I’m sure for many of us out there, the increase in online scams, phishing attacks, and just straight out shonks taking advantage of the non-technically literate is a real concern.

It turns out that this is just the tip of the digital iceberg. Entire nations can be the target of this growing industry.

has found itself severely compromised of late with hackers launching an unprecedented attack that affected 29 public institutions, including the ministries of finance, social security, meteorology, electricity, sciences, innovation, technology and telecommunications.

published earlier this year titled: “Cyber Attacks Increased 50% Year over Year” revealed in late 2021 there was an all time peak in weekly cyber attacks, averaging over 900 attacks per organisation. Just let that number sink in for a moment. Over 900 per week.

In the study, it revealed that Education and Research were the most attacked sector (average attacks per week 1605 – up by 75% from the previous year) with Utilities companies not far behind with a staggering 736 attacks per week – up 46% from the previous year.

Local Impact for on Utilities Sector

How does this impact Utilities organisations here in Australia? And more importantly how do they respond to these threats, particularly as many have infrastructure that falls squarely under the auspices of the

This is not a simple question to answer.

risk is becoming increasingly difficult for Australian utilities and critical infrastructure operators to manage. Digital transformation is accelerating with, IT and OT landscapes expanding as these new security threats are surging whilst the demand for IT and cyber skills in Australia is at an all time high. Maintaining in-house talent, process governance and eliminating human error is more challenging than ever before.

One significant step 51ˇçÁ÷has taken is to establish the 51ˇçÁ÷Critical Data Cloud a fully managed service capable of powering the operations of government and regulated industries across both Australia and New Zealand. This is designed to help protect the core business applications of governments and highly regulated industries including financial services, healthcare and utilities. The platform is designed to meet the Australian Government’s Official: Sensitive and Protected information standards.

Opportunity for Utilities Organisations

51ˇçÁ÷Critical Data Cloud is a significant investment recognising the increased focus on improving whole-of-economy cybersecurity.

Leveraging its work with 51ˇçÁ÷National Security Services (NS2), 51ˇçÁ÷Critical Data Cloud is tailored for Australian and New Zealand legislative requirements. It empowers public and private customers to rapidly and safely digitise customer, citizen and employee services, while remaining current with legislation and policy.

Utilities organisations will be able to wrap an increased layer of security around their customer data, asset and employee information to help protect against the style of attack seen in places like Costa Rica.

Learn more about 51ˇçÁ÷Critical Data Cloud visit our and download the report on

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“We’re responsible for managing critical energy infrastructure nationwide, and need flexible technology in order to operate and respond to crises. As we expand and innovate through acquisitions and partnerships, we needed an integrated system with standardised technology and processes,” said Shaun Code, general manager of enterprise technology at AGL Energy. “With a rich API layer, the 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA ERP platform provides a core ecosystem with the ability to adapt and extend operations, directly supporting our business growth and differentiating innovation.”

Tech boosts health and safety innovation

replaced over 50 disparate legacy ERP applications with , dramatically simplifying systems with consistent processes throughout the organisation. Teams are taking advantage of the integrated core platform to build extensions on top of critical business processes, such as health and safety requirements.

“We conduct walks to identify potential hazards in facilities or the field,” said Code. “Building on top of the , we’ve developed a mobile app that allows our people to capture and share incidents and hazardous conditions immediately. We can conduct more walks over a shorter time period, increasing our ability to meet health and safety commitments.”

AGL Energy recently won an for its AGL One iOS app. Built on 51ˇçÁ÷S/4 HANA with 51ˇçÁ÷Integration Suite and 51ˇçÁ÷Extension Suite, the mobile app provides employees with one seamless digital experience, allowing them to access the right tool at the right time from anywhere.

Digital platform minimizes plant downtime

As the largest electricity generator in Australia, plant maintenance for AGL Energy is not just about scheduling work orders and completing tasks in a timely manner. Integrating data from 51ˇçÁ÷cloud solutions, including and , provides AGL Energy with visibility across systems, including procurement and its important contract workforce.

“The platform is a unifying hub for effective integration and automation that streamlines our end-to-end daily processes,” said Code. “We can make sure that we have the parts to maintain operations, the contingent workers to complete the job, and the speed to pay our suppliers efficiently.”

Sixty percent time-savings from continuous innovation

AGL Energy has made a number of valuable process improvements on top of 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA, notably an intuitive mobile app that reduced the number of steps in job site environmental analyses by 60 percent. Before work can be done on sites with hazards, teams need to have effective controls in place for people’s safety. Previously, teams used different processes and places to collect and store information.

“We’ve sped up the process with automatically prepopulated data to complete forms, and unified approvals with consistent documentation across the company,” said Code. “People now can spend less time navigating paperwork and more time ensuring their work is completed safely. With a continuous data loop feedback we are constantly improving processes that matter to our business.”

Flexibility for resilient business

When AGL Energy’s employees switched to remote work at the height of the pandemic last year, the company’s automated system literally helped power business continuity. Employees in different locations were easily trained to step in as health and weather-related events unfolded.

“Having a well-designed cloud-based system meant we could quickly scale up to thousands of employees working from home,” said Code. “It also gave us greater planning control during a highly uncertain time, with the flexibility to shift operations between Australia and India in the wake of major disruptions, including a cyclone.”

Cloud platform connects data and insights

Business results from centralising ERP systems on one platform have been palpable company-wide. Because leaders have a clear line of sight through inventory and procurement, work completion rates are faster with fewer instances of costly rescheduling. Sharing inventory data between warehouses at different generator sites saves time and reduces costs. The company can easily find and reuse available equipment, instead of ordering new parts from far flung suppliers. In procurement, teams can more easily source the right goods and services from the right suppliers at the best price. The impact on financial systems has also been profound, reducing the time spent on month-end closings from days to hours.

epitomises the evolving business opportunities from the collision between technology and the industry itself.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be in the energy industry,” said Code. “We are committed to this digital transformation journey with our customers and partners. Whether customers are getting power from solar panels, charging battery-operated EVs and other devices, going online, or just staying comfortable and connected at any time, technology underpins our determination to make services more sustainable, reliable and affordable.”

This article also featured on

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In the beginning, there are needs to be filled, pain points to be identified, and processes to be improved. With the benefit of years of industry experience, close partnerships with leading organisations, and an eye on the latest technology, SAP’s Asset Intensive Industries Centre of Excellence keeps track of a backlog of topics. Through consultation with customers, partners and alignment with , this backlog is prioritised into a vision.

Vision is important; and formulating that vision along with high-level conceptual architecture, value to industry, and to 51ˇçÁ÷forms part of a business case that we socialise with stakeholders for consideration. Once a topic is approved, the rubber hits the road and the work can begin in earnest.

I’d like to share a real-world example. One topic the COE is passionate about is the efficient maintenance of assets. Over many years 51ˇçÁ÷has become a leader in this space with a feature-rich . Managing all aspects of an asset lifecycle including history, planning, spare parts, availability, the people involved, and their health and safety.

Increasingly the management of assets is outsourced to 3rd party service providers. Leveraging these partner organisations brings many benefits but also introduces new challenges and risks including double-handling of information, lack of visibility, data timeliness, and the management of asset knowledge.

Back when I started my career, we used to handle orders by fax; and these days we use the to manage procurement. And this network approach is the vision for a collaborative work order, where Asset Owners (for example mining companies, public sector organisations, and utilities) share their information with 3rd parties to enable modern collaboration that no longer relies on emails and phone calls.

To realise the network vision, we decided to leverage the and as the core foundation of the solution architecture. From here we have been able to design high-level process flows, data model, and screen concepts.

Inviting industry collaborators meant explaining the vision and agreeing to work together on the solution. The response has been fantastic with hundreds of hours of support from industry to articulate the as-is processes and associated pain points. And to provide input and review the to-be process and concepts.

During the pandemic, this has meant remote workshops leveraging tools such as Mural to collaborate. Along with the world’s leading mining and utility companies our co-innovation includes organisations such as Deutsche Bahn one of the world’s leading mobility and logistics companies.

With industry and 51ˇçÁ÷working together we have been able to develop and publish a to realise the vision of a collaborative work order. has been a breath of fresh air to help me through the pandemic. I knew I’d find some interesting challenges along the way. What I’m delighted to find is a passion from both our customers and our product engineering teams to make the world run better. about the new Centre Of Excellence for Asset Intensive Industries.

This article originally published on

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Australia’s Asset Intensive Industries (AII) are a significant anchor for the nation’s economy. Together, these industries – including mining, utilities, oil and gas, chemicals and manufacturing – contribute around a quarter (24 per cent) of Australia’s GDP. This year, despite the pandemic, the natural resource and energy sectors alone are forecast to drive $256 billion in export revenue.

Despite these impressive figures, many companies in this sector are faced with more complex challenges than ever before. Challenges like how to move up the value chain, maximise profits on commodity pricing, and deliver new products to their customers, as well as how to follow through on sustainability goals to create a new industry advantage.

To achieve these objectives, the industry must rise to the task of bringing together technology, people and processes in new and more effective ways. We believe that byĚý collaborating with our industry leading customers and partner ecosystem across ANZ, 51ˇçÁ÷can build the capabilities asset intensive industries need to fully embrace digital transformation and their future potential.

Introducing the 51ˇçÁ÷Centre of Excellence for Asset Intensive Industries

Launched late last year in Australia, SAP’s Global Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Asset Intensive Industries (AII) is already playing a lead role in enabling collaboration between SAP, its partners and customers. Based on an established global model, it will foster collaboration and harnesses the innovation capabilities of 51ˇçÁ÷and its ecosystem to address the common challenges and opportunities facing asset intensive industries globally.

The opportunities to learn from each other are enormous. After all, SAP’s customer base represents 97 per cent of the mining sector and more than half (54 per cent) of the utilities sector alone. Together, the companies we work with in these asset intensive industries generate over $500 billion in revenue annually. In Australia and New Zealand, our customers include some of the most innovative and forward-thinking mining and utilities companies in the world, making it the perfect location for the CoE.

With a dedicated team in Australia of analysts, architects and designers, working with SAP’s product and engineering teams, the CoE will bring SAP’s global expertise, and learnings from our global customer base, to bear in ANZ. In turn, solutions developed by the centre will be made available for relevant customers worldwide. This will allow customers in Australia and New Zealand – and across the world – to more rapidly discover and deploy smart technology to solve key industry problems.

The CoE will also promote the latest industry solutions developed by SAP’s extensive partner ecosystem, as best-of-breed, industry specific cloud apps will be endorsed by 51ˇçÁ÷and made available through .

Cloud revolution and new collaboration models

Engagement with our customers through the CoE will take several forms. Co-innovation will see 51ˇçÁ÷and a customer jointly invest to build a solution that a particular customer requires. The CoE will create new opportunities to discover and prioritise those needs. This might involve extending a particular 51ˇçÁ÷solution by introducing capabilities our customers need or sharing elements of a successful solution deployed by one customer with other organisations or industries.

Co-innovation will see 51ˇçÁ÷and a customer jointly invest to build a solution that a particular customer requires. The CoE will create new opportunities to discover and prioritise those needs.

All of this is possible today because of the improved availability and faster development cycles enabled by cloud technologies, which is accelerating the pace of innovation. Traditionally, engineering was locked in long, complicated development cycles that could not rapidly take account of shifting customer needs. Today, the cloud enables a more agile development cycle, accelerating the pace of innovation from years to months. This makes it easier and faster than ever to work collaboratively and have customers directly engaging with our engineering teams.

Targeting challenges at the core of Asset Intensive Industries

The CoE sees us using the latest technologies – including predictive analytics and automation – to develop asset efficiencies and extend industry capabilities, while helping our customers to embed sustainability into all areas of their operations.

In particular, the Centre of Excellence aims to tackle four key challenges that Asset Intensive Industries are grappling with on their journey to digital transformation:

• management of contractor workforce and assets;
• embedding sustainability;
• a digital supply chain end-to-end; and
• planning and scheduling activities.

Despite the significant uptake of technology in recent years, many asset intensive organisations have struggled to digitise these businesses processes. Two examples of challenges faced by organisations in the sector, which the CoE could help to address, include:

• Efficient and effective management of assets and a contractor workforce
  For many asset intensive companies, procurement of services is a significant cost component (30-40 per cent of total spend). Unless procurement and contractors are effectively managed to maintain assets, they may suffer costly and unnecessary downtime – or worse, injuries and fatalities. Bringing together the concept of ‘networks’ that will allow asset owners, service providers, operators and contractors to collaborate around a single Work Order, will ensure everyone is aligned, risks are managed, and work gets executed in the safest and most efficient way.
• Embedding sustainability
  Sustainability increasingly has the potential to impact an operator’s license to do business and raise capital. The CoE will expand on SAP’s initiative to find new ways for the traditionally resource intensive industry to reduce emissions at every stage of the supply chain, from extraction to transport. Not only will this support initiatives like the Paris Climate agreement, it will also deliver business results: consulting group BCG has linked environmental, social and governance standards to a 19 per cent valuation premium and increased EBITDA margins of 3.4 per cent for top performers in the oil and gas sector alone.

The next step

The Asia Pacific market is increasingly one where innovative ideas are born, not just one where they are sold – and the CoE aims to build on this. Just look at the likes of , which is using a machine vision-enabled app to identify and schedule asset maintenance, saving time and money.

So far, the response to the launch of the CoE has been very exciting. Our customers tell us they see the CoE as an opportunity to put their challenges on the table and talk to industry experts who understand how IT can effectively help.

We are eager to begin this new phase of collaboration to more rapidly and flexibly address the most challenging problems facing ANZ’s Asset Intensive Industries – producing capable, scalable and efficient solutions that will also support our global customers along the way.

To learn more or get involved, visit the website or contact us today.

To read more about the Centre of Excellence, check out .

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Businesses across regions and industries are feeling the impact of COVID-19 and, trying to adapt the way their staff operate and communicate. This rapid shift towards remote working and social distancing is creating ongoing implications for businesses everywhere and the utilities sector is also facing the challenges of how to anticipate what will happen or how to prepare for it.

Impact on Australia’s Utilities Sector
Utilities providers in Australia have been generally responsive and transparent during this crisis. The quickly stated, “There is no evidence that drinking water will be affected by the COVID-19 virus or that it is transmitted by drinking water. Water is an essential service and water utilities are well prepared to manage their response to COVID-19.”

Queensland Natural Resources, Mines, and Energy Minister, Dr Anthony Lynham released a statement saying, “Just as state-owned power and water assets are ready for Queensland’s severe weather events, they are ready for the inevitable impact of coronavirus. I can assure Queenslanders that, should the virus spread, and if staff are taken offline, well-rehearsed contingency procedures will ensure ongoing essential services.”

Around the country, power and water providers have been rapid in responding to COVID-19, assuring customers that service will continue and staff that they’ll remain safe, implementing measures such as working from home and social distancing practices.

As news develops quickly and governments continue tightening restrictions on people’s movement and gathering, the full impact on Australia’s utilities industry is difficult to gauge. With the availability of workforce under risk, another critical impact is on supply chains with potential bottlenecking at primary shipping ports.

exploring the impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s solar sector, discovering that the virus will impact the manufacturing and supply of key equipment and materials used in the construction of solar energy facilities in Australia.

Downstream, these facilities can also expect delays or disruption in procurement of the necessary equipment and materials, with anticipated delays to construction timelines, milestones and completion dates. We’re also already seeing short-term price spikes as a result of availability and access to supply chains.

Digital Safeguards to Change
With increasing utilities providers undergoing digital transformation, this streamlining of supply chain processes and inventory management has also reduced the ability for some companies to cope with global shock events like COVID-19.

However, intelligent technologies and digital business platforms have equipped many companies with the right demand management systems to leverage different strategies for supply, transmission, and storage. The complexity of data analysis can help businesses highlight vulnerabilities in real-time and present other options or outcomes throughout a business’ lifecycle.

Digital transformation was and remains a critical safeguard to limiting people’s immediate contact as it enables staff to operate remotely and unlock avenues for automation – regardless of industry sector. At times of heightened caution for people’s safety, automation remains paramount to protecting people and businesses.

A outlined some valuable next steps for businesses that applies to any industry. The key takeaways from this report were to remain open and responsive with staff and customers; monitor key indicators across your supply chain; don’t neglect medium-term planning for short term responses; and centralise communication systems to ensure transparency and preparedness.

At this time of global confusion and ever-changing news developments, it’s valuable having some reliable information resources that can offer guidance during this crisis. 51ˇçÁ÷recently hosted a series of virtual forums calledĚý, with a second series going live on

The utilities session further explored the impact of COVID-19 on our industry’s workforces with an interactive customer panel from AGL and Mercury. We looked at the current situation and how it continues shifting the way we work in the field and office.

The second episode was an industry leadership panel with EY and Accenture, gathering some key insights about how utilities is being impacted and adapting to this global pandemic.ĚýĚýfrom the 2020 Adaptive Strategies in a Changed World Edition 1, and .

The post Utilities Assurance of Safety and Service appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Yet with uncertainty, comes an opportunity for organisations and people to gain a deeper understanding of how us in being more resilient, flexible, and agile.

Earlier this year, 51ˇçÁ÷produced a series of virtual industry forums, with the intention of delivering insights into the latest trends, technology innovations, and best practice across several industries:

Retail – Customer-Centric Convenience to Sustainable Shopping:
Listen to Salling Group A/S explain how a single digital core across the whole business is helping it to respond to changing customer demands and drive innovation, efficiency, and growth. for the 15th April.

Ěý

Consumer Products – Driving rapid innovation to meet Customer Demand:
Get insights from Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP on how it is driving rapid digital transformation across every part of its business to be more agile, efficient, and responsive to changing customer demands. for the 15th April

Ěý

Banking – From Behavioural Banking to Smart Loan Origination:
Hear how South African start-up Discovery Bank Limited is creating an exciting new business model with its unique behavioural banking approach. for the 16th April

Ěý

Insurance – From Touchless Claims to Healthy Incentives:
Learn how Discovery Health Group in South Africa is making a real difference to personal well-being by incentivising its customers to make healthier lifestyle choices. for the 16th April

Ěý

Oil and Gas – Be part of Digital Innovation to drive efficiency:
Understand the intelligent technologies at the core of Chevron Corporation’s digital transformation, making it more agile and efficient. for the 16th April

Ěý

Utilities – Future proofing through transformation:
Get key lessons from The United Arab Emirates’, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, on how it maintained its global ranking of number one utility by World Bank for the third consecutive year, with scores of 100% in all Getting Electricity indicators. for the 16th April

Ěý

Public Sector – From Smart States to Citizen-Centred Services:
Hear from industry leaders on how today’s challenging environment, along with the transition into the experience economy, is impeding citizen trust levels in Government. This increasing gap is instilling a need for leaders to explore new approaches in becoming a data-driven digital Governments. for the 21st April

Featuring customer interviews and industry deep dives, these virtual forums are designed to deliver quality learning opportunities to support and inspire ongoing transformation efforts.

Build a Business with Purpose
At 51ˇçÁ÷we believe in helping the world run better to improve people’s lives, a value which is ever-more important than ever during these unprecedented times. As many organisations, pivot to support our communities and people, we hope the industry forums will help inspire you further, by showcasing tangible ideas around how technology can support you on your journey.

Register today for your industry forum: , , , ,, ,

The post Dealing with Disruption: How to Understand, Explore and Have Confidence in Driving Transformation Approaches appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.