• The solution is aimed at improving the business process and customer experiences for the utilities companies
• This solution is born out of Project Elevate announced in May 2019.

In this era where latest technology means everything, no organisation is ready to leave their hands loose to grab the latest skill sets. One such example is that many companies are working on developing efficient cloud based solutions to simplify their businesses.

On these lines, SAP and Accenture have announced that they are jointly developing a new SAP Cloud for Utilities solution. The focus is to help utilities companies deliver better in terms of customer experiences and this also necessitates an improvement in business processes. This cloud solution is aimed at delivering on both these fronts – business processes and customer experiences. This will help the companies to prepare themselves to adapt and survive in changing times.

Utilities companies faces the first hand customer experience and hence its vital for them to continuously capture new opportunities and introduce a variety of products line. As per SAP Industries Co-President Peter Maier-
“SAP Cloud for Utilities is our strategic cloud solution, designed to support lead-to-cash processes that can enable utilities to capture new opportunities and develop fresh business models in the dynamic market for innovative commodity and noncommodity products. This solution is also expected to reduce time to market and cost to serve the customers.”

This project is an end to end integrated solution born out of ‘Project Elevate’ announced in May 2019. The major challenge that these companies face is at the sales department where more and more resources are assigned. The project is expected to smoothen the sales process through automation. This will enable the them to free up some resources from sales department and contribute in overall customer experience. This process will result in enhanced loyalty and increased revenue. This solution has been designed to be embedded with many other latest technologies, various tolls to provide business analytics, marketing research, commerce and bill subscription facilities for various products.

SAP said that this solution will be build on SAP C/4HANA suite, SAP H/4HANA Cloud from the rechnical front. Accenture’s product knowledge, industry and customer management experience will provide the process related help to this solution.

To survive in the market, utilities companies need to work on various customer centered focus points like marketing, sales, commerce, billing, revenue management and customer data. Employees working on this solution says that they want to provide unique industry insights, agile methodologies and integration capabilities that can accelerate the advanced features of SAP C/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA across these various customer points.

As per Jean-Marc Ollagnier, Chief Executive for Accenture’s Resource Business, This cloud based solution will enable to client to create better customer experiences and streamline their back-office operations. This will help the clients to be more competitive in the market during these challenging times because of changing technology and customer preferences.

This initiative also includes the formation of an industry co-innovation group which comprises of various utility companies to help define and design SAP Cloud for utilities. The innovation group is already joined by 15 global companies which together accouonts for 100 million customer contracts globally. These include EDP, rku.it, Conergos, Innogy and MVV among others.

SAP and Accenture have already worked together on developing and strategizing SAP S/4HANA and various other market initiatives across multiple industries. This project will further fasten this collaboration among the two giants.