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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