SEG needed one solution for different charging needs across the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, from company fleets and customer car parks to employee and home charging. It had to support different locations and user groups without adding operational complexity.
The vaylens Portal brings public, fleet, employee and home charging together on one platform. SEG can centrally manage charge points, access, tariffs and billing, while company car drivers can update their electricity rate and view their home charging sessions.
SEG’s offering now covers around 1,300 charge points, more than 120 customers and approximately 130 Home Charging users. The platform simplifies administration and billing while allowing SEG to extend its offering to new locations and user groups.
At a glance: SEG and vaylens
- Use cases: Public Charging, Community Charging, Fleet Charging and Home Charging
- Benefits for operators: Intuitive setup and management through the vaylens Portal, fast commissioning of new charge points and reduced administrative effort
- Benefits for users: Simple registration, transparent processes and convenient management of their own charging sessions
- Benefits for the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe: A flexible, scalable all-in-one solution for branches, employees, customers and fleets
One platform for different charging scenarios
The transition to electric mobility presents new challenges for companies across industries and of all sizes. This also applies to the institutions and affiliated partners of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. They’re electrifying their fleets while creating new charging services for employees and customers. Sparkassen-Einkaufsgesellschaft (SEG) was therefore looking for a group-wide software solution that could bring together different requirements and simplify operations. It found what it was looking for with vaylens.
SEG is the central procurement service provider for the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, supporting savings banks, regional state banks and affiliated partners with procurement and tendering. Founded in Wiesbaden in 2001, the company initially specialised in office supplies and has also been active in the mobility sector for more than 15 years.
Together, the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe’s fleets comprise around 24,000 vehicles. In addition, approximately 15,000 locations have parking facilities where a unified charging infrastructure solution could benefit customers, employees and, in the future, other user groups. Requirements range from individual wallboxes to complex fleet solutions.
The challenge: multiple use cases, simple operations
SEG has never viewed charging infrastructure as a standalone solution. Instead, it sees it as a service that should be easy to use across different institutions and for a variety of applications.
“We want savings banks to be able to operate our solutions in-house wherever possible, without having to build up the necessary resources and expertise themselves every time,” says Svenja Rode, Team Lead eMobility at SEG.
SEG was therefore looking for a platform that could accommodate different charging scenarios without requiring a new process for every location. At one site, the primary focus might be charging company cars; at another, the needs of employees or customers might take centre stage.
The solution: one portal for multiple charging scenarios
SEG and vaylens have been partners since 2020. Their collaboration began with the integration of payment terminals into charging infrastructure, a solution that wasn’t yet available on the market at the time. Payment is particularly important within the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. The goal was to make paying at public charging stations as simple and user-friendly as possible.
The vaylens Portal enables users to create, manage and configure new tenants and charge points independently. Access permissions, tariffs and billing processes can also be managed centrally. This allows different charging scenarios and user groups to be handled through a single platform.
The dashboard provides an up-to-date overview of the charging infrastructure, making it easier to monitor charging sessions and identify potential faults. The setup process guides users through the required configuration steps. As a result, even employees who don’t work with charging infrastructure every day can set up new stations independently and adapt them to specific requirements.
“I find the onboarding of a charge point in the vaylens Portal particularly convenient. The system guides you through the process, meaning that even colleagues who are not yet familiar with it could, in theory, set up a charge point themselves,” explains Ann-Kristin Maus, Project Manager eMobility at SEG.
Thus, the platform can be used for public charging as well as for fleet and employee charging solutions.
Home Charging: charge at home and reimburse costs with ease
Home Charging simplifies the reimbursement of charging sessions at home. Company car drivers can charge their vehicles at their own wallboxes and claim the associated electricity costs from their employer.
Employees are actively involved in the process: they can enter their electricity rate and view their charging sessions at any time.
“This makes day-to-day fleet management much easier. Users can take care of their own electricity rates and view their charging sessions whenever they need to. It also gives them a degree of responsibility and control,” says Maus.
Community Charging: charging offers for employees
Community Charging allows operators to make charge points available to specific user groups, such as employees. Operators can set individual tariffs and manage the billing of charging sessions centrally.
This makes it possible to offer employees attractive charging rates without creating additional admin for the operator. Employees can register directly through the app and manage their own charging sessions. For savings banks, this provides an alternative to public charging tariffs or roaming services.
One platform for operators, employees and fleets
For SEG's customers, the value lies in more than simply managing charge points. What matters is the combination of easy usage, flexibility and reduced administrative effort.
New charge points can be integrated quickly, different user groups can be managed through the same platform, and billing processes for employees and charging at home can be simplified. At the same time, operators retain control over their charging services.
“It is important to us that we can provide our customers with a solution that is easy to use while still meeting their different requirements. That is exactly the kind of flexibility we need,” says Rode.
Thanks to its interfaces, vaylens can also be connected to existing systems, including fleet management and accounting software.
Looking ahead: further growth in electric fleets and Community Charging
As the transition to electric mobility continues, SEG will support the expansion of charging infrastructure at additional Sparkasse locations. Greater emphasis will be placed on fleet vehicles and employee charging. Home Charging is also likely to become increasingly important as electric fleets continue to grow.
As a result, vaylens is set to play an increasingly important role in SEG's portfolio. At its core is the vaylens Portal, which brings different charging services together and can be expanded quickly to accommodate new user groups and locations.
“Charging infrastructure can quickly become complex when different locations, user groups and billing models come together. Our aim is to manage this complexity in the background and make the experience as simple as possible. Our collaboration with SEG is a great example of how different charging scenarios can be implemented on a shared platform and scaled step by step,” explains Philipp Nobis, Head of Product and Partner Management at vaylens.
About Sparkassen-Einkaufsgesellschaft
With a range of products and services tailored to the needs of savings banks and the companies and associations within the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, Sparkassen-Einkaufsgesellschaft (SEG) is the group's central procurement service provider.
SEG procures and organises services for the business operations of savings banks, regional state banks and affiliated partners. Its offering also includes a wide range of fleet management and charging infrastructure services. In the field of electric mobility, SEG positions itself as a full-service provider, combining standardised solutions with the individual requirements of each institution.
Find out more: s-einkauf.de
About vaylens
Part of KOSTAL, an independent, family-owned technology group founded in 1912, vaylens develops software for organisations operating EV charging networks or managing workplace and fleet charging.
The hardware-agnostic vaylens Portal brings charge point management, access and monetisation together in one system, and connects more than 60,000 charge points across Europe. Headquartered in Dortmund, Germany, vaylens has entities across Europe, including France and the UK.
Find out more: vaylens.com
