As expected, the International SAP Conference for Utilities 2023 took consistent steps to become an international reference forum for those interested in Energy and Supply customer use cases from across the world: detailed insights from SAP executives and solution experts, inspiring advices and guidance from guest speakers and vibrant networking took place for three days in Basel.
One of the special features of this year have been the dedicated space for water supply and wastewater services in order to enable attendees to experience new connections between apparently unrelated areas, processes, business models and overall industry scope with the aim to inspire and trigger innovation: this is the Industry Convergence practice. On this purpose we set up a dedicated pre-conference workshop (“Diving deep into smart water)” and a Water Track with Water customer cases while enabling exploring industry synergies with Energy peers with shared tracks (for asset management, sustainability, utilities core and s/4HANA, keynotes, joint tracks, and a combined exhibition allowing extended networking.
Kevin De Wilde, Engagement Manager at Capgemini demonstrating the Smart Water Platform
Water track at the conference will bring a keynote by our colleague Ivan Barreto, Industries Director for Utilities & Public Sector at SAP Latin America (Building the Smart Water Platform: Characteristics, Use Cases, and Benefits ) and four case studies: two related with the Water Platform concept and the smart meter data management use case and two focusing in the CAPEX management to keep infrastructure resilience.
Ivan Barreto introducing the Water Executive Value Network at his Keynote
SAP Cloud for Energy Implementation at American Water
Presentation introduced attendees into American Water’s Meter Data Management System (MDMS) journey and key challenges describing their main drivers and opportunities found with SAP Cloud for Energy implementation, as well as a high-level overview of the project scope, future roadmap, technical benefits, expected future business benefits, challenges overcome, and lessons learned.
Smart Water Metering in Flanders: Lessons Learned in a Unique Pilot Case
Following case presented offered a radical different perspective of similar scope presentation. Speaker described the the installation of smart water meters, data transfer and management as part of a unique collaboration between three water companies and the grid manager for electricity and gas showing the advantages of such a collaboration, as well as key considerations when planning a similar project. At the core of this collaboration was a co-innovation with SAP on the Cloud for Energy and Smart Water Platform to add specific functionalities needed.
Anke Geudens, Brusiness Process Manager at Pidpa
Among other unique features, Pidpa developed a shared service center (meter operating center) for the new activities involved with smart water meters e.g., alarms, to deliver an improved service to their customers and better insights into their water use.
Investment Planning and Control of CAPEX
Two speakers shared a very experienced and complementary view on how their organizations learn how to predict, plan, and control their CAPEX. First speaker was Inge Opreel from FARYS who showcased the usage of SAP Enterprise Project Portfolio Management as the single solution covering all infrastructure CAPEX (drinking water, sewage, sports infrastructure, and other services) explaining how this solution supports asset managers and project managers company-wide, and enables further uniformization across different geographical areas, producing a wide range of business benefits.
Intant of FARYS and Anglian Water cases presentations
John Green from Anglian water introduced how his company is approaching Asset Investment Planning from a complementary and more strategical approach by balancing the investment process with Copperleaf, a solution which recently has been announced as partner of SAP portfolio, and demonstrated how Cooperleaf helped to develop a value framework for investment decision-making incorporating key financial, service, and ESG factors. Additionally, presented their investment portfolio optimization to maximize value, achieve targets, respect constraints by integrating Cooperleaf’s Asset Investment Planning with SAP S/4HANA to close the loop between project planning and delivery.
Alltogether has been a magnificent outcome where many atendees where not related with water and wastewater services industry but enjoyed the Industry Convergence practice.
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