The leading Italian multiutility company Iren Group 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 to not only 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. What’s more, the company wished to have transparent process insights and get real-time updates on device status and availability.

Building on SAP BTP

To work on this innovation step, 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 New Solution: SAP Build Apps and SAP Build Work Zone

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.

“My role in this project was to be available for very specific questions,” Demir says. “Iren’s citizen developers did a great job in using and applying the available material and resources! They used SAP Build Apps very successfully to solve one defined use case, which is exactly what the product was made for. And even if the impact of this one web application may not be too impressive yet because of the number of users, the enablement and experience the customer team gained in creating it is invaluable. I am sure it will encourage the team to look for more innovation opportunities that can be addressed with the help of SAP Build Apps.”

Smooth Operations and Transparency in Device Management

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 further improved the accuracy and reliability of device records. What’s more, it brought about significant time savings, enhanced transparency, and much-desired visibility into device status.

“In our IT department, this app has truly improved our device assignment processes by eliminating the manual process via e-mail and automatically importing data from an SAP Build Apps web form into SAP,” Sara Miola, IT specialist at Iren Group, says. “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.”