Contract management for energy providers goes far beyond simply storing documents digitally. Energy procurement, energy services, investments, PV parks, maintenance and lease agreements, as well as numerous internal contracts all come with different terms, notice periods, pricing arrangements, obligations, and responsibilities.
For municipal utilities and publicly owned energy providers, there is another layer of complexity: contracts must not only be easy to find. Responsibilities need to be clearly assigned, important deadlines must be identified early, and contract information has to be available in a reliable and structured way for audits and reviews.
That is why 17er Oberlandenergie decided to centralize its contract management with Inhubber. In a conversation with Dr. Elena Mechik, CEO of Inhubber, Managing Director Ralph Müller shares the company’s starting point, the specific requirements of a municipal energy provider, and the tangible benefits of centralized contract management, automated deadline tracking, AI contract analysis, and structured contract search.
17er Oberlandenergie GmbH, based in Murnau am Staffelsee, is a municipally owned energy provider. According to Managing Director Ralph Müller, the company supplies around 20,000 electricity and gas customers with green electricity and green gas.
For this customer story, Dr. Elena Mechik, CEO of Inhubber, spoke with Ralph Müller, Managing Director of 17er Oberlandenergie, about the digitalization of contract management and the company’s experience with Inhubber.
Ralph Müller: “For an energy provider, it’s not just about electricity and gas supply contracts with end customers. For our company-wide contract management, the relevant areas are mainly energy procurement, energy services, framework agreements, employment contracts, investments, leases, and other operational agreements.
With Inhubber, we first centralized exactly these company-wide contracts.
Our approximately 20,000 electricity and gas contracts with end customers, on the other hand, remain in our ERP system. That is a standardized mass-market business and is currently better managed there.
The key point is that Inhubber does not necessarily replace existing systems. We use it wherever individual deadlines, responsibilities, and obligations need to be actively managed.”
Before Inhubber, contracts at 17er Oberlandenergie were managed in a decentralized way by the employees responsible for them. As a result, there was no complete overview of existing contracts, deadlines, or responsibilities.
How were contracts managed before Inhubber?
Ralph Müller: “Our contracts were stored very decentrally with the employees responsible for them.
That caused problems particularly when it came to deadlines and responsibilities. Deadlines were not monitored consistently, tasks were not always clearly assigned, and when employees changed roles or left the company, it was not always clear where a contract was stored or whether action was still required.
We therefore wanted to move away from individual filing structures and toward one central system.”
For 17er Oberlandenergie, the goal was not to find the system with the largest possible number of features. The new solution needed to cover the essential processes reliably while remaining simple enough to be used in everyday work.
What was particularly important to you when choosing contract management software?
Ralph Müller: “Three factors were especially important to us: reliable deadline tracking, clear task allocation, and intuitive usability.
At the same time, we wanted to be able to adapt the system flexibly to our own structures.
Our goal was not to create additional bureaucracy. We wanted a simple, well-designed system that focuses on the things that really matter.”
Which Inhubber features were decisive for you?
Ralph Müller: “What impressed us most was how easy the system is to use. After a short introduction, you can get up to speed very quickly.
At the same time, we can adapt structures flexibly and change them later if our organization changes.
Permissions are easy to manage. And deadline and task management in particular are very clear and intuitive for users.
That was crucial for us: the system not only has to be powerful, it also has to be something employees actually use.”
With the introduction of Inhubber, 17er Oberlandenergie gained visibility into how many different contracts actually existed across the company — and who was responsible for them.
Which departments currently use Inhubber?
Ralph Müller: “At the moment, procurement and contract management are the main teams using Inhubber for our cross-departmental contracts. We are gradually bringing additional areas into the system.
One major effect was that we suddenly discovered contracts that had never been visible centrally before.
For the first time, we now have one place where we can see which contracts actually exist.
Collaboration has also improved because it is much clearer who is responsible for each contract.
That has already helped us avoid a few unpleasant surprises.”
For energy providers, contract deadlines are not just an administrative matter. Service, maintenance, and lease agreements can directly affect the profitability of PV projects, for example. Other contracts may even be relevant to security of supply.
How important are contract deadlines and terms for 17er Oberlandenergie?
Ralph Müller: “Deadlines, contract terms, pricing arrangements, and maintenance agreements are particularly important to us.
Among other things, we operate PV parks. There, service, maintenance, and lease agreements have a direct impact on the profitability of an investment project.
That means we need to identify early when action is required.
In the regulated energy sector, we also need to keep critical contracts under control at all times. If one of these expires or is terminated without us noticing, in the worst case it could affect the supply of our customers.
That is exactly why we need structured contract management.”
Energy contracts can be extensive and often contain numerous clauses, deadlines, and obligations. It is not always obvious at first glance which document is relevant or which sections require closer attention.
How does Inhubber’s AI support you with complex contracts?
Ralph Müller: “The AI helps us review some very extensive contracts quickly and get straight to the important points.
I find the overview function particularly useful. I can very quickly see: Is this actually the contract I’m looking for? And where are the points I should take a closer look at?
That is especially helpful for contract negotiations, renewals, or deadlines.
Instead of having to read every large document from beginning to end, you can get to the relevant sections much faster.”
17er Oberlandenergie is deliberately taking a step-by-step approach to digitalization. The first priority is to centralize contracts and clarify responsibilities. Further processes and contract workflows can then be built on this foundation.
Which workflows have you already automated?
Ralph Müller: “When it comes to workflows, we are still relatively early in the process.
The first step is to bring together all relevant contracts and clarify who is responsible for each one.
After that, we want to define clear guidelines for how contracts should be managed across the company in the future. Based on that, we can build additional processes and workflows.
So at the moment, we are not yet using the full potential of Inhubber in this area.”
Historically grown folder structures often make finding contracts unnecessarily complicated. Inhubber allows 17er Oberlandenergie to search for contracts using keywords and individually defined labels.
How do you find contracts faster today?
Ralph Müller: “Search works very well using keywords. We also make a lot of use of our own labels.
That allows us to find relevant contracts much faster than we could in our old shared-drive structures.
With old folder systems, at some point nobody knows why a document was stored in a particular place. Search and labels make access much easier.”
Municipal companies regularly need to provide contract information for internal and external audits. With decentralized storage, it can be difficult to know whether a contract overview is actually complete.
What role does centralized contract management play in audits?
Ralph Müller: “Because of our municipal structure, we are subject to various audits, some of which go into considerable detail.
Providing an overview of relevant contracts is a recurring requirement.
With Inhubber, it is much easier for us today to create an up-to-date and reliable overview. We no longer have to hope that we have actually found every relevant contract.
Instead, we have one central software solution from which we can retrieve the information in a structured way.”
Long notice and amendment periods can easily be overlooked in day-to-day business. With lead times of six months or more, waiting until shortly before the end of a contract is simply too late.
What improvements have you seen since introducing Inhubber?
Ralph Müller: “Above all, we have much better control over deadlines today.
That is particularly helpful for long-term deadlines of, for example, six months, where changes need to be prepared well in advance.
The second major benefit is transparency: contracts are stored centrally, managed according to a consistent structure, and are easy to search.
Overall, this has given us much greater transparency across our contract management.”
Contract management software adds little value if implementation requires months of training and significant internal resources.
How did the implementation of Inhubber go?
Ralph Müller: “For us, one in-house workshop was enough to get started.
After that, employees were already able to work with the basic functions and take their first steps in Inhubber.
Because the system is intuitive, adoption has been good. At the same time, we can gradually expand our knowledge and continue developing the system independently.”
Would you recommend Inhubber to other energy providers?
Ralph Müller: “I would definitely recommend Inhubber to other municipal utilities.
The problem of decentralized contract management certainly doesn’t only exist in our company. At the same time, I’ve seen organizations that technically have a document management system but don’t use it consistently because it is simply too complex.
In those cases, the system exists, but in practice it becomes little more than a digital filing graveyard.
Inhubber provides a very accessible way to introduce structured contract management. From my perspective, that is a major advantage.”
The experience of 17er Oberlandenergie shows why contract management for energy providers goes far beyond maintaining a digital contract archive.
The first step is to create a complete overview of existing contracts and clearly assign responsibilities. From there, deadlines, tasks, and additional processes can be managed systematically.
With Inhubber, 17er Oberlandenergie has created a central foundation for this:
- Contracts are managed according to one consistent system.
- Responsibilities are more transparent.
- Long-term deadlines become visible early.
- Contracts can be found faster using search and labels.
- AI helps review extensive documents for relevant information more efficiently.
- Information required for audits is available centrally and in a structured format.
Not every contract process needs to be automated immediately. 17er Oberlandenergie demonstrates a pragmatic approach: first centralize the contract portfolio, then structure responsibilities, and finally build additional workflows and automation on top.
This turns digital contract management into an operational foundation for greater transparency, better deadline control, and lower risk in the day-to-day business of an energy provider.
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