Tackling climate change with greener energy

Decentralized data as a challenge

e.kundenservice Netz, now called E.ON Grid Solutions, carries out the customer processes for E.ON’s distribution network operators, collecting, analyzing and processing the energy consumption data of 14 million customers every day. This data enables the company to determine when and where there are electricity consumption peaks or available energy capacities, which in turn helps the entire Group to better manage the utilization of its grids, improve its customer service, develop new products, reduce costs, and become greener.

However, the disparate IT systems of the distributors meant multiple data sources and various data analytics tools were in use including Azure Advanced Analytics, Tableau and Celonis, making it nearly impossible to get a consolidated view. What’s more, the rigid on premises SAP BW systems offered little room for innovation, were expensive to operate and meant that cross-system data use wasn’t possible.

A consolidated data solution

Having worked closely with SoftwareOne to install their first SAP Workloads in Azure in 2017, followed by several SAP projects, e.kundenservice Netz turned to SoftwareOne again to consolidate the various on-premises SAP legacy systems of E.ON’s distribution network operators into a multi-tiered system deployment in the cloud.

Specifically, an SAP BW/4 system landscape was implemented in Azure, consisting of BW/4HANA, Web Dispatcher, Cloud Connector, SAC Agent, and DP Agent (SDI). For the high storage and data management requirements, Microsoft's native file storage service Azure NetApp Files was used.

More data, better insights

By building a central data platform and linking various data sources from SAP and non-SAP systems such as Oracle or other databases, e.kundenservice.Netz can access more data than ever before and use various data analytics tools to perform fast, automated and efficient data analysis in real time and generate and provide unprecedented data quality to its customers. New tools such as SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Fiori as well as Microsoft’s native Azure services add further comprehensive analyses.

SoftwareOne also provides a continuous managed service with 24/7 availability of the service desk as well as SAP system monitoring including operating system and database monitoring; patches and other required updates such as database or operating system maintenance; and an annual performance of a disaster recovery test.

Data-driven decisions for a greener future

e.kundenservice Netz now has a consolidated, real-time view of its data to make better decisions, improve innovation and ensure a transition to sustainable, greener solutions. Access to this data means reliable, data-driven and sustainable decisions can be made by all stakeholders: the distribution system operators, local electricity feeders and electricity consumers.

This fundamentally supports the corporate mission: to decisively drive forward the energy transition in Europe and are committed to sustainability, climate protection, and the future of our planet.

Other positive benefits of moving to a consolidated, cloud-based SAP system include:

• Reduced costs: Instead of operating multiple, stand-alone data centers with cost-intensive hardware support, the centrally managed cloud platform has significantly reduced operating expenses for e.kundenservice.Netz’s IT teams.
• Better innovation, faster time to market: With instant access to data, decisions can be made on bringing new products and services as well as pricing changes to the market, while the cloud scalability and agility means new projects can be developed fast.
• Improved customer experience: The introduction of digital products based on improved data analysis means customers can self-serve, accessing the services they need when they need them.
• Reduced risk: Having a centralized data platform and automated cloud-based processes for data generation, analysis and control, has increased data quality and reduced the risk of errors. Cloud-based backups and scalable storage ensure that systems and data are always available and outages due to insufficient storage are prevented.
• Greater sustainability: Using a single cloud-based data warehouse solution instead of multiple on-premises data centers is more CO2-efficient because it can be scaled up and down as needed, consuming only the exact computing power needed.