ENGIE strengthens its position as a responsible energy supplier with Tableau

Engie is the leading French supplier of natural gas and green electricity. Its solutions are targeted at residential customers, local government authorities, business, and industry. The group has 160,000 employees worldwide. It has decided to speed up its transition to a carbon-neutral economy through more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions.

In order to fully capitalize on all its data assets and to provide its customers with even greater efficiency, ENGIE wanted to take its data-centric approach even further. In 2018, after competitive tendering by the leaders in the data visualization market, the group chose Tableau, attracted by the capabilities of its solution, both from a technical and ergonomic point of view. From now on, with the help of all its employees, ENGIE’s residential customer division in France will rely on data to make decisions and manage the group’s business.

Previously, ENGIE’s residential customer division had a set of management tools at its disposal. But it did not have sufficiently intuitive and interactive dashboards to monitor solutions and projects in real time and to measure customer satisfaction. This type of dashboard is key for improving the digital journey of customers, identifying anomalies, and adjusting the way they are targeted through a multi-channel approach. In the absence of dedicated software, the data visualizations, which are essential for monitoring these indicators and making decisions, were performed on a case-by-case basis through JavaScript.

Using Tableau has enabled the development cycle of a visualization to be reduced from three months to two weeks. For example, thanks to Tableau, ENGIE’s residential customer division was able to quickly develop a valuable tool that could even be utilized by employees who are not data experts. In a single visualization, it presents an overview of the customer solutions, with access to all the figures associated with each solution. With a single dashboard, it is possible, for example, to visualize the types of customers (including socio-demographic data) and how each solution is positioned in relation to a particular population (in terms of sales, churn, renewal, etc.). As a result of this speed-up, three dashboards are now produced each month compared to two per year prior to using Tableau.

Today, rapid analysis and visualization allow a better understanding of data; no project is launched without its data visualization component in Tableau. Even without technical expertise, the various project stakeholders (product manager, team leader, etc.) are able to carry out their own analyses independently. The reporting team is less overloaded and is able to deliver the expected studies/dashboards more quickly.

The take-up rate for Tableau is very high. The initial three-year license purchase plan was achieved in one year, and the 260 users planned for 2020 were achieved in 2019. Today, almost 400 employees use Tableau on a daily basis.

Today, rapid analysis and visualization allow a better understanding of data; no project is launched without its data visualization component in Tableau. Even without technical expertise, the various project stakeholders (product manager, team leader, etc.) are able to carry out their own analyses independently. Almost 400 employees use Tableau on a daily basis.

The objective of ENGIE’s residential customer division in France was to accelerate the growth of “DIY.” Mission accomplished. Initially, it was the reporting team that got to grips with the tool and taught itself how to use it. Then, easy access to the data was extended to advanced users in all the divisions. Now, they can create their own data visualizations entirely by themselves.

This phase has enabled a catalog of dashboards to be created. A dataset dedicated to each activity (marketing campaigns, sales, relationships, etc.) is available for each team. Through exchanges and sharing with their peers, analysts are able to increase their skills, a prerequisite for capitalizing on all the possibilities offered by the Tableau solution.

Although Tableau is an extremely advanced reporting tool, every employee must be convinced of the value that the company can derive from the data. They must also share a common culture on this subject.

To facilitate this development, ENGIE’s residential customer division has instituted communication and awareness-raising activities, particularly in the form of hackathons, to introduce the tool to users. For example, a DataViz Day was organized with Tableau’s assistance, consisting of workshops and self-service areas where employees were able to experiment with the tool. The teams also have access to a data-oriented telephone hotline.

“Implementation of the Tableau solution has brought us many benefits. Every employee can now capitalize on the data to monitor the solutions, contracts sent to customers, signed documents returned, closing deadlines, and customer satisfaction. This approach is possible as a result of the implementation of a controlled and structured framework, with data prepared in advance and rules that enable their use to be put in context,” explains Ahmed Zaidi, Reporting Team Manager at Engie.