Nuon / Vattenfall · Freelance · 2012
From Excel to a purpose-built system.
At Nuon, now Vattenfall, a growing sales operation had outgrown Excel and paper. I helped turn a focused pilot into a connected system built around the people running the business.
The starting point
Nuon Sales Force had grown from five to 150 employees in five years. Spreadsheets and paper still supported sales, HR and finance. Weekly administration depended on complex Excel files and the few people who understood them. Sales figures arrived five weeks late, while payments and contract changes required too much manual checking.
Start small and prove the value
We started with travel expenses. Employees entered their journeys online, team managers checked them and sales managers gave final approval. This made costs and responsibilities visible. Working closely with sales managers helped us understand what they needed and build confidence in a different way of working. The pilot became the foundation for a broader administration system.
My contribution
As a freelancer in 2012, I translated business needs into requirements, worked with a developer, tested the system for functionality and usability, and supported its implementation. The starting point was always the work people needed to do. Involving managers throughout helped us create something they understood and wanted to use.
Connect the whole process
The system brought employee records, travel expenses, sales, hours and bonuses together. Managers reviewed and approved the inputs before the weekly close generated the information needed by employment agencies. HR gained alerts for contract changes, while sales managers gained dashboards to follow performance. A connected workflow replaced separate spreadsheets and repeated manual checks.
Make the improvement tangible
The original case study records development and implementation within four months. Technical errors during the weekly close fell from between one and five to zero. Sales insight became available within the same week instead of after five weeks. Employees experienced fewer incorrect or missing payments, and the business became less dependent on specialist spreadsheet knowledge.
Make the work easier
Once managers had approved their inputs, the weekly close could be completed with one button. Contract alerts reduced manual monitoring, and shared employee records made a high-turnover operation easier to administer. The value was not simply replacing Excel. It was making the process clearer, more reliable and easier for people to run.
The takeaway
Delivered in four months · Same-week sales insight
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