By Nathan Dukes
ERM Power, Australia’s largest privately owned energy company, has chosen to deploy SAP’s Business All-in-One software suite.
SAP said the new software will provide the company with ‘a clear view of its performance, help improve process efficiency, and increase automation’.
Graeme Walker, CFO of ERM Power, said the solution will provide a platform to support continued organisational growth and success.
“The vision for our business is articulated through three core values; people, planet and performance,” he said.
“After a solid period of sustained growth and business activity, it was evident that we needed to transition to a new business process and reporting platform to sustain our high performance and ensure we continued driving towards our vision.”
ERM Power implemented the solution with the help of SAP partner, Extend Technologies.
In recent years ERM Power has experienced significant levels of growth- expanding operations from electricity development and generation to gas exploration and electricity retailing.
As a result, they required a new software solution which would support growth while simplifying transactions and processes across operational streams.
The deployment of Business all-In-One will involve migrating a variety of processes onto a single consolidated SAP platform. This will allow ERM to integrate and streamline the processes.
“We selected SAP on the basis of its functionality and extensive industry experience in energy and utilities. By choosing to deploy an SAP system, ERM is effectively establishing the basis for sustained levels of growth into the future,” said Walker.
The software will enhance ERM’s management reporting capabilities enabling them to create a wider variety of reports at different levels of the organisation.
This is expected to reduce the time spent by the ERM finance team compiling reports, while increasing cost control for key business users and improving their access to data.
Max White, Managing Director, Extend Technologies said organisations with multiple entities or departments in their corporate structure are attracted to the Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) component of the SAP BusinessObjects suite.
“It has been an area where traditionally, it has not been done well in most core ERP applications but that has changed for the better since SAP acquired BusinessObjects,” he said.
The new SAP solution is scalable, providing for future growth but without the need for additional staff.
“Extend Technologies are partnering with ERM Power for the long run – they are a growth oriented company and an SAP solution will ‘leave doors open’ as ERM Power’s enterprise application needs evolve,” said White.
