Energy.ONE – Sachsenenergie

"energy.ONE as a program for the introduction of Microsoft 365 with a focus on Teams and Outlook and the parallel standardization of several IT workplace landscapes has shown in an exemplary manner that the technical side is only a small part of a successful project implementation. Rather, in all transformation projects, the focus must be on people and their needs - which can only be achieved through transparency at every step of the project and comprehensive communication support. This is because we have clearly sensed that taking people's individual needs into account is the key prerequisite for generating a sustainable response within the company. Only then will there be broad acceptance of the change and employees will begin to integrate their newly acquired knowledge into their everyday lives and establish modern working methods together. In short: only by focusing on the human factor will the change become an opportunity for everyone."

Value contribution of IT departments in the context of corporate transformations

How a standardized IT infrastructure can promote collaboration across company divisions.

In preparation for the opening of the Swiss energy market, an established energy services company had to reposition itself with an adapted business model. The focus was on the active expansion of new services in the areas of remote meter reading, energy data management and portfolio management.

Assignment

The merger of Enso Energie Sachsen Ost AG and Drewag – Stadtwerke Dresden GmbH has created the largest municipal utility in eastern Germany and the fourth-largest municipal utility in Germany. In order to continue to reliably supply the approximately 600,000 customers with energy, water and energy-related services and to further enhance the user experience, the existing user platforms were to be merged in an efficient and customer-oriented manner. In addition to the integration of both IT infrastructures, this required a parallel restructuring of existing organizational structures, processes and roles, as well as the initiation of a joint cultural change. This transformation, aptly named Energy.ONE, required the SachsenEnergie teams and consistency to combine their experience and knowledge in the fields of digital transformation and change management.

Implementation

A targeted transformation approach was developed to meet the ambitious implementation deadline of less than 12 months. In addition to a transformation roadmap, this included a structured concept for implementing measures, a cost and dependency plan, as well as a change management concept to enable the 3,300 employees to use new functionalities in a rolling process. The SachsenEnergie AG guidelines for leadership, cooperation and communication formed the basis for the change management activities developed. The Energy.ONE program was divided into a total of three sub-projects. The project priorities included the introduction of a standardized IT workstation, the introduction of Microsoft Office 365 and ensuring overarching change management. In addition to the dismantling and introduction of hardware, extensive activities included the standardized equipment of the IT workstations with Microsoft Office 365, including the implementation of Microsoft Teams and Outlook. In addition to training, consultation hours and extensive information events, the change management concept also included individual support offers – each specific and user-oriented, as well as geared towards the respective working environment.

Conclusion

This successful program has once again made it clear that technology alone should not be the focus of digital transformations. The basic understanding that the newly introduced technologies are not an end in themselves, but are only valuable when they support employees in their daily work, so that they can concentrate on what is really important to them – the customers. As consistency, we are pleased to have given even more weight to this prevailing basic understanding in SachsenEnergie’s IT as part of this digital transformation and to have realized real transformation successes together with SachsenEnergie’s IT teams in an open, constructive and committed manner. We would like to thank all SachsenEnergie and consistency participants for their special commitment to this program.

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