Huntsville Utilities in Alabama has successfully gone live with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAP ERP as part of the SAP for Utilities solution portfolio, implemented within budget and on time.

SAP for Utilities solutions support providers of water, power, gas and electricity in both the private and public sector, from local area providers to extensive firms working across states and regions. By running SAP solutions, companies can have improved access to data for faster, more efficient reporting, along with a clearer overview of business processes.

Huntsville Utilities is owned by the city but functions as three separate systems operating under separate boards, appointed by the City Council. The gas, water and electric systems share top management, customer services, billing, meter reading, human resources, accounting and purchasing capabilities in order to provide low-cost services to 160,000 electric, 47,000 gas and 84,000 water customers throughout Huntsville and Madison County, Alabama. Each system pays its share of expenses and generates financial reports, which played an integral role in Huntsville's selection of SAP solutions. In early August 2009, Huntsville Utilities became operational with a full enterprise resource planning suite from SAP. The deployment replaced the utility provider's 30-year-old legacy COBOL applications for financials, procurement, inventory management, work management, human resources, payroll and reporting.