From start-up to scale-up: how our digital partnership accelerates growth at Energie.be

Going from start-up to scale-up in the energy sector requires more than ambition alone. It demands a strong digital strategy, reliable software, and a single partner who thinks along for the long term. Since 2021, we have been Energie.be's digital partner for their website, customer portal, tools, and custom software development. Our colleagues Sven Sambaerand Sébastien Roelsshare what makes this years-long collaboration so successful for them.

A new energy partner with a clear promise

One transparent and affordable rate for everyone. Without fine print. With that ambition, Energie.be introduced themselves as an energy supplier in 2021.

Essential for them to fulfill that promise: going all-in on digital as a company to keep their rates low. We, as ACA Group, have been there since day one as a digital partner to make this possible.

Website, two portals and Tariefcheck

One of our first major projects together was the development of Energie.be’s website, including the customer and partner, portal and hosting. The Tariefcheck followed shortly after.

With this tool, website visitors can:

• quickly discover how much they can save
• switch providers within 30 seconds

Energie.be then takes care of everything for the new customer. Just as we do for them when it comes to all things digital.

All digital expertise under one roof

“We’ve been going from project to project for years now,” starts Sven Sambaer, Sector Manager Energy & Utilities. “Whatever request the Energie.be team puts before us, they are certain it will turn out well.”

“I notice that start-ups appreciate having one digital partner who has all the expertise in-house. At ACA Group, we combine custom software development, data, cloud, design, and strategy.”

We bring together a broad range of digital experts, including:

• analysts,
• designers,
• data engineers,
• developers,
• cloud experts
• …

This allows us to provide a wide range of services.

One digital partner who can do it all

Energie.be has one point of contact for everything digital. Not one provider building your website and another your customer portal. To then have to re-enter the market if you want your own app developed, need a data platform, or want to host your applications in the cloud. Instead, you have one digital partner who can do it all.

Our core team for Energie.be consists of a data architect, two developers, a cloud engineer, and a project manager. We expand that team depending on the size of the project and urgent deadlines. Or if we need to be extra reactive to support their team to the fullest during specific marketing campaigns.

Take the briefing, refine, and go

Sébastien Roels, Business Unit Manager Custom Software: “All tailored work and custom software development for Energie.be lies with us. What differentiates them digitally is our responsibility. And they have the guts to be different. With initiatives like Energieke Zondag (Energetic Sunday), they want to shake up the energy market by putting the customer first. It is very fun to be a part of that. Especially because the energy and utilities sector is one of our focus markets.”

Sven: “In start-ups and scale-ups, things need to move forward. The CEO is personally very involved, so you feel that drive. The whole team is hands-on. It’s up to us to match that speed. For us, that means: take the briefing, think along, challenge, refine business requirements, and go.”

Finally, it is also our role to occasionally look beyond concrete projects and zoom out. We do this with inspiration sessions. As a start-up, you are sometimes so deep in your business that it's hard to see the bigger picture. Whereas we go broader than the energy and utilities sector and see parallels and new possibilities across markets.