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AGL Energy Digitally Transforms For A Brighter Future

�鶹ԭ�� News — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 04:17:41 +0000

AGL Energy has been a standout pioneer in Australia, literally keeping the lights on for over four million gas and electricity for customers for over 180 years. Now the market leader is in the midst of a digital transformation designed to bolster its competitive advantage, and meet rising customer demands in a fast-changing industry.

“We’re responsible for managing critical energy infrastructure nationwide, and need flexible technology in order to operate and respond to crises. As we expand and innovate through acquisitions and partnerships, we needed an integrated system with standardised technology and processes,” said Shaun Code, general manager of enterprise technology at AGL Energy. “With a rich API layer, the �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA ERP platform provides a core ecosystem with the ability to adapt and extend operations, directly supporting our business growth and differentiating innovation.”

Tech boosts health and safety innovation

replaced over 50 disparate legacy ERP applications with , dramatically simplifying systems with consistent processes throughout the organisation. Teams are taking advantage of the integrated core platform to build extensions on top of critical business processes, such as health and safety requirements.

“We conduct walks to identify potential hazards in facilities or the field,” said Code. “Building on top of the , we’ve developed a mobile app that allows our people to capture and share incidents and hazardous conditions immediately. We can conduct more walks over a shorter time period, increasing our ability to meet health and safety commitments.”

AGL Energy recently won an for its AGL One iOS app. Built on �鶹ԭ�� S/4 HANA with �鶹ԭ�� Integration Suite and �鶹ԭ�� Extension Suite, the mobile app provides employees with one seamless digital experience, allowing them to access the right tool at the right time from anywhere.

Digital platform minimizes plant downtime

As the largest electricity generator in Australia, plant maintenance for AGL Energy is not just about scheduling work orders and completing tasks in a timely manner. Integrating data from �鶹ԭ�� cloud solutions, including and , provides AGL Energy with visibility across systems, including procurement and its important contract workforce.

“The platform is a unifying hub for effective integration and automation that streamlines our end-to-end daily processes,” said Code. “We can make sure that we have the parts to maintain operations, the contingent workers to complete the job, and the speed to pay our suppliers efficiently.”

Sixty percent time-savings from continuous innovation

AGL Energy has made a number of valuable process improvements on top of �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA, notably an intuitive mobile app that reduced the number of steps in job site environmental analyses by 60 percent. Before work can be done on sites with hazards, teams need to have effective controls in place for people’s safety. Previously, teams used different processes and places to collect and store information.

“We’ve sped up the process with automatically prepopulated data to complete forms, and unified approvals with consistent documentation across the company,” said Code. “People now can spend less time navigating paperwork and more time ensuring their work is completed safely. With a continuous data loop feedback we are constantly improving processes that matter to our business.”

Flexibility for resilient business

When AGL Energy’s employees switched to remote work at the height of the pandemic last year, the company’s automated system literally helped power business continuity. Employees in different locations were easily trained to step in as health and weather-related events unfolded.

“Having a well-designed cloud-based system meant we could quickly scale up to thousands of employees working from home,” said Code. “It also gave us greater planning control during a highly uncertain time, with the flexibility to shift operations between Australia and India in the wake of major disruptions, including a cyclone.”

Cloud platform connects data and insights

Business results from centralising ERP systems on one platform have been palpable company-wide. Because leaders have a clear line of sight through inventory and procurement, work completion rates are faster with fewer instances of costly rescheduling. Sharing inventory data between warehouses at different generator sites saves time and reduces costs. The company can easily find and reuse available equipment, instead of ordering new parts from far flung suppliers. In procurement, teams can more easily source the right goods and services from the right suppliers at the best price. The impact on financial systems has also been profound, reducing the time spent on month-end closings from days to hours.

epitomises the evolving business opportunities from the collision between technology and the industry itself.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be in the energy industry,” said Code. “We are committed to this digital transformation journey with our customers and partners. Whether customers are getting power from solar panels, charging battery-operated EVs and other devices, going online, or just staying comfortable and connected at any time, technology underpins our determination to make services more sustainable, reliable and affordable.”

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Supporting AGL Energy’s Digital Transformation Journey

Rushenka Perera — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 00:22:17 +0000

On our , I caught up with Fionn Gilmour, Delivery Manager of Operations Technology for . We explored his company’s digital transformation journey, looking at the benefits and considerations businesses should be conscious of when considering the move to the cloud.

Fionn noted that he joined AGL in May 2017. “That was a few days just before we kicked off our digital transformation program, otherwise known as PT3,” he explained. “I had several roles throughout the program, primarily starting in the work management space and then moving into some analytics and BPC areas – so I got a really good spread of experience across the program.”

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=802392

With over 11 years working in the utilities and �鶹ԭ�� space, Fionn’s primary role now is supporting AGL’s energy-generation sites. “I work with the technology team and focus on delivering new capability on our brand new S4/HANA platform. The focus is really delivering new solutions and capabilities to our integrated business energy unit, so AGL is really focused on all our power stations throughout Australia, which includes our coal, thermal science, gas, wind, solar, hydro, and soon, very excitingly, our grid-scale batteries.

“What we also do is support AGL in our drive around acquiring new business. Every time we buy a new company, they come into our technology team to help bring them onto our existing S4/HANA platform.”

Fionn said shifting from an on-premise to a cloud-based solution has given AGL greater consistency, transparency, and control over its vast network of sites and functions. “Prior to PT3, we had over 50 legacy ERP applications around the business because we’d acquired a lot of energy businesses to secure those energy sites.”

According to Fionn, this transformation journey was delivered by AGL internally, collaborating with various partners throughout the program’s implementation. “We decided not to go outside and bring in a large consulting company, so it was effectively managed and delivered by AGL people with a lot of help from obviously �鶹ԭ��, but also a lot of consulting partners as well. It was a really great project team because it was heavy with businesspeople and technology people, so quite a unique deployment.”

AGL has been making ongoing investments into its technology, Fionn explained, not only in digital transformation, but other backend processes that helped a majority of its 4,000 staff members move to remote working during the pandemic outbreak.

“�鶹ԭ�� S4/HANA was just one of the key ingredients, but it has given us far more operational transparency across our business.”

“One of the challenges of having 50 ERPs across your business is that it makes it very hard to have visibility of activities happening or have trust in data. Having a single platform certainly gives a greater view of information that comes out of our various business units, providing a lot more trust in that we know the data is right in having one platform.”

Another key benefit Fionn highlighted was the significant improvement in AGL’s flexibility for managing business change. “AGL, just like any other utility at the moment, is going through a period of change where the future is very uncertain, so we have to be flexible and nimble. Having one platform provides that flexibility.

“In recent times, we purchased a new energy business in Western Australia, and over a period, we were able to bring that onto our existing so that business aligns with the AGL way of working, which has been great to see.”

AGL implemented other �鶹ԭ�� cloud-based solutions to further streamline and standardise its internal processes. “Our business has a lot of contingent workers that support us, so we rely on quite heavily for that,” Fionn said. “We’re also using to support our procurement process. It was quite exciting to see those two cloud products heavily integrated into our platform as well.

“We digitalised 78 business processes, so it’s been fantastic that all those processes are on state-of-the-art technology that works whether you’re sitting inside the office or at home, maybe if you’re lucky enough even on the beach, or even on mobile devices. With that technology, it has certainly given us a lot of flexibility as an organisation.”

Fionn expressed that the big two factors for a successful transformation are about business support and basing decision on people. “Through our digital transformation, we had business people from across our business and corporate functions that were embedded in the team. That enabled us to make sure we weren’t just delivering a technology solution, but we were also delivering a business solution.

“The second thing I would like to call out with these activities is that your people should always be the focus in everything that you do. Ultimately, it’s a people-based solution, so you need to make sure you’re thinking about how they’ll be using the tool in the future and what sort of change impacts that might have.”

For businesses considering this cloud-based solution, Fionn offers some important tips for kickstarting a digital transformation journey. “One – don’t be afraid of S4/HANA. There are a lot of known unknowns in that space, but I highly recommend getting onto that platform and doing it as quickly as you can. All the incredible new capabilities that �鶹ԭ�� are releasing are all built for the .

“Two – focus on people and change. It really is the most important area because if people don’t embrace the technology, you won’t be able to deliver on the benefits of such an implementation.

“Three – user experience should always be front of mind, so make sure you put the right focus and attention into delivering solutions that help people through their day-to-day activities.

“And finally – study the S4/HANA simplification lists just to understand what is in and out from each version. There is a lot of critical information in those documents, so I highly recommend you study those so there aren’t any surprises.”

To hear more from my discussion with Fionn, check out the .

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