Uniper is a European energy company with global reach, headquartered in Düsseldorf and operations in more than 40 countries. With around 7,400 employees, the company makes an important contribution to security of supply in Europe. By switching to SAP S/4HANA Utilities, the company is pursuing the goal of making its process landscape, which is heavily focused on the large customer business, efficient and future-proof. In particular, the introduction of the SAP MaCo Cloud for standardised market communication is intended to drive forward the au-tomation as well as the upgrade and release capability of the system.
Innovative approach to transformation
The Uniper billing system is characterised by a small number of highly complex data struc-tures and highly individualised processes. The aim of the transformation project was to bring Uniper’s process landscape closer to the SAP standard and harmonise it with SAP’s master data reference model. In this way, Uniper aims to seamlessly combine standard and custom-ised processes. The product maturity of SAP S/4HANA Utilities for the “supplier” and “balanc-ing group manager” market roles posed a particular challenge in the almost four-year project, which included a preliminary study. adesso, Uniper IT GmbH and SAP worked together on the project to further develop the solution for productive operation.
A hybrid approach was chosen as the transformation strategy, which enabled the adoption of already established processes and customised system adaptations. This approach ensured the integration and introduction of new processes and components such as the SAP MaCo Cloud. A partial historical data migration significantly reduced the database volume of the new system’s HANA database and thus saved costs. The legacy system remains in read mode to ensure access to all fully historical data. Real-time access to data and new tools such as S/4HANA Embedded Analytics and Customer Engagement as well as various Fiori apps en-sure optimised processes and more efficient work.
Among other things, adesso was responsible for the comprehensive analysis of the source systems, processes, master data models and interfaces in the project. The IT service provider also handled the data migration to the new S/4HANA system using Natuvion DCS, the inte-gration of the SAP MaCo Cloud and the introduction of the new functionalities mentioned above. To this end, adesso successfully supported the change management of all those in-volved and the Uniper employees affected by the changeover. Using change impact analyses, the project team identified and evaluated changes in working methods so that communication and training formats could be implemented together with the project management and Uniper’s multipliers to suit the target group. These played a key role in ensuring that the new S/4HANA system was quickly accepted by the energy group.
Future-proof
With the early introduction of the new system, Uniper is already well-prepared for an upcoming innovation in the German energy market: From June 2025, technical supplier switching, i.e. changing the electricity supplier at a point of consumption, must be possible within 24 hours on working days. The early go-live gives Uniper, with the support of adesso, sufficient time to stabilise the system by then and to fulfil the new requirements smoothly.
“This go-live is more than just a technological success. It is a decisive step towards digitalisa-tion and automation, which creates the basis for further growth and innovation,” emphasises Kieron Kennedy, Director of Commercial Operation at Uniper. “With SAP S/4HANA Utilities, we now have an IT infrastructure that not only fulfils current requirements, but also optimally prepares us for future market changes.”
