Among a range of remarkable innovation projects, ConvergentIS has recently been announced as the winner of the ‘Best Scaling’ category at the inaugural 2021 SAP AppHaus Network Innovation Awards. The Calgary-based SAP Partner helped accelerate FortisAlberta’s digital transformation by utilising SAP Design Thinking to optimise the user experience (UX).
The SAP AppHaus Network, a global community of customer-facing creative spaces, strives to support SAP and its implementation partners in developing valuable solutions by humanising business software and fostering co-innovation. The focus of SAP Design Thinking within each AppHaus is to prioritise humans and understand their experiences. In all engagements, members of the network aim to focus on the end-user and leverage the full potential of SAP technologies including SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).
Over the years, the SAP AppHaus Network has grown to include 16 partners that play an important role in delivering human-centered innovation to SAP customers worldwide. This includes ConvergentIS — the first SAP AppHaus partner in North America — which offers a design, build, sell, and service focus to clients across the region. Recently, it has been recognised by the German enterprise software giant for the scaling of value creation for customer FortisAlberta Inc., a Canadian regulated electrical distribution utility.
Commenting on the annual SAP AppHaus Network Innovation Awards, Birgit Fien-Schmalzbauer, Global Head of the SAP AppHaus Partner Network, said:
“It is inspiring to see our partner-run SAP AppHaus in Calgary, Canada continue to champion our underlying values and drive success for customers like FortisAlberta. This award showcases the ConvergentIS team and their commitment to keeping human-centered, design-driven and scalable innovation at the forefront of all they do with their customers.”
SAP Design Thinking Leveraged by SAP Partner ConvergentIS to Transform FortisAlberta
FortisAlberta, which serves around 600,000 individuals, needed to improve the speed and efficiency of their picklist creation and distribution processes in their warehouse. Previously, it relied on a time-consuming, paper-based system in conjunction with end-of-life third-party technologies. ConvergentIS worked closely with FortisAlberta to make use of their existing SAP investments, accelerate their digital transformation, and facilitate the move to a mobile, paperless solution using the human-centered SAP Design thinking method.
Proud to have been recognised for the innovation project, Shaun Syvertsen, Managing Partner and CEO of ConvergentIS, stressed:
“This award is a testament to our team’s solution-oriented, client-first approach. We are firm believers in working alongside our clients to develop solutions that align with the way businesses already work, and this award is an endorsement of that.”
The successful implementation of the SAP Design Thinking approach enabled FortisAlberta to:
- Gain a better understanding of the pain points experienced by end-users from the previous system.
- Ensure that the solutions built by ConvergentIS would meet both of the project’s end goals.
- Satisfy the end-users and encourage staff to adopt the solutions.
- Develop and execute new mobile and desktop applications for a fully digital end-to-end experience.
- Eliminate several manual administrative tasks and paper pick lists to support the new paperless process.
- Achieve a more streamlined and efficient process to meet the daily business needs of personnel in business, operational, warehouse, and technical roles.
Moreover, FortisAlberta’s warehouse picking process is now 100% paperless, with a 75% reduction in manual efforts and a 33% reduction in picking errors, thanks to ConvergentIS’ work to develop a unified warehouse operations platform. Tushar Patel, Director Business Solutions at FortisAlberta Inc., maintained:
“We transformed a time-consuming paper process for picking material in our warehouse into a real-time automated solution, creating visibility of our material movements that eliminated paper and unnecessary data entry. With our new solution, we’re maximising value from our software investment while increasing warehouse operator efficiency and improving visibility into central warehouse distribution.”
