Iren is a leading multi-utility company in Italy which operates in a multi-regional basin with 10,583 employees, over 2.2 million customers in the energy sector, 209 million inhabitants served in the integrated water cycle and over 3.8 million in environmental services. The company follows an ambitious 2030 vision to meet the needs of citizens and territories. It is built upon three strategic pillars: ecological transition, territoriality, and service quality. On its overall innovation path, Iren identified opportunities to improve its IT device assignment, replacement, and return processes.
With one specific device assignment use case in mind and based on its existing relationship with SAP AppHaus, Iren approached SAP in early 2024. The company’s goal was not only to make the corresponding processes more efficient but also eliminate potential error sources; it had detected errors caused by reliance on e-mail communication or through error-prone manual data entry. Additionally, the company wanted to have transparent process insights and get real-time updates on device status and availability.
The Challenge
Iren was facing challenges with their manual processes for IT devices assignment, replacement, and return. Thus, a challenging manual process for IT devices assignment, inefficient and time-consuming process reliance on email communication between Service Desk and ICT Iren Ambiente, potential for errors and delays in updating device records and lack of real-time updates and visibility of device status.
Building on SAP BTP
To achieve a solution to this challenge, Iren Group’s IT department asked for expertise support in testing and applying SAP Build Apps. For a first kick-off meeting, the SAP AppHaus team invited Burak Demir, product manager, SAP Build Apps, to join the project. With the customer’s system landscape built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), the joint project team took a first step to check the SAP Discovery Center site for existing solutions. They encountered a helpful use case in the “Keep the Core Clean Using SAP Build Apps with SAP S/4HANA” mission. The mission allowed them to build upon prior experiences, benefit from existing material, and get helpful guidance that was, to a certain extent, applicable to Iren’s system landscape.
The Solution
The new solution consists of different components, such as SAP Build Apps, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Build Work Zone, as well as the SAP S/4HANA solution for waste and recycling, which provides a platform for managing device records and information.
With the new web application that was built with SAP Build Apps and deployed to SAP Build Work Zone, Iren gained real-time updates and visibility of device status. The seamless integration with OData library allowed for automatic device creation and updates, eliminating the need for manual data entry. The use of the new solution has further improved the accuracy and reliability of device records. And brought about significant time savings, enhanced transparency, and much-desired visibility into device status.
Solution Diagram Iren
In our IT Department, this app has truly improved our device assignment processes, by eliminating the manual process via email and automatically importing data from SAP Build Apps web form into SAP. We have achieved significant time savings and increased efficiency, as the time spent has been reduced from several days to few minutes. The implementation of SAP has enabled us to overcome our challenges, resulting in streamlined processes and enhanced device management effectiveness.
– Sara Miola, IT Specialist at Gruppo Iren
Article originally published by SAP News Center.