Last week, I was proud to join my friend and colleague, Ken Evens – SAP Global Head of Oil & Gas - to jointly welcome over 1000 industry professionals at the 2nd annual SAP International Utility and Oil & Gas Conference held in The Hague, Netherlands. It was a fantastic event where we shared and heard great stories about reimagined business models, business processes and exciting new ways to work!
Peter Maier, SAP General Manager of Energy & Natural Resources, kicked off the presentations with specific details about what SAP is doing to help customers map their digital journey followed by an exciting panel of customers and experts from around the world.
Every presentation was filled with examples of how SAP is helping our Utility customers transform into a digital business experience.
These stories came from over 60 countries involving over 180 utilities worldwide.
Marie-José Nadeau, Chair of the World Energy Council, talked about the three “Ds” impacting the Energy Markets: De-carbonization, De-centralization and Digitization”. These were also constant themes throughout the conference.
Some of the amazing stories from around the world which incorporated these 3 “Ds” included using Tesla power Walls and prosumer interactions in Australia, the challenges of power delivery and energy settlement in the jungles of South America, a comprehensive approach to deploying full Business Suite on HANA integrated to Cloud Computing in Washington State, a “start-up” like strategy to look at digital innovations in the Netherlands, A new SAP IS-U customer system now live in Japan for 28 Million customers along with an innovative energy credit programs for consumer engagement, and finally drones, digital workers and cloud strategies in Ireland.
We also had over 33 key partners participate from our ecosystem in an exhibit area which included an Innovation Lounge where we demonstrated the SAP Digital Boardroom along with exciting innovations such as 3D Printers, drones and smart devices.
The conference not only delivered great customer and partner content, but also delivered fantastic networking opportunities highlighted with our evening event at the World’s Oldest Automobile Museum right there in The Hague!
In summary, I heard from many customers and partners that this continues to be a premier event for learning about SAP’s solution strategy, hearing new ideas and networking with peers to become a best run digital business. It all starts with developing a strategy, reimagining business models & processes, creating a road-map and realizing the value. You can learn more about our view of the Digital Utility in our new whitepaper found here.
I invite all Utilities to start now with a Digital Maturity survey which is free for a limited time. All information is strictly confidential as part of our Benchmarking program under the Value Lifecycle Manager system. Once completed, the SAP Value Engineering team will provide a tailored assessment back to you showing where you are on the digital journey. Start the survey now by clicking this link.
I want to thank everyone for a fantastic event and look forward to seeing everyone at our SAPPHIRE NOW user conference in Orlando, May 16-19, 2016!
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