Endeavour Energy has kicked off the third phase of a multi-year transformation that will see the NSW utility shift its core enterprise systems onto SAP S/4 HANA.
Expected to be completed in late 2021, the third and final release of the program “will drive a significant capability uplift that will help Endeavour realise” its digital transformation ambitions.
These ambitions - including its decision to build on a base of S/4 HANA and SAP cloud services - have been on the public record since the transformation was first announced back in mid-2018.
Endeavour Energy is an electricity distributor servicing 2.4 million people or more than 1 million connected residential and business customers in NSW.
The utility had sought to modernise its technology environment and “transform and automate customer experience, energy market and business processes”, after a period of “significant under-investment”.
A “multi-year organisation-wide digital transformation” was pursued, with the first phase resulting in the implementation of SAP Concur, SAP Enable Now, SAP Solution Manager and Click Work Scheduling last year.
The utility will today announce that the second phase of the transformation, implementing SAP SuccessFactors and Kronos Workforce Dimensions, is also now complete.
Much of the second phase work occurred remotely, with help from partners Deloitte and Syniti.
“It was a huge achievement for the team to complete phase two on time, despite the restrictions caused by the pandemic,” Endeavour Energy’s general manager for employee experience Andrew Pitman said in a statement.
“SuccessFactors and Workforce Dimensions will simplify the systems our people use and improve mobile access, helping teams save time and enabling them to complete key tasks on the move.
“It will also enable greater visibility and data capture, so we can analyse and optimise key processes.
“We expect to see further benefits as our change management process continues with more staff adoption and training.”
Pitman said that the third and final phase of the transformation would “deliver further improvements across more teams through the introduction of SAP S/4 HANA to support better asset management processes, financial systems, enterprise resource planning, procurement, purchasing, logistics and safety.”
The transformation is also expected to make it easier for the utility’s staff to manage disruptions to service and to communicate updates to end users.
“A key element of Endeavour Energy’s future roadmap will be on improving its customer service through predictive tools and analytics powered by artificial intelligence,” Pitman said.
“These will enable our people to identify potential issues in the network and proactively implement solutions to minimise disruption.
“Our people will also be equipped with more data to better inform customers on details like when services might be impacted and how long it will take to get them up and running.”
Also in the third phase, Endeavour Energy will implement health and safety reporting tools, “enabling staff to track remedial actions taken for safety incidents.”
