The brief

Transform Cédéo by creating innovative services associated with the brand.

In the first quarter of 2017, the CEDEO–Saint-Gobain group asked Possible Future to conduct an in-depth assessment of its model. In an ultra-competitive market that’s been shaken up by the arrival of new players (specifically, ‘pure players’), it was urgent for us to set ourselves apart in the eyes of a highly sought-after target: heating professionals (300 to 400 SMEs in France).

A change in legislation was of particular concern to Cédéo: the Energy Transition Law, which requires individualization of heating costs in collectively heated homes.

Thus the question for Possible Future was: How can we turn this constraint into an opportunity to create an innovative and relevant service for Cédéo?

The approach

To rely on a network of heating specialists to come up with a new kind of offer.

For this project, the team began by thoroughly studying the market and consumers as well as the technical and legal issues. It was during this first phase that the team set up an extremely detailed customer (craftspeople) and user (property managers, trustees) path, which allowed them to identify all of the innovation opportunities related to the problem.

In the case of the splitting of heating costs, the complexity was twofold:

• First, we had to identify the right distribution channels in order to move faster than the competition and effectively reach the many stakeholders involved (owners, occupants, co-owners, landlords and municipalities).
• Secondly, we needed to put together a coherent financial package for a service that requires a significant financial investment.

All of it had to be sufficiently differentiating to help Cédéo stand out in a market that is consolidated around four main players.

We believed that we had to enhance the value of national heating professionals and place them at the heart of the service, so that they become advisers to their clients.

The design phase, therefore, led to the development of a service that relied on Cédéo’s large network of customers, SMEs and heating professionals to widely distribute a heating-cost allocation service in a way that was totally transparent for the end user. The concept allowed for each household with a collective heating system to maintain control of its consumption and heating expenses, which until that point had been indexed according to the home’s surface area.

Once the basics of the service had been determined, the prototyping phase was concretely carried out. This included:

• Defining the user path and the functionalities of the different platforms (app, website, back office, etc.)
• Identifying and consulting with potential partners, such as the French Building Federation
• Developing an MVP, both from a service point of view as well as a brand identity and communication strategy
• Creating commercial material for professionals
• Recruiting beta testers, whose feedback allowed the team to adjust specific elements of the concept, such as how to install and use heat-cost allocators

The result

Temperly―an interoperable and eco-responsible service

The solution we envisioned took the form of a turnkey service for the installation and operation of splitters, promoted by heating engineers to property owners and managers. Professionals take care of the installation and maintenance of the box containing the splitter, which is welded to each heating device. The data is then collected and processed, allowing for the billing of heating costs based on actual energy consumption per household.

Thanks to this new service, individuals and property managers do not have to change their contact person, and professionals earn a new client, without additional administrative management.

The business plan, the creation of the brand identity, the promotional materials, and the documents and contracts were all quickly put together. Next, the Cédéo teams took it over, and Temperly was born ! And with it, a service that is:

• Interoperable, as it is compatible with the operation of many property managers and trustees in terms of data centralization.
• Transparent, because it gives all parties access to indexes and cost allocation through a dedicated platform.
• Eco-responsible, because more than anything, individualizing heating costs is a way of making as many people as possible aware of their individual responsibility, encouraging them to optimize their energy consumption.

En savoir plus

• Temperly's site