From energy sharing and dynamic pricing to cloud-native and interoperable flexibility markets, the solution can connect meters, markets, and customers to enable business models such as energy communities, virtual power plants, and demand response. Combined with a curated ecosystem of specialist technology partners, 麻豆原创 empowers utilities to own their energy transition.听

The energy transition runs on data, but data is getting harder to manage 

The energy transition is reshaping the power landscape. Utilities are evolving from centralized generation toward systems powered by millions of distributed energy resources: solar panels, EV chargers, heat pumps, and batteries owned by consumers and听prosumers听alike. The number of connected assets is growing rapidly, generating vast amounts of operational, commercial, and customer data. Managing this听data reliably and consistently is one of the defining challenges of the next energy decade.听

At the same time, digital energy platforms and new market entrants are intermediating the customer relationship, offering integrated propositions that bundle connectivity, flexibility, and billing into a single stack. Utilities that do not act risk being reduced to commodity providers.

To unlock the value of distributed energy resources, utilities need more than connectivity. They need听data orchestration:听a trusted, intelligent foundation that harmonizes听information across every process, partner, and device and ensures they听own rather than rent听their energy transition capabilities.听

From distributed assets to orchestrated intelligence 

罢丑别听麻豆原创 Distributed Energy Resources听solution is designed to听meet exactly听this challenge. Built on 麻豆原创 BTP, it enables utilities to manage distributed energy resources-related data at scale across production, consumption, and storage while helping to ensure reliability, performance, and consistency.听

Rather than acting as an operational control system, 麻豆原创 DER focuses on data orchestration and integration. It helps ensure that distributed energy resources data can flow seamlessly between operational, commercial, and analytical systems, providing a single source of truth that can connect the physical and digital worlds of energy. 

鈥淭he complexity our customers face with prosumer data is exponential. They need reliability, performance, and consistency across all their data sources, and that鈥檚 exactly where 麻豆原创 Distributed Energy Resources comes in.鈥� 

Kim Maren Ekrutt, Global Industry Business Unit Utilities Co鈥慔ead, 麻豆原创 

Two pillars of the 麻豆原创 DER solution 

1. Complex installation and prosumer data orchestration: technical and commercial foundation

Manage the full spectrum of prosumer-related data, covering both complex technical installation details, such as meters, solar panels, batteries, EV chargers, and heat pumps, and the commercial information required to operate distributed energy resources at scale. This includes customer and prosumer master data, product structures, tariffs, contracts, grid connection agreements, feed-in contracts, and all commercial relationships linked to each installation. 

By bringing together technical asset data with commercial attributes and agreement information, the solution can provide a unified and reliable model of every installation. This is essential because distributed energy resources cannot be managed with technical information alone. Commercial products, grid contracts, flexible tariffs, and incentive agreements determine how energy flows are measured, settled, billed, shared, or monetized. 

This pillar becomes the foundation for energy communities, virtual power plant participation, flexibility programs, dynamic pricing, capacity and congestion management, and any business model involving prosumers and distributed energy assets. 

2. Energy management and sharing 

Track and analyze听how energy is consumed, produced, stored, and shared, enabling new energy community and peer-to-peer听business models. With high-resolution energy data and intelligent allocation algorithms, utilities can offer transparent, fair, and regulation-compliant energy sharing services to residential and commercial participants alike.听

Connecting data, processes, and people 

Utilities already rely on 麻豆原创 for mission-critical processes such as meter to cash, asset management, and customer experience. 麻豆原创 DER can extend this foundation, linking every asset, agreement, and customer interaction within one coherent data model. This integrated approach helps turn technical data into business value, powering use cases such as smart tariffs, dynamic pricing, and energy sharing. For utilities, this means a single enterprise backbone that can connect the traditional meter-to-cash world with the emerging flexibility and distributed energy resources economy. 

A partner ecosystem for the energy flexibility market 

No single vendor can address the full breadth of the distributed energy landscape. 麻豆原创 has assembled a curated ecosystem of specialist technology partners, each bringing deep domain expertise that complements 麻豆原创鈥檚 enterprise data platform. Data stays with the utility, business logic听remains听under their control, and the customer relationship belongs to them.听

麻豆原创鈥檚 technology partners extend the platform across six critical domains: 

• Flexibility management and virtual power plants:听Orchestrate and monetize听prosumer听assets, including EVs, batteries, heat pumps, and solar inverters, for flexibility markets and smart charging services.听
• Energy communities and energy sharing:听Design and听operate听energy communities with transparent allocation, dynamic local pricing, and full regulatory compliance.听
• Grid congestion and capacity management:听Forecast, detect, and resolve grid congestion at the low-voltage-network-level while unlocking flexibility revenues.听
• Energy portfolio management and trading:听Access wholesale and flexibility markets with听real-time听pricing, dynamic quotations, and risk management.听
• Customer insights and energy disaggregation:听Deliver behind-the-meter visibility through non-intrusive load monitoring and appliance-level analytics.听
• Demand response and load management:听Design and execute demand response programs, combining customer incentives, dynamic pricing, and automated device control.听

鈥淥ur role is to help utilities master the growing data complexity and turn it into opportunity. With 麻豆原创 Distributed Energy Resources and our partner ecosystem, we鈥檙e connecting data, processes, and partners into one intelligent platform that enables utilities to own their energy transition.鈥� 

Kim Maren Ekrutt, Global VP & Co-Head Industry Business Unit Utilities

About 麻豆原创 Distributed Energy Resources 

麻豆原创 Distributed Energy Resources provides utilities with a public cloud platform to help model, manage, and share distributed energy resources data across operational and commercial domains. Integrated with 麻豆原创鈥檚 core utilities portfolio and a curated global partner ecosystem, it can enable reliable data exchange, smart energy management, and customer-centric innovation for the distributed energy era.听

Mateu Munar is senior director of Industry Business Unit Utilities at 麻豆原创.

Philipp L眉bcke, CIO at Th眉ringer Energie AG, has worked in the industry for 20 years and is thrilled by the dynamism it is currently going through. But that wasn鈥檛 always the case. 鈥淲hen I got started in the energy sector, the business was relatively static, and I鈥檒l admit that I was tempted by other industries over the last decade,鈥� he says. Today, he no longer sees any need to change. Just the opposite, in fact: in recent years, the business 鈥渉as become extremely exciting, and it will stay exciting,鈥� L眉bcke adds.

To understand his enthusiasm, all it takes is a look at his current employer, TEAG. The company, headquartered in Erfurt and with over 2,200 employees, supplies households and businesses with electricity, natural gas, heating, and water. It also added a telecommunications subsidiary to its portfolio several years ago, which offers broadband access, mobile telephony, and additional services such as storage. It has a new subsidiary for electromobility and another for photovoltaics.

In addition to these new business areas, the company鈥檚 core business鈥攕upplying electricity鈥攊s undergoing drastic changes. L眉bcke emphasizes: 鈥淭he energy transition is irreversible, and that doesn鈥檛 only mean the end of nuclear power, but also the end of coal-fired generation in the long term.鈥�

Decarbonization requires decentralization and digitalization

The future lies in the central supply of natural gas and hydrogen through power plants, along with decentralized power generation through photovoltaics and wind power, according to L眉bcke. 鈥淲e give the municipalities in Thuringia all the support we can when it comes to executing the transition locally,鈥� he says. To succeed, this energy transition requires perfect coordination of what experts refer to as 鈥渢he three big Ds鈥�: decarbonization requires decentralization, which in turn is only possible with maximum digitalization. 

Which brings us to 麻豆原创, TEAG鈥檚 largest and most important strategic partner. In 2022, TEAG decided to move all its core processes for the energy sector鈥攎eter reading, billing, device management, contract and customer management, information exchange, and subledger accounting鈥攖o 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud in the long term. 鈥淭hat made us the first energy supplier with a comprehensive听,鈥� L眉bcke says. 鈥淭he energy sector is undergoing fundamental change, and data interchange within the companies will increase significantly. Decentralization and maximum digitalization mean that we will be processing much more data much faster, offering a variety of new cloud services based on AI, and creating many more automated decision-making processes.鈥� All of which will require maximum integration and high-quality master data. And they also need the right partner.

Learning to manage complex projects

TEAG intends to migrate all seven of its deployed systems that manage master data to the new platform incrementally, a plan that has been divided into three large-scale projects. The first involved the implementation of the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA core鈥攊nitially on premise鈥攊ncluding master data cleansing and version management of large amounts of legacy data. This project, which has been completed in the interim, involved around 200 internal employees and externals. Along the way, the team gained the ability to manage even complex 麻豆原创 projects.听

In the second step, TEAG implemented 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Utilities, an ERP solution specifically for energy suppliers, together with the 麻豆原创 Customer Experience portfolio based on 麻豆原创 Service Cloud, divided into the three market roles of electricity supplier, grid operator, and metering point operation. This project has been underway for 18 months, and TEAG will go live with it on December 1, 2025, initially with the role of electricity supplier.

Last but not least, the third transformation project involves implementing听 for workforce management. To this end, the company developed a road map in 2024, 鈥渟o we can optimally leverage everything we need for this,鈥� L眉bcke says.

Demographic change is forcing the transition

The utility company aims to decommission all its current 麻豆原创 systems by the end of 2027 and move them to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud. The fact that TEAG has decided to run its central applications in the cloud in the long term, in addition to going all-in on 麻豆原创, is a result of the fourth 鈥渂ig D鈥� in this story: demographics. 鈥淲e won鈥檛 be able to completely replace the many employees who will be retiring in the next 10 years,鈥� L眉bcke says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we need to become more independent of labor-intensive processes overall.鈥�

Working in the cloud means getting a boost from AI

The company鈥檚 cloud strategy supports this goal, because it means TEAG will not only need less expensive hardware in the future but it will also require fewer highly-trained people to run and provide the systems. 听

And people who work in the cloud鈥攚ith the resulting consistent focus on platform strategy and standardization鈥攃an take advantage of artificial intelligence in many areas. Take , for example. This copilot is based on generative AI and learns from 麻豆原创 data to help give users context-sensitive support.

All in all, 鈥淚T will take center stage more than ever for energy suppliers,鈥� L眉bcke says. 鈥淎nd business IT is also getting closer to key business decisions than ever before. That鈥檚 what gives the job so much variety and makes it so exciting.鈥�

And it will certainly protect the TEAG CIO from temptation from other industries in the future.

Daniela Haldy-Sellmann, global VP and head of Energy & Utilities Industries at 麻豆原创, spoke about key trends and the role of new technologies and gave her take on the future of the utilities sector.

Q: What do you see as the challenges and opportunities for the energy sector today?

A: In Germany and across Europe, we have a decentralized market in which a variety of players generate, transmit, distribute, and supply power. The challenge for energy suppliers is to make their pricing and services more attractive. So they are no longer just selling electricity or gas, they are also focusing on building customer loyalty and on fostering interaction between themselves and their customers. As for consumers, they want transparency about whether the electricity they are using really is 鈥済reen,鈥� and whether they can produce energy themselves鈥攂y installing solar panels, for example.

Energy suppliers are completely rethinking their offerings as a result, which is also putting pressure on their competitors to become true market leaders and to align their offerings with those of conventional retailers. On the distribution side, we are seeing how more and more energy is being generated outside the grid and then being fed into it鈥攆rom smaller sources such as residential solar installations to large, new B2B plants. The energy market is in a period of disruption, which is inevitably affecting energy prices and driving the need for products and services that are viable in the long term. With energy providers’ profit margins shrinking dramatically, additional energy services will become their main source of income.

Decentralization was one of the major talking points at the conference. In that context, could you explain what 鈥渄istributed energy resources鈥� are?

Traditionally, our energy has been generated in large, centralized power plants and sent鈥攊n one direction, via a transmission system operator and distribution system operator鈥攖o consumers. In the future, the flow of energy will be bidirectional, because now, in addition to large conventional generation plants and a growing number of sustainable alternatives such as onshore and offshore wind parks and solar parks, we also have consumers who produce their own energy and feed it into the grid. (DER) refers to the assets that consumers and businesses have for generating power and distributing it through a grid that, in the future, will allow that energy to flow in two directions rather than one.

How does 麻豆原创 help suppliers manage distributed energy resources?

Our enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can already cover all of a company鈥檚 core processes. For transmission and distribution system operators, that means all of their network assets, including power grids, generation plants, and substations, right up to the point of consumption. What we at 麻豆原创 are now doing is providing transparency for meter operators, grid operators, and energy providers about the systems and devices consumers have installed in their homes. This data used to be highly unstructured. Now, thanks to our measurement concept management component, energy providers can map data for consumers who have an EV charger, solar panels, battery storage, or a heat pump, and use it to plan their capacity. They know, for instance, how much power a solar installation generates and what its maximum capacity is. So when a surplus occurs, they can remove any excess power from the grid or, in the event of a shortage, have their customers feed more energy into it. Depending on the scenario, the 麻豆原创 software can analyze meter data from the cloud, format it, and make it available. Energy providers integrate this data into their DER platform to provide transparency about consumption and to allow an appropriate level of control over the power entering and leaving the grid.

Which solutions does 麻豆原创 offer for managing sustainability goals and compliance?

麻豆原创鈥檚 sustainability portfolio is extensive. It provides answers to questions such as 鈥淲hat are my supply chain emissions?” and “What emissions does a specific product I supply or manufacture produce?鈥� Having this information means that, first, companies have proof for an auditor of the precise emission values per product. And second, that they can track those emissions to see, for example, how the values change. They can show that they use various technologies, that their products meet all the current environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards, and that they can prepare not only consolidated financial statements but consolidated emissions reports as well. Here, 麻豆原创 offers and . Then we have the 麻豆原创 Green Token solution and , which aligns carbon and financial data.

Did 麻豆原创 present a use case at the conference?

Yes. We presented the , which can show me exactly how much energy is being generated overall, how much I am producing, and how I can use it. Whether you鈥檙e a consumer, an energy provider, or a transmission system operator, you want an accurate picture of how much energy you have available, or need, to keep the power supply in the area or region you cover stable鈥攂ecause that鈥檚 what matters most.

What is 麻豆原创鈥檚 strategy for utilities?

We help our customers migrate from their existing 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ECC) and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA IS-U systems to a cloud-based to help ensure that they have a consistent data layout. The standardized digital core with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA is complemented by flexible cloud solutions for customer management and more.

The transition in the energy industry is also about shifting toward a greater reliance on renewable energy, phasing out fossil fuels, and helping companies in the sector diversify their product and service portfolios. We are seeing, for example, more and more oil and gas companies expanding into biodiesel and other biofuels. We’re seeing new carbon capture technologies emerge and huge investments in hydrogen, though these need to increase dramatically. And that is exactly what 麻豆原创鈥檚 strategy is designed to support by providing an application landscape with a clean core model in which the latest innovations can be readily adopted.

What excites you the most about working at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and the utility industry?

I鈥檝e had jobs in many different industries, including automotive, manufacturing, high tech, and healthcare. But the energy sector is where I see the most collaboration and the most disruption. If you look at the net-zero and carbon-neutral targets that we need to achieve in Germany, Europe, and worldwide, and at the money being poured into renewables and green bonds, this is an industry with enormous opportunities for growth and investment. Technology is the backbone of everything, and we at 麻豆原创 are contributing to the energy transition not only by simplifying processes for consumers, but also by developing technologies that fundamentally change the options that are open to them.

This article also appeared on the German 麻豆原创 News Center.

As the company expanded, ONTRAS sought better visibility across its operations, especially those carried out by service providers. Manual communication interfaces led to information loss, hindering operational efficiency and service quality. To address these challenges, ONTRAS aimed to improve field operations with offline capabilities, ensuring better data integrity for uninterrupted operations and much faster response times.

After thorough research, the German utility company implemented smart forms within to capture and monitor real-time data from its field operations. supported ONTRAS throughout the implementation process, serving as the interface to 麻豆原创 and customizing and enhancing 麻豆原创 Field Service Management, including customizing the 麻豆原创 Field Service Management, connector for 麻豆原创 ERP, in order to meet the company鈥檚 specific requirements.

Faster process runtime with improved data visibility at ONTRAS

Working with a large external staff and a dispersed system led to a significant data gap.

Ines Kurmies, an 麻豆原创 specialist at ONTRAS, explained: “Our internal staff extracted data from 麻豆原创, while external staff used a manual Excel logging process, which made it difficult to understand the status of orders.鈥�

The external staff was receiving the orders through the 麻豆原创 system, but it was not possible to track their work. Feedback was received within the 麻豆原创 system only after completion, and the logs were uploaded to 麻豆原创, which meant the company lacked visibility into the steps in between.

ONTRAS needed a solution to maintain maintenance plans and functional locations within 麻豆原创 while providing access to external service providers via an interface. The company sought comprehensive data integration and a single source of truth with real-time data monitoring.

With the full integration of logs and smart forms, ONTRAS can now guide technicians through tasks, capture data, and provide a structured way to document the inspection process in real-time. Integrating these disparate systems created a single source of truth, helping the company eliminate inefficiencies and data gaps, enabling faster process runtime.

鈥淲ith the full integration of logs and smart forms, we achieved a much faster checklist revision,鈥� Eva Scholl, a maintenance engineer at ONTRAS, shared. 鈥淣ow we have an end-to-end digital process, so the process runtime in itself is one of the greatest benefits.鈥�

Real-time data and comprehensive tracking are crucial for preventative maintenance, rapid response to issues, and compliance.

During a gas pipe fitting inspection, the company’s system creates an order dispatched to a service provider, the responsible specialist, who then assigns it to an assembler. The assembler inspects the fittings, logging their work using smart forms in 麻豆原创 Field Service Management. This information is sent back to the responsible specialist, who reviews and completes the order. Finally, an audit report is generated as a PDF and transferred to 麻豆原创 Plant Maintenance Rapid Mart, where the company can view and process the inspection results. Without this real-time data flow, a faulty fitting might go unnoticed, leading to a gas leak and potential safety hazard.

The company can see what order is dispatched when it is processed and what the status is.

鈥淣ow, field sales representatives have more information and experience less information loss because they directly see the order from us — exactly what we want to see,鈥� Scholl added. 鈥淧reviously, there was a manual communication interface, which inevitably led to information loss.鈥�

Running safe, efficient, compliant operations in remote and challenging environments

For utility companies, inspecting and maintaining natural gas pipelines in remote rural areas is crucial. These locations often suffer from unreliable internet connectivity, leading to potential data gaps.

ONTRAS has significantly improved its field operations by implementing offline capabilities. Technicians can now conduct inspections, record findings, and complete digital checklists directly on their mobile devices on-site, even without internet access. Once back in an area with connectivity, all data automatically syncs to the central system, updating records and informing supervisors of completed work.

鈥淲ith 麻豆原创 Field Service Management, there is the app that can be connected to all applications,” Kurmies added. “We achieved the broadest coverage of our use cases for the first time, with many already covered by the standard product.鈥�

As the company continues to grow, the German Association of Gas and Water Compartments regulations are a central component, implemented to guarantee the technical security of the installations and the security of supply.

With 麻豆原创 Field Service Management, the company can now operate offline remotely without internet coverage and maintain the patching and checklist functions. This is especially important for technicians in remote areas lacking internet connectivity. Technicians must adhere to strict safety protocols and document every step. Offline checklists and patching functions ensure that no steps are missed, even in remote locations.

鈥淭his was the big challenge that we are also becoming more and more digital,” Kurmies further explained. “You also want to provide digital protocol templates and we simply reached our limits.鈥�

Convista played a crucial role in guiding the company through the 麻豆原创 implementation process, acting as the interface between 麻豆原创 and the company while adjusting 麻豆原创 Field Service Management to meet ONTRAS鈥� specific needs.

Heiko Winkler, IT manager at ONTRAS, highlighted the reliability and commitment of Convista as an implementation partner: “Convista is an exceptionally reliable and committed partner. Even in the second phase of the project, which was initially considered high-risk, their expertise and dedication ensured a successful implementation.”

Winkler noted the significant creativity applied to advising on the implementation, especially considering the initial uncertainty about its feasibility.听Additionally, the company collaborated with for the technical implementation of the 麻豆原创 Field Service Management, connector for 麻豆原创 ERP, and made several adjustments to the setup and error messages. The entire implementation took approximately a year and a half.

The company currently uses 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component and is transitioning to , having already implemented 麻豆原创 Field Service Management. Winkler noted that they strategically rely on cloud products: 鈥淥ur philosophy is not cloud only, but cloud first.鈥�

ONTRAS aims to advance further with smart forms and continue to expand its 麻豆原创 S/4HANA implementation in the near future.

.

With more than 1,500 employees at 50Hertz alone, the company has a well-defined digitalization strategy in place that focuses on sustaining a clean core system. To meet this objective, it chose to utilize the no-code tool, 麻豆原创 Build Apps, which aids its transformation journey with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP).

50Hertz鈥檚 citizen developers implemented a mobile application for the company鈥檚 specialized maintenance electricians that significantly reduced both the manual effort and the risk of errors. This mobile application supports them by maintaining and calculating the master data of power circuits, which are represented in the 麻豆原创 system as functional locations.

Why 50Hertz decided to use 麻豆原创 Build Apps

In 2023, 50Hertz conducted an analysis of its plant maintenance processes. In summary, it concluded that it was time-consuming to create new entries in its plant maintenance system and fill in master and operational data. A lot of manual effort was invested in maintaining data in Excel files and value calculations for technical objects were prone to errors. Due to the complexity of the process,听the responsibility for certain areas could only be shared between a few technicians.

After collaborating with the 麻豆原创 AppHaus team in Berlin, the company identified a use case for its future accounting solution and evaluated different scenarios. Ultimately, the innovative capabilities of 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform convinced the 50Hertz expert team because the platform would allow them to scale up a new solution once it’s successfully piloted and rolled out across the entire corporation.

What鈥檚 more, in 麻豆原创 Discovery Center, they discovered the “” mission, which provides guidance and support with a repeatable actionable use case to solve exactly that. The analysis showed that 麻豆原创 Build Apps could not only help enhance operational agility and speed responses to business requirements, it could also integrate seamlessly with existing 麻豆原创 S/4HANA architecture.

Martin Glatzel, enterprise architect at 麻豆原创 AppHaus Berlin, expressed his satisfaction with the collaboration with the 50Hertz team: 鈥淲ith only very limited support from our side, the 50Hertz citizen developers succeeded in using 麻豆原创 Build Apps to solve their defined use case. Their four new apps will have an immense impact on the efficiency of the important high-voltage grid maintenance work in the future.鈥�

What the maintenance apps improved

麻豆原创 Build Apps enabled the team of 50Hertz citizen developers to implement the new maintenance applications with very limited support from 麻豆原创. Today, they cover the following maintenance tasks:听

• The electric circuit display app shows circuit attributes.
• The circuit section display app allows users to look for a specific circuit and select it. All circuit sections of the selected circuit are shown, and users can view corresponding attributes and characteristics.
• The circuit section adjusting app allows users to search for a specific circuit and select it. All circuit sections of the selected circuit are displayed, and users can modify corresponding attributes.
• The circuit section design app allows users to select a circuit and create a circuit section by entering and saving necessary requirements and attributes.

After rolling out the new apps to the specialized electricians, they have benefited in different ways, such as:听

• About 15% shorter process duration for maintaining functional locations and a significant reduction in the use of both paper- and Excel-based process steps.
• 10% faster onboarding of new technicians because the app is very easy to use, leading to quick adoption by its end users, the specialized electricians.
• Intuitive search for technical locations based on historical data.
• Automatic calculation of business-critical numbers, thus improving accuracy significantly.

Looking back 

Looking back, the 50Hertz team appreciates the opportunity to develop complex apps with 麻豆原创 Build Apps in relatively short timeframes. Christian Salewsky and Desiree Possi, both working for the Maintenance Systems & Processes department at 50Hertz, shared about their experience: 鈥淲hile we still had to code at least to some extent in JavaScript and learn to keep track of all the different flows, the overall project experience was encouraging. The detailed product documentation allowed our team to grasp the basics quickly. Once we used the standard functionalities of 麻豆原创 Build Apps, calculating electronic data became very simple. We found clear explanations of all the functions, and the tabular presentation of data was very helpful, too.鈥�

Imke Vierjahn is communications lead at 麻豆原创 AppHaus.

As organizations strive to optimize energy usage, enhance customer experiences, and streamline operations, AI emerges as a pivotal technology. 麻豆原创 Business AI can revolutionize the utilities sector through reliable, relevant, and responsible solutions.听听

To learn more, read this article or this for an in-depth look at recent 麻豆原创 Business AI innovations. 

Strategic Impacts of AI on Utilities

麻豆原创 Business AI can impact several strategic priorities within the utilities industry: 

• Customer intimacy: Customers often face long wait times and generic responses, leading to frustration and decreased satisfaction. AI-enabled tools like guided conversations, intelligent Q&A, and response generation can significantly enhance customer service by providing personalized interactions based on a 360掳 customer view. This helps optimize service, improve the classification and processing of service requests, and boost cross-selling and upselling opportunities through intelligent product recommendations. 
• Marketing and sales simplification: Sales cycles are prolonged due to the manual processing of unstructured data, causing inefficiencies and delayed order creation. AI can analyze marketing data using natural language processing to create sales orders from unstructured data and automate back-office processes. This automation helps reduce manual effort, accelerate sales cycles, and ensure more accurate order processing. 
• Operational excellence: Unplanned equipment downtime and inefficient field service management lead to increased operational costs and reduced asset reliability. AI helps optimize asset management through predictive maintenance, dispatch planning, and field service management. By predicting equipment failures and planning maintenance activities proactively, AI can reduce downtime, enhance labor utilization, and lower operational costs, working to ensure smoother operations and higher asset reliability.听

How AI Will Transform Utilities

麻豆原创 Business AI offers a range of scenarios across various business functions: 

• Customer experience: AI capabilities in 麻豆原创 Emarsys Customer Engagement and the 麻豆原创 Service Cloud solution can enhance customer engagement through intelligent content recommendations, case categorization, and automated response generation. 
• Metering and markets: AI solutions for utilities, such as implausible meter reading validation and energy forecasting, can improve data accuracy and operational efficiency. Joint offerings with industry cloud partners help to further enhance these capabilities. 
• Bill-to-cash and finance: Intelligent collections, invoice matching, and automated processing of out-sorted billing documents can streamline financial operations, helping to improve cash flow and reducing manual intervention. 
• Service and asset management: AI-driven predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and asset health monitoring can ensure optimal asset performance and reduced downtime. 

AI in Action 

AI holds vast potential across sectors, particularly in utilities. From innovations in grid management to optimizing distribution operations and energy management, AI is revolutionizing how utilities operate and secure their infrastructure. 

To tackle current industry challenges and evolving market conditions, many utility companies are exploring AI solutions. These solutions span production, supply chain management, and maintenance operations, offering significant improvements in operational performance and quality metrics. In today’s challenging environment, AI is increasingly seen as an essential tool for achieving efficiency and resilience. 

To illustrate the transformative potential of 麻豆原创 Business AI, various organizations worldwide have leveraged its capabilities to realize substantial advancements: 

• IWB utilizes machine learning to accurately predict solar power production in Basel, Switzerland, thereby enhancing the city’s energy planning and management. 
• Avangrid employs automated AI-driven solutions for overhead network inspections, which streamline maintenance processes and improve operational efficiency. 
• Energie S眉dbayern optimizes the incident creation process with 麻豆原创鈥檚 support assistant, enhancing the responsiveness and effectiveness of its customer service operations. 

These examples underscore the ability of 麻豆原创 Business AI to drive innovation and efficiency across different sectors, offering a blueprint for other organizations aiming to harness AI for similar improvements. 

On the Horizon  

As utility organizations continue to explore AI applications, the future holds immense potential. Future scenarios that customers envision may include: 

• Visual inspection and condition-based maintenance: for asset condition monitoring can transform maintenance strategies, reducing out-of-service times and improving efficiency. 
• Next-generation customer interaction: A conversational self-service agent for utilities could provide personalized customer experiences, proactive bill-shock prevention, and tailored tariff recommendations. 

Implementing Business AI: Moving Toward a Resilient Digital Future 

By integrating 麻豆原创 Business AI, companies can leverage 麻豆原创’s established industry data models, which have been refined through collaborations with thousands of customers over the years. This AI can be trained to understand and analyze your enterprise’s unique data structures, helping to ensure compliance with data protection, ethical standards, and privacy regulations. 

麻豆原创 Business AI is poised to transform the utilities industry by delivering real-world business results through relevant, reliable, and responsible AI solutions. By integrating AI into core business processes, utilities can achieve operational excellence, enhance customer experiences, and drive sustainable growth. Embracing 麻豆原创 Business AI can enable utilities to navigate the challenges of the future and unlock new opportunities for innovation and efficiency. 

Innovation in AI is always evolving. The sources below provide up-to-date guidance in determining how AI can be used in your organizations:

• 听
• Partner solutions for the utilities industry, powered with AI, on
• Explore  
• More information on the  

For more insights into 麻豆原创’s AI innovations and their application in the utilities sector, join us in Miami, Florida, September 9-11 at 麻豆原创 for Utilities, presented by ASUG. .

Matthew London is vice president of North America Central Renewable Energy & Utilities at 麻豆原创.

With one specific device assignment use case in mind and based on its existing relationship with 麻豆原创 AppHaus, Iren approached 麻豆原创 in early 2024. The company鈥檚 goal was to not only make the corresponding processes more efficient but also eliminate potential error sources; it had detected errors caused by reliance on e-mail communication or through error-prone manual data entry. What鈥檚 more, the company wished to have transparent process insights and get real-time updates on device status and availability.

Building on 麻豆原创 BTP

To work on this innovation step, Iren Group鈥檚 IT department asked for expertise support in testing and applying 麻豆原创 Build Apps. For a first kick-off meeting, the 麻豆原创 AppHaus team invited Burak Demir, product manager, 麻豆原创 Build Apps, to join the project. With the customer鈥檚 system landscape built on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), the joint project team took a first step to check the 麻豆原创 Discovery Center site for existing solutions. They encountered a helpful use case in the 鈥溾�� mission. The mission allowed them to build upon prior experiences, benefit from existing material, and get helpful guidance that was, to a certain extent, applicable to Iren鈥檚 system landscape.

The New Solution: 麻豆原创 Build Apps and 麻豆原创 Build Work Zone

The new solution consists of different components, such as 麻豆原创 Build Apps, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, 麻豆原创 Build Work Zone, as well as the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA solution for waste and recycling, which provides a platform for managing device records and information.

鈥淢y role in this project was to be available for very specific questions,鈥� Demir says. 鈥淚ren鈥檚 citizen developers did a great job in using and applying the available material and resources! They used 麻豆原创 Build Apps very successfully to solve one defined use case, which is exactly what the product was made for. And even if the impact of this one web application may not be too impressive yet because of the number of users, the enablement and experience the customer team gained in creating it is invaluable. I am sure it will encourage the team to look for more innovation opportunities that can be addressed with the help of 麻豆原创 Build Apps.鈥�

Smooth Operations and Transparency in Device Management

With the new web application that was built with 麻豆原创 Build Apps and deployed to 麻豆原创 Build Work Zone, Iren gained real-time updates and visibility of device status. The seamless integration with OData library allowed for automatic device creation and updates, eliminating the need for manual data entry. The use of the new solution further improved the accuracy and reliability of device records. What鈥檚 more, it brought about significant time savings, enhanced transparency, and much-desired visibility into device status.

鈥淚n our IT department, this app has truly improved our device assignment processes by eliminating the manual process via e-mail and automatically importing data from an 麻豆原创 Build Apps web form into 麻豆原创,鈥� Sara Miola, IT specialist at Iren Group, says. 鈥淲e have achieved significant time savings and increased efficiency, as the time spent has been reduced from several days to few minutes. The implementation of 麻豆原创 has enabled us to overcome our challenges, resulting in streamlined processes and enhanced device management effectiveness.鈥�

But with so many new partner-developed apps moving through the industry cloud pipeline and to 麻豆原创 Store lately, I鈥檝e learned not to underestimate how compelling the opportunities are for partners to commercialize new use cases to extend 麻豆原创鈥檚 portfolio of solutions for utility customers, nor how open those customers are to moving business processes to the cloud.

The volume of utility-focused apps produced via industry cloud, and the speed at which they鈥檙e being commercialized, underscores several noteworthy trends for 麻豆原创 partners:

1. 罢丑别谤别鈥檚 vast white space within the utilities product road map for partners to turn their intellectual property and use cases into solutions that generate new revenue streams and customers.
2. That white space continues to create huge opportunities for 麻豆原创 partners to enhance and extend 麻豆原创 solutions in the utilities sector by developing their own solutions using 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP).
3. Partners are taking advantage of the plentiful resources 麻豆原创鈥檚 industry cloud offers to help support and expedite the commercialization process.

Let鈥檚 first talk about white space. Our product road map for utilities has plenty of it, along with a flexible framework to accommodate partner innovations that lead in exciting and sometimes unexpected new directions. That鈥檚 all by design. We鈥檝e realized that to give customers exactly what they need to thrive, it鈥檚 often better to let our partners use their expertise to augment the 麻豆原创 portfolio with solutions they develop themselves, with assistance from us where and when it鈥檚 needed.

That could include extensions and enhancements to 麻豆原创 Utilities Core, a solution that is . A glance at 麻豆原创鈥檚 industry cloud solutions for utilities shows development opportunities for partners in areas like enterprise asset management, digital supply chain, e-mobility, and a host of other areas. With industry cloud, we鈥檝e embraced the spirit of co-innovation, as evidenced by the close to 50 apps and solutions that are now part of the industry cloud for utilities portfolio, many of which were authored by 麻豆原创 partners. A from 麻豆原创 partner AppOrchid that enables people to query their data and get instant contextual answers is one of many examples from the partner-powered wave of innovation on the utilities side of industry cloud.

We鈥檙e actively encouraging partners to get involved in the co-innovation effort because with the new partner-friendly revenue models we鈥檝e incorporated into industry cloud, there鈥檚 a strong business case for them to do so.

Further strengthening that business case are all the resources 麻豆原创 is dedicating to support partners in the effort to identify and monetize their use cases for the utilities market. We鈥檙e making it easy for them to access resources and guidance at any point in their industry cloud journey, from onboarding through commercialization, closing deals and completing customer implementations.

To help speed the commercialization process for partners, we鈥檝e developed programs like , where we invite partners to submit use cases, then support chosen use cases with resources and guidance so they can quickly bring them to 麻豆原创 Store. We鈥檙e currently in the midst of our third utilities-focused round of SPRINT1, the previous two having yielded a variety of new apps from companies like AppOrchid, Utegration, EnergyOS, Infosys, and others.

After interviews, our panel chooses use cases based on their commercial merit. Those chosen partners then participate in a week-long bootcamp run by 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab, where partners can receive technical advice and individual support. Next comes the 鈥渟print鈥� to the finish line, with regular check-ins, progress reviews, and additional support from 麻豆原创. The final step is onboarding to 麻豆原创 Store, again with expert guidance from 麻豆原创.

Not only do we plan to offer additional rounds of SPRINT1 for utility solutions, we鈥檝e also developed an , where individuals in the field and 麻豆原创 customers can learn more about specific partner-developed solutions and industry cloud opportunities within the utilities segment 鈥� in under 30 minutes.

As evidenced by resources like these, we鈥檙e highly focused on giving partners what they need to make their engagement with industry cloud worthwhile. To learn more about utilities-specific development opportunities and how to access the aforementioned partner resources, please contact me or .

Christopher Pfendner is PES global ecosystem lead for Utilities and Energy at 麻豆原创.

Interconnection is the first aspect of the intelligent 麻豆原创 Customer Experience (麻豆原创 CX) portfolio, bringing operational and contextual data to the individual engagement.

In a changing world, both customers and utilities are forced to adapt:

• The customer has unprecedented access to smart devices
• Energy and water providers are asking consumers for usage flexibility and conservation
• Programs are available and mandated to support home and business owners with decarbonization investments
• The utility is deeply involved in distributed electric generation, energy storage, and decarbonization

Staying connected constantly with customers is a critical factor for succeeding in the energy transition.

Globally, utilities have been driven to expand and shift, and there is no end in sight. While energy and water suppliers must embrace sustainability goals, the industry is developing new business models. Utilities are becoming retailers for commodity and non-commodity offerings. To their consumers, the utility is a trusted partner and welcome advisor when investing in home energy and storage or electric transportation, or simply subscribing to bundled home service offerings for energy, water, telecommunication, transportation, and other services.

This means that a utility company faces what seems to be contradicting goals: optimizing classic customer operations for stable and reliable energy and water supply, while at the same time innovating the customer experience with speed.

To meet these two important goals — optimize and innovate — companies are specifically demanding better customer solutions.

On the one hand, customer service must maintain, if not improve, customer satisfaction while lowering cost-to-serve. Automation of manual tasks, digital channels, and process excellence are key. On the other hand, innovating customer experience can be tricky for a utility. Traditionally, especially in regulated markets, the energy and water supplier did not need to focus on nurturing customer relations and growing a market share. Time-to-market, digital storefronts, and third-party collaboration can be challenging for the classic utilities culture. Consumer technology has grown rapidly. People now come with smart devices and expectations, and are used to seamless shopping experiences.

To be competitive, utilities must learn and adopt best practices from other industries, including retail, electronics, and automotive. Introducing new products and services requires a state-of-the-art marketing and sales execution setup.

Customers expect individual — and respectful — communications and offerings. Insight is the next aspect in the 麻豆原创 Customer Experience portfolio, with timely, meaningful, and predictive data to anticipate, support, and optimize customer interactions. A best-of-suite business solution with end-to-end process for lead to cash and service request to resolve enables both, optimizing the back office and innovating the front office.

“Our utilities customers have the goal to build customer intimacy and involve their respective end customers in the energy transition journey, including them becoming energy generators and contributors to the grid as well,” says Daniela Sellmann, global vice president and head of the at 麻豆原创. “This can only be achieved if the front and back office come together to get a 360-degree view of the end customers. That is why we strategically invest in our customer experience solution for utilities.”

麻豆原创 is unmatched in combining enterprise resource planning (ERP) with CX solutions in the industry context. CX includes several applications, connecting service, sales, marketing, e-commerce, and customer data on a solid and flexible platform. 麻豆原创鈥檚 continued focus on delivering and innovating industry-tailored CX solutions is visible both in the current product portfolio and road maps.

With the , launched in 2022, utilities customer service teams in the office, on the road, and at home can easily connect to their customers. A redesigned agent desktop runs at greater speed, scalability, and availability. The extends 麻豆原创 Service Cloud with native integration to meter to cash in the 麻豆原创 for Utilities portfolio, the core of energy and water back-office processes.

麻豆原创 Sales Cloud equips sales teams with the right tools in today鈥檚 complex selling environment. When used in combination, 麻豆原创 Service Cloud and 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud can .

Innovative products require an online presence, which is where 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud, subscription management add-on, delivers a store front and e-commerce platform suited and ready for any utility offering.

麻豆原创 Emarsys Customer Engagement is the new marketing solution to personalize interactions and 麻豆原创 has an exciting road map for utilities-specific analytics and tactics, with pre-built content for listening to signals during customer journeys and context-sensitive responses.

The partner ecosystem plays a critical role delivering 麻豆原创 Customer Experience solutions, not only with implementation services but also enhancing 麻豆原创 offering with apps; for example, through 麻豆原创 store.

“We now have more than 14 apps built for 麻豆原创 for Utilities and CX, covering multiple scenarios for customer data, service, sales, marketing, deregulation, or CPQ and product management to meet specific needs,”says Edgar Kauter, managing director at Power Reply Germany. “As an industry cloud partner, we see 麻豆原创’s investment in CX and the industries and we value the innovation. Utilities can easily see how the standard 麻豆原创 portfolio, together with our standardized apps and implementation services, provides not only a quicker time to value, but also cost-efficient processes.”

A seamless customer experience requires a seamless organization and a seamless solution. Any integrated front office and back office requires adaptive measures, the third aspect of听 intelligent CX from 麻豆原创. Adaption means that feature-rich 麻豆原创 applications can be personalized, extended, integrated, and composed with other apps; for example, industry cloud partners.

麻豆原创 is on a mission to help make utilities businesses more customer-centric. Discover , and explore road maps to discover how 麻豆原创 plans to improve the integration design of sales orders for utilities commodity contracts in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA听.

Robert Straubinger is chief solution expert for Solution Management Utilities at 麻豆原创.

In his State of the Union address earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden both supported and chastised the oil and gas industry. On one hand, he said the U.S. would rely on these energy sources for at least the next 10 years. On the other hand, he criticized the industry for reporting 鈥渞ecord profits,鈥� he said.

鈥淟ast year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis.听 I think it鈥檚 outrageous.鈥� He also said that 鈥淏ig Oil鈥� should be investing more, to increase production and bring down prices.

麻豆原创鈥檚 Take

Biden was walking a fine line trying to balance the industry鈥檚 contribution to climate change, as well as its record profits last year, with the nation鈥檚 dependence on hydrocarbon fuels, not just to heat home and power automobiles, said Benjamin Beberness, 麻豆原创 vice president and global head of the Oil & Gas Industry Business Unit.

Oil is used for a myriad of products, from medicine to the bodies of electric cars. Additionally, Biden underscored the reality that although U.S. policy is supporting the growth of alternative energy such as wind and solar, they remain a sliver — albeit a growing part — of the energy supply.

鈥淚 think the U.S. government is saying: 鈥榃e can’t let them off the hook from cleaning up what they’re doing today, but we still need them to be around because they still are going to be producing oil for us to use to make these other products, as well as to continue to provide fuel for our cars, etcetera,鈥欌�� Beberness said.

Addressing the criticism about profits and high energy costs due to supply, Beberness blamed the vagaries of federal policy toward drilling and limiting new exploration. Market forces already have brought down the price of oil. Brent Crude, one of the two main benchmark prices for purchases of oil globally, reached a peak of $123.92 per barrel and now stands about $83 per barrel.

鈥淭here has to be some commitment from the U.S. government that we can maintain, because what [oil companies] don鈥檛 want to do is to make this huge investment in the additional production and other things and then have the US government say: 鈥榃e’re going to put all these regulations in place.鈥欌��

Using technology, oil and gas companies can reduce their negative impact on the environment, Beberness said. Although natural gas is by far the cleanest of the big three — coal and oil being the other two — they all can become cleaner though asset management.

Citing a McKinsey study, Beberness said a that a 10% improvement in asset operations of a normal gas company will result in a four percent reduction in CO2 emissions.

Contact:
Ilaina Jonas, Senior Director of Global Public Relations, 麻豆原创
+1 (646) 923-2834, ilaina.jonas@sap.com

The need for decarbonization has been the driving force behind policies , while the Russian invasion led to additional policies to phase out EU dependency on Russian fossil fuels.

The common solution to both crises would be to stop using fossil fuels and shift to renewable energy sources. It is therefore no surprise that renewable energies are the fastest growing source of energy, contributing half of the growth in global supplies and becoming the largest source of power by 2040.* In most regions, wind and solar are also the cheapest source of electricity generation, even without subsidies.**

麻豆原创ure to shift to renewables has been high for decades; the current crisis around exploding and volatile energy prices demands action in even shorter time frames.

In France, utility companies are allowed to reduce energy taxes in order to limit the increase of energy prices to a maximum of four percent. In Germany,听 the price cap for gas and energy — 鈥淕as- und Strompreisbremse鈥� — has been introduced to motivate citizens toward safe energy and to shield energy billing amount for gas, electricity, and district heating for 80% of their consumption the previous year.

鈥溌槎乖� works hand in hand with the German-speaking 麻豆原创 User Group and other associations to make sure newly passed legislation gets integrated into our systems so that our customers can fulfill obligations toward their end customers鈥� explains Daniela Sellmann, global vice president and head of the Utilities Industry Business Unit at 麻豆原创 SE.

This shift to renewables also requires a growing number of decentralized energy resources (DER). Renewables like solar, wind, or bioenergy are largely generated by small local generation assets, which feed directly into the distribution grid. The intermittent nature of solar and wind causes challenges for the balancing of demand and supply in the power grids.

The demand side is also changing, with industrial, commercial, and household customers increasingly generating their own energy and becoming energy “flexumers” — generators, flexibility providers, and consumers of energy.

鈥淭his causes a shift in utilities鈥� business models, from pure selling of energy and water to becoming a full-service provider for energy flexumers,鈥� says Sellmann.

Digital transformation is both an answer to the challenges of the energy transition and driver of new business models and services. This has been recognized in the EU with the creation of the Digitalization of Energy Action Plan. The action plan defines measures on how modern technologies can help improve the efficient use of energy resources, ease the integration of renewables into the grid, and save costs for EU consumers and energy companies.

As nearly everything becomes 鈥渟mart,鈥� utilities need a strategy on how to manage the avalanche of data coming from devices and other sources and use it to feed their intelligence. At 麻豆原创, we call this the intelligent enterprise, which is enabled by integration of data and processes and innovation with industry best practices. A cornerstone for this is the 麻豆原创 Utilities Core solution.

鈥淲ith 麻豆原创 Utilities Core, we provide utilities with a proven platform to reliably run their core business processes like meter-to-cash in the cloud,” says Sellmann. “We are using intelligent technologies like machine learning to further automate core processes and increase efficiency. At the same time, we enable customers to drive innovation and increase speed and agility by leveraging 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform and the industry cloud with solutions like 麻豆原创 Cloud for Energy for managing times series data from meters. Further, we leverage our partner ecosystem to fill white spaces and gaps as well as to scale spread and adoption.:

Utilities-specific innovation topics at 麻豆原创 cover the entire utilities value chain:

We are undoubtedly moving toward a cleaner and more independent energy future. One problem that remains: time.

For a more detailed view on the energy transition and the solutions 麻豆原创 provides for it, see “.鈥� Learn more about how 麻豆原创 can help your company make the transition to net-zero carbon energy robust, seamless, and inclusive.

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Markus Bechmann is vice president of the Utilities industry business unit and program lead for 麻豆原创 Utilities Core at 麻豆原创.

*BP, BP Energy Outlook (2019), 7
** Michael O’boyle, Wind and Solar Are Our Cheapest Electricity Generation Sources. Now What Do We Do?, GREENTECH MEDIA, Jan. 26, 2017.

Utility-scale solar power generation in the U.S. is surging. This year, almost half the 46.1 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity added to the grid will be solar, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and solar has contributed more than 30% of all new capacity in five of the last six years.

麻豆原创鈥檚 Take

鈥淒omestically as well as globally, there is a strong mandate to move to a net-zero greenhouse gas economy,鈥� said Stefan Wolf, vice president and a solar expert in 麻豆原创鈥檚 .

鈥淭he power generation industry today is one of the key producers of greenhouse gas and 鈥� because we are talking mostly about industrial size units 鈥� it is easier to change than transportation, for example, which has a tremendous number of small units, the cars we are all driving,鈥� Wolf explained. 鈥淪olar is one of the proven renewable energy sources and it has location-based advantages over wind and hydro power.鈥�

Photovoltaic (PV) power generation has the benefit of using hardly any moving parts other than the tracker, which keeps the solar panels positioned at an optimal angle to the sun. In addition, Wolf said that solar panels today are much more efficient than 10 years ago, enabling them to be very cost effective, even in less sunny regions. Wolf pointed out that utility-scale solar and residential or commercial rooftop solar are not an 鈥渆ither/or鈥�; in fact, they can complement each other and complement other forms of power generation well too.

One downside to utility-scale solar is the need for a rather sizable area for the panels. This space is often only available far away from densely populated areas and commercial users, which means that like other forms of power generation, the electricity must be transported to where it is needed.

The biggest problem for any utility-scale energy generation is the need for large infrastructure investments to build the necessary transmission capacity. Power plants are typically owned by private investors and require planning permits and other approvals, which can take years to secure, while transmission lines are usually owned by a regulated, controlled utility. Authorizing those investments and getting agreement for the recovery of these investments through the energy rates is a much more complicated processes, unless there are government mandates and support.

Putting solar panels on rooftops and other urban and suburban surfaces is therefore still a good approach because producing power where it is needed avoids the cost of transporting it, while also supporting local resilience and independence. Having solar panels on the roofs of homes, businesses, schools and parking lots allows those owners to participate commercially in the energy network and reduce their overall energy costs.

But solar isn鈥檛 the only alternative energy source worth pursuing, according to Wolf: 鈥淧V-based energy generation will not solve our energy problems single-handedly. Wind and hydro are equally relevant. And there are other non carbon-based energy sources we have not started to tap into.鈥�

For example, 鈥淚f we look further into the future there is tidal energy. Compared to听solar听and wind, the tides can be forecast precisely so it could be a very dependable source of energy.鈥� Wolf noted however, that a tremendous amount of research is still needed to understand the impact that tidal energy farms have on marine life, as well as their impact on other commercial uses of oceans.

Then there are nuclear options like fusion and small-scale fission. But those have their own challenges to be worked out.

Wolf said ultimately, 鈥淲hen it comes to empowerment of the consumer and bringing energy generation to the place of consumption, solar听is hard to beat.鈥�

Contact:
Ilaina Jonas, Senior Director of Global Public Relations, 麻豆原创
+1 (646) 923-2834, ilaina.jonas@sap.com

鈥淭here is no life on earth without the sun, and it鈥檚 there for everyone,鈥� said Anselma W枚rner, COO and one of the three cofounders of Exnaton, a Swiss company that develops software for communities trading renewable energy in local neighborhoods.

W枚rner was explaining how her company created a smart energy system at the recent听听in Munich, Germany. 鈥淲e have a new generation of prosumers 鈥� people who consume and produce their own energy 鈥� who are using new connected technologies and renewable power like solar to exchange energy through the grid.鈥�

Sun Powered

Humans have always depended on the sun for light, heat, and food, and its all-encompassing power has influenced cultures and religions around the world. Although advances in technology have decreased our dependence, the importance of solar energy in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint is a reminder that we still depend on it for survival. That鈥檚 why the cofounders picked the name 听for their enterprise. Looking for a word that connects 鈥渆nergy鈥� and 鈥渆xchange,鈥� they hit upon the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (pronounced Echnaton) who raised the status of the sun above that of all other gods and created an early monotheism that briefly became a state religion.

The goal of Exnaton is to help integrate prosumers into the grid. Currently, the legal framework is very complex, and there is no clear ROI for them. There are no feed-in tariffs or policy mechanisms designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers.

鈥淎t the moment, there is no value for the community, and we want to change that,鈥� said W枚rner, who is responsible for fundraising, data science, and recruiting at Exnaton. 鈥淲hat most people don鈥檛 realize is that renewable energy is not always produced when it鈥檚 needed most. So, when it is available, prosumers should be able to sell their energy directly.鈥�

People who own solar panels could actually sell a lot of energy to other households, if only they had the means. W枚rner and her team believe it should be as easy to sell to other consumers as it is to sell any other products on the market. 鈥淧rosumers are faced with fragmented solutions, complex regulations, and frustrating user experiences. What they need are simple solutions, trusted local providers, and proactive community and user groups,鈥� she explained.

Community Centric

Enter Exnaton鈥檚 EnergyCommunity software add-on for听 solutions, which won an听听in the Partner Paragon category together with Best Practice Consulting (BPC) and is now available on 麻豆原创 Store. This user-centric extension enables utility companies to empower prosumers to buy and sell energy within their local communities and also track all relevant data.

Here鈥檚 how it works. Any prosumers in the community can sell their solar energy to any consumers in the grid. The EnergyCommunity tracks their energy data and informs them exactly where the energy is coming from and how much CO2 it is generating. The utility company can easily bill these energy exchanges with their regular 麻豆原创 billing system thanks to the integration offered by Exnaton in working with the 麻豆原创 system integrator BPC. At the same time, the utility company can sell additional hardware installations to members of the community, making it an attractive option for all parties.

鈥淭he EnergyCommunity makes it easy to exchange energy within the community. Participating in their local community creates a closer bond between people, and the platform provides a new customer channel for the utility company,鈥� said听the technology expert, who has a PhD in Information Systems. 鈥淎t the end of the day, with Exnaton鈥檚 energy sharing software-as-a-service platform, energy suppliers can offer their customers more independence.鈥�

Exnaton is responding to the challenge faced by prosumers who currently have no possibility to sell their extra energy directly on the market and the one faced by utilities companies as they realize they must offer new models as they transition to renewables with a decentralized approach. A number of utility companies are already running the solution in communities across Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, and Switzerland, and the goal is to expand to other European countries where there is a strong regulatory framework. More importantly, the solution enables energy companies to equip their customers for a sustainable future.

Future Focused

Over 733 million people on the planet still don鈥檛 have access to affordable, sustainable energy, which is why providing energy is goal seven on the list of the听. For Exnaton, goal seven is its core business, but at the same time, it is equally committed to goal 11, developing sustainable cities and communities; goal 12, enabling responsible production and consumption; and goal 13, taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impact.

The good news, according to the recent听听report, is that renewables overtook fossil fuels as the number one power source in the European Union for the first time in 2020. Renewables generate 38% of electricity, compared to 37% for fossil fuels. Also, at least two million people in the EU are already involved in more than 7,700 energy communities, and engagement is rising. Energy communities have also contributed up to 7% of nationally installed capacities of renewables, estimated at 6.3 GW.

For W枚rner and the team at Exnaton, producing energy where it is consumed decreases the dependence of the region on imported resources. Energy from the sun is practically limitless, and it more than covers the entire demand of the planet. With advances in technology and solutions like the EnergyCommunity, households and small businesses benefit from electricity powered by the sun, making renewable energy accessible and cost effective. What could be more natural, sensible, or sustainable?

.

U.S. president Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico amid renewed warnings from scientists that the warming planet is making storms wetter and more intense. 鈥淭he worst storms will get worse,鈥� Michael Wehner, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told NBC news.

Hurricane Fiona was one of three powerful storms last weekend, along with Typhoon Nanmando, which hit Japan, and the remnants of Typhoon Merbok, which wreaked havoc in Alaska. Climate change is fueling extreme weather events across the planet, including record-breaking heatwaves, droughts and floods in the U.S. and elsewhere.

麻豆原创鈥檚 Take

From California to Florida, people are directly experiencing the impact of global warming and are demanding action. In addition to reducing CO2 emissions and accelerating decarbonization, they are asking what can be done to minimize the impact of water shortages in some areas and flash flooding in others.

Too much water or not enough: climate change, aquifer depletion and population growth are increasing water scarcity worldwide. In the U.S., almost half of the watersheds may soon lack sufficient water supplies to meet monthly demand — one factor that is prompting the Biden administration to declare that global water security is now a matter of national security.

In most countries, including the U.S., water utilities are the stewards of local water resources — whether the sources are reservoirs, rivers or springs and underground aquifers. About 39 billion gallons of water a day are withdrawn from surface water or groundwater sources for public supply, representing about 12% of total freshwater withdrawals.

In the U.S., this drinking water is delivered through 2.2 million miles of underground pipes owned and operated by community water utilities, big and small. Unfortunately, much of the system is aging and underfunded.

鈥淲e believe that the water utilities can have a major impact on what is happening right now,鈥� says Daniela Sellmann, global vice president and head of at 麻豆原创 and an expert on water management.

Although Sellmann acknowledges that the water utilities will never achieve everything alone and need the support of the government, she believes there are actions they can take to manage water supplies, reduce losses through leakage, and cut energy consumption. 鈥淥ne of the main pieces that we see for the water utilities is basically to improve water catchment and then educate society about how to use that water. This is really low level, but it’s something that they can do,鈥� she says.

According to the Unite States Geological Survey (USGS), the lower 48 states receive enough precipitation during an average year to cover the states to a depth of about 30 inches. Unfortunately, only a small proportion of that rainfall — and an even smaller portion of the cloud bursts that lead to flash flooding — finds its way into public water supplies.

Even when rainfall is successfully captured and processed, Sellmann notes that water utilities often suffer huge water losses because of leaks in their aged water distribution networks. In the U.S., the most conservative estimates put the percentage of treated water lost because of leakages at around 17%.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that 6 billion gallons of treated water is lost each day in the U.S., enough to fill over 9,000 swimming pools. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that distribution system leaks represent a cost $2.6 billion a year. Much of this wasted, treated water is lost through the 240,000 water main breaks that take place annually across the country.

Finding those leaks is one area where technology 鈥� including connected pressure and flow sensors, smart meters and software such as real-time analytics and predictive maintenance apps 鈥� can reduce leakage.

Tracing and repairing these leaks is likely the most cost-effective way to improve water security and combat the effects of increasingly frequent prolonged droughts like those in the American West this year. Although leak repair and pressure management are two well-known ways to reduce distributional losses, and have proved highly effective in some geographies outside the U.S., their potential as part of a water-saving strategy has been largely underutilized.

Experts suggest this may be because water losses in distribution systems in the U.S. are not systematically tracked or regulated. Only seven states currently require standardized water loss audits, and no state regulates the level of water losses. However, the regulatory environment governing water losses is rapidly evolving and several states are now considering tighter regulations.

Reducing the loss of treated water from the distribution system would also help utilities reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprints. 鈥淟osing the water from the network leads to less pressure, which means using more energy for the pumps that are pumping the water, and it also it has a really negative effect on the water quality within the pipes,鈥� Sellmann says.

Leaky infrastructure also means utilities have to treat and process more water, which, in the case of some energy-intensive processes like desalination, pushes up costs and energy usage. So, as Sellman points out, helping utilities use smart technologies to become more efficient becomes a virtuous circle where everyone wins.

Contact:
Ilaina Jonas, Senior Director of Global Public Relations, 麻豆原创
+1 (646) 923-2834, ilaina.jonas@sap.com

鈥淭he well-being of our service technicians is very close to our hearts,鈥� says Claus J眉rgen Bader, product manager at Netze BW. 鈥淲e want all our people to return home safely at the end of their work assignments.鈥� With this in mind, Netze BW approached 麻豆原创 in the second half of 2021 to work on a solution that supports its service technicians in the field. The network group belongs to the large German utilities鈥� provider EnBW and is responsible for more than two million customers in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

How Service Technicians Benefit from the 鈥淣eWa鈥� App

Together with 麻豆原创, Netze BW started developing an Apple Watch app called 鈥淣eWa鈥� (Netze Watch). This way, Netze BW鈥檚 service technicians can always be up-to-date on their assigned work orders and can directly submit data from the app to 麻豆原创 systems.

In fact, thanks to the app they will be able to:

• Reduce accidents and the time to be at the scene of an accident with the help of the dead man switch function.
• Perform their jobs on-site with increased security with the help of the time slot alarm function.

Netze BW鈥檚 Challenge

Netze BW service technicians are responsible for maintaining public power, gas, and water supply infrastructure. For compliant reporting, their tasks and statuses must be updated in frequent intervals. All information they might require during their work in the field needs to be available so that they can submit details, such as damaged components, that are automatically identified and assigned. As the service technicians have shifts of up to 24/7 job availability, their jobs come with a lot of risk. What鈥檚 more, they often work at remote locations, many times under hazardous conditions and alone.

Conceptual Design from 麻豆原创 within One Week

Netze BW and 麻豆原创 outlined a solution with 麻豆原创 AppHaus in a very short time. 麻豆原创 sent off the high-fidelity screens to development in just four business days by applying the so-called 鈥渟peedboat鈥� method based on . This approach focuses on understanding the users鈥� needs within their daily routine at work first, before technologies are evaluated to fulfill those needs.

Next to increasing the well-being and security of its technicians, Netze BW also asked 麻豆原创 to show a solution that can ensure efficient bidirectional data exchange from Apple Watch to 麻豆原创 and back 鈥� that is, between service technicians and central departments.

Working closely with Netze BW, the 麻豆原创 AppHaus team conducted on-site research shadowing service technicians at work and created initial design wireframes that were immediately verified with the Netze BW service technicians. The final high-fidelity screens were then delivered remotely a week later.

Based on those high-fidelity screens, the Netze Watch (鈥淣eWa鈥�) Apple Watch app has been developed by Netze BW and EnBW in-house developers based on metering processes for utilities solutions from 麻豆原创 and 麻豆原创 EAM Work Order on Apple Watch.

鈥淲ith the help from Apple and 麻豆原创 we now improve and, in some cases, save the lives of Netze BW鈥檚 service technicians,鈥� says Mark Zimmermann, head CoE Mobile Solutions at EnBW. 鈥淎 big thank you to the design thinking method applied by 麻豆原创 AppHaus. We had an extraordinary journey and learned a lot.鈥�

The NeWa Apple Watch App

The NeWa app will soon be seamlessly connected to Netze BW鈥檚 existing workforce management iOS app on smartphones. It acts as a kind of digital companion that provides technicians with all details related to their current job or order and tracks a technician鈥檚 heart rate or detects if there has been a crash or signs of an accident. If the technician does not respond via the watch, then an emergency protocol is automatically triggered.

The NeWa app is running on iPhone and Apple Watch systems. This app and the Netze Mobile Workforce Management, or 鈥淣eMo鈥� app, run on iPhone and enable data exchange with 麻豆原创 applications like 麻豆原创 S/4HANA via 麻豆原创 Gateway.

The NeWa Apple Watch app offers additional safety features. Based on predefined triggers the safety control tower is automatically alarmed. Information from the Apple Watch is combined with task data from NeMo and sent to 麻豆原创 backend systems with no extra effort.

The currently planned NeWa and NeMo app architecture looks like this:

In the future, Netze BW鈥檚 IT team plans to replace the existing on-premise architecture 鈥� 麻豆原创 Gateway and 麻豆原创 Mobile Platform 鈥� with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) and the corresponding software development kit (SDK) for iOS, as well as 麻豆原创 Integration Suite and 麻豆原创 Extension Suite to connect with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA for a best-in-class system architecture.

The following functionalities of the NeWa app support the Netze BW service technicians in:

• Setting a job timer (dead man switch) on the Apple Watch: in case the timer is not canceled or extended, the safety control tower is notified and will take adequate measures, such as informing emergency services. Information from the Apple Watch, like location and duration, is cross-checked with job information available from 麻豆原创 databases.

  

• Benefiting from the fall detection functionality: in case the service technician slips or collapses, the Apple Watch will automatically inform emergency services. The NeWa app recognizes this situation and informs the safety control tower about the situation at the accident site.

Netze BW Won a 2022 麻豆原创 Innovation Award

Due to the fast turnaround time of the Apple Watch app, 听category.

Simon Hartmann, software architect for Mobile Development at EnBW, says: “We at Netze BW and EnBW were delighted to receive an 麻豆原创 Innovation Award. It encourages us to continue driving forward for not only productivity, but also the safety of our service technicians. Our special thanks to not only our internal colleagues, but also to Apple and 麻豆原创 for the initial trigger and to 麻豆原创 AppHaus for the support we received in the project itself. It helped us incorporate the UI and UX components together with the service technicians right from the start.”

A Day in the Life of a Service Technician

Before the NeWa and NeMo apps:

• Dispatching service technicians and data exchange including documentation was mainly based on e-mails and paperwork. In addition, bad data quality occurred due to media discontinuity between digital and analog processes.
• There were no standard solutions available for reducing the risk of working alone. Individual arrangements existed at a team level as well as stand-alone technical solutions like activating additional devices as interim solutions.
• Long waiting and response times were common due to no consistent digital solution being available.
• Previous implementations did not meet the requirements regarding user-centricity

  

After the apps:

• Service technicians have access to 麻豆原创 databases via their mobile devices, iPhone, and Apple Watch, and can submit task data and status information immediately.
• Service technicians are automatically informed about new jobs that have been assigned to them.
• Health and safety applications on the Apple Watch are linked to specific job information from 麻豆原创 systems and enable a 24/7 safety control tower that may initiate further action.
• Thanks to its open architecture, the NeWa app can also communicate with other apps on the employee’s iPhone and thus can be operated by other 麻豆原创 systems, such as within the wind offshore environment.

What鈥檚 Next?

Netze BW is working closely with its internal colleagues from the EnBW development department to release the NeWa app with the planned implementations. A publication for companies in the DACH region is also planned. Clearly, the effects and results of the NeWa app have encouraged the company to continue on its innovation path. There are plenty of new use cases in discussion around new technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. For example, in 2021, EnBW developed the REVisAR app running on Apple iPad. It focuses on renewable energy visualization with the help of augmented reality (AR) functionalities for building wind turbines out in the field.

Constanze Reichelt is Project Expert Communications at 麻豆原创.

analysts predicted 80% of worldwide energy suppliers will use digital customer engagement solutions by 2026 to cater to the appetites of millennials and Gen Z, which will make up the majority of the utility industry鈥檚 customer base. A survey of Asia-Pacific city planners found they planned to prioritize initiatives that would manage critical resources like water using smart meters.

Similar to societal norms around sustainability, smart cities as a concept has evolved and expanded. According to James McClelland, senior global director of Industry Marketing for Utilities at 麻豆原创, organizations serving every community 鈥� from rural to urban and everything in between 鈥� care about efficiency, sustainability, and the circular economy.

鈥淲hether it鈥檚 water, gas, electricity, or other natural and energy resources, utilities want to become more efficient and reduce waste and lower carbon emissions for a more sustainable environment,鈥� said McClelland. 鈥淭he real power of a smart city comes down to data analytics from innovations like smart meters. With a better understanding of individual usage, utility providers can help customers make sustainable choices based on their household needs, collectively making the world a better place.鈥�

Case in point is American Water, which provides regulated and regulated-like drinking water and wastewater services to an estimated 14 million people in 24 states. Neeru Sharma, the company鈥檚 senior director of Business Partnership and Delivery, said the company distills every major decision into two questions: How will it make our company more efficient? And how will it positively change the customer experience?

I talked with Sharma at the event, where she told me about her company鈥檚 digitalization plans that included a network of smart meters based on the Internet of Things (IoT).

鈥淲e are a purpose-driven, customer-focused business,鈥� said Sharma. 鈥淥ur company vision revolves around efficient operations to deliver a superior customer experience and contribute to a sustainable society with better water consumption management. Going to a cloud-based platform is our first step in becoming an intelligent enterprise.鈥�

Operational Efficiencies from IoT-Based Sensors

American Water is at the vanguard of the utility industry鈥檚 digitalization trend that is fueled by consumer demographics and sustainability mandates.

Sharma equated technology innovation with her company鈥檚 business agility and resilience. Headquartered in New Jersey, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company.

American Water recently selected to collect real and near real-time data from meters, as well as 听to connect information to billing and other systems. Unlike yesteryear鈥檚 monthly meter readings that relied on resource-intensive truck rolls, sensor-based smart meters automatically capture water usage data more frequently, giving American Water a clearer understanding of actual water consumption levels for billing and planning purposes. Access to real-time and on-demand data will also flag potential problems, helping the company keep meters in peak working condition.

鈥淲e won鈥檛 have to wait until the end of the month for usage data,鈥� said Sharma. 鈥淲e can identify and manage meter read issues, consumption patterns, and potential leak patterns at scale in buildings, and connect it directly to our billing systems. As a water utility, it鈥檚 very important for us to use our own resources to efficiently and better manage water distribution across our communities.鈥�

Analytics Behind Sustainable Business

Of course, sustainable water management does not mean reducing customer access to water. In this case, it translates to analyzing and acting on data from smart meters. For example, an unnatural spike in water consumption beyond typical usage rates could indicate a potential leak or a malfunctioning meter.

鈥淵ou need solutions that will provide up-to-the-minute information, surfacing water consumption trends on a daily basis,鈥� said Sharma. 鈥淎nalyzing that data, we can see if a customer鈥檚 consumption is consistent with or outside of historical norms. Having this on-demand data available can help us conduct proactive maintenance to prevent disruptions.鈥�

Sharma credited technology innovations like smart meters with helping the company meet sustainability objectives and build trusted relationships with customers.

鈥淚t takes a lot of steps to deliver clean water from the source to the customer鈥檚 faucet,鈥� she said. 鈥淭echnology is integral to providing that visibility into our entire process of bringing quality water in compliance with regulations to our customers. We want our customers to be fully aware of their water usage and what they can do for a more sustainable community. Data transparency is just as important to tracking our performance against ESG objectives.鈥�

Smart Communities are the Future

Smart meters are a harbinger of what鈥檚 to come as utilities grapple with managing water, arguably the most finite valuable natural resource on the planet. Leading utility providers are gearing up for major transformation.

analysts predicted that by next year, stricter environmental regulations will have pushed 30% of water utilities to invest in integrated information technology (IT) 听and operational technology (OT) data. Forrester analysts said that by 2024, 40% of energy suppliers will have lifted the core business logic from billing to customer data and experience management, becoming three times more effective at marketing new products.

Between climate change risks and consumer and community demands, water utilities need technology more than ever to boost efficiencies that improve the customer experience, representing the dawn of the next generation of sustainable smart communities.

.

Farys鈥� business and sustainability transformation was the focus of a recent LinkedIn Live roundtable discussion, “.” Moderated by Maribel Lopez, CEO of , the session featured Inge Opreel, CIO of Farys, and Aneesha Shenoy, COO of 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP).

Farys started its platform journey several years ago when 鈥� like many utility companies around the world 鈥� Opreel begun implementing smart meters. This project resulted in a huge influx of data, but most employees were unable to access or easily use this information.

Moreover, the company had a complex IT landscape with on-premise and cloud-based applications and needed to monitor processes throughout the layers.

That鈥檚 when Opreel began the search for a technology platform. 鈥淲e needed a cloud platform that could integrate data and business apps into a single source of truth, perform extensive analytics, and introduce innovative technologies,鈥� said Opreel.

Farys was familiar with , having used it to build its self-service customer portal, which resulted in lower costs and increased customer satisfaction. However, the key strength the platform brought was through and capabilities.

鈥淲e needed to access data, analyze it, and integrate it back into our systems,鈥� said Opreel. With 麻豆原创 BTP, Farys can obtain meter indexes, view water volumes used, receive alerts, and use water usage data to build new services for its customers.

Moving forward, Opreel wants to use the platform to help Farys become more sustainable by addressing water scarcity, which is an ever-increasing problem due to climate change. Using data from its smart meters, Farys can improve its understanding of water inflows and outflows 鈥� and pinpoint where and why water losses occur via leaks, fraud, or other means.

Farys鈥� reasons for evaluating 麻豆原创 BTP resonated with Shenoy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to see how the platform enables Farys to realize its purpose 鈥� whether it鈥檚 innovating new business models to generate new revenue streams or helping achieve the top, bottom, and green lines,鈥� said Shenoy.

Shenoy highlighted other instances where a platform strategy is a critical business enabler. First, with so much sociopolitical instability, companies need the ability to do integrated, enterprise-wide planning, which can analyze data across multiple lines of business. 麻豆原创 BTP lets companies use that information to create business simulations and conduct predictive planning while connected to live, real-time data 鈥� helping executives to make better-informed decisions.

Second, as companies move IT systems to the cloud they need to 鈥渓ift and shift鈥� on-premise data easily. acts a bridge so companies can bring data with them, without having to build a data warehouse from scratch.

Third, Shenoy said companies want to democratize application development. 鈥淲e can help replace complex software development with easy drag-and-drop, low-code/no-code software,鈥� said Shenoy. 鈥淲e accelerate the development process and enable anyone to create applications on their own.鈥�

How to Develop a Successful Platform Strategy

Opreel advises when companies select a platform, they need to start by thinking big. 鈥淗ave a big scope in mind and develop a holistic view about where you want to go in the future,鈥� said Opreel. 鈥淧latforms contain so many components, having that perspective will help you think architecturally and put the right set up in place for your current and future use cases.鈥�

Next, she recommends that companies start with smaller projects that organizations can learn from. For Farys, the first use cases centered on harnessing Big Data generated by smart meters. But this approach was new and Opreel鈥檚 team helped shift employees鈥� mindsets from managing smaller data volumes to considering the new opportunities provided by advanced data management and analytics. 鈥淪how your business units what benefits are possible with the power of data by giving examples and advice,鈥� said Opreel.

But the real value comes once an organization moves beyond proof-of-concept projects to embedding the new technology in daily processes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important that everyone from management to field workers can use the technology,鈥� said Opreel. 鈥淭he right platform can transform your organization once it鈥檚 integrated with your ERP and other cloud systems.鈥�

Farys鈥� platform strategy has changed how the company views innovation. 鈥淚t has enabled us to level up our innovation approach,鈥� said Opreel. 鈥淩ather than individual business units driving innovation independently, our comprehensive platform strategy has encouraged everyone to view it as a broad innovation platform on which to share ideas.鈥�

To learn more, .

The e-mobility transformation is underway, and chances are good that you are witnessing it on the streets of your own town. More and more consumers are choosing electric-powered transport over the internal combustion engine, and this despite supply chain disruptions due to the ongoing global pandemic.

As battery range improves, charging infrastructure expands, and government incentives gain traction, the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) . According to the Electric Vehicle World Sales Database, in 2021 all regions witnessed strong , with growth rates three to eight times higher than for the overall light-vehicle market. By 2026, , EVs will account for more than half of light vehicles sold globally.

But there are still hurdles to overcome. Case-in-point is a charging infrastructure that is unevenly distributed and cannot keep up with demand. For example, Europe only has around per 100,000 inhabitants, while the U.S. has roughly 37 charge points on the same per-capita basis. This is causing many potential EV converts to take a “wait-and-see” stance until they are assured of a viable charging infrastructure in their area.

The successful transition to e-mobility will therefore require huge and related technologies. Industry experts agree that demand can only be satisfied through a which includes semi-public charging options like privately run charging stations, office and retail parking lots, home garages, and government-provided locations.

麻豆原创 E-Mobility: Intelligent Charging Experience

Establishing a ubiquitous charge-point network is only one side of the coin. Charge-point providers will also need to provide consumers an easy, intelligent, and automated charging experience. Think of the one-click online-shopping experience consumers have become accustomed to and you get the idea. Achieving this level of service requires an intelligent software platform that is interconnected with other mobility-related business tasks and immediately recognizes the charging profile of your vehicle when you register at the charging point.

In September 2021, 麻豆原创 launched 麻豆原创 E-Mobility, a standardized, cloud-based solution that provides a complete package that enables charge point operators to run their business efficiently and profitably.

鈥溌槎乖� E-Mobility is targeted at companies where mobility is the core business, such as logistics companies managing large vehicle fleets or mobility-as-a-service providers such as public transit, municipalities, and private ground transportation,鈥� explains Ulrich Scholl, vice president and chief product manager for 麻豆原创 E-Mobility.

The enterprise-grade capabilities of 麻豆原创 E-Mobility offer integration with other software solutions for expense reimbursement management, analytics, cost management, billing, and invoicing.

Transition to an Emissions-Free Car Fleet by 2030

Since 2009, 麻豆原创 has made sustainability a key pillar of its corporate strategy and annually discloses its own sustainability performance in an . It is only logical, therefore, that 麻豆原创 would use the business software it develops to increase its own operational efficiency. This is exactly what the company is doing with 麻豆原创 E-Mobility.

To make good on its promise to become carbon neutral by 2023, 麻豆原创 is applying the standard solution for its own electric vehicles, which comprise nearly one-fifth of its total fleet of around 27,000 company cars. Battery electric vehicles have been part of the company鈥檚 fleet since 2010, and their share is growing as part of the company鈥檚 transition to an emissions-free fleet by 2030. Coupled with the decision to go 100% electric by latest 2030 is a pledge to employees that the charging infrastructure at its facilities can meet growing demand.

E-Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: Flexibility Is Key

The 麻豆原创 Austria office in Vienna was the company’s first corporate location to implement 麻豆原创 E-Mobility. Currently one-quarter of the 400 company cars at 麻豆原创 Austria are battery electric vehicles, with a significant transition to electric planned in the coming years.

The charging infrastructure is operated by 麻豆原创’s facility management team in Vienna as part of its overall responsibility for asset management. Charging capacity is supplemented by a photovoltaic system that is also connected to the electricity grid.

鈥淔lexibility is key to any enterprise charging concept because employees want to be able to charge their cars at work, public charging points, and private charging points at home,鈥� says Steffen Krautwasser, head of Global Car Fleet at 麻豆原创. “The operation of our charging infrastructure in Austria is based on our strategic adoption road map of 麻豆原创 E-Mobility and marks a critical milestone for adoption at our other locations.”

Strong fluctuations in office use during the pandemic have shown the importance of flexibility. Close coordination between the fleet manager and facilities manager in creating an adaptable strategy is of the utmost importance. 麻豆原创 E-Mobility enables flexible charging at work and supports reimbursement of private charging at home via software for travel and expense management.

Charge-Point Sharing for Sustainable E-Mobility in Cities

Some cities and communities are looking to bridge the current shortage in public charging capacity by opening private charging infrastructure to the public. 鈥淪ince the number of public charging stations is increasing more slowly than demand, it is particularly relevant to open up semi-public charging points to as many users as possible,鈥� says Scholl.

This is where the versatility of 麻豆原创鈥檚 new solution comes through.

鈥溌槎乖� E-Mobility gives us the ability to open up access and billing options to any user, and we can scale the system to new requirements rapidly as required,鈥� says Robert Diglas, head of regional facilities for 麻豆原创 in Austria, Switzerland, Central Europe, and Ukraine. 听鈥淔or example, the flexible solution will enable us to open up our charging points to customers and business partners if and when we decide to do so.鈥�

But 麻豆原创鈥檚 e-mobility vision extends well beyond the office parking lot. In 2021, the company started a co-innovation project with UnternehmerTUM, the city of Munich, and other partners from the mobility and energy industries. Together, they are developing new concepts based on to improve charge-point coverage in German cities.

The integration of private charge points is just one focus area, according to Scholl. 鈥淲ith 麻豆原创 E-Mobility, we are just beginning to help our customers and partners turn mobility as a service into a reality,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he collaboration with innovative partners and real-life testing by citizens has delivered innovative use cases and thoughtful insights into how sustainable e-mobility, as one mode of urban transportation, can work in the future.鈥�

Customers and partners can experience the 麻豆原创 E-Mobility solution in action at the company鈥檚 in Walldorf, Germany, and Bangalore, India.

Managing Ever Complex Asset Networks at Minimum Cost

As these networks grow and become more complex, RetiPi霉 must ensure safety and reliability through daily maintenance performed by its field workers. It is also crucial for them to quickly identify critical network events and efficiently prioritize, schedule, and track field-service assignments and maintenance activities.

But disparate asset management systems made it hard to prioritize and schedule maintenance calls. In addition, they were not integrated with the company鈥檚 core enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Moving from Reactive to Predictive Maintenance

To increase efficiency and optimize resources, RetiPi霉 looked to move from a reactive to a predictive maintenance model. The goal was to understand critical events as early as possible, track and trace issues from alert to resolution, get better visibility into maintenance schedules and work-order status, and use that information to better manage maintenance across the network.

To meet these goals, RetiPi霉 required a unified intelligent asset maintenance system that workers could access from the field and that was integrated with its intelligent ERP software.

One Central Asset Intelligence System to Speed up Maintenance Cycles and Lower Costs

As its utilities networks continue to grow, RetiPi霉 S.r.l. deployed to help improve data quality and access for engineers and back-office teams. Building on that digital transformation, it then added the 麻豆原创 Enterprise Asset Management solution to help configure digital twins for equipment and activate predictive models respectively. These algorithms help assess and prioritize maintenance requirements and optimize resources. The company leverages the solution to gather detailed sensor data from across the network assets to share information via mobile applications with field technicians, who get information and update the status of work orders in real time.

Increasing Productivity and Improving Customer Service with Smarter Asset Maintenance

The system currently supports thousands of pieces of equipment. In addition to making maintenance simpler and more efficient, asset and maintenance data 鈥� including cost data 鈥� are immediately available for analysis in . As a public utility, the real beneficiaries are RetiPi霉 customers that now have faster activation service. And in addition, RetiPi霉 benefits by being rewarded by the Italian government for its continually reliable service.

The most striking benefits the utilities company gained are:

• 100% increase in assets that can be managed on the network – from 12,000 to 24,000 pieces of equipment
• 50% reduction in maintenance cost
  
• 15%-20% less time needed to activate new gas customers
• Increased efficiency and resource optimization
• Improved prioritization of field-service assignments and maintenance tasks
• Improved field operations effectiveness through mobile system access to maintenance staff
• One single platform to manage data and analytics for all assets 鈥� creating a fully integrated and transparent maintenance process from order to the field and back

Real-Time Data Transfer from Technician Mobile Apps to Back-End ERP Systems

鈥淚n choosing an intelligent, predictive maintenance solution, integration with our core ERP systems was key. With 听and , we have one unified system that provides everyone the visibility they need to work efficiently and effectively,鈥� says Massimo De Filippi, director of Technical and Information Services and Design at RetiPi霉 S.r.l.

He continues: 鈥淭his project has allowed RetiPi霉 to ensure service continuity and avoid shutdowns. We can provide quality service while also reducing costs. We are a public company, so the ultimate benefit is for the citizens.鈥�

鈥淏y being able to access data and reports in real time, field engineers can intervene promptly whenever issues arise, improving the customer experience and strengthening our reputation as a trusted energy provider,鈥� says Mario Carlo Borgotti, managing director of RetiPi霉.

In regard to future plans and after being live with the gas network, RetiPi霉 now has a template for rolling out intelligent asset management and predictive maintenance to its electricity and public lighting networks. As the next step, it will enable simulation of maintenance requirements for new assets that have yet to be added and include geolocation services for route optimization.

To learn more about how to enable intelligent asset management processes, , “The Building Blocks of Industry 4.0 with Intelligent Assets.”

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at 麻豆原创.

The startups in the cohorts are building innovative solutions to drive sustainability for consumer and retail companies across the value chain in areas including reusable packaging and responsible and ethical supply chain. The startups will also focus on helping companies in the energy and natural resources industries manage sustainability goals including compliance, regulation, tracking and carbon trading.

Over the next 16 weeks, the startups will work alongside curated sustainability and technology experts from Accenture and 麻豆原创, with access to 麻豆原创 technology and application programming interfaces (APIs) and opportunities to collaborate with 麻豆原创 and Accenture customers around the world. The startups will integrate with 麻豆原创 solutions such as and and leverage Accenture鈥檚 and broad industry knowledge, building upon the companies鈥� long-standing partnership and shared commitment to . The following startups are participating in the 麻豆原创.iO Foundries North America sustainability cohorts:

Consumer and Retail

• offers a circular platform that encourages consumers to buy in a more convenient, affordable way with zero waste and connects people, brands and retailers to change consumption habits.
• calculates the carbon emissions of business activities, then programmatically offsets those emissions by funding impactful certified carbon offset projects like planting trees or building windfarms.
• leverages blockchain and Internet of Things technology to offer transparency into supply chains for clarity on quality, origin, sustainability footprint and compliance standards.
• helps customers run their business differently with real-time data intelligence from each of their products end to end, from factory to consumer and beyond.
• provides a dynamic and risk-assessment-based quality compliance program for digitalization, automation, transparency and traceability.
• is a platform for sustainable shipping including reusable packaging, real-time tracking and predictive analytics.
• delivers a purpose-built platform for specification management that changes how brands, suppliers, manufacturers and retailers manage data and collaborate to bring products to market.

Energy and Natural Resources

• accelerates a clean energy future by enabling utilities and consumers to make data-driven energy decisions.
• empowers utilities and energy providers with systemwide visibility, forecasting and advanced controls to balance local renewable supply with flexible demand for a distributed, zero-carbon future.
• incentivizes transparent and traceable collection, sourcing and recycling of plastic waste globally.
• is the world鈥檚 first digital oil analyst. It leverages satellite technology and AI to create a digital twin of the oil supply chain, from well to wheel.
• is a data and analytics company that helps customers reduce their carbon emissions.
• covers the vendor management activities from vendor scouting to vendor qualification, vendor performance evaluation and assessment of vendor financials, compliance and sustainability.

Visit the . Follow 麻豆原创 on Twitter at .

Media Contact:
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Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 麻豆原创 are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 麻豆原创 undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect 麻豆原创’s future financial results are discussed more fully in 麻豆原创’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including 麻豆原创’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
漏 2021 麻豆原创 SE. All rights reserved.
麻豆原创 and other 麻豆原创 products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 麻豆原创 SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

Enabling climate action through technology is top of mind for customers in industries around the globe, but the topic was particularly remarkable to the gathering of North American utility organizations at the annual conference in San Diego on October 17-19. These are organizations that not only face the emergency environmental situations intensified by climate change, like hurricanes and fires, but are also daily witnesses to energy consumption and, increasingly, adoption of more sustainable energy sources.

It鈥檚 no surprise then that sustainability was a key track at the conference, addressing head-on the challenges that North American utilities face as they grow and innovate against the looming presence of climate change. With keynotes from world-renowned experts and boots-on-the-ground insight 鈥� 90% of the track sessions were led by customers 鈥� here are the top takeaways on how sustainability is shaping the utilities industry.

Technology Is the Most Critical Tool to Combat Climate Challenges

While utilities have been responding to the impact of climate challenges for decades, the last few years have made the challenge acute: more intense natural disasters, the swift adoption of electric vehicles, and even the overnight shift to remote work. All of these have a significant impact on the energy grid 鈥� and when coupled with an escalation of regulation around sustainability, utilities are working under incredible market complexity.

The response, from industry experts and utility managers alike, was clear: to manage these challenges, companies need to gather, track, and understand their data. And the only way to do that is through and smart software.

鈥淭he most important thing is the ability to measure: to know where you started and where you鈥檙e going to, where the journey ends,鈥� said Brian Roach, managing director of Regulated Industries at 麻豆原创. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing now is a lot of investment in the understanding of, say, your carbon footprint and having a predictable and consistent means of measuring that.鈥�

The Singular Impact of the Electric Vehicle

For the past century, the energy industry has looked more or less the same. But factors are colluding to upend that stasis, and none more so than the electric vehicle. Elon Musk recently went on record in order to power the transition to electric vehicles. That is a tall order for utilities. It鈥檚 also an amazing opportunity to define new approaches in the ecosystem and create new business, particularly when it comes to taking advantage of off-cycle electrical demand.

鈥淭his is where smart technology must be applied: determining when you charge, what the right time of day is, what the rates are, the priorities of what gets charged first,鈥� said Tony Posawatz, president and CEO of Invictus iCAR LLC, in the opening keynote. 鈥淭his is where some of the horsepower that exists in the industry will come to bear.鈥�

The Opportunity Is Now to Transform the Industry

Despite the clear external pressures 鈥� regulations, customer expectations and demand, the fast-evolving climate crisis 鈥� the tone was one of optimism and excitement. This is a turning point for the industry, and organizations are eager to rise to the challenge.

鈥淚鈥檝e been in this industry for decades, and for the first 10 years or so it was pretty stable; there wasn鈥檛 a lot of significant change. But right now, we are in a transformative state. I see it as a huge opportunity for us to be the ones who formulate what the future of utilities looks like,鈥� said Michael O鈥橠onnell, regional vice president of Utilities for 麻豆原创, in the opening keynote. 鈥淔or me, it couldn鈥檛 be a more exciting time. You call it disruption; I call it opportunity for us to shape this and change the future.鈥�

Mallory Kuno works within Communications at 麻豆原创.

SaskPower is responsible for serving over 540,000 customer accounts within Saskatchewan鈥檚 geographic area of approximately 652,000 square kilometers. With that many customers spread across such a vast territory, sorting the 700 to 950 energy meters that are expected to be returned to the company daily during its AMI smart meter rollout is no small task. The manual process of entering serial numbers into a spreadsheet to determine the dispensation of this returned inventory is time- and labor-intensive, and prone to errors. The process needed to be energized.

When the SaskPower team received an invitation to participate in the three-day virtual hackathon on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, they jumped at the chance to use 麻豆原创 technology to solve this business problem. Leading into the event, SaskPower got its business partners excited, picked out team uniforms, briefed the developer team on the task, and then dove in.

鈥淭he hackathon was a great opportunity to try out 麻豆原创 tools available to our business,鈥� said Terry Chadwick, 麻豆原创 solutions architect at SaskPower. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 even think about saying no. Our team was very excited, and we jumped in to see what we could come up with.鈥�

On day one, the SaskPower team learned all about the 麻豆原创 tools at their disposal. On day two, they went to work building a conceptual framework and application. Finally, on day three, the team put the finishing touches on the app and presented to the judges. The app framework was built using a combination of 麻豆原创 products, including 麻豆原创 Cloud Application Programming Model and 麻豆原创UI5, 麻豆原创 Workflow Management, 麻豆原创 Business Rules Management, 麻豆原创 Launchpad service, 麻豆原创 Conversational AI, and business optical character recognition.

The result was a win for the SaskPower team with the development of the Mobile Meter Return app. Returning meters will no longer require manual data entry, and validations in the app will help protect against manual data entry errors. Now, when meters come back into the facility, meters will be scanned and validated. The tool will automatically perform the goods movement processes to receive the meters into the warehouse, recommending how the meter will be managed — for example, the meter could be marked for retirement or for reuse.

SaskPower plans to take the theoretical to the practical and is building the app, with plans to have it fully deployed in the field by August 2021.

鈥淲e had a great experience at the hackathon and winning is a testament to the hard work our team put in,鈥� said Terry Collins, solutions architect at SaskPower. 鈥淥ur coach from the 麻豆原创 BTP team could not have been more supportive, and we have a great deal of trust in him and his team. Because of the strength of this relationship, we鈥檙e able to collaborate and create solutions that make our business nimbler and, ultimately, more intelligent.鈥�

Explore how 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform brings together intelligent enterprise applications with database and data management, analytics, and integration and extension capabilities into one platform for both cloud and hybrid environments, including hundreds of prebuilt integrations for 麻豆原创 and third-party applications. .

Bruno Guerrero is a senior solution advisor for 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform.

鈥淲e designed Future Grid to fill the visibility gap, bringing together real-time data and insights from smart meters so electric utilities can better manage the accelerated transition to renewable energy,鈥� said Chris Law, co-founder and CEO at Future Grid. 鈥淭his will help utilities continue to provide safe, reliable electricity services in regulatory compliance as renewable energy emerges.鈥�

Law, who has extensive experience in the energy industry, co-founded Future Grid to meet the unique demands of utilities that weren鈥檛 fully utilizing all the data from their smart meters.

鈥淲e wanted to help utilities quickly manage data for their industry-specific outcomes,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淣ow as utilities have been increasingly challenged by the transition to renewable energy, our service is becoming even more important.鈥�

Data Insights Improve Operations

Future Grid collects and analyzes real-time data from smart meters, whether its usage data from the consumer鈥檚 electric car, home solar panels, or other sources. Customers are primarily in Australia, but Law has set his sights on global expansion in sync with renewable energy market growth prospects.

鈥淪mart meters from renewables are a rich source of information. Use correctly, utilities can improve services with measurable results for consumers and the organization itself,鈥� said Law. 鈥淲e鈥檙e providing a feedback loop from the grid edge into the utility鈥檚 core operational systems, helping the company make better decisions to improve core operations in the grid.鈥�

Safety Benefits for Customers and Consumers

Future Grid addresses one of the major challenges utilities face as renewable energies are deployed at scale: voltage management. While invisible to the consumer, utilities strive behind the scenes to deliver electricity at expected and regulated voltages. The dirty secret about renewables is that the energy they generate can wreak havoc on the grid unless it鈥檚 accurately captured and analyzed.

鈥淭he benefits of renewable energy are starting to be well understood in Australia,鈥� Law said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e helping utilities use the data they鈥檙e collecting to manage that transition. They can better understand what鈥檚 going on with their network assets so they can maintain voltage levels, and potentially save lives.鈥�

According to Law, Future Grid鈥檚 utility customers rely on the solution to predict voltage problems, guarding against potential injury or harm. In one case, the software flagged a voltage issue and the utility dispatched field crews who arrived at the home just as the consumer was on the phone reporting the problem to the company.

麻豆原创.iO Paves the Way for Valuable Partnership

Far more than the typical analytics tool with colorful graphs and charts, Future Grid鈥檚 insights are even more powerful when integrated with and 麻豆原创 Predictive Asset Insights. Law was excited about working with 麻豆原创 after the Future Grid co-founders participated in the utilities accelerator program. Initial collaboration efforts include integrating Future Grid鈥檚 asset health monitoring solution into 麻豆原创.

鈥溌槎乖� and Future Grid are a natural fit. 麻豆原创 is one of the foundational vendors in the utilities industry, and we share many customers,鈥� said Law. 鈥淚f our analytics reveal a problem with a network asset, this can raise a ticket to generate a work order in the 麻豆原创 system for faster response and resolution. We鈥檙e very grateful for 麻豆原创鈥檚 expertise in helping us workshop use cases to best solve our mutual customers鈥� biggest problems.鈥�

Future Grid is .

Learning from Australia鈥檚 Energy Lessons

Law predicted ongoing momentum for renewable energy worldwide, creating infinite opportunities for Future Grid. That鈥檚 because utilities need to be ready to collect and manage a tsunami of data from smart meters and other renewable technologies as uptake grows.

鈥淚n Australia, we鈥檙e already rolling out renewable energy technologies at scale, where utilities have realized the considerable impact on the existing grid,鈥� he said. 鈥淯nlike consumer apps, you have to be in the energy industry for the long haul. With perseverance, along with great mentors and partners like 麻豆原创, we鈥檙e now well positioned in the right place at the right time.鈥�

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.

The zero-equity-ask program is designed to accelerate innovation and drive new business models for 麻豆原创鈥檚 utility customers. To be intelligent enterprises that deliver sustainable futures, utility companies need to undertake a digital transformation, which now includes environmental sustainability and energy transition. During the 12-week program, the seven selected startups will work closely with 麻豆原创’s industry experts to develop new joint offerings that will allow new capabilities and functionalities on top of 麻豆原创’s current solutions to the utilities industry.

鈥溌槎乖粹�檚 utilities customers are looking for intelligent solutions to help them succeed in delivering safe, reliable and sustainable energy products and services,鈥� said Peter Maier, 麻豆原创 president of industries and customer advisory. 鈥淭his cohort of early-stage startups will help us connect our customers with the most cutting-edge solutions from around the world and enable them to rapidly respond to new business requirements.鈥�

This cohort will collaborate with 麻豆原创 longtime customers E.ON Innovation, part of Germany-based E.ON SE, and Israel Electric Corp. (IEC). The collaboration aims to identify breakthrough technologies, providing E.ON Innovation and IEC opportunities to be beta sites for pilots of the selected startups.

The following startups are participating in :

• offers state-of-the-art artificial intelligence software solutions that allow the end user to predict, optimize and trade energy.
• enables the renewable grid of the future to deliver safe and reliable electricity.
• offers a scalable end-to-end Internet of Things鈥揺nabling solution, building a seamless experience journey from device to cloud.
• delivers a platform for utilities to gain powerful energy insights and run value-added services using machine learning algorithms on smart meter data.
• provides digital value-added services to private and commercial 鈥減rosumers鈥� with an operating system to monitor and control distributed energy devices.
• provides the operating system for postsubsidy renewable energy sales.
• 鈥檚 AI-driven digital asset management system automates and optimizes solar photovoltaic plants.

To learn more about 麻豆原创.iO and how 麻豆原创 is helping innovators inside and outside of 麻豆原创 build products, find customers and change industries, visit .

Visit the . Follow 麻豆原创 on Twitter at .

Media Contacts:
Anke Otto-Jungkind, +1 (650) 796-6478, anke.otto-jungkind@sap.com, PT
Lesa Beber, +1 (650) 390-1629, lesa.beber@sap.com, PT
麻豆原创 麻豆原创 Room; press@sap.com

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 麻豆原创 are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 麻豆原创 undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect 麻豆原创’s future financial results are discussed more fully in 麻豆原创’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including 麻豆原创’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
漏 2020 麻豆原创 SE. All rights reserved.
麻豆原创 and other 麻豆原创 products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 麻豆原创 SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

Amid the uncertainty and challenges created by the pandemic, SDG&E has taken many actions to help protect customers and employees, such as providing payment arrangements for customers in need and adding extra precautions for employees in the field.

Compassion Counts

鈥淥ur biggest concern is staying connected with customers and employees in the new world of working from home,鈥� says Laura Atkinson, director of the Customer Information Systems Program at SDG&E. 鈥淲e are using technology to stay connected, but that does not replace personal engagement.鈥�

Atkinson finds people are much more compassionate and understanding during the crisis. Raising two girls as a single mother, surviving cancer, and having a demanding career, she knows how important it is to prioritize what needs to be accomplished — both professionally and personally. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to give back to others,鈥� she says, referring to her management style. 鈥淚 talk to my team a lot about balancing their work and home lives.

She goes on to explain that in the past, the office was mostly a nine-to-five operation. At the start of the crisis, the company asked 2,400 employees to work from home and implemented additional measures to keep field staff safe.

鈥淲e鈥檝e gone through a big shift since then,鈥� she explains. 鈥淧reviously, the office was where you went to get work done. Now, we鈥檙e highly focused on outcomes and individual employee work flexibility. We have been able to demonstrate how to accomplish our objectives, regardless of physical location.鈥�

These are big changes in the world of utilities, an industry undergoing rapid transformation. Faced with competition from non-traditional energy suppliers, utility companies must address climate change goals, reduce emissions, and support smart city programs as they seek to create value for their customers, communities, and shareholders.

Principles for Transformation

For the last three-and-half years, Atkinson and her team have been busy replacing SDG&E鈥檚 25-year-old customer information system with 麻豆原创 software. The goals include streamlining business processes, optimizing customer engagement, increasing regulatory responsiveness, and implementing a cloud-based platform for future innovation.

鈥淭he first step was to get the entire company to embrace the guiding principles for change,鈥� says Atkinson, who believes that embracing change is key to successfully transform from being a utilities company to becoming an energy service company.

The . First and foremost is customer focus: SDG&E must serve its 3.6 million customers better, faster, and with greater agility. Second is empowerment, because Atkinson鈥檚 project team of 400 must make decisions and move at a quicker pace. Third, the team should implement best practices and focus on outcomes. And the fourth principle is “buy over build.”

鈥淐onfiguring standard 麻豆原创 functionality is more sustainable than customization,鈥� says the IT expert.

Regardless of the crisis, SDG&E鈥檚 transformation will set it apart from most utility companies that operate on a brick-and-mortar philosophy. Previously, employees got their information from bulletin boards. That is no longer the case as work processes are more automated. Digitization also provides greater visibility through the use of dashboards that feed data to all stakeholders, providing a real-time view of the company鈥檚 operations.

It is not all work and no play at SDG&E. The team was quick to pivot and adapt to operating in the virtual world. Atkinson says that leaders at all levels within the organization are making a point to reach out directly to individuals to ask how they are doing in these uncertain times, and to help ensure people understand that it is okay to take a break and have some downtime. The team has incorporated fun, light-hearted activities to keep people connected, such as hosting bingo games, virtual happy hours, a drive-by pizza party, and playing Family Feud.

Atkinson is keen on teaching the next generation about the benefits of technology. 鈥淲e鈥檙e living in interesting times,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e need to listen more carefully in the virtual world, where we can鈥檛 always pick up on nuances like body language.鈥�

Her advice to women on a career path in technology is to set priorities, balance personal and professional goals, and learn to say no to certain things. One of her own takeaways from the crisis is the need for a shift in mindset. For example, she questions whether people really need to be physically in the office: 鈥淲e need to challenge our own measurements. With a greater focus on outcomes, we need to measure the work itself. It鈥檚 how you get it done that counts.鈥�

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Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones can deliver literal birds-eye views of potential problems 鈥� encroaching vegetation, damaged equipment, nearby hazards 鈥� when there is still plenty of time to fix things.

This year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, drones can also help keep people safe, going into the field to gather data while human experts stay safely inside and receive high-quality data for better business decisions.

鈥淒rones can quickly and efficiently gather information from power poles across vast expanses of the landscape,鈥� said Ron Gray, a senior solution engineer at 麻豆原创. 鈥淲ith analytical insights on where the biggest potential hazards are, electric companies can develop a prioritized schedule of inspections and maintenance plans, including outage management timeframes. This would also help utilities correct missing or inaccurate information on equipment with fact-based mapping data and prove compliance with regulatory reporting mandates.鈥�

Humans Plus Machines Solve Data Management Problem

One co-innovation example from uses drones to collect real-time image data from electric equipment in the field. Deep learning algorithms in the Intel Insights Platform identify and prioritize high-risk areas from the images captured by drones across the poles, wiring, transformers, and other equipment that carries electricity across transmission and distribution lines. Experts at the utility could then log into the cloud system for a top-down view of the findings, which are color-coded by equipment type and risk level.

For example, someone could see plastic debris that needs clearing from the top of wires, if a wooden pole is rotted, or that there is a tank located much too close to the pole. Once the inspection analysis is complete, the results are pushed to in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA. This triggers notifications that are easily bundled into field work orders using the mobile app to address anything that requires attention. None of this automation negates demand for human judgment.

鈥淲hile AI-based algorithms can recognize images indicating vegetation encroachment, the human component comes in to review and confirm or deny the analysis,鈥� said Mark Christian, a business development professional at Intel Geospatial. 鈥淎n arborist has the expertise to assess the health of a tree or if that species is protected under environmental laws. A tree may need trimming, but if it鈥檚 dead or dying, it could require removal to prevent it from falling and causing more damage.鈥�

Maintenance Made Easy

Having drones collect data that is analyzed in a cloud platform and connects back to daily business processes like equipment inspection, scheduling, and maintenance could well be the future of automated wildfire risk mitigation.

鈥淯tilities could section thousands of square miles into 鈥榠nspection corridors鈥� for drone flights, measuring risk by various parameters, such as areas that are at greater risk for fires, equipment types and age, and weather conditions,鈥� Gray said. 鈥淐apturing this information within plant maintenance in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, which also has a geographical-enabled framework, would allow utilities to define maintenance plan areas and send work orders by exact location for each piece of equipment. Utilities could document that an inspection took place, and if corrective action was required.鈥�

Data Insights Drive Cost-Efficient Operations

Essentially functioning as early warning indicators, the image-based data and analysis of equipment in the field would not necessarily be caught by human inspectors on the ground, or even someone venturing skyward in a bucket truck. It is also about potential cost-savings for utility providers operating equipment in an increasingly tough economy.

鈥淯tilities would see immediate value from having access to visual images of poles and wires that document exactly what鈥檚 going on in hard-to-reach terrains and outdoor environments,鈥� Christian said. 鈥淭hey could reduce unnecessary truck rolls to conduct visual inspections and verify installations, which is a key metric in the industry.鈥�

Intelligent Enterprise in Action

Many industries are hitting the accelerator on technologies that bring substantive returns on investment (ROIs), allowing more people to work remotely and with greater intelligence and efficiencies. For utilities, the partnership between 麻豆原创 and Intel is designed to bring the best innovations from both companies 鈥� especially during these challenging times.

鈥淯tilities face huge pressure to meet changing consumer power needs, as well as sustainable energy demands in an increasingly volatile environment that includes extreme weather and the pandemic,鈥� said Brian Kadien, general manager of the 麻豆原创 Strategic Partnership with Intel.

Vishal Sanghvi, marketing director of 麻豆原创 programs at Intel, added that 鈥淚ntel鈥檚 technology collects and analyzes information directly from the field, while 麻豆原创 brings the agility of real-time data across connected business processes. The Intel and 麻豆原创 partnership helps unlock the potential of data. This is the Intelligent Enterprise in action, helping utility employees in maintenance, capital project improvements, the environment, and vegetation management make important business decisions to keep the lights on.鈥�

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Most executives are aware that generic business software creates a foundation that tackles the basics of running a business during constant business change, economic uncertainty, and market volatility. But 麻豆原创 customers also understand the value of extending their digital strategies with听. They are tailoring processes and codifying reporting and analytics to become more efficient, cost-effective, and compliant in terms of employee and customer expectations.

Below is a snapshot of how 麻豆原创 Solution Extensions cater to the unique needs of specific industries and subindustries.

Wholesale Distribution: Unleashing the Potential of Negotiations

Negotiating better agreements is critical for wholesale distributors when driving savings, increasing profitability and margins, and fostering customer and supplier relationships. But it’s still an intricate function of various partners, extensive information, and complex calculations.

With a comprehensive solution such as the听, distributors can increase control of the negotiation lifecycle, simplify processes, and gain insights into possible enhancements for profitability. Real-time simulation and analysis of the impact of any actively negotiated deal give distributors the visibility to strike an agreement that protects their profitability, lowering the cost of goods sold through a streamlined, closed-loop process.

Fashion Retail: Redefining the Purpose of Brick-and-Mortar Stores

For fashion retailers, the new norm of mask wearing, social distancing, and controlling the number of employees and consumers in one location is particularly challenging, considering their high-touch nature. However, with the right business model, they may create a mobile-responsive, integrated service that delivers a consistent, reliable, and safe digital experience across all devices and channels.

For instance, available on premise or through the cloud, the听听allows retailers to support an authentically omnichannel consumer experience. The solution extension enables our customers to control their worldwide outlets centrally. With scanners, scales, kiosks, vending machines, and other peripherals and storefronts, fashion retailers can acquire the real-time visibility and transactional capabilities to provide a seamless and personalized shopping experience.

To succeed with this omnichannel retail model, fashion brands deliver a diverse, dynamic array of products that consumers want through听. It replaces spreadsheets and e-mails to deliver a single version of correct and complete master data to all users 鈥� leading to lower costs, informed decision-making, and timely response to market change.

Furthermore, no matter how sophisticated the brick-and-mortar model for retail becomes, fashion brands still need to mitigate an ever-present risk: revenue loss. 罢丑别听听facilitates an advanced approach to distinguishing potentially fraudulent activities from irregularities, such as business process issues, gaps in employee training, or cases of deception. In return, our customers are eliminating time-consuming and error-prone manual reporting methods and empowering their stakeholders to understand anomalous data better to control and prevent loss on their own.

Agribusiness: Widening Slim Margins with Insight and Efficiency

Agriculture’s economic fragility is a concern across the industry. For years, weather disasters, a trade war, and commodity pricing below production costs have placed tremendous stress across the value chain. And with today’s fluctuating demand across all forms of grocery and food services, agricultural futures are becoming more uncertain.

Although the same stress is felt across the entire industry, virtually every category of farming is governed by distinct regulations and best practices when responding to dynamic market shifts. The needs and requirements of running a dairy farm, for example, are vastly different from those of a grower running an orchard.

麻豆原创 understands that reality and offers four unique solution extensions to aid customers as they address issues that are vital to their long-term continuity:

: Designed for farm management operations, the application facilitates everything from planning and planting to growing and harvesting. It addresses the daily need for information and visibility among field managers, supervisors, and workers while delivering crucial analytics to senior executives.

: This integrated solution helps manage complex processes and relationships between buyers and growers of perishable products, such as fruits and vegetables. 麻豆原创 Grower Management for Perishables establishes a contract setup and a wide array of farming, logistics, and accounting services that assist all players in efficiently and profitably fulfilling commitments.

: The application streamlines and optimizes processes, from raw milk reception to processing finished products. Dairy farmers can use the technology to streamline operations, turn real-time data into revealing insights, and improve performance and competitiveness.

: With data-driven technology embedded, this application enables meat, poultry, or fish businesses to simplify the storage, processing, and flow of information and insight across the organization. The entire meat or fish value chain can oversee food-processing functions in ways that help ensure quality products are delivered to store shelves to meet the needs of every consumer that wants them.

Capital-Intensive Industries: Creating Lasting Value for Customers and the World

Capital-intensive industry segments 鈥� such as utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing, mill products, mining, transportation, chemicals, engineering, and construction 鈥� are taking on a new life of their own as they help create livable homes, towns, and cities running on sustainable energy. Delivering on this promise requires intelligent solutions for energy generation; storage, water, and waste management; and energy grids efficient enough to keep up with fluctuating demand and inspire consumers to generate their own power.

麻豆原创 customers are realizing this goal by tapping into accurate, up-to-the-minute transactional data to manage complex assets, maximize uptime, and improve responsiveness to changing circumstances. 罢丑别听听unifies and streamlines data governance to improve maintenance planning, reduce asset downtime, increase productivity and profits, and support compliance and safety. A smooth exchange of trusted master data is also facilitated with business partners through mobile apps and devices, across cloud and on-premise applications and services.

To keep consumers engaged in this vision of a more sustainable world, utilities are no longer merely providing an online presence with basic account functions and a call center. They are interacting with consumers on the Web and through mobile apps by using the听. The tool provides a user-friendly engagement platform with self-service capabilities that serve as a starting template for intuitive, multichannel experiences.

Meanwhile, from an operational perspective, connecting asset lifecycle management with digital technology fosters enterprise collaboration and data-driven decision-making. Controlling engineering information, work processes, and risk allows firms to improve efficiency and time to production for their capital projects and operations.

A听听opens the door to a more intelligent approach to capital projects and operations. The add-on integrates structured engineering data with unstructured information, including computer-aided design drawings, models, technical specifications, user manuals, maintenance records, and service contracts. Plus, it gives businesses the control they need to handle engineering documents, work processes, and risk across the distributed enterprise, which enhances decision-making and agility while reducing costs.

The solution extension add-on for 麻豆原创 Extended ECM also supports role-specific workspaces to increase operational efficiency with aggregated content, data, people, and tasks related to a common business function, project, or use case. Content is seamlessly available to employees who need it, when they need it and governed automatically and transparently according to current policies.

Media and Entertainment: Unifying Rights and Royalties with Intelligence and Clarity

The use of disconnected spreadsheets, generic applications, and bolt-on technologies can create a dangerous landscape when competing against massive global players and emerging competitors 鈥� most of whom are offering content. Content distributors need a single point of truth to control their rights and royalties while gaining the trust of their consumers and network of creators, licensors, and publishers.

Consider the occasion when distributors negotiate their right to exploit new content. A core of听rights and royalty intelligence and clarity, supported by听, enables distributors to听prove their financial viability, platform strength, and audience growth. The solution extension consolidates multiple sources of truth to just one enterprise system to create legal-approved contracts, acquire rights, move content to production, and trigger royalty payments based on a schedule.

Impactful Digital Transformation Is Within Reach for Your Business

This series has covered how听听can help companies address unique needs across functional areas and distinct industry requirements. 麻豆原创 customers embrace our portfolio of solution extensions to simplify IT complexities while reducing their risk, accelerating business change, and futureproofing their digital investments.

Learn more about 麻豆原创 Solution Extensions at .

麻豆原创 and energy supplier E.ON plan to build a new process and technology platform for E.ON鈥檚 network operations. Together, the two strong partners intend to set a new standard in Germany鈥檚 power grid business. E.ON aims to use cloud solutions from 麻豆原创 (麻豆原创 S/4HANA) to make core processes around billing and information exchange more efficient and consistent across its corporate group. That way, E.ON Group鈥檚 energy suppliers, grid operators and metering point operators will be able to share information faster, more accurately and more easily. Processes will be standardized, with the various energy billing and data exchange systems at E.ON鈥檚 regional units moving to the new platform. Having consistent data will enable the company to deploy standard solutions, follow best practices and reduce the cost of developing custom software. E.ON鈥檚 network customers stand to benefit as well. Leaner, standardized processes will enable the company to respond even faster and more efficiently to customer requests.

The decision for the new technology was triggered by the integration of energy company Innogy SE into the E.ON Group. E.ON鈥檚 grid business plan is to establish standard billing processes and IT systems across its entities. The first benefits from the project 鈥� more efficient processes 鈥� are expected as early as mid-2022. Implementing innovative cloud solutions should save the group more than 40 percent in costs long term.

With grid operations as part of its business, E.ON has to meet regulations set by Germany鈥檚 Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur. The partnership with 麻豆原创 and the capabilities offered by the new, open, modular, stable platform will ease compliance with new regulatory requirements, such as standard data exchange formats. In addition, business processes running on 麻豆原创 Cloud Platform can be extended easily. Because the platform can continually evolve, it offers scope for innovation as well.

鈥淧artnering with 麻豆原创 enables us to redesign processes and structures, especially following our acquisition of Innogy,鈥� says Thomas K枚nig, board member in charge of energy networks, E.ON SE. 鈥淭his project will set a new standard in the market. Having maximum automation and standardization on the new platform will make our processes much more efficient.鈥�

鈥淭he close partnership with E.ON is not only a powerful example of how technology can simplify business decision-making, bring about new business models and generate sustainable value,鈥� says Christian Klein, CEO, 麻豆原创 SE. 鈥淭oday鈥檚 decision is also a strong commitment to industry cloud solutions from 麻豆原创 and demonstrates that, when it comes to digital transformation, we are our customers鈥� partner of choice.鈥�

Visit the 麻豆原创 News Center. Follow 麻豆原创 on Twitter at .

About E.ON

E.ON SE is an international investor-owned energy company, which focuses on energy networks and customer solutions. As one of Europe’s largest energy companies, E.ON plays a leading role in shaping a clean, digital, decentralized world of energy. To this end, more than 75,000 employees develop and sell products and solutions for private, commercial and industrial customers. Around 50 million customers purchase electricity, gas, digital products or solutions for electric mobility, energy efficiency and climate protection from E.ON. E.ON is headquartered in Essen, Germany. For more information, please visit .

About 麻豆原创

麻豆原创鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As the market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world鈥檚 transaction revenue touches an 麻豆原创 system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 麻豆原创 helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 麻豆原创 helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit .

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Acquired by Essentials Utilities in March, Peoples provides natural gas to about 740,000 homes and businesses in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. The company has been running 麻豆原创 ERP-based systems since 2010 and wanted to adopt the latest Intelligent ERP innovations and convert to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA without disrupting its business and while maintaining its industry-leading safety standards and customer satisfaction scores.

鈥淧eoples鈥� 麻豆原创 S/4HANA migration was not just a technical conversion but a critical step in laying the groundwork for ongoing innovation and growth,鈥� said Ruth DeLost-Wylie, Peoples鈥� former CIO and current senior vice president of Business Transformation for Essential Utilities. 鈥淲e鈥檙e now set up to do more, faster 鈥� including embedded analytics, improved financial reporting and hardware optimization. This will be critical, not only as part of a larger organization but also to keep pace with what our customers expect.鈥�

麻豆原创鈥檚 Professional Services team led Peoples鈥� conversion to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA1809, with the immediate aims of simplifying the company鈥檚 finance solution and optimizing its business operations. Since the successful conversion in November 2019, Peoples鈥� year-end closing process has been faster and seamless. In addition, its nightly batch loads finish several hours faster.

鈥淧eoples Natural Gas鈥� successful conversion to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA is an excellent case study of taking a measured approach to digital transformation,鈥� said Michael O鈥橠onnell, 麻豆原创 national vice president for Utilities. 鈥淏y starting with a foundational migration of its systems, the company is now well positioned to evolve 鈥� and scale 鈥� at a pace that works for its teams and business objectives.鈥�

Visit the . Follow 麻豆原创 on Twitter at .

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Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 麻豆原创 are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 麻豆原创 undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect 麻豆原创’s future financial results are discussed more fully in 麻豆原创’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including 麻豆原创’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
漏 2020 麻豆原创 SE. All rights reserved.
麻豆原创 and other 麻豆原创 products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 麻豆原创 SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

Given our commitment, we are thrilled that for the second consecutive year, 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors was chosen as one of Gartner Peer Insights and was the only company to receive .

is a free peer review and ratings platform designed for enterprise software and services decision-makers. With more than 315,000 verified customer reviews across 330 defined markets, it allows customers to share information with each other in order to increase their confidence and success when purchasing new solutions. Peer reviews are driven solely by the specific experiences relative to the reviewers, including their satisfaction with a product, as well as overall experience, support for the product or service, and overall implementation effort. The Customers鈥� Choice distinction is based on the number of reviews and overall user ratings.

With more than 6,850 customers representing all industries and spread out across the globe, we are grateful for those who share their experiences, best practices, and feedback.

Here are a few from customers:

• “System is intuitive and user friendly. Being a cloud solution, it is accessible from anywhere, and the mobile app capability encourages people to use it wherever they are.鈥�
  鈥�
• 鈥淎 time-saver tool to view, track, and assess all HR-related processes.鈥�
  鈥�
• “The various team members assigned to our account are supportive and reliable. I feel valued as a customer.鈥�
  鈥�
• “Matured [麻豆原创 Successfactors] Employee Central module. HCI integrations are great along with integration center.”
  鈥�
• “Great features and excellent support.鈥�
  鈥撎�

To learn more about this distinction, visit the Gartner Peer Insights page. View the .

Marc Havercroft is chief customer officer for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.

Disclaimer: Gartner Peer Insights Customers鈥� Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.