A digital energy services provider came to us to build a real-time energy monitoring system for one of Europe's largest retail chains — replacing spreadsheets across a sprawling estate. We took it from concept to a working MVP in 45 days, cloud-native and built to scale.
A prominent digital energy services company partnered with Full Stack Energy to deliver an advanced, real-time energy monitoring system for one of Europe's largest retail chains. The retailer's existing spreadsheet-based monitoring couldn't scale, so they needed a data-driven platform to manage energy use, cut operating cost and CO2, and strengthen sustainability performance. We progressed from concept to Minimum Viable Product in an ambitious 45-day timeframe — real-time monitoring, predictive analytics and dynamic dashboards, built cloud-native on Azure.
One of Europe’s largest retail chains was managing energy across a huge, varied estate with spreadsheet-based monitoring. It didn’t scale, it couldn’t deliver real-time insight, and it left savings — and sustainability gains — on the table. The retailer needed a data-driven platform to manage usage, reduce operating cost, lower CO2 and improve sustainability performance.
The technical brief was demanding: consolidate disparate data streams from many sites with different sensor types and reporting standards; deliver immediate, actionable alerts and predictive analytics to pre-empt consumption peaks; connect to legacy systems including SCADA, IoT and Building Management Systems across numerous locations; scale as the estate grew; and present it all through dashboards intuitive enough for everyone from operational staff to executive management.
Crucially, Full Stack Energy’s client wasn’t the retailer — it was a digital energy services provider delivering this to the retailer. They needed to prove value fast, to de-risk the investment and validate the retailer’s sustainability vision.
Speed was the strategy. We built the smallest platform that delivered genuine, real-time value, cloud-native from day one so it could scale across the estate without re-platforming.
A 45-day MVP isn't a shortcut — it's a way to de-risk the whole investment. Put something real in front of the business fast and the value stops being a slide and starts being a number.
Lead Engineer, Full Stack Energy
Rapid deployment and a cloud-native foundation significantly reduced the client’s time-to-value, de-risking the investment and validating the retailer’s sustainability vision. The retailer moved from manual spreadsheet entries to automated, scalable data management — and from looking backwards to acting in real time.
The platform achieved substantial energy-cost reduction and significantly lower CO2 emissions through optimised consumption and renewable integration, while predictive insight and real-time data empowered stakeholders to make proactive operational decisions. The MVP became the foundation the estate could keep building on.
The 45-day MVP is the whole story here. Our actual client was a digital energy services provider who needed to prove value to a massive retailer quickly — and the fastest way to win that trust is to put something real and working in front of them, not a year-long integration plan. Cloud-native from day one meant the thing we shipped fast could also scale, instead of being a throwaway prototype.
The honest caveat: this was delivered through a partner, for their end-customer. That shapes everything — the platform had to make our client look good to the retailer, which raises the bar on reliability and polish well above a typical internal tool.
Shipping the smallest platform that delivers genuine real-time value puts working software — not a slide deck — in front of the business in weeks. For a digital energy services provider proving value to one of Europe's largest retailers, that fast, tangible result is what validated the sustainability vision and justified the wider investment.
By consolidating disparate data streams from many sites — different sensor types and reporting standards — into one cloud-native platform that connects to legacy SCADA, IoT and Building Management Systems. Real-time dashboards, smart anomaly alerts and predictive analytics replace manual entry, so teams act before a consumption peak becomes a cost.
Because the MVP has to scale across a growing estate without re-platforming. Built on Azure with Kubernetes, Docker and secure APIs, the first release was already designed to add sites and data volume, so the fast prototype became the foundation the estate kept building on.
A focused MVP in weeks de-risks the whole investment and gets real data in front of the business. Let's scope the smallest version that matters.