Energy company Uniper powers Europe through digital transformation

Providing customers with tailor-made solutions for complex energy needs

Uniper, a leading energy company active in more than 40 countries, has clear ambitions: to provide power to European markets as they transition to a low-carbon future, to grow in global commodity markets and to develop energy markets outside Europe. The company’s focus is on providing customers with tailor-made solutions for their increasingly complex energy needs, in Europe and beyond.

To support these ambitions, Uniper knew it needed a digital infrastructure that could help it quickly introduce new products and services, manage a complex organization with hundreds of suppliers, and respond fast to turbulent markets and other challenges facing the European energy industry.

Uniper operates power plants across six European countries and Russia and is active in worldwide energy markets through its trading and technology services business in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Uniper was created when German energy compaany E.ON spun off its conventional power generation assets and its global commodities business as a separate company. It launched in 2016 with 13,000 employees in nine countries — and a legacy infrastructure that was overdue for digital transformation.

Uniper wanted to modernize its legacy environment, improve service quality, reduce costs and align services of suppliers. This would require digital transformation at strategic scale – from the workplace, to data centers, and across all operations. It turned to DXC Technology, E.ON’s longtime operational integrator, for its deep understanding of Uniper’s legacy issues, as well as DXC’s detailed plan to transform supplier operations.

Transforming IT operations with analytics

The solution would encompass an entire new ecosystem, centered on predictive analytics and automation. First, DXC defined jointly with Uniper a roadmap taking Uniper’s IT strategy and requirements into consideration.

Early on, DXC introduced a predictive analytics framework for operational insights that shifted maintenance operations from labor-intensive processes to more automated workload resolution.

Automating event and incident management helped Uniper lower headcount, reduce IT costs and increase IT operational efficiency, including significantly reducing backend maintenance and service incidents.

Service integration across the ecosystem

Once the transformation was underway, the next step was to integrate IT and business operations across the ecosystem by enhancing Uniper’s ServiceNow implementation and expanding its business value. Uniper wanted to standardize and stabilize IT service management, increase synergies with business units, and unify and manage the IT experience across suppliers. ServiceNow was also being positioned as a foundation for delivering services across the enterprise.

“Before, the focus wasn’t on the user experience. It was more like one-size-fits-all,” says Stewart Griffiths, Uniper’s head of service management and integration. “We have created a ServiceNow instance that allows the business profile to be more prominent, especially in the user experience.”

For example, users can now go to a portal to perform tasks such as raising a ticket or accessing self-help.

Uniper worked closely with DXC to deploy an independent Service Integration and Management (SIAM) layer to serve as a central point for exchange-to-exchange transparency and supplier performance. Together, the companies replaced outdated service management processes and consolidated and decommissioned the tools supporting them.

Dedicated global service desk built on ServiceNow

DXC also implemented a dedicated global service desk and a DXC-designed SIAM module for ServiceNow. The module incorporates automation and standardized processes to reduce risk, facilitate integration and boost the efficiency of Uniper’s SIAM services. Griffiths says that adding the integration layer is also helping Uniper speed up the application development process by making it easier to use a DevOps and agile approach.

The streamlined SIAM solution now helps Uniper manage end-to-end processes across service providers while tracking overall performance and regulatory compliance — and providing more reliable, flexible and consistent IT services. Griffiths says it is key that Uniper can track supplier performance via a single end-to-end system. Among the biggest benefits are increased visibility and improved reporting. “We now have one system of record that many people and many suppliers interact with that is immediately visible to the business,” Griffiths adds.

Uniper now has a more robust end-to-end IT operating model while delivering a far superior user experience. For one, Uniper can now consume and control its IT better than ever. Griffiths says the digital transformation is part of the natural evolution of the service desk to serve as more of a business enabler rather than just answering calls, and the global help desk is getting more proactive in enabling and supporting business processes. “Now it’s a service desk in its true sense,” Griffiths says.

More recently, Uniper asked DXC to design, build and operate an innovative digital workplace that is expected to save more than 20 percent in operational costs over 5 years. The new approach is a major shift in how Uniper manages its employees’ IT needs and devices.

Uniper considers this modern digital workplace a key enabler for the business and its employees — and the latest step in a digital transformation journey that will continue. “DXC has been key in helping Uniper build a strong foundation in the digital world,”

Griffiths says. “It’s about supporting the foundation that enables the rest of the business and the digital transformation journey.”

Contact us to learn more about DXC Service Integration and Management.