Vimercate-Bologna, February 26, 2024 – Hera Group is the first multi-utility company among the big players in the Italian market to choose the RISE with SAP solution to accelerate its digitalization journey, enable a major business transformation that will involve the main business processes, with a view to sustainability.
In particular, RISE with SAP will enable Hera Group to further improve its business continuity and operational efficiency by adopting cutting-edge technology solutions that complement the major innovation investments that the multi-utility has always made. SAP’s solution will also enable the company to simplify the management of a large volume of data and accelerate the ability to analyze and correlate it to optimize and speed up strategic choices and deliver higher performance.
“Since the birth of Hera Group, in 2002, we have always worked with an innovation-oriented vision to ensure high standards of quality and continuity of our services. The decision to work with SAP now also confirms our willingness to equip ourselves with cutting-edge technologies to support the infrastructure and operational processes that underpin our business. Utilities is an evolving and fast-paced industry, but the great flexibility and scalability of the RISE with SAP solution allows us to more easily seize future opportunities and address the changes in business models required by the dynamism of the market,” said Salvatore Molè, Hera Group’s Chief Innovation Officer.
“We have been supporting the Hera Group since the beginning of their history in a challenging market environment with very strict regulatory aspects, demonstrating that we have always been a reliable technology partner, able to accompany the company in its constant growth and respecting all industry compliance,” said Carla Masperi, CEO of SAP Italy. “Building a robust system of automated operations and processes based on RISE with SAP will provide Group Hera with intelligent data and insights to seize new business opportunities, reach new customers, serve existing customers with higher levels of satisfaction, and support its strong commitment to sustainability.”
An application solution that strengthens the strategic partnership between the Hera Group and SAP
The Hera Group has been working with SAP for over twenty years, a strategic partnership that has expanded and strengthened over time. The path to digital transformation to adopt RISE with SAP is a move to new technology with a multi-stage project over a horizon of more than three years, involving all business areas and staff functions from 2025 onwards and will be articulated in a program that ensures a migration that does not impact operations.
This approach will lead to the redefinition of all SAP application and infrastructure components, combining the strategy and benefits of the cloud with the technology and architecture of SAP S/4HANA. A choice that focuses on the reliability, efficiency and infrastructure flexibility guaranteed by the RISE with SAP offering, on scalability and application evolution, with the possibility of integrations with AI.
An evolution in line with the multi-utility digitalization process
The adoption of RISE with SAP represents a technological evolution fully in line with the Hera Group’s recent Business Plan, which allocated over €1 billion to digitalization and innovation of infrastructure, processes, and solutions for customers. These initiatives include numerous digitalization and automation projects and the use of predictive models and Artificial Intelligence algorithms based on the enormous amount of data managed by the Hera Group. The Group has long used artificial intelligence tools in the development and management of assets and processes in the energy supply chain, both on the distribution network and in back office activities and marketing services. In the field of water networks, digitization improves monitoring of the quality of service and helps predict anomalies; as regards the environmental supply chain, the Group uses AI to identify recyclable materials in waste and optimize their collection routes.
Hera Group
It is one of the largest multiutilities in Italy and operates in the environment, energy and water sectors, with about 10,000 employees, engaged every day in responding to the multiple needs of about 5 million citizens located mainly in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Marche, Tuscany and Abruzzo. Listed since 2003, it is among the top 40 Italian companies by capitalization (it is part of the Ftse Mib index) and since 2020 has entered the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, World and Europe.