E.ON U.S., subsidiary of E.ON AG, has successfully implemented several utilities-focused software solutions from SAP AG. The go-live, completed on April 1, 2009, is a key step in the energy provider's shift toward a new software platform to support its business processes. Managed by a team of experts from E.ON U.S., SAP and Accenture, the implementation of the software was successfully finalized in time and without any major disruption of regular business processes.

By introducing SAP software, E.ON U.S. replaced its legacy systems with a standardized software solution after having harmonized and partly redesigned some of its business processes. The solutions implemented include the SAP ERP application, the SAP Customer Relationship and Billing for Utilities package and the SAP NetWeaver technology platform.

E.ON U.S. owns and operates both the Louisville Gas and Electric Company and the Kentucky Utilities Company, which together distribute electricity and natural gas to more than 1.2 million customers in Kentucky and Virginia. The company is a subsidiary of E.ON AG, with an annual turnover of EUR 69 billion and approximately 88,000 employees.

"The implementation of SAP software solutions went extremely smoothly," said Wendy Welsh, chief information officer, E.ON U.S. "The conversion process took us only five days and did not show any major impact on the productive environment. Since the go-live, we have not seen any production downtime, which is rare with this type of project."

During the 'Blueprint Phase,' the implementation team documented existing processes with SAP technology and found more than 300 potential process improvements. The team then began defining the specific requirements for the system and building the platform during the design phase. Upon completion, the system underwent 53,000 hours of testing on 6,700 scripts and 400 business processes from beginning to end.