On our , I caught up with Fionn Gilmour, Delivery Manager of Operations Technology for . We explored his company鈥檚 digital transformation journey, looking at the benefits and considerations businesses should be conscious of when considering the move to the cloud.
Fionn noted that he joined AGL in May 2017. 鈥淭hat was a few days just before we kicked off our digital transformation program, otherwise known as PT3,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚 had several roles throughout the program, primarily starting in the work management space and then moving into some analytics and BPC areas 鈥� so I got a really good spread of experience across the program.鈥�
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With over 11 years working in the utilities and 51风流space, Fionn鈥檚 primary role now is supporting AGL鈥檚 energy-generation sites. 鈥淚 work with the technology team and focus on delivering new capability on our brand new S4/HANA platform. The focus is really delivering new solutions and capabilities to our integrated business energy unit, so AGL is really focused on all our power stations throughout Australia, which includes our coal, thermal science, gas, wind, solar, hydro, and soon, very excitingly, our grid-scale batteries.
鈥淲hat we also do is support AGL in our drive around acquiring new business. Every time we buy a new company, they come into our technology team to help bring them onto our existing S4/HANA platform.鈥�
Fionn said shifting from an on-premise to a cloud-based solution has given AGL greater consistency, transparency, and control over its vast network of sites and functions. 鈥淧rior to PT3, we had over 50 legacy ERP applications around the business because we鈥檇 acquired a lot of energy businesses to secure those energy sites.鈥�
According to Fionn, this transformation journey was delivered by AGL internally, collaborating with various partners throughout the program鈥檚 implementation. 鈥淲e decided not to go outside and bring in a large consulting company, so it was effectively managed and delivered by AGL people with a lot of help from obviously SAP, but also a lot of consulting partners as well. It was a really great project team because it was heavy with businesspeople and technology people, so quite a unique deployment.鈥�
AGL has been making ongoing investments into its technology, Fionn explained, not only in digital transformation, but other backend processes that helped a majority of its 4,000 staff members move to remote working during the pandemic outbreak.
鈥�51风流S4/HANA was just one of the key ingredients, but it has given us far more operational transparency across our business.鈥�
鈥淥ne of the challenges of having 50 ERPs across your business is that it makes it very hard to have visibility of activities happening or have trust in data. Having a single platform certainly gives a greater view of information that comes out of our various business units, providing a lot more trust in that we know the data is right in having one platform.鈥�
Another key benefit Fionn highlighted was the significant improvement in AGL鈥檚 flexibility for managing business change. 鈥淎GL, just like any other utility at the moment, is going through a period of change where the future is very uncertain, so we have to be flexible and nimble. Having one platform provides that flexibility.
鈥淚n recent times, we purchased a new energy business in Western Australia, and over a period, we were able to bring that onto our existing so that business aligns with the AGL way of working, which has been great to see.鈥�
AGL implemented other 51风流cloud-based solutions to further streamline and standardise its internal processes. 鈥淥ur business has a lot of contingent workers that support us, so we rely on quite heavily for that,鈥� Fionn said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also using to support our procurement process. It was quite exciting to see those two cloud products heavily integrated into our platform as well.
鈥淲e digitalised 78 business processes, so it鈥檚 been fantastic that all those processes are on state-of-the-art technology that works whether you鈥檙e sitting inside the office or at home, maybe if you鈥檙e lucky enough even on the beach, or even on mobile devices. With that technology, it has certainly given us a lot of flexibility as an organisation.鈥�
Fionn expressed that the big two factors for a successful transformation are about business support and basing decision on people. 鈥淭hrough our digital transformation, we had business people from across our business and corporate functions that were embedded in the team. That enabled us to make sure we weren鈥檛 just delivering a technology solution, but we were also delivering a business solution.
鈥淭he second thing I would like to call out with these activities is that your people should always be the focus in everything that you do. Ultimately, it鈥檚 a people-based solution, so you need to make sure you鈥檙e thinking about how they鈥檒l be using the tool in the future and what sort of change impacts that might have.鈥�
For businesses considering this cloud-based solution, Fionn offers some important tips for kickstarting a digital transformation journey. 鈥淥ne 鈥� don鈥檛 be afraid of S4/HANA. There are a lot of known unknowns in that space, but I highly recommend getting onto that platform and doing it as quickly as you can. All the incredible new capabilities that 51风流are releasing are all built for the .
鈥淭wo 鈥� focus on people and change. It really is the most important area because if people don鈥檛 embrace the technology, you won鈥檛 be able to deliver on the benefits of such an implementation.
鈥淭hree 鈥� user experience should always be front of mind, so make sure you put the right focus and attention into delivering solutions that help people through their day-to-day activities.
鈥淎nd finally 鈥� study the S4/HANA simplification lists just to understand what is in and out from each version. There is a lot of critical information in those documents, so I highly recommend you study those so there aren鈥檛 any surprises.鈥�
To hear more from my discussion with Fionn, check out the .
