To stay aligned with the fast-paced energy transition and to support rapid international growth, Eneco Energy Trade needed a single, central location where all customer data could come together. Under the name Clientverse, the CRM system was renewed, improved and fully re-embedded in the organisation. Conclusion gathered the business requirements and safeguarded the process (led by Conclusion Consulting), and was also responsible for the technical implementation (delivered by Conclusion MBS).
The challenge:
creating a single place where all customer data comes together
Menno Gierman, Head of Energy Operations at Eneco Energy Trade: “We’re responsible for all operational processes within our trading house. From steering solar parks and e-boilers to ensuring the right invoice reaches the right customer. We trade on the electricity and gas markets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK, and we work for both Eneco and third parties. Our business has grown enormously in recent years.”
“We used to have contracts for half a year, now they last four hours”
Menno Gierman
Head of Energy Operations at Eneco Energy Trade
With this growth came added complexity. “As a trading environment, we’re in the middle of a major professionalisation effort, fully driven by the energy transition,” Menno explains. “A simple example: we used to have contracts for half a year, now for four hours. All these changes led to an increase in operational incidents. Employees started making their own spreadsheets to store data. At some point, the conclusion was clear: we need one place where all customer data comes together. One single source of truth.”
“We did have a CRM, but it was barely used,” Menno says of the situation before the project started. “There was limited governance and little IT support. With more than a thousand customers and operations across several countries, that was no longer sustainable.”
The challenge came down to four core issues:
The solution:
co-creating a reliable CRM system
The collaboration with Conclusion grew from a long-standing partnership. Business consultant Evan de Kok was therefore already familiar with Eneco Energy Trade. “One of the first things I did was draw up a project plan, including the scope. Through interviews with users and managers, we developed a clear proposal together.”
Menno: “This is one of those topics everyone finds important, but no one fully ‘owns’. Evan brought the continuity and focus that are difficult to achieve internally, and acted as an independent sparring partner without his own agenda. He knows our organisation well from previous projects.”
The project approach: three phases under the name Clientverse
Phase 0: inventory ad advice
In this initial phase, Evan and his colleagues collected user needs. “We conducted interviews and organised workshops where employees could share their pain points, as well as what they needed from a well-functioning CRM,” Evan says. “In parallel, Conclusion MBS mapped out the technical possibilities and requirements.”
Phase 1: Implementation and adoption
When it was time to actually build the CRM, business consultants Peter van Dongen and Leonie van Dinteren joined the project. “Peter and Leonie translated the advice into concrete implementation in co-creation with Eneco Energy Trade and Conclusion MBS,” Evan explains. “Peter brought valuable experience from another CRM project within Eneco, creating strong synergy. Leonie later took over and kept the momentum going with her energy and decisiveness.”
Conclusion MBS was responsible for the technical configuration, while Conclusion Consulting guided the organisational side. “We built the improved CRM step by step,” says Evan. “We started by setting up a test environment to safely develop new components. Together with Eneco Energy Trade, we also established the technical management structure — essential in such a heavily regulated environment.”
A key part of the work was the data migration. “There is so much data within Eneco Energy Trade,” Evan explains. “We ran multiple sessions to gather, clean and migrate the data. It didn’t work perfectly the first time — several systems were in use — but each iteration brought us closer to a single reliable whole.”
The collaboration between the various Conclusion teams was seamless. “It was truly one Conclusion project,” Evan says. “We gathered the business requirements, managed the process and communications with Eneco; Conclusion MBS handled the technical delivery. That division of roles worked extremely well.”
Governance was also set up in a structured way. “We held a monthly steering committee with all stakeholders,” Menno says. “We discussed progress, priorities and risks, which helped us make decisions quickly: in which countries do we start, with which customers, what comes first? This helped us stay focused rather than trying to tackle everything at once.”
Phase 2: Evaluation and further development
Several months after go-live, an evaluation took place in the summer of 2025. “We essentially took the temperature,” Evan says. “In six weeks, we assessed the state of the system and built a data quality dashboard that allows Eneco Energy Trade to check the completeness of contracts.”
Menno: “I used the dashboard again just yesterday. You can build fantastic dashboards, but they’re only useful if they’re practically applicable. This one is a great example.”
The summer project was set up as a pressure cooker, with Evan working alongside colleagues Sophie van Oort, Rick Bakker and Linde van Wichen. “We wanted to know: how is the system performing, where is room for improvement and how can we make that visible?” Adoption was also a key focus. “The system was live, but we wanted to know: are people really using it?” Evan says. “We saw strong engagement in the Netherlands, while Germany still needed to come on board. That’s natural in a transition of this scale — it’s a journey.”
The result:
one source of truth and greater confidence in data
“There is clarity about the system: we now have a future-proof CRM,” Menno says. “Nobody in the organisation questions it anymore. We’re not finished, but the foundation is solid thanks to Conclusion.” With a smile he adds: “And the walls too. Now it’s up to us to furnish the rooms and hang up the decorations.”
Results at a glance:
Menno: “The most important thing is that there’s confidence in a future-proof system we can continue to build on. We’re more in control and the CRM plays a positive role in that.”
Evan adds: “Eneco Energy Trade can move forward with this. The system delivers value every day.”
“There is confidence in a future-proof system we can continue to build on”
Menno Gierman
Head of Energy Operations at Eneco Energy Trade
About
Eneco Energy Trade
Eneco Energy Trade (EET) is Eneco’s international trading organisation. From offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom, EET trades in electricity, gas and CO₂ emission rights. The company manages Eneco’s sustainable assets and supports the energy transition through smart connections between generation, storage and delivery. With the implementation of Clientverse, EET continues to develop data-driven, reliable processes that are ready for the future.