How Lumme Energia made user rights management effortless with Wapice IAM

Lumme Energia is one of Finland’s largest electricity sales companies, offering services such as electricity contracts and solar panels. When you have a large customer base, both customer service and electronic systems need to work efficiently, especially with high volumes of users. An additional challenge is posed by the differing needs of different users.

Someone needs to monitor the energy consumption of a detached house, another to handle the electricity matters of an elderly relative, and a third to manage the electricity contract of a housing company or business. How to make it all work safely and efficiently, but without overburdening customer service?

Today’s consumers are used to being able to manage their own affairs and those of a relative, for example, electronically at any time. This is also expected of electricity companies, and the availability of services contributes to their image. The solution that enables user identification, access management and the integration of online services around a single sign-on is called Identity and Access Management (IAM).

“When we compared the solutions on the market, we found that most of them were too complex for Lumme Energia’s needs. Wapice IAM included all the functionality we needed, plus their pricing model was more attractive than that of their competitors. The goal was to create a system where all operations could be handled via single sign-on, without burdening customer service,” says Martikainen.

Now this is all possible in the Lumme Energia’s system. In addition, authorisations can be issued electronically through self-service. The user experience is also consistent across services. Wapice’s IAM service was adopted as the site for registering Lumme Energia’s online services, and the user interfaces of all related functions were adapted to Lumme Energia’s graphic look and feel.

“Of course there were challenges along the way, and Wapice built a lot of new functionality into the service. However, this was done proactively, i.e. they considered the big picture, and were always able to come up with good ideas and options for moving forward. In addition, the project finished on time and on budget. This is something I value a lot in a partner,” Martikainen says.

The project was also a fascinating challenge for Wapice.

“Creating authorisation functionalities was an interesting project that gave us a new perspective on the needs of energy companies. Lumme Energia had a clear vision of the project’s objectives, and its representatives were actively involved in testing the new features. This facilitated the progress of the project and gave Wapice a clear direction for development. The smooth cooperation with Lumme Energia has continued after the project with further development of the service and innovation of new features,” comments Sami Pelkonen, Product Manager for Wapice’s IAM solution.

In addition to security, Lumme Energia’s goal has been to continuously improve its customer service. This means that the customer is offered 24/7 access to a wide range of services related to their account and a possibility to authorise selected persons to view selected information on energy consumption. When customers can easily manage their own affairs online, the workload for customer service is also reduced and operations become more efficient. Lumme Energia has also introduced new sub-services under Wapice’s IAM service, with enables various rights to be managed in a controlled and smooth way.

“I can recommend Wapice. Cooperation has gone well and we have got what we wanted. We have been satisfied with the quality of the work and the end result, but also with the cooperation in general,” says Martikainen.