SSE Energy Services – Brochure 2020

How SSE Energy Services’ pioneering adoption of automation is underpinning an industry-leading transformation that is setting the pace of change in the energy sector

How SSE Energy Services’ pioneering adoption of automation is underpinning an industry-leading transformation that is setting the pace of change in the energy sector

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C

hief Information Officer Philip

bring new products to market faster, with-

Clayson is putting digital agil-

out sacrificing quality.

ity at the heart of the compa-

With customers’ digital engagement

ny’s strategic transformation plans for the

increasing and the introduction of smart

future, following the recent acquisition of

metering within homes, SSE Energy

SSE Energy Services by OVO Energy.

Services knew it had to focus on digital

OVO Energy was founded in 2009

agility and innovative product offerings.

and redesigned the energy experience

In order to accelerate this direction,

to be fair, effortless, green and simple

SSE Energy Services appointed Philip

for all customers. Following the acquisi-

Clayson as CIO in August 2019, bringing

tion of SSE Energy Services, today OVO

experience of driving fast-paced digital

Energy and its Retail partners serve

transformation for companies including

nearly 5 million customers, all striving to

News Corporation, BT and TalkTalk.

deliver more affordable clean energy for everyone.

Clayson said: “With increasing numbers of new digital enabled products to deliver to market, at an accelerated

Introduction

pace, we needed to leverage technol-

SSE Energy Services has been supply-

ogy and expertise to help us drive up our

ing power to millions of UK homes for decades. The technology infrastructure within the company had been built and maintained with dependability and assurance at its core.

Clayson is now empowering the 1,000 strong IT team to adopt a learn-fast, failfast culture and mindset, while at the same time maintaining the performance and quality of their outputs. Key to achieving this has been extending the company’s partnership with Expleo. Through the adoption of Expleo’ automated testing solutions, SSE Energy Services can now 4

boost agility, shortening product and competitive advantage and increase our

system releases from several weeks

agility.�

to just a couple of days, by providing a

SSE Energy Services formed a strategic

pioneering approach to automation.

partnership with Expleo, a leading technology and engineering consultancy. As

Automation first

the two companies previously worked

Expleo was in an excellent position to

closely together, SSE Energy Services

advise the company on how to best

had trust in Expleo’s expertise to help

move to a framework that automated

with a key part of the programme. This

the entire testing lifecycle for all of its

would help SSE Energy Services main-

complex and integrated retail systems.

tain performance and quality, but crucially

Julie Heneghan, Client Director at 5

Expleo, said: “Many companies use auto-

Energy Services entrusting Expleo to

mation on low-risk, fringe applications

deliver best-in-class testing and assur-

and as a result deliver limited value to

ance that would reduce the cost and

their organisation. However, our in-depth

frequency of system defects.

understanding of SSE Energy Services’

Expleo helps SSE Energy Services

systems meant it was clear to us that an

to enable mass testing of the software

automation-first approach would deliver

deployed to customers for smart meter-

the biggest possible impact in terms of

ing. This includes testing the smart meter

value.”

itself before it’s installed into customers’

To help achieve the transformation,

homes, to testing the app on the in-home

the relationship moved from a standard

display which helps customers see how

services delivery model, to a strategic

much energy they are using.

and innovation-led partnership, with SSE 6

“Now, instead of a traditional services

supplier model, SSE Energy Services

with dedicated funds to formalise the

works in partnership with us to map out

creation of new ideas and concepts and

the future IT change roadmap safely in

ultimately put them into practice.

the knowledge that Expleo automatically

Combining the best of technology and

delivers the quality assurance they need

engineering, Expleo is a digital partner

without any effort on their part.� says

for the future for energy and electric

Heneghan.

vehicle companies. As energy and mobility markets converge, Expleo provides

Innovation to the fore

clients with end-to-end expertise in the

To best deliver the benefits of automation

design, development and implemen-

and other improvement initiatives in the

tation of a seamless customer experi-

future, SSE Energy Services and Expleo

ence. Its track record of delivery in smart

have created a joint innovation board

energy billing solutions, battery charging 7

technology, electric vehicles and the

quickly, but we can’t sacrifice quality.

wider smart grid puts it in a unique posi-

There are critical journeys where custom-

tion to help its clients innovate for the

ers rely on us to deliver every single day.

future.

Our automation-first approach and part-

“Innovation is at the heart of what we do at Expleo,” says Stephen

nership with Expleo has helped us to deliver quality to our customers.”

Magennis, Managing Director of Expleo’ s Technology business in the UK. “But

Exceeding expectations

for us, it’s about making incremental

In applying the new automation tooling,

changes, on a continuous basis, to drive

SSE Energy Services is already seeing

bigger overall gain. This also allows us

compounded benefits. These include

to monitor and measure each innovation

smoke-testing new environments in near-

and work out what it’s actually achieved

real-time and a reduction in manual test

for our client’s business, so we can take

effort of up to 65 per cent. “This enables

a swift decision on whether to keep it

the SSE Energy Services technology

or move onto something else that could

team previously involved in this area to

potentially have even greater impact.”

have more time to focus on new initia-

SSE Energy Services has continu-

tives for the company to accelerate the

ous insight into the progress of testing and innovation through Expleo’s Quality

pace of change”, says Clayson.

The direct result for SSE Energy

Intelligence Platform (QIP), part of its inno-

Services is that new customer offerings

vative AI and analytics offering. It moni-

can be pushed through faster – helping

tors execution and results, demonstrat-

it set the pace in the market. In fact, the

ing release on release productivity and

speed of output is now 2-3 days, rather

efficiency gains by aggregating the data

than 2-3 weeks or months with an overall

into a dashboard, giving a real-time and

cost saving of 60 per cent.

predictive view of progress, quality and velocity.

Tom Little, SSE Energy Services IT

Technology + people + culture = pace

Delivery Manager, who played a leading

Having the right technological tools is

role in the technical transformation, says:

a vital part of any digital transformation.

‘’We want to get our solutions to market

But in order for the investment to be a

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success, there needed to be an internal

providing Scrum Master training to key

shift within SSE Energy Services toward a

SSE Energy Services team members,

highly engaged, learn-fast fail-fast culture

including project managers and product

and mindset.

owners.

To this end, SSE Energy Services invested in upskilling staff, including introducing formal accreditation in

Industry leading digital transformation for growth

delivery management techniques such

With the acceleration of digital and agility

as Agile as well as technological disci-

at SSE Energy Services, it is now much

plines to increase agility from the bottom

more nimble when it comes to dealing

up. Expleo aided this programme by

with change. This proved crucial with the

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unexpected arrival of Covid-19. The fact

Energy Services to swiftly respond to

that both internal and external partner

change. The team and our partners

teams were able to quickly pivot to oper-

including Expleo should be proud of

ating virtually, with no impact on services,

being part of what must be the biggest

demonstrates that its transformational

digital transformation the sector has seen

journey has brought additional benefit to

due to Covid-19.” says Clayson.

SSE Energy Services and ultimately its customers.

“Our digital transformation means

The company’s successful digital transformation, underpinned by its pioneering adoption of automation in partnership

that IT is now an engine for growth and

with Expleo, means that it is continuing to

competitive advantage. It enables SSE

set the pace of change in the industry.

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