Innovation from the next generation

working for us

For the past eight months, an entrepreneurial team of our business graduates have put their heads together to create a brand new app for our Connections customers.


Left to right: Kai Stuart, Hannah Raper, Chloe Langham, Anthony Bull, Alex Brown

The app is a Cadent first, designed and developed to keep customers at the heart of the gas connections process. Despite having no previous coding experience, the talented team were able to build the app from scratch, through their persistence, eagerness to learn and collaborative approach.

The graduate group joined Cadent in September, facing the unprecedented challenge of joining a new company remotely during the pandemic. Since then, they have each been working on rotation in different business areas, and alongside their placements took on this joint project with one sole aim: to simplify and enhance the experience for our Connections customers.

The app is designed to contain everything our Connections customers need, all in one place – users can access key information about how our Connections process works, submit their applications, access progress updates and FAQs, and log feedback and enquiries. The app will be launched later this year after user testing.

Citizen development

Whilst the graduates have come from a variety of backgrounds, with many transferrable skills, none of the team members had built an app before. This set them off on a journey to embrace the power of citizen development.

Citizen development encourages colleagues not working in an IT function to become software developers by using low-code or no-code development platforms to create applications that support both customers and colleagues.

Equipped with encouraging project sponsors, a supportive Google Cloud Team and a low-code app building platform called AppSheet, our graduates were able to produce the very first Cadent Connections App – demonstrating the possibilities of citizen development when combined with the right attitude and self-application.

This June the team were invited to the Google office in Kings Cross to finally meet the team they had been working so hard alongside for eight months virtually. In a COVID-secure, collaborative environment, the team were able to discuss the future possibilities of the app and broaden their thinking about how technology can be used to improve our operations and provide value for our customers.

Hear from the team

Anthony Bull, who is on placement with one of our frontline customer teams, said,

“This project has provided many opportunities for our team to discover more about Cadent: its scale, its responsibilities as a gas network, and the challenges faced by its customer-facing teams. We are fortunate to have been exposed to the opportunity of such a project so early in our careers – working with various teams across Cadent and the Google Cloud Team has been so important for our development.”

Chloe Langham, a HR graduate, added,

“The most important message that this project has instilled in me, is that our company exists for our customers, and it’s both a duty and privilege to keep our customers at the heart of the ways we work and the decisions we make. I hope that the Cadent Connections App will support this vision.”

Careers with Cadent

We’re crystal clear that our number one priority as a business is to keep the energy flowing. It’s that simple. And doing it safely, efficiently and in a way that delivers what our customers need is right at the top of our ‘to do’ list.

Everyone who works here shares this commitment too. By working together as one team with shared goals and a common purpose we’re enabling life, across the UK, to keep on running smoothly.

We offer a range of career routes, from post-GCSE options through to our graduate scheme and experienced hires. Find out about careers with Cadent:

Find out more

Cadent

Cadent is the UK’s largest gas distribution network with a 200-year legacy.  We are in a unique position to build on strong foundations whilst encouraging the curiosity to think differently and the courage to embrace change.  Day to day we continue to operate, maintain and innovate the UK’s largest gas network, transporting gas safely and protecting people in an emergency.   Our skilled engineers and specialists remain committed to the communities we serve, working day and night to ensure gas reaches 11 million homes from Cumbria to North London and the Welsh Borders to East Anglia, to keep your energy flowing. 

Future of Gas: Here at Cadent we support the Government’s plans to reach Net Zero by 2050. That means we’re backing the introduction of hydrogen as a low carbon alternative to natural gas for the future. We know people love the controllability of gas and, with our network already in place, it makes sense to switch to the lower carbon alternative offered by hydrogen, which we believe can keep homes and businesses warm for generations to come.

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