Sydney, Australia — AGL Energy Limited (AGL) has been named winner of the SAP Customer Award for Excellence 2008 in the category of Best SAP CRM for call centre and front office application.
With its supporting partner, Accenture, AGL won the award ahead of six other nominees. AGL’s Project Team was also named the Best Project Team at this year’s awards for the first phase of the company’s retail business transformation program, Project Phoenix.
The award for Best SAP CRM is given to the company that has best deployed SAP CRM solutions for Sales, Service or Marketing projects.
AGL also received a second acknowledgment, the inaugural award for Best Project Team, for the first phase of Project Phoenix.
SAP Australia CEO Mr Tim Ebbeck said the new award for Best Project Team was established in recognition of the scale and scope of Project Phoenix.
“One project redefined our process and created a new project category, Best Project Team, encompassing all of the individual categories: Project Sponsor, Project Manager and Solution Architect,” Mr Ebbeck said.
The winning team was comprised of project sponsors Phil James, AGL’s Group General Manager Retail Energy, and Owen Coppage, AGL’s Chief Information Officer; project manager Adriana Bosnjak; and solution architects Faye Griffiths and Paula Clark.
AGL’s Project Phoenix change program involves the delivery of a world class customer management and billing system utilising SAP technology. More than 1.6 million AGL customers were transferred to the new system in FY2007, while all remaining customers will be transferred by 31 December 2008.
Project Phoenix was one of the biggest SAP projects to go live in the Asia Pacific region in 2007.
The SAP Customer Awards judging panel said AGL had derived real business benefits from its deployment of SAP CRM solutions, resulting in:
- A combination of operational improvements and site consolidation to achieve more than $25 million of cumulative, net cost benefit by end FY2008;
- Headcount and cost/margin benefits release is on track with a further $35m of annualised benefits to be released in FY10;
- AGL Energy Limited’s annual results for FY2008 confirmed that its net operating cost per customer account was down 4.5%.
AGL CIO Mr Coppage said: “The Phoenix Change Program incorporates one of the most complex SAP solutions implemented anywhere in the world utility sector, both in terms of the duration of the implementation and the number of customer connection points.”
“AGL operates across four separate jurisdictions, selling two fuel types, servicing both basic and interval meters. Project Phoenix involves transitioning more than 100 disparate customer management and billing systems to one integrated strategic platform and rationalising AGL’s products from 1100 down to approximately 78.
“I am pleased to advise that Phoenix change program is on track and delivering early benefits. To date, this has been one of the most successful SAP implementations globally, with two releases delivered successfully within 21 months. The new SAP system will be a revolution in the way AGL does business by delivering a robust IT platform that will add value and a competitive edge over the long term,” Mr Coppage concluded.
SAP Australia CEO Mr Ebbeck said: “These awards are judged by an independent panel, and each nomination must pass a three-phase evaluation process to be recognised as a finalist. Judging criteria is based on the customer’s effective use of resources, their relationship with the implementation partner and SAP, their ability to understand and adapt to changing market conditions and the achievement of set business objectives.”
About AGL
AGL is one of Australia’s leading integrated energy companies and is taking action toward creating a sustainable energy future for our investors, communities and customers. Drawing on over 170 years of experience, AGL operates retail and merchant energy businesses, power generation assets and an upstream gas portfolio. AGL has Australia’s largest retail energy and dual fuel customer base. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, landfill gas and biomass. AGL is Australia’s largest private owner and operator of renewable energy assets and is looking to further expand this position by exploring a suite of low emission and renewable energy generation development opportunities.
