Success Cases
Stadtwerke Herne: SAP processes in the AI agent
AI agent Erna resolves five service processes end to end at Stadtwerke Herne, connected directly to SAP IS-U.
Stadtwerke Herne supplies a growing customer base with electricity, gas, water and heat. The utility started its journey into AI-supported customer service together with our partner Trianel. The municipal utilities cooperation based in Aachen supports more than 100 municipal shareholders and partners across the energy value chain, from procurement to digitalisation. The project with LoyJoy grew out of that collaboration. Today the AI agent “Erna” does not merely answer service inquiries but completes them in the system of record.
Goals: Resolve inquiries instead of routing them
The service team handles recurring inquiries every day that still consume processing time: meter readings, instalment amounts, payment arrangements.
A chatbot that points to forms and portal pages does not solve this. It defers it. The customer starts over, and the team processes the case anyway. Herne therefore wanted an agent that completes transactions in the system of record rather than explaining where to find them.
- Complete service inquiries around the clock without media breaks
- Direct access to billing data in the existing system
- Verifiable outcomes instead of free-form answers
Results: Five processes running directly in SAP IS-U
AI agent Erna resolves five service processes end to end, among them meter reading capture, instalment changes and payment arrangements. The connection to SAP IS-U works in both directions, including customer authentication and plausibility checks on captured values. A meter reading that does not match expected consumption is clarified in the dialogue. An instalment can only be changed within the range the system rules allow.
This shifts the division of labour: routine transactions run automatically and verifiably, while the service team takes on cases that require judgement.
- Inquiries are completed at first contact instead of being passed on
- Lower processing costs thanks to verified data instead of follow-up questions
- More efficient processes thanks to direct, form-free communication
- Availability around the clock, also outside service hours
Chat agents on the LoyJoy platform run on a model operated on our own hardware in a data centre in Germany. LoyJoy implemented the SAP IS-U integration together with Stadtwerke Herne.