Gesobau
From a legal obligation to Berlin’s most modern tenant app.
A large Berlin housing company had to make energy consumption transparent every month. In a creative workshop with all stakeholders, we turned that into an opportunity.
~35,000
Apartments
Berlin
Housing industry
Monthly
Statutory consumption display
SAP BTP
Target platform
The Challenge
What had to be solved
- High tenant-service volume and demanding communication around repairs and defects: much effort, little transparency, and conflict potential in billing and energy consumption.
- A fragmented system landscape: an SAP core managing leases, properties and tenants, alongside an old repair portal and a barely maintainable point solution for energy metering, coupled to IoT meters in the buildings.
- The legal requirement: tenants must be shown their current energy consumption online every month. With the existing structures, that was not achievable.
Method & Approach
First listen, then design together
From Bielefeld to Berlin
operayo came to the SAP creative space at Hackescher Markt for the creative workshop and solution design.
Understanding the need
A pre-meeting, then a creative workshop with all stakeholders in the room: the board, the metering and service subsidiary as the actual customer, tenant-service leadership, case handling, IT, property management and back office.
End-to-end with the canvas
Running our full process model: solution design of the mobile app, with content, features and building blocks defined together.
The board at the flip chart
In the follow-up design workshop, the board designed drafts themselves. High engagement, high identification: “We want the change, we are all part of it.”
The Turning Point
“In the personal conversation, the real ambition became visible: not just to become compliant, but to lead as Berlin’s most modern housing company - and eventually to serve as a platform for other companies.”
The Results
What was created
01
A “fusion app” on BTP
New display of energy-consumption and metering data per property, combined with the existing repair and maintenance app.
02
Compliant and better
Meets the statutory transparency requirement and noticeably improves tenant service and communication.
03
Handover to the partner
Operations and maintenance deliberately handed to the local real-estate specialist, closer to the industry.
From the Workshop
“In these workshops the level of motivation across all levels is exorbitantly high - leading to faster and better results when building the app, to greater identification with the goals, and to higher adoption in use.”
Our Learnings
What we take away
- We would run the creative end-to-end workshop with the canvas process model exactly the same way again.
- Real impact comes from listening and trust. Only in personal exchange was the actual vision uncovered.
Up for a sparring session?
Sarah Niesel
Design Thinking Facilitator & Head of Business Development
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