Digital Simplified:

Powering Efficiency
and Innovation at
<Company>

The utilities industry is experiencing dramatic and far-reaching changes. This business case has been prepared by OpenText™, a leading SAP partner, to give you a flavour of how we can help UK utilities companies reimagine their business processes to capitalise on the opportunities of an increasingly connected world.

The digital economy needs clean, dependable and affordable water and energy. Yet decarbonisation, deregulation, decentralisation and technological innovation are disrupting established utilities. The emerging digital energy network will foster new business models and processes, new customer demands, and new ways of working in a competitive and changing environment.

The industry is caught between two apparently opposing forces: pulled to economise and pushed to innovate. In an environment of slowing demand and declining revenues, how can utilities companies balance the need to operate its existing infrastructure efficiently while adapting to seize the opportunities of this volatile market? And how can digital transformation help?

A survey of UK utility companies we conducted with IDC in 2016 suggested that one of the key objectives of digital transformation was to better balance supply and demand. At the moment, utilities tend to generate energy to meet peak demand at all times, wasting resources and costs. The ability to generate and distribute only the energy required at a specific time to meet anticipated demand will dramatically reduce operating costs – but this will need a lot of connected data and systems, such as:

  • Customer use information from smart devices
    • – KW usage
    • – Date and time
    • – Devices/criticality
  • Energy being generated and fed to the grid from DERs
  • Operational control of energy being generated from power stations

Data and integrated systems are therefore the fuel that powers digital transformation in the utilities industry. The ability to capture all types of information – both structured and unstructured – and deliver it in context across any application, platform, or process is essential. With secure access from any device or location, you can ensure that your people have the information they need, when and how they need it, to do their jobs and work more effectively. Data can drive your digital transformation across five key areas:

  • How can you more efficiently utilise your products and assets?
  • How can you deliver an omnichannel experience to your customers?
  • How can you digitise and improve your core business processes?
  • How can you better engage your workforce?
  • How can you increase supplier collaboration?

The following pages outline some of the ways that OpenText™ Solutions for SAP can help utilities companies accelerate digital innovation and capitalise fully on the opportunities of a connected world.

2.6 million

UK electricity customers switched suppliers between January and June 2018

32%

Of total switches across gas and electricity moved to small and medium suppliers

Source: Ofgem infographic: Bills, prices and profits, August 2018

Digital disruption is transforming the utilities industry. Customer expectations are rising and competition is increasing – so if you’re not transforming your business, you could soon be out of business.

Leverage the data opportunities

By 2020, the number of web-enabled devices is expected to reach 50 billion. The “Internet of Things” (IoT) – smart, interconnected workplaces, homes, and wearable devices exchanging data with each other and cloud-based services – will expand by 500%. Big Data will get even bigger, generating new opportunities to provide innovative services to consumers and businesses.

Predictive maintenance, for example, enables you to improve equipment uptime and avoid costly repairs by anticipating machine failure and scheduling routine maintenance. Analysing a combination of historical maintenance data from your SAP® system,

documented maintenance procedures and equipment specifications, and historical data from the equipment itself enables you to establish the optimum operating conditions and maintenance schedule. When you add real-time IoT data from the live equipment you can continuously monitor performance and predict potential failure to schedule preventive maintenance.

At the same time, giving operators and maintenance engineers quick and easy access to both the work instruction (SAP) and the relevant procedure and specification (OpenText) makes the whole maintenance process more streamlined and efficient. Having the right information in one place slashes the time spent on searching for data and reduces the potential for errors and equipment downtime.

Companies also need to deal with massive amounts of enterprise information. Managing and capitalising on this information is the key to simpler workflows, better decisions, more deeply engaged customers, employees, partners, and faster results in an innovative culture.

Innovate simplified, digitised processes

Start tackling these digital disruptors with simplified, digitised processes. Innovators across every industry are leveraging the new capabilities of full digital processes to pursue promising new business models, cut costs, and dramatically increase efficiencies. For them, the creation, management, and delivery of digital content is more than just a cost of doing business. These digital information flows enable innovation, competitive advantage, and revenue generation.

Deploy innovation-ready platforms and applications

The SAP Digital Business Framework, centred around SAP S/4HANA® Enterprise Management, enables you to simplify and improve your processes by connecting people, devices, and business networks in real time.

OpenText makes digital content an innovation enabler by putting it into the context of your business processes. We help you put all process-relevant content into digital form so your enterprise applications – on-premise, cloud-based, and hybrid – can be controlled. We make it simple to deliver digital content across your extended enterprise of partners, suppliers, and customers. Take end-to-end control over your digital information flows from inside your SAP solutions – including SAP® Customer Experience, SAP® Ariba®, and SAP® SuccessFactors®.

The Digital Core With OpenText

90%

Of the world's data has been generated in the last two years

To avoid being inundated by high volumes of both structured and unstructured information, leading organisations are establishing a foundation of Management and Governance with Enterprise Content Management (ECM).

With Digital Content Management or ECM, you can establish a user-friendly platform to manage information flows, increase productivity, drive efficiencies, and make smarter business decisions. ECM allows you to capture the value of content and helps to harness the power embedded within your information.

OpenText Solutions for SAP enable ECM. These solutions are certified to work with SAP platform and applications, providing a simplified way to bring all content into your SAP business processes. Users can access content within business processes and from familiar SAP interfaces including SAP Fiori®, Microsoft® Office applications, web browsers, or mobile apps. With flexible deployment options, you can set up content in the cloud, on-premise, or as a hybrid solution. Our unified platform helps information flow accurately, in real time, to ensure the right information gets to the right user at the right time.

OpenText Solutions for SAP seamlessly integrate into SAP solutions with the highest levels of certification and testing by SAP.

Seamless SAP integration

OpenText Solutions for SAP seamlessly integrate into SAP solutions with the highest levels of certification and testing by SAP. This acts as a platform to connect people, processes, and the critical information through every stage of the information flow.

Information processing: Automates the capture, digitisation, and processing of information coming into your SAP business processes from customers, suppliers, and stakeholders.

Information management: Stores and integrates the information assets required for business processes so that information flows to the right user at the right time.

Information delivery: Aggregates information from different sources, publishing it to a target group in a personalised way – in real time! OpenText delivers collaboration and sharing across devices and applications, including Microsoft® SharePoint.

Information governance: Underpins all stages of information flows, maintaining all relevant information for the legally required compliance periods.

Usability that drives adoption

Your users expect the same ease of use and mobility as with consumer apps. OpenText makes it simple to generate consumer-like user interfaces using HTML5. Alternatively, you can build on SAP Fiori apps for frequently used business functions, such as workflow approvals, information lookups, and self-service tasks.

To fuel innovation and drive collaboration, you can give all your users access to one source of truth for the latest enterprise content – without sacrificing information governance. Provide file sharing and automatically synchronise all folders and documents on a single platform.

Additionally, you can safely give non-SAP users access to SAP business process content, or content associated with SAP business objects. This information can be provided via Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, web browsers, or enterprise portals – as well as mobile apps on iOS and Android devices.

Organisations that are still using paper-based processes across the enterprise are at a disadvantage. They are unable to interact effectively with customers and partners, and maintain regulatory compliance.

Digitise everything

OpenText Solutions for SAP offer the resources to automatically digitise incoming paper and digital documents, and extract process-relevant data and content from them. By managing this information within your business processes, you can interconnect the entire value chain to drive business outcomes in real time, while extracting process-relevant data and content.

Relevant information (where and when you need it)

Make information accessible to users in an easily consumable form in the context of what they are working on. Content relevant to a business process and role is at the fingertips of users no matter where and when they need it.

OpenText provides Solution Accelerators that include predefined best practice workflows with documentation, document templates, reconfigurable user interfaces, and solution configurations.

Data management for a changing industry

The analytics landscape is rapidly changing. To accurately predict demand, control costs, and improve business decisions, utility companies need data solutions that directly impact business performance by lowering costs, improving services, uncovering risks and effectively support customer engagement. OpenText Analytics Suite capabilities provide self-service data preparation, data exploration, advanced analytics and data visualisations that allow energy and utility providers to improve business decisions about operations, suppliers, assets, and risks that directly impact business performance.

Optimise enterprise asset management

Maintain, repair and operate your fleets, plants and distribution networks more efficiently. Extend your SAP ERP and EAM systems to deliver collaboration, information governance and process control to operations and maintenance activities.

  • Increase asset uptime and reliability
  • 360-degree view of asset information, process and master data
  • Improve quality and consistency of asset information and work instructions
  • Reduce HSE risks and incidents
  • Transparent compliance and effective management of change (MoC)
  • Support external service providers and maintenance workers

Deliver a more engaging customer experience

Empower marketing, sales and support to improve the customer experience and increase your share of the customer wallet with tailored, multi-channel communications.

  • Deliver high-volume personalised customer billing and communications
  • Tailor communications based on customer information and energy profiles
  • Support marketing and demand-side management programmes
  • Deliver consistent corporate branding and message
  • Increase customer satisfaction and reduce call centre volume

Manage your smart grid data effectively

Manage the ever-expanding volume and velocity of “Big Data” from your meter data management (MDM) and demand-side management systems (DMS). Smart Grid Data Archiving delivers improved business insight and regulatory compliance.

  • Retain customer and network records to support regulatory requirements
  • Optimise the reliability and performance of your production systems
  • Gain insight into historical operations and performance
  • Improve visibility, reporting and compliance

80%

Of business processes and products will be reinvented, digitised, or eliminated by 2020

Run capital projects more efficiently

Manage critical information and business processes on major capital projects including engineering document management, contract management, vendor and supply chain management, project controls and document control.

  • Single-version-of-truth for project information
  • Secure collaboration and control for all stakeholders
  • Maintain constant state of operational readiness
  • Reduce time for handover and commissioning
  • Avoid costly claims and litigation

Enhance your contract management

Improve profitability and reduce risk by maximising the strategic value of your contract practices.

  • Enforce quality and consistency of contract language and processes
  • Automate contract creation and renewals
  • Reduce risk and liability
  • Avoid costly claims and litigation

Streamline document control processes

Control, automate and accelerate the exchange of information with secure, auditable document control capabilities – integrated with OpenText Content Suite.

  • Streamline transmittal creation, distribution and tracking
  • Enforce document templates, corporate standards and naming conventions
  • Document due diligence
  • Avoid costly claims and litigation

Build an empowered and highly-talented workforce

Digitise your business and simplify workforce management.

  • Empower HR to play a greater role in organisational success
  • Reduce sourcing cycle time
  • Communicate with candidates and employees
  • Compliant employee files on-premise or in cloud
  • Manage employee files as corporate records
  • Ready for SAP SuccessFactors solutions

Salt River Project

Business Type: Water and Electricity Utility

Products: Content Suite, Extended ECM for SAP Solutions, Media Management, Professional Services

Objective: To improve speed, safety, and compliance with a new enterprise information strategy, while improving customer service reducing costs.

Alliander N.V.

Business Type: Gas and Electricity Utility

Products: Extended ECM for SAP Solutions

Objective: To view unstructured content within SAP quickly, easily and in context, from any device.

Anglian Water

Business Type: Water Utility

Products: Application Governance & Archiving for Microsoft SharePoint, Content Server, Document Access for SAP Solutions, Email Archiving for Microsoft Exchange, Extended ECM for SAP Solutions, File System Archiving, Web Site Management

Objective: To embrace EIM as a way to manage structured and unstructured data and enable and integrate ERP and EAM processes across the enterprise.

For more than two decades, SAP and OpenText have joined forces to enable digital transformation, advance business processes, and launch our customers ahead of the competition. The SAP and OpenText partnership makes it simple to incorporate mobile, cloud, Big Data, and future technologies into content-rich digital processes. Together we build a foundation for innovation, remove complexity and risk, and help you assimilate while focusing on your business objectives.

In summary, OpenText solutions for Utilities can help you:

  • Achieve operational excellence and productivity
  • Increase reliability and safety, and derive maximum performance from your fleet, production and distribution network assets
  • Attract and retain customers through an improved customer experience
  • Create and market new product and service offerings to increase your share of the customer wallet
  • Improve business insight by managing the expanding volume and velocity of “Big Data” from your Smart Grid and ERP systems
  • Reduce the burden and complexity of regulatory compliance
  • Build and maintain a multi-talented workforce

To find out more, please visit our Website www.opentext.co.uk or get in touch today.

Get in touch

To learn more about SAP and solutions from OpenText, please get in touch today.

<Name>

<Job Role>

Open Text

Telephone: <Telephone>

Email: <Email>

Web site: www.ot.co.uk/sap