Inventum Technologies has been engineering heat pumps and boilers since 1908, and was first to bring a ventilation heat pump without an outdoor unit to the Dutch market, back in 1989. Today, around 100 people design and manufacture heat pumps across two factories in Houten. As the product range grows more complex, so does the pressure on the small group of people who hold the answers.
Knowledge that outpaces the people who hold it
Partners and installers already have a lot of information available to them on Inventum Technologies' website. However, in practice, it was often difficult to locate the right answer, or users simply were not aware that the information was available. As a result, many questions were directed to the service team, creating unnecessary demand and increasing response times.
The same challenge existed internally. Repetitive questions frequently landed with the same group of specialists, while emails were often forwarded multiple times before reaching the right expert. This not only reduced efficiency but also delayed support for customers and partners.
Recognizing the need for a better solution, Inventum set out to make its collective knowledge instantly accessible and easy to navigate. The initial focus is on empowering its own employees, with the longer-term goal of enabling partners and installers to find accurate answers independently. By doing so, Inventum aims to transform its deep technical expertise into immediate, verified answers available whenever and wherever they are needed.
Choosing a dedicated partner over generic AI
Inventum Technologiesalready uses generic AI tools for various tasks. But for something this close to product safety and customer trust, generic wasn't good enough.
We chose Chapter because they are dedicated to our industry, the manufacturing sector, allowing us to guarantee a higher level of quality than generic AI. Paired with their support during implementation, it’s a great collaboration.
Building trust before scaling up
Inventum's first priority was not a broad rollout. It was validating that the platform could be trusted. The team tested the solution against real-world questions, using existing product documentation and service information to verify the quality and reliability of the answers. Particular attention was given to situations where questions were incomplete or open to interpretation.
“The moment I realized this could truly make a difference was during the testing phase, when I got answers with the sources right there: highlighted passages from our own documentation. When the system wasn’t sure what I meant, it asked: ‘Which product? What’s your exact situation?’ That’s what builds trust in the answer.” - Elwin Roetman
That combination, a cited source plus a system that asks rather than guesses, is what moved the project from "interesting demo" to something the team is now using with real customers. Early in the rollout, both sales and service teams were already able to answer technical questions on the spot. Instead of promising to come back with an answer later, employees could provide verified information immediately, even while meeting with customers and partners.
Early impact
The rollout began with Inventum's internal service and sales teams, creating a controlled environment to validate adoption and value before extending access to the broader partner network. It's early, but the first uses are already pointing at exactly the kind of impact Inventum set out to capture:
One colleague put it simply: if I’d had this tool this morning, it would have saved me half an hour today. Often it’s more than that. Sometimes it’s the difference between waiting days for an answer and getting it right away. - Elwin Roetman
This is the transformation Inventum is working towards: reducing the time spent searching for information, enabling teams to focus on the interactions and challenges that genuinely require human expertise.
For Inventum, the value of the solution extends beyond speed alone. The real benefit lies in what that speed makes possible: better service, greater efficiency, and more time for meaningful customer engagement.
In his own words
“The value of Chapter for us is really threefold. It helps us bring customer satisfaction to a higher level, it frees up time for our team to focus on the more complex cases, ensures continuity by securing knowledge within our organization for the future.”
Each step expands access to trusted knowledge while reducing dependency on individual experts. Routine questions can be answered instantly, new colleagues can become productive faster, and valuable expertise becomes part of a continuously improving knowledge base rather than remaining with a handful of specialists.
The vision is simple: make the right answer available to anyone who needs it, exactly when they need it.
