The fol­low­ing Util­i­ty Voice was authored by Marc Rosson, Enter­prise Archi­tect at Sno­homish Coun­ty PUD. 

Util­i­ties are, by nature, long-range plan­ners. From cap­i­tal plans, reg­u­la­to­ry approvals, rate cas­es, and inte­grat­ed resource plan­ning that can be decades long, we need to plan. Plan­ning is also what your utility’s enter­prise archi­tects do. It’s a plan­ning dis­ci­pline, which is why I can appre­ci­ate what SAP is doing with its SAP Acad­e­my for Engineering.

Most com­pa­nies have a way to train sales staff for the future and go-to-mar­ket strate­gies to help the com­pa­ny sell soft­ware. It’s what most do, includ­ing SAP, but what’s spe­cial about SAP is that the com­pa­ny has invest­ed in a future plan­ning pro­gram for its engi­neers. In this sense, SAP is focused on a long-range plan regard­ing how they will deliv­er inno­v­a­tive prod­ucts for years to come: by invest­ing in the peo­ple who come up with those ideas.

I had the abil­i­ty this week to tour the SAP Acad­e­my for Engi­neers in San Ramon, CA, as part of the SAP Mul­ti­di­men­sion­al Enter­prise Archi­tect Pro­gram. This event brought togeth­er enter­prise archi­tects from around the world to spend a week at the facil­i­ty where SAP comes up with future inno­va­tion to help sup­port cus­tomers’ enter­prise archi­tects. The pro­gram is all about mak­ing all of us bet­ter at help­ing our com­pa­nies succeed. 

Large investor-owned util­i­ties (IOUs) like P&GE, Ever­source, and NW Nat­ur­al, as well as pub­lic util­i­ties like Gainesville Region­al Util­i­ties and Sno­homish Coun­ty PUD, have spent a week in the pro­gram, learn­ing how we can all use enter­prise archi­tec­ture to plan the future.

The Acad­e­my for Engi­neer­ing in Sil­i­con Val­ley adheres to a set of prin­ci­ples, which they call the five Cs, or time­less traits they are instill­ing in SAP’s future inno­va­tors: Courage, Com­pas­sion, Com­mu­ni­ty, Curios­i­ty, and going beyond Code. These come togeth­er in their pro­fes­sion­al oath, akin to those of oth­er pro­fes­sions, such as doc­tors and lawyers.

The SAP Acad­e­my for Engi­neer­ing Pledge: ​“As an SAP Acad­e­my for Engi­neer­ing grad­u­ate, I pledge to apply my skills to con­tribute to the greater good. I will con­tin­ue to go beyond code, stay curi­ous, show com­pas­sion, demon­strate courage, and build strong and inclu­sive com­mu­ni­ties. I will focus on solv­ing real prob­lems that will make the world a bet­ter place for all.”

SAP has, with this Acad­e­my, advanced its com­mit­ment to attract and retain the best engi­neers in the busi­ness, to deliv­er the future inno­va­tions that all of us will be using for years to come.

As we all know in util­i­ties, suc­ces­sion plan­ning is anoth­er long-term dis­ci­pline that we use for our busi­ness­es to make sure we have peo­ple in the pipeline, as our indus­try has a long learn­ing curve. It’s nice to see our part­ners doing the same.

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