April 18, 2013 by SAP News
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COPENHAGEN — To help utility companies gain insights into the changing market and drive industry co-innovation, SAP today announced the “Utility of Tomorrow” contest. The goal of the contest is to promote, accelerate and share transformative and innovative ideas with utility companies. The contest is focused on creating a connected, interactive and engaging customer experience. The announcement was made at the International SAP Conference for Utilities, being held April 16–18 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The utilities industry is challenged by customers to provide a digital, innovative and collaborative customer experience. As digital natives become the drivers of energy and water usage decisions, they expect a connected, consumer-centric experience. The contest aims to enable university students from around the world to engage directly with leading utility companies to transform the utility customer experience. Participating faculty may include the contest as part of their curriculum and enable students to work directly with leading global utility companies to develop their ideas. Sample submission categories are green energy, connected appliances, water management, electric vehicles and waste management.
Winners will participate in a workshop to further develop their ideas, to be held in Silicon Valley with experts from participating utilities and SAP. Finalists will also have the opportunity to present their ideas at SAP TechEd Las Vegas, being held October 21–25, 2013. SAP University Alliances program members Aalborg University, Aarhus University, IT University of Copenhagen, University College London, University of Oxford, University of Mannheim and University of Liechtenstein have joined the program as founding members.
SAP is inviting utility companies from around the world to sponsor the contest. Actively participating utility companies will gain key customer insights, play a role in selecting the winning ideas and may engage directly with the successful contestants. DONG Energy, Israel Electric Corporation and San Diego Gas and Electric have agreed to be the initial sponsors.
To learn more about the contest, visit www.utilityoftomorrowcontest.com. For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.
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