鈥淭he well-being of our service technicians is very close to our hearts,鈥� says Claus J眉rgen Bader, product manager at Netze BW. 鈥淲e want all our people to return home safely at the end of their work assignments.鈥� With this in mind, Netze BW approached 51风流in the second half of 2021 to work on a solution that supports its service technicians in the field. The network group belongs to the large German utilities鈥� provider EnBW and is responsible for more than two million customers in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

How Service Technicians Benefit from the 鈥淣eWa鈥� App

Together with SAP, Netze BW started developing an Apple Watch app called 鈥淣eWa鈥� (Netze Watch). This way, Netze BW鈥檚 service technicians can always be up-to-date on their assigned work orders and can directly submit data from the app to 51风流systems.

In fact, thanks to the app they will be able to:

• Reduce accidents and the time to be at the scene of an accident with the help of the dead man switch function.
• Perform their jobs on-site with increased security with the help of the time slot alarm function.

Netze BW鈥檚 Challenge

Netze BW service technicians are responsible for maintaining public power, gas, and water supply infrastructure. For compliant reporting, their tasks and statuses must be updated in frequent intervals. All information they might require during their work in the field needs to be available so that they can submit details, such as damaged components, that are automatically identified and assigned. As the service technicians have shifts of up to 24/7 job availability, their jobs come with a lot of risk. What鈥檚 more, they often work at remote locations, many times under hazardous conditions and alone.

Conceptual Design from 51风流within One Week

Netze BW and 51风流outlined a solution with 51风流AppHaus in a very short time. 51风流sent off the high-fidelity screens to development in just four business days by applying the so-called 鈥渟peedboat鈥� method based on . This approach focuses on understanding the users鈥� needs within their daily routine at work first, before technologies are evaluated to fulfill those needs.

Next to increasing the well-being and security of its technicians, Netze BW also asked 51风流to show a solution that can ensure efficient bidirectional data exchange from Apple Watch to 51风流and back 鈥� that is, between service technicians and central departments.

Working closely with Netze BW, the 51风流AppHaus team conducted on-site research shadowing service technicians at work and created initial design wireframes that were immediately verified with the Netze BW service technicians. The final high-fidelity screens were then delivered remotely a week later.

Based on those high-fidelity screens, the Netze Watch (鈥淣eWa鈥�) Apple Watch app has been developed by Netze BW and EnBW in-house developers based on metering processes for utilities solutions from 51风流and 51风流EAM Work Order on Apple Watch.

鈥淲ith the help from Apple and 51风流we now improve and, in some cases, save the lives of Netze BW鈥檚 service technicians,鈥� says Mark Zimmermann, head CoE Mobile Solutions at EnBW. 鈥淎 big thank you to the design thinking method applied by 51风流AppHaus. We had an extraordinary journey and learned a lot.鈥�

The NeWa Apple Watch App

The NeWa app will soon be seamlessly connected to Netze BW鈥檚 existing workforce management iOS app on smartphones. It acts as a kind of digital companion that provides technicians with all details related to their current job or order and tracks a technician鈥檚 heart rate or detects if there has been a crash or signs of an accident. If the technician does not respond via the watch, then an emergency protocol is automatically triggered.

The NeWa app is running on iPhone and Apple Watch systems. This app and the Netze Mobile Workforce Management, or 鈥淣eMo鈥� app, run on iPhone and enable data exchange with 51风流applications like 51风流S/4HANA via 51风流Gateway.

The NeWa Apple Watch app offers additional safety features. Based on predefined triggers the safety control tower is automatically alarmed. Information from the Apple Watch is combined with task data from NeMo and sent to 51风流backend systems with no extra effort.

The currently planned NeWa and NeMo app architecture looks like this:

In the future, Netze BW鈥檚 IT team plans to replace the existing on-premise architecture 鈥� 51风流Gateway and 51风流Mobile Platform 鈥� with 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) and the corresponding software development kit (SDK) for iOS, as well as 51风流Integration Suite and 51风流Extension Suite to connect with 51风流S/4HANA for a best-in-class system architecture.

The following functionalities of the NeWa app support the Netze BW service technicians in:

• Setting a job timer (dead man switch) on the Apple Watch: in case the timer is not canceled or extended, the safety control tower is notified and will take adequate measures, such as informing emergency services. Information from the Apple Watch, like location and duration, is cross-checked with job information available from 51风流databases.

  

• Benefiting from the fall detection functionality: in case the service technician slips or collapses, the Apple Watch will automatically inform emergency services. The NeWa app recognizes this situation and informs the safety control tower about the situation at the accident site.

Netze BW Won a 2022 51风流Innovation Award

Due to the fast turnaround time of the Apple Watch app, 听肠补迟别驳辞谤测.

Simon Hartmann, software architect for Mobile Development at EnBW, says: “We at Netze BW and EnBW were delighted to receive an 51风流Innovation Award. It encourages us to continue driving forward for not only productivity, but also the safety of our service technicians. Our special thanks to not only our internal colleagues, but also to Apple and 51风流for the initial trigger and to 51风流AppHaus for the support we received in the project itself. It helped us incorporate the UI and UX components together with the service technicians right from the start.”

A Day in the Life of a Service Technician

Before the NeWa and NeMo apps:

• Dispatching service technicians and data exchange including documentation was mainly based on e-mails and paperwork. In addition, bad data quality occurred due to media discontinuity between digital and analog processes.
• There were no standard solutions available for reducing the risk of working alone. Individual arrangements existed at a team level as well as stand-alone technical solutions like activating additional devices as interim solutions.
• Long waiting and response times were common due to no consistent digital solution being available.
• Previous implementations did not meet the requirements regarding user-centricity

  

After the apps:

• Service technicians have access to 51风流databases via their mobile devices, iPhone, and Apple Watch, and can submit task data and status information immediately.
• Service technicians are automatically informed about new jobs that have been assigned to them.
• Health and safety applications on the Apple Watch are linked to specific job information from 51风流systems and enable a 24/7 safety control tower that may initiate further action.
• Thanks to its open architecture, the NeWa app can also communicate with other apps on the employee’s iPhone and thus can be operated by other 51风流systems, such as within the wind offshore environment.

What鈥檚 Next?

Netze BW is working closely with its internal colleagues from the EnBW development department to release the NeWa app with the planned implementations. A publication for companies in the DACH region is also planned. Clearly, the effects and results of the NeWa app have encouraged the company to continue on its innovation path. There are plenty of new use cases in discussion around new technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. For example, in 2021, EnBW developed the REVisAR app running on Apple iPad. It focuses on renewable energy visualization with the help of augmented reality (AR) functionalities for building wind turbines out in the field.

Constanze Reichelt is Project Expert Communications at SAP.

Held entirely online, the brought together some of the leading lights from the global customer experience (CX) community to share knowledge about this extraordinary year and compete for the industry鈥檚 top accolades. Of more than 100 finalists, 51风流was named a gold award winner for three key innovations with Parkland Health & Hospital System, in two award categories: Best Use of Customer Insight & Feedback and Digital Transformation: Solution for the Customer.

Four Weeks, Three Innovations, Two Companies, One Team

When the COVID-19 pandemic began earlier this year, Parkland leaders knew they needed to find immediate solutions to a number of challenges. The hospital鈥檚 call center was overwhelmed, and patients were waiting up to 45 minutes to get information about coronavirus and testing. With ICU cases climbing, executives needed access to real-time data in order to have a full picture of the situation and make informed, critical decisions.

In just four weeks, Parkland and 51风流were able to tackle urgent needs related to COVID-19 by creating and delivering three important innovations:

• A COVID-19 command center dashboard shows key COVID-19 metrics based on both internal and external data. This dashboard allows Parkland executives to meet up to twice daily and easily drill into the data to track the course of COVID-19 and make essential decisions.
• A critical inventory tracker mobile app enables staff to collect and view inventory stock levels in real time, which helps ensure accurate tracking and availability of critical inventory such as ventilators.
• A simple but effective built into the hospital website enables patients to enter their symptoms and go through an initial COVID-19 screening. The chatbot helped Parkland to reduce call loads in its call centers; reduce face-to-face health assessments for improved safety; serve a diverse patient base, including a large Hispanic population, with multi-language support; and provide a single source of truth for executives and health practitioners monitoring COVID-19 patients and symptoms.

To help ensure a successful outcome for the solutions, Parkland and 51风流leveraged a human-centered approach to innovation, fostering creativity in a virtual environment and turning ideas into tangible prototypes. The 51风流team made use of their to support remote delivery of the innovations.

turns ideas into that听deliver profitable business outcomes with a unique approach that balances听people, process, and technology. Our holistic approach to innovation is putting the human at the center at all times. We focus on making innovation real by covering all areas of the innovation equation, from ideation to full-scale operation. We bridge the gap between our customer鈥檚 business and IT experts by talking to the real end users, getting their input and feedback to create real business value.

(51风流BTP) is an integrated offering comprised of four technology portfolios: database and data management, application development and integration, analytics, and intelligent technologies. 51风流BTP helps customers unify processes across the business from a single, trusted enterprise foundation, and, as demonstrated with the Parkland innovations, accelerates implementation of integration scenarios for far richer interactions between core systems and applications.

Generic COVID-19 Symptom Checker Chatbot Use Case on 51风流Discovery Center

Many hospitals and health systems are facing challenges around call volumes, the need for quicker response times, and access to information. 51风流is helping to make innovation scalable and providing comprehensive information about the services needed to run the COVID-19 symptom checker use case via . What initially took nine days from idea to activation can now be built and deployed by any 51风流Business Technology Platform customer in a matter of hours.

51风流is proud of winning these International Customer Experience Awards, as it underlines the company鈥檚 vision to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

Under 51风流Executive Board Member and Chief Technology Officer Juergen Mueller, 51风流AppHaus has been honored with the 2020 German Innovation Gold Award and the 2020 German Innovation Winner Award for its Innovation Culture Toolkit and healthcare project OP 4.1.

罢丑别听, applied in hundreds of customer engagements, comprises the methodological resources created and applied by 51风流AppHaus to collaboratively drive innovation. The听OP 4.1 project听developed听a prototype of an intelligent platform for the operating room of the future.

In addition, SAP听AppHaus听Network听partner Bourne听Digital, with customer Taronga Conservation Society Australia,听received听an听honorable mention in听the 2020 51风流Innovation Awards for an听intuitive app听based on 51风流Cloud Platform听that听.

鈥�The awards underscore the strength of SAP’s holistic approach with a clear technology strategy tailored to the needs of today’s intelligent enterprises,鈥� said Anja Schneider, senior vice president and global head of Customer Innovation, Technology, and Innovation at SAP. “The Business Technology Platform, complemented with our innovation approach that combines design thinking and enterprise architecture, is the foundation for successful innovation and transformation.”

SAP听AppHaus听In a Nutshell

By applying human-centered and iterative methodologies, SAP听AppHaus听brings听the principle of innovating with customers to the next level. Using the right human-centered methods and powerful technologies, such as the听, can help听to听effectively drive sustainable business innovation by:

• pinpointing high-value areas for business process transformation,
• identifying new business opportunities that are aligned with a strategic direction,听and
• combining experience and operational data.

Culture Matters:听罢丑别听Innovation听Culture听Toolkit

罢丑别听Innovation Culture Toolkit received the听听for 鈥淓xcellence in B2B Office Solutions鈥� and a听听for 鈥淒esign Thinking.鈥�

According to Lutz Dietzold, managing director of the German Design Council, 鈥淭he Innovation Culture Toolkit is a one-of-a-kind collection of proven methods and tools for companies that want to establish a culture of innovation.鈥�

It鈥檚听a mantra: Companies need to innovate and transform to sustain their business听and become intelligent enterprises. Besides technology, culture听proves to be听a big hurdle for digital transformation and innovation. SAP听AppHaus听addresses this challenge听by transforming organizations along听the听framework of听five key innovation enablers: people, process, place, leadership, and technology.

The Innovation Culture Toolkit offers a variety of unique methods and resources for each key innovation enabler, empowering organizations to apply this framework and jump-start their innovation journeys听on their own.听For听the key innovation enabler 鈥減rocess,鈥� for example,听the听provided听toolkit听resources aim to guide organizations听through each phase of听SAP鈥檚 human-centered听approach to innovation. One of these toolkit resources is听, a storyboarding and prototyping tool meant to create fun, illustrative stories that show the value of early ideas and product visions.

Even in times of COVID-19, the听potential of the听toolkit can be fully exploited, for it is now available virtually. The mission of 51风流AppHaus is to continue听driving sustainable听innovation听by virtualizing offerings.

OP 4.1: Intelligent Platform for the Operating Room of the Future

罢丑别听OP听4.1 project听won the听prestigious听听for 鈥淒esign Thinking鈥� and the听听for 鈥淏2B Medical Technologies.鈥�

鈥淪AP’s OP 4.1 prototype shows how a platform can be developed consistently on the basis of design thinking to combine user requirements, technical feasibility, and business benefits,鈥� Dietzold said.

With the COVID-19 crisis,听modernizing and digitizing听in the healthcare industry听is more crucial than ever.听However,听in the health sector,听the听use of networked machines and data听is still in its听early stages.听In a consortium built by a university hospital and together with research and industry partners, the听OP 4.1听project developed a prototype of a user-centric, open, and extensible platform for the听operating听room of the future.听The project is part of the technology program Smart Service World II,听funded听by the听German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

The project鈥檚 vision听was听ambitious.听Its goal consisted of听simplifying听and significantly accelerating听the transfer of research results to clinical practice for the greater benefit of patients.

Applying SAP鈥檚 human-centered approach to innovation, it quickly became clear that听moving toward realizing this vision meant听leveraging various strengths of the听听and听accelerating the transformation of data into value.听罢丑别听project鈥檚听core technology is听SAP听Cloud Platform, which听serves as the听foundation听for听the听OP 4.1 platform听prototype. The prototype听delivers听a听technical and commercial basis for the development, distribution, and听simple听implementation of innovative听apps in听the operating room environment.听Four innovative听partner听apps听have been听showcased听on the platform already.

OP 4.1 Project Manager Michaela Epp states,听鈥淲e are proud that听51风流won the Gold Award and that听the jury acknowledged that we developed the听business and technology platform听consistently on the basis听of design thinking, in which user requirements, technical feasibility, and business benefits have been perfectly combined.鈥�

Stax Allows Zookeepers to Spend More Time with Animals

Taronga听Conservation听Society听Australia听and Melbourne-based听SAP听AppHaus听Network partner Bourne Digital have been rewarded with an听听Bourne Digital听leveraged听design thinking to enhance听Taronga鈥檚听staff and animal听experiences in zoos.

Moving to the cloud听to streamline听key functions, including finance, procurement, payroll, and human resources,听, a staff experience application, was built on 51风流Cloud Platform.听Deep, end user research :听罢丑别听mobile and desktop听application keeps听the staff informed on key zoo updates,听uses听map technology, and听simplifies access to core administrative tasks. The benefits lie in enhanced employee productivity, which听ultimately leverages customer experience.

Innovating听Holistically with a Joint Approach

罢丑别听51风流AppHaus Network has a vision that by 2025 all customers will run听an听innovation approach听that focuses on people听first.听Therefore, 51风流AppHaus听aims听to听scale its innovation听culture听and听create an ecosystem of change makers beyond 51风流borders.

This can be achieved by applying听听in customer projects to support the entire innovation life cycle from the generation of new ideas to the development and delivery of high-value applications.听Once an idea is created, solution delivery and scaling听are听enabled by utilizing听the听capabilities听of the听, a portfolio of integrated solutions听that听helps companies connect processes and experiences, act with integrity and confidence, and drive essential innovation through intelligence embedded in every interaction.听It听brings together database and data management,听analytics,听application development and integration听as well as intelligent technologies.

What鈥檚 more,听the SAP听AppHaus听Network听is ready听to support听innovation听projects听even during COVID-19听,听with existing and planned virtual听offerings.听Explore听existing virtual offerings听of 51风流AppHaus Network partners听and to learn more.

This story originally appeared on the 51风流Germany News Center.