An article by Tobias Hirning, Business Development Manager, ITVT Group While prices for household customers are reaching new heights (average kWh 30.5 cents), the demands on municipal utilities and energy suppliers continue to rise. Car manufacturers are becoming suppliers, various retailers are coming and going, and cloud resources have never been so extensive and affordable… It is therefore important to continue to align the industry with the future.

There are 7 items on the agenda for 2019:

Customer focus or very modern: Customer Engagement

Digitalization does not threaten customer relationships, as some assume. Quite the opposite: success depends on sales and service quality. A whole range of information is collected throughout the entire customer life cycle. Modern communication can create new customer experiences.

Artificial intelligence

At the Digital Summit in November last year, the German government announced an investment of EUR 142 million for 2019. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a buzzword this year. We now have to deal with the topic intensively. The introduction, i.e. the cost, benefit and profitability calculation, has never been easier than it is today. Process optimization and automation offer enormous potential.

Market communication! Transition from interim to target model 2020

Market communication is undergoing a fundamental overhaul to ensure that all participants have access to the same data in a future star-shaped communication system. However, this also means that all operating systems must be up and running by the time the system comes into force (expected to be December 1, 2019). Energy data management, billing and market communication systems will be adapted to this in the coming months.

Replacement SAP IS-U – What’s next

SAP IS-U has been discontinued. The old and expensive on-premise solutions have served their purpose; therefore, a new basic energy management system is needed. For 2019, this means that a suitable strategy roadmap must be developed. The magic formula for this move is called pay-per-use. To be honest, what could be more obvious in our industry than billing based on consumption? Stadtwerk365 is one of the right answers for the role of energy supplier, because in addition to the core energy management processes, machine learning and analytics are also available on the Microsoft basic platform. The goal must be a future-proof and flexible billing system that can easily adapt to the market and rules at any time – the costs per customer/per contract must be calculable and scalable.

Data & Analytics – How do we get the insights into the operational world

Just talking about big data would be so 2015. The key issue in 2019 is not so much the ability to analyse power, but the lack of technical exploitation and implementation. Hence the question: How do the right findings get into the operational business? 43% of companies have difficulty correctly exploiting the information they have gained in the individual units (study, Sopra Steria Consulting). One in four companies sees a need to catch up when it comes to integrating and linking data. The fizzle effect is enormous. It’s about gaining the right insights, expanding analytical know-how and, above all, using data effectively to create value. Of course, a data strategy must be developed in order to network the known silos in the future or, in the best case, merge them.

Commodity versus Non-Commodity Business

New products and business models are becoming a permanent fixture. In addition to the core business, the product world also needs to be revised. Other industries are entering the sector and threatening day-to-day business. In 2019, the question will again be asked as to where the energy industry can poach. We have an infinite number of technical options available for new business areas and ideas. As an example, I would like to mention a project that I implemented in the last few weeks: Blockchain-in-a-week! It only took 5 days from the idea to the working prototype. Agile methodologies such as SCRUM are suitable for implementing such proof of concepts.

Cybersecurity

A spectacular start to the year: “Cyber ​​attack on the federal government” – last year hardly a week went by in which terms such as “attack”, “cyber” or “hacking” did not appear in the industry news. At this point at the latest, the novel “Blackout” by Marc Elsberg is becoming compulsory reading in order to get a “nicely described big picture”. When it comes to the systems for generation, control and distribution, it is not without reason that we speak of a “critical national infrastructure” or – as in Germany – of critical infrastructures (KRITIS). These are systems without which our society no longer functions at all or only to a very limited extent. If these systems are sabotaged or negatively influenced, the consequences are serious and can potentially lead to economic instability or even endanger human lives. Affected companies must therefore implement modern security measures. In 2019, we must finally implement what is technically and innovatively possible; we must abandon the political stereotypes. We should focus on what is technologically feasible and not on regulatory requirements. It will not be enough to “simply” purchase new IT systems. Because choosing the right strategy, type, tools and partners are business critical and crucial for future success. Finally, I would like to use the quote from Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft) as a motto for the Energy Year 2019:

Our Industry Does Not Respect Tradition. It Only Respects Innovation. Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft)