Attend­ing the SAP for Util­i­ties con­fer­ence, held in Mia­mi last month, was — as ever — a true high­light of the year for this long-time mem­ber of our util­i­ties community.

Since return­ing, I’ve been reflect­ing on all the excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ties this event pro­vid­ed to con­nect with so many friends and peers in our indus­try. And after work­ing with the ASUG team to devel­op an in-depth agen­da cov­er­ing the top­ics most vital to our ecosys­tem, it was espe­cial­ly reward­ing to see the event become a reality. 

While it wasn’t pos­si­ble for me to attend all the ses­sions on offer, I heard from many oth­ers in our com­mu­ni­ty about their enthu­si­asm for the wealth of learn­ing and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able. Also at the con­fer­ence, ASUG hon­ored sev­er­al of our peers dri­ving inno­va­tion in their respec­tive areas through the SAP Util­i­ty Excel­lence Awards. These orga­ni­za­tions — Duke Ener­gy, NiSource, Sem­pra Infra­struc­ture, South­west Gas, Amer­i­can Water, Chesa­peake Util­i­ties Cor­po­ra­tion, and Ever­source Ener­gy — are all push­ing our indus­try for­ward, find­ing new, cre­ative ways to tack­le util­i­ties-spe­cif­ic hur­dles. My con­grat­u­la­tions to them all. 

Con­nect­ing with one anoth­er was top of the agen­da at this year’s con­fer­ence, and I per­son­al­ly expe­ri­enced many moments of col­lab­o­ra­tion on the ground. Even at the Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture Com­mu­ni­ty Pow­er Up meet­ing on day one, I count­ed 35 dif­fer­ent util­i­ties; every one of those atten­dees left with a dis­tri­b­u­tion list of their peers work­ing on 10 dif­fer­ent SAP topics. 

I par­tic­i­pat­ed in an excel­lent pan­el dis­cus­sion on SAP CX 1.0 and 2.0 with Gibs Saint Paul, Direc­tor of Cus­tomer Mod­ern­iza­tion at Salt Riv­er Project; Nada Kovace­vic, Direc­tor of Enter­prise Solu­tions and Ana­lyt­ics at BC Hydro; Tony Fore­man, Solu­tions Man­ag­er at Loudoun Water; Antho­ny Saba­ti­ni, Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence Spe­cial­ist for Util­i­ties at SAP; and Lisa Will­son, Retail Billing and Sys­tems Team Leader at Nebras­ka Pub­lic Pow­er Dis­trict. Our dis­cus­sion result­ed in the cre­ation of three dif­fer­ent year-round groups focused on these solu­tions and topics. 

SAP for Util­i­ties also offered atten­dees a sneak peek at the SAP solu­tion roadmap for util­i­ties-spe­cif­ic solu­tions, includ­ing via a ses­sion host­ed by Daniela Haldy-Sell­mann, Glob­al VP and Head of Ener­gy & Util­i­ties at SAP, and Ste­fan Engel­hardt, Vice Pres­i­dent, Indus­try Busi­ness Unit for Util­i­ties at SAP. Pre­view­ing the poten­tial of gen­er­a­tive AI for util­i­ties, they dis­cussed all the busi­ness val­ue to be deliv­ered — which goes along with all the changes afoot as we shift from our clas­sic SAP ECC and CRM solu­tions to RISE with SAP, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and SAP CX. The move to cloud-based sys­tems is under­way; for util­i­ties, not always on the lead­ing edge of gen­er­a­tional change, it is not easy. What does make me feel bet­ter is that our strate­gic part­ners are lead­ing the way, and we have a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to share the risk and reap the ben­e­fit from future outcomes.

I look for­ward to par­tic­i­pat­ing in this event again next year. For those of you unable to attend, here are a few pieces of ASUG con­tent that you should read (and lis­ten to): 

• At SAP for Util­i­ties, Knowl­edge Shar­ing and Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Take Cen­ter Stage
• SAP Renew­able Ener­gy and Util­i­ties Leader: Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Will Require Process Opti­miza­tion and Data Inter­op­er­abil­i­ty in the Cloud
• How SAP Can Enable Util­i­ties to Embrace the Ener­gy Transition’s ​‘Wide­spread Reality’
• ASUG Talks Live: At SAP for Util­i­ties, Embrac­ing the ​“Con­flu­ence” of AI, Cloud, and Clean Energy

Thank you every­one who attend­ed and helped make SAP for Util­i­ties such a mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence. I’ll see you all next year! 

Marc Rosson is an Enter­prise Archi­tect at Sno­homish PUD.