and technique that ensures IT truly provides a competitive advantage for MAIN Energie.

The OutSystems Advantage

Eric de Bruin, delivery manager at MAIN Energie, is a strong supporter of OutSystems. "For me personally, it was the reason I started working here," he says. "I had worked with OutSystems in the past and was impressed with its technical capabilities. Once I saw the benefits, I didn’t want to return to traditional programming."

Bruin is particularly impressed by the development team maintaining the OutSystems platform. "Every year, they release a new version of the Platform, and every year it contains new features that are important to us. The upcoming release, for example, enables developers to build native mobile experiences."
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A New Client Portal in Just Three Months

Solution - "A good example of a successful OutSystems development project that we’ve worked on is when we developed a client portal for the real estate industry, which is a relatively large client base for us,” says de Bruin. “The combination of agile and OutSystems created a simple portal for us within five weeks, which our staff and management were thrilled about. We then started to add functionality in short development sprints, in cooperation with three major clients. Within three months, we had a fully functional portal. If we had developed it the classic way, it would certainly have taken at least a year.”

OutSystems really gives MAIN Energie a competitive advantage, allowing the company to create services that it wouldn’t be able to using other vendors. "In cooperation with a major ERP vendor, we’re currently working on a project to process electronic invoices directly into the booking system. This will greatly accelerate the invoicing process and give customers maximum insight and convenience. And it will allow us to really stay ahead of the competition in the process," says de Bruin.

Faster Solutions Give Competitive Advantage

Technical benefits

  • Build apps 4 to 5 times faster, resulting in a fast delivery cycle.
  • Makes it easy to support and change apps, by making application interfaces and functionality more flexible.
  • Enables integration of the system with complex and highly specialized ERP-systems.
  • No vendor lock-in, so technology can always be changed.

Business benefits

  • Changes in services and software can be made in 24 hours allowing for the business to leverage business opportunities.
  • Allows MAIN Energie to go to market with new services 4 times faster, giving them a competitive edge.