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Former Member

I had the absolute pleasure of joining over 1000 utility professionals, partners and close friends from over 20 countries last week for the 8th annual SAP for Utilities conference in Huntington Beach, CA.


The conference absolutely exceeded expectations and this year’s theme of “Achieving the Ultimate State of Readiness” could not have been more appropriate with the challenges and opportunities utilities face today in the digital economy.   We see a “digital energy network” emerging that reflects new structures of power generation, transmission, distribution and retail. It will foster new business models and processes and transform workin a competitive and collaborative digital economy.


Leading utilities are re-evaluating their physical assets and customer relationships to reimagine business models to find new revenue and profit sources by offering innovative supply, load balancing, and smart home/business energy services. They are reimagining business processes and use digital technology to optimize business outcomes by converging information and operational technologies and many are reimagining the roles and structures of the workforce to support future business by incorporating wearable technology, 3D printers and geospatial technologies.



Peter Maier, SAP Global EVP of Energy & Natural Resources, and I kicked off the conference presenting our Digital Utility strategy and distributing our new Digital Utility whitepaper during the week.  We then saw 8 incredible keynotes from industry thought-leaders sharing their state of readiness, celebrated 8 award winning utilities & partners selected by over 15,000 of their peers and highlighted by over 65 information-packed sessions - which were all well attended even with the beautiful weather and beckoning beach just a few feet away!

The event this year not only broke the attendance record for an SAP for Utilities event in North America, this was the single largest industry event for SAP globally! 


50% of attendees were new vs. 2014 and almost half were senior level executives, like Brian Rich, CIO of Consumers Energy, who gave an incredible, thought-provoking keynote. 









Executive panel sessions included the CIOs of Southern California Edison, Puget Sound Energy and Snohomish Public Utility District sharing their ideas and experiences on achieving the ultimate state of readiness in today’s digital economy. 

And the Women in Utilities exchange is growing every year!


SAP’s vision is to help the world use energy and natural resources responsibly today and tomorrow while providing reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy for all people. This requires access to the digital energy network for all participants. SAP will offer the digital foundation and the digital gateways that integrate the core utility solutions of each market participant to the digital energy network.


For more information, presentations and content from the SAP for Utilities conference, please visit the conference website here.


Thank you and I look forward to our continued journey together!