Software AG Helps Watt Germany Transform Utility's Business Processes

08/28/2008

Software AG, a leader in business infrastructure software, today announced that Watt Germany GmbH has chosen the webMethods product suite from Software AG to support a revolutionary approach to managing Watt’s business processes.

ebizQ received the following:

Watt has embarked on a program of redefining its total operations from a business process perspective. Having reduced and standardized the total number of processes, Watt will then automate and monitor the running business through a reorganization of its IT infrastructure. The new infrastructure will enable Watt to make more immediate changes to processes in order to implement new regulations, support new customer requirements and introduce new products on-demand. In addition, Watt estimates that it can deliver efficiency gains of 30% allowing for the re-allocation of resources and accelerating sales.

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Watt, a leading electricity provider serving small to mid-size organizations throughout Germany, is the ultimate digital business. The product is digital, the supply chain is digital and the company’s sales and marketing processes are digital. The buying and selling of electricity that is core to its business requires accurate forecasts of demand, down to the customer level, the ability to rapidly switch customers between suppliers, and the need for accurate and timely billing. Watt is the first electricity provider in Germany to attempt to automate this digital value chain from first customer contact to supply and finally to billing.

“This is revolutionary,” says Markus Felsmann, Director of IT & Processes at Watt. “What we are doing here will allow us to make better business decisions, more readily identify which processes need to be changed to implement those decisions, and to start making those changes immediately.”

To Watt’s customers, this enables a choice in terms of service level definition and product scalability. For them, electricity will be more than just a commodity, but rather, a tool for minimizing costs through accurate demand forecasting and just-in-time delivery. Welcome news in today’s energy markets.

“It is not only about efficiency,” adds Felsmann. “Although this is important, we will also have real-time monitoring and analysis of our total business. This means that we can pin-point and change activities that are less than optimal, and introduce new activities in hours rather than days or in days instead of weeks.”

Watt’s overall approach is to look at the business from a new process perspective, independent of any underlying IT requirements or restrictions. For example, the ‘order-to-cash’ process was redesigned to achieve specific Key Performance Indicator (KPI) objectives. Only then were the IT decisions made regarding how to support these newly designed business processes. Notes Felsmann, “We started with the processes that we needed to run a successful business and then looked at how we needed to support them. As a result, we choose Software AG’s webMethods suite as our new business infrastructure.”

“This is a great example of the innovation being delivered to companies through the implementation of SOA and BPM technologies,” said Karl-Heinz Streibich, CEO of Software AG. “I have talked recently of the significant changes taking place in the IT market. This is one of the best examples I have seen in which innovative thinking is leading to excellent results for companies and their customers. We are delighted that Watt has chosen Software AG.”

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