One of the major areas TasNetworks focuses on is managing assets to deliver reliable services to customers while transforming the business. In this article, we delve into how the Tasmanian electricity transmission and distribution network leveraged solutions from SAP in digital transformation programs and co-innovated with SAP Partners at each stage.
Established in 2014 through the merger of Transend Networks and Aurora Energy’s distribution business, TasNetworks was tasked with supplying economical and efficient services to Tasmanians. Just recently, Guy Barnett, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, stated in a press release that the state-owned power company has managed to keep electricity costs low while simultaneously giving a strong profit and dividend back to the citizens of Tasmania.
Committed to fulfilling its purpose of powering a bright future, TasNetworks had to facilitate various digital transformation initiatives to empower its own employees, overcome redundant systems and disparate processes, as well as tackle several challenges concerning data accessibility. In 2015, the organisation began a significant enterprise resource planning (ERP) project with SAP to fully align TasNetworks’ operations and achieve greater analytical rigour. In addition, the strategy was expected to support the delivery of effective services both internally and externally to customers.
Acknowledging that SAP Partners are key enablers towards becoming intelligent enterprises, the company also worked closely with end-to-end IT services provider DXC Technology in a two-phase SAP implementation program that was completed for over two years. Aside from enabling SAP cloud products such as Ariba, Concur, and SuccessFactors in its operations, the project was primarily centered on implementing SAP S/4HANA as the digital core IT platform that covers mission-critical processes including finance, ERP functionality, human resources (HR), enterprise asset management, project management, and supply chain.
Reaping the benefits of embracing a sophisticated approach to its SAP investment, Amy Parker, Leader of Finance, Analysis and Reporting at TasNetworks, stressed that SAP has been a “catalyst for change” in the finance department. She added that TasNetworks needs to keep looking for ways to strengthen the analytics and reporting it brings to the business by leveraging the power of SAP, particularly the capabilities of S/4HANA.
“Our value is to provide strategic insights and drive business performance forward because this will enable more effective decision making and ultimately better outcomes for our customers,” Parker said.
TasNetworks Utilises SAP in Digital Transformation Initiatives
During the SAUG Summit Online Speaker Series held in September, TasNetworks SAP Analytics Cloud Consultant Alicja Mosbauer also highlighted that leveraging SAP in digital transformation programs within the organisation means enabling employees to have better access to data, empowering them to be confident in a single source of truth, and allowing them to create their own views on the business. Recognising the significant impact of data on different areas of business operations, TasNetworks also collaborated with Bourne Digital to standardise the asset inspection process that includes conducting regular inspections to evaluate and identify maintenance requirements, further ensuring the network assets’ health and safety.
The Melbourne-based digital agency for the SAP ecosystem used a human-centered design approach to help develop a mobile application for TasNetworks called Aspect, which is built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) integrated to SAP S/4HANA. In a recently concluded webinar titled “Learn how TasNetworks simplified their asset inspection process using SAP Business Technology Platform”, David Kruijver, Program Manager of SAP Uplift at TasNetworks, stated that the application based on SAP BTP — the platform bringing together SAP’s intelligent enterprise solutions — allowed the business to complete a job risk assessment and attach that to every work order that is occurring automatically. Additionally, it also enabled TasNetworks to validate the asset data in a much more usable fashion.
“We’re using BTP as that translation layer between the highly usable view of the world, the highly structured view of SAP,” Kruijver emphasised.
Weighing in on the topic, Brendan Gannon, Business Technology Platform Specialist at SAP Australia, noted that SAP BTP is a cloud-based Platform as a service (PaaS) that allows organisations to build very specific business applications in a quick and effective manner. He explained:
“The benefit of using the Business Technology Platform once you’ve got it in is that you can then leverage it as a platform to build a whole lot of other applications on top of the existing platform that you’ve put in. So you kind of start to get exponential value as you roll out.”
The Tasmanian electricity distributor’s SAP project was completed from kick-off to go live in four months and has so far allowed them to:
- Reduce business risks by improving and increasing data collection from the field, including inspections, pole condition updates, and defect identification on poles and supported assets.
- Work in areas with weak network connectivity using an offline solution.
- Continuously update master data in the field and optimise data quality.
- Synchronise large data volumes using SAP BTP to enhance performance.
- Develop a massive uplift in user trust of the systems used.
- Boost employee safety by including job risk assessments into the inspection process.
Moreover, Kruijver revealed that the implementation has been a learning experience generally, considering that it was the first time the company went down on a full user-centric design. He maintained:
“There’s no question that as a business, we are getting a benefit from it in terms of the huge uplift we’ve had in asset data collection but also defect identification and a much happier workforce.”
