The util­i­ties indus­try, long rec­og­nized for its foun­da­tion­al role in pro­vid­ing essen­tial ser­vices to indi­vid­u­als, busi­ness­es, and com­mu­ni­ties, con­tin­ues to grap­ple with chal­lenges stem­ming from out­dat­ed process­es, reg­u­la­to­ry com­plex­i­ties, and the need for modernization. 

Con­sid­er­ing these chal­lenges, it comes as no sur­prise that util­i­ties pro­fes­sion­als in the ASUG com­mu­ni­ty are on a mis­sion to gain insights into how SAP tech­nol­o­gy mod­ern­iza­tion can serve as a trans­for­ma­tive force in stream­lin­ing oper­a­tions, opti­miz­ing process­es, and enhanc­ing over­all effi­cien­cy at their orga­ni­za­tions. Pre­sent­ed by ASUG last fall, the SAP for Util­i­ties con­fer­ence exem­pli­fied this ongo­ing pur­suit of tech­no­log­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion. 

Cus­tomers from a diverse mix of elec­tric, water, and nat­ur­al gas com­pa­nies con­vened with a shared objec­tive: to explore inno­v­a­tive solu­tions with­in the SAP solu­tion port­fo­lio and under­stand how best to inte­grate them with­in their orga­ni­za­tions’ tech­nol­o­gy land­scapes. SAP Sig­navio, an end-to-end suite for man­ag­ing busi­ness process­es and enabling con­tin­u­ous improve­ment pro­grams, was one such solu­tion in the spotlight. 

From my per­spec­tive, the most impact­ful ses­sions at SAP for Util­i­ties were those that went beyond demon­strat­ing the prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion capa­bil­i­ties of SAP Sig­navio and encour­aged cus­tomers to inte­grate ana­lyt­i­cal dis­ci­pline and hard ben­e­fit met­rics into busi­ness and rate case dis­cus­sions about the val­ue of process improve­ment. Here are some key take­aways from these sessions. 

The Chal­lenge of Quan­ti­fy­ing Process Improve­ments

Andrew The­is, SAP Senior Indus­try Val­ue Advi­sor for Util­i­ties, high­light­ed the endur­ing chal­lenge of artic­u­lat­ing a hard dol­lar val­ue for process improve­ment. In his ses­sion, ​“Accel­er­at­ing the Real­iza­tion of Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion Pro­grams with SAP Sig­navio,” pre­sent­ed in part­ner­ship with IMPRI­VA, The­is stat­ed, cit­ing research by Kin­sey, that only a mod­est ​“10 – 20% of util­i­ties com­pa­nies real­ize the [long-term] val­ue” of process stan­dard­iza­tion and sim­pli­fi­ca­tion when under­tak­ing process improve­ment initiatives. 

In the rapid­ly evolv­ing util­i­ties sec­tor, orga­ni­za­tions face the chal­lenge of meet­ing increas­ing cus­tomer demands while main­tain­ing oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy under the stress­es of dig­i­ti­za­tion and the mas­sive cap­i­tal require­ments of the green ener­gy tran­si­tion. The­is empha­sized the poten­tial of SAP Sig­navio to assist with tack­ling these chal­lenges, stress­ing the need for cus­tomers to view it as both a tool for large-scale projects and an enabler for con­tin­u­ous process improvement. 

A Nec­es­sary Catalyst

SAP Sig­navio tran­scends the con­ven­tion­al def­i­n­i­tion of a tech­nol­o­gy tool, instead serv­ing as an end-to-end suite. Designed to cap­ture process­es, it also facil­i­tates mod­el­ing and sim­u­la­tion to iden­ti­fy areas ripe for improve­ment. Through prac­ti­cal demon­stra­tions, like the one pre­sent­ed by the IMPRI­VA team map­ping out a print job process, con­fer­ence atten­dees saw first­hand how sim­u­la­tion capa­bil­i­ties — span­ning total costs, cycle time, and resource con­sump­tion — can reveal orga­ni­za­tion­al bot­tle­necks, over­spend­ing, and oth­er inefficiencies. 

As high­light­ed by The­is, the true val­ue of SAP Sig­navio lies in enabling cus­tomers to visu­al­ize an idea, sim­u­late its exe­cu­tion, eval­u­ate the antic­i­pat­ed ben­e­fits of process improve­ment, and nav­i­gate sim­u­lat­ed chal­lenges before seek­ing for­mal approval. SAP Sig­navio, in oth­er words, can be under­stood as a cat­a­lyst for con­tin­u­ous process improve­ment, which is espe­cial­ly nec­es­sary for util­i­ties faced with over­haul­ing out­dat­ed sys­tems and updat­ing process­es across their tech­nol­o­gy landscapes. 

Cater­ing to Spe­cif­ic Util­i­ties Needs

Draw­ing from 27 years of expe­ri­ence in the SAP util­i­ties sec­tor, DJ Tay­lor, Head of Busi­ness Process Man­age­ment for Reg­u­lat­ed Indus­tries at SAP, high­light­ed the indus­try-spe­cif­ic process flows inte­grat­ed into SAP Sig­navio, call­ing them the first of their kind in his ses­sion ​“SAP Sig­navio for BPEM Man­age­ment.” Tay­lor under­scored the sig­nif­i­cance of these capa­bil­i­ties in address­ing the unique chal­lenges of the util­i­ties sec­tor, which is char­ac­ter­ized by con­stant changes due to evolv­ing tech­nolo­gies, mar­ket dynam­ics, and reg­u­la­to­ry updates. 

Specif­i­cal­ly, SAP Sig­navio Process Trans­for­ma­tion Suite aims at help­ing cus­tomers rede­fine and opti­mize their busi­ness process­es. Many util­i­ties find they need to recon­fig­ure the ways they approach onboard­ing new cus­tomer accounts, man­age emer­gency work orders, and design ener­gy deliv­ery sys­tems. The trans­for­ma­tion suite enables util­i­ties to tack­le these process­es, pro­vid­ing opti­mized process mod­els and defin­ing the log­ic to which these vital busi­ness process­es adhere. 

The rev­e­la­tions gleaned from these ses­sions empha­size ASUG’s ongo­ing com­mit­ment to help our mem­bers under­stand the val­ue of advanced tech­nolo­gies — like SAP Sig­navio — in adapt­ing to the dynam­ic nature of the util­i­ties indus­try. Beyond being a valu­able tool for steer­ing the sec­tor, SAP Sig­navio is top of mind for ASUG as we seek to edu­cate our mem­bers around SAP tech­nol­o­gy and pro­pel them toward con­tin­u­ous improve­ment in their industries. 

Top Busi­ness Process Trans­for­ma­tion Ini­tia­tives for Util­i­ties

So where should util­i­ty com­pa­nies begin con­sid­er­ing their trans­for­ma­tion projects lever­ag­ing SAP Sig­navio? Imme­di­ate­ly, the solu­tion can help cus­tomers tack­le a few cru­cial ini­tia­tives for util­i­ties. SAP Sig­navio can help enter­pris­es as they adjust to fluc­tu­at­ing ener­gy mar­ket reg­u­la­tions and cus­tomer expec­ta­tions. The solu­tion can help improve inter­nal process effi­cien­cy, includ­ing stan­dard­iz­ing enter­prise-wide process­es ahead of orga­ni­za­tion-wide dig­i­tal transformation. 

To learn more about SAP Sig­navio, tune into ASUG’s five-part SAP Sig­navio Fun­da­men­tals web­cast series, free for ASUG members.