Open Grid Europe channels enterprise SAP portal into the future
Neptune Software helps OGE replace their enterprise SAP portal and create an efficient, secure, and modern series of apps that take advantage of future-oriented UI.
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Energy Customer Success Story with Neptune DXP
Challenges
-New portal would affect all 1,650 employees
-Current portal was outdated and hard to use
-Needed to produce results quickly
Solutions
-SAP Fiori style apps that made use of existing SAP infrastructure
-Renewed and unified user experience
-End-user testing and feedback before wider release of portal
Results
-200 SAP and non-SAP apps live in less than 5 months
-13 new apps within HR after initial go live
-Limited to no training for new developers
-UX that end-users love across different business areas
-Future proof solution that will assist with the move to S/4HANA
Challenge: Wanted: a fast, intuitive UX, easy to build
For a company that relies on SAP for a wide range of enterprise needs, replacing its enterprise SAP portal was a strategic decision impacting nearly all of its 1,650 end users.
And when Germany-based Open Grid Europe (OGE) determined that a modern and simple user interface would help employees better navigate its SAP capabilities and be more productive, that’s exactly what the company set out to do.
One of the biggest natural gas transmission system operators in Europe, Open Grid Europe is an active supporter of the European gas market, working to ensure safe, environmentally-friendly and customer-oriented gas transmission throughout the continent, and helping to lead improvements in infrastructure.
The company provides commercial, technical and IT services to support its pipeline transmission network and offers pipeline design, construction, operation, quality control, and management services to third-party companies as well.
An outdated and complex SAP user interface made it challenging for users to access the various systems, which include ERP, materials management, human resources, and more.
To change that, Open Grid Europe sought to provide a new enterprise SAP portal with simpler, well-designed modern capabilities that contained only the information users needed. IT leadership also knew they needed to get results quickly – and that called for a solution that was fast and intuitive to design, build, manage and run across mobile and desktop, online and offline.
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Solution: POC in two weeks made it easy for users to fall in love
“We knew that we could achieve great benefits in using SAP Fiori to modernize our enterprise portal,” said Gerald Stappen, IT Manager at OGE.
To hold the line on costs as it accelerated its SAP user strategy, Open Grid Europe wanted to make use of its existing SAP infrastructure. Fortunately, with Neptune Software’s low-code rapid application development platform, Neptune DXP, there’s no need to install NetWeaver Gateway. And because the solution provides standard and familiar SAP Authentication and Transport Security mechanisms, the team has the tools and skills in place to ensure they’re also keeping the SAP environment secure.
As a first step, developers set out to deliver a renewed and unified user interface for the enterprise portal, including moving all content into a Neptune DXP Launchpad. A third-party consultant team assists to build the user interface framework in Neptune DXP while working in tandem with OGE developers, which developed the business logic in popup-based functions.
A group of users reviewed and tested the new portal and provided feedback while it was in the development environment, making it simple for the team to adjust the UX before go-live.
Then a roadshow presentation to highlight the new solution helped garner additional user excitement for the switchover.
“Users appreciated it and wanted to know how quickly they could have it,” said Stappen. The answer? Fast!
Results: Transporting efficient value from SAP enterprise
The new enterprise SAP portal went live in January 2017 after a development time of fewer than 5 months and included ties to more than 200 SAP and non-SAP apps.
“Users appreciate the new modern interface and tell us that the apps are now easier to understand and use, which helps them do better and faster work,” said Stappen.
In addition to a project-planning app that went live in March 2017 to help project leaders manage resource utilization and costs for internal company initiatives, thirteen more apps went live that year.
The team made use of apps from the Neptune DXP application building blocks library as it built additional capabilities, including leave requests and other human resource tasks, which launched later that summer.
Developers also worked to add more content to the existing apps, including conference room booking and project manager cockpit and extended the portal to Android, iOS and Windows mobile devices by the end of that summer.
“Neptune Software is much easier to learn and use than other development tools, making it simple for our ABAP developers to gain much-needed modern skills, including mobile. Training new developers is also easy since they can get started immediately with Neptune DXP instead of having to deep dive into ABAP,” Stappen added.
The tight integration with ABAP source code means Open Grid Europe can build on core backend capabilities easily and will continue to roll new modern and mobile functionalities one user group at a time with their new enterprise SAP portal.
“Now we can take advantage of new technology in an efficient way, which we expect will lead to better total cost of ownership. And since the Neptune Software solution is SAP-certified for integration with SAP HANA, moving to SAP S/4HANA in the future will also be possible.”
Company Snapshot
OGE has the infrastructure to transport natural gas today and green gases in the future. With an approximate 12,000 km long pipeline network, they are one of the leading European transmission system operators. OGE knows the big questions about the energy transition. And they have the answers.
Industry Focus: Energy/Oil and Gas
Number of Users: 1,650 Users
System Version: SAP ERP, SAP SRM, SAP BW
Devices: Mobile and Desktop, Android and iOS
Function Scope: Mobile and web, online and offline
Timeline: Over 200 apps in less than 5 months and counting
“Users appreciate the new modern interface and tell us that the apps are now easier to understand and use, which helps them do better and faster work.”
– Gerald Stappen, IT Manager at OGE
About Neptune Software
Neptune Software is a rapid application development platform vendor with more than 660 enterprise customers and over 3.5 million licensed end users globally that empowers IT departments to deliver tangible business outcomes.
Neptune Software offers with its Neptune DXP, a leading low-code, SAP-centric, enterprise app development platform to digitize and optimize business processes and user interfaces – at scale and with ease. Neptune DXP provides a fast and cost-effective way to industrialize the development of custom applications – saving companies time and money on development, integration, and operations.
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