OVO Energy drives $3M per year in developer productivity gains with DX
8x+ return on investment in DX
OVO Energy is a UK-based energy and home services company that serves over 5 million homes. OVO relies on its software developers to maintain essential systems like energy management platforms and EV charging apps. With technology at OVO’s core, the Engineering Enablement team focuses on removing blockers and providing engineers with the tools they need to succeed. “Keeping engineers happy and having a really efficient running tech department is crucial for the business,” shares Samantha Betts, Developer Experience Engineer.
Inefficiencies in engineering workflows disrupt system stability, delay innovation, and cause frustration for engineers. As Engineering Enablement team member Naomi Gaynor explained, “We see our role as clearing the path for engineers so they can focus on shipping quality code as fast as possible.”
Release and build processes had become significant sources of friction, slowing development and creating delays. But better identifying and prioritizing specific areas of release workflows proved to be difficult, without having good data. “We want to identify the things that can be automated—tasks people have to do regularly that cause friction or shouldn’t be part of their job,” said Betts.
To tackle this challenge, OVO adopted DX to measure technical stability and engineering performance. Using DX, the team identified specific areas of friction in their workflows and prioritized targeted improvements. “We use DX as a way of shaping our own roadmaps within Developer Experience because we are building the internal tools and processes,” said Betts.
With insights from DX, OVO automated key steps in the release workflow, reducing manual interventions. The team also standardized build processes, eliminating recurring bottlenecks, and introducing metrics to track the impact of these changes.
The results were significant: a 7% improvement in engineering speed, equivalent to $3 million in regained productivity annually. “DX helps us identify where there’s gaps and where people most need them fixed. We can even use it to identify specific teams to follow up with,” said Betts.
Looking ahead, OVO plans to expand its use of DX insights to refine engineering processes further, focusing on optimizing code review processes and incident response times. As Betts summarized, “It’s about empowering engineers to solve problems and focus on meaningful work without unnecessary blockers.”
For more on OVO Energy’s developer productivity journey, check out our customer video:
