RWE: Gaining the flexibility to shape the world’s energy transition after a speedy move to the cloud
Pioneering a green-energy world
On a mission to reach net-zero emissions by 2040, utility company RWE needs an adaptable and future-oriented IT landscape. Through the RISE with SAP journey, it shifted ERP systems to the cloud without disrupting its business. Now it’s simplifying operations, increasing responsiveness, and paving the way for a more sustainable future.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Utilities | Essen, Germany | >20,000 employees |
stability of productive systems.
users experiencing zero downtime during migration.
Head of SAP Technology, RWE Generation SE, part of RWE AG
Gaining the flexibility to spearhead a greener future
Most of us rely on electricity to facilitate our increasingly digitalized lives. This means utility companies such as RWE AG face the huge challenge of meeting growing energy demand while mitigating against climate change. Committed to its purpose, “Our energy for a sustainable life,” RWE plans to phase out coal by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2040. Its diverse portfolio includes offshore and onshore wind, solar, hydrogen, batteries, biomass, and gas.
In its quest to harness renewable energies, RWE has expanded operations from Europe to Asia and America. Such globalization requires a high level of adaptability that the company’s legacy IT systems could not provide. Matthias Franke, head of SAP technology at group company RWE Generation SE, explains, “Our on-premises IT landscape wasn’t flexible, and we couldn’t scale it globally. As a result, we couldn’t be as responsive as we wanted.”
RWE understood that moving to cloud ERP would offer the flexibility, scalability, and performance it needed to continue to support the green-energy transition. But it needed this migration, which included a highly critical 8 TB ERP system, to run smoothly and efficiently to avoid outages of key assets and help keep the lights on for its customers.
Head of SAP Technology, RWE Generation SE, part of RWE AG
Swiftly connecting modern solutions in the cloud
RWE has a long-standing strategic partnership with SAP and already used SAP S/4HANA for its ERP. It decided to embark on the RISE with SAP journey to implement the SAP Cloud ERP Private package on Microsoft Azure. Franke says, “We met with SAP very early on to explore our options for cloud ERP. And when SAP launched RISE with SAP, we jumped at the chance to leverage it in our cloud ERP journey. As well as enabling greater speed, security, and stability, it would provide us with instant access to new SAP software, lending us a competitive advantage.”
RISE with SAP would help RWE comply with strict requirements for energy suppliers’ hyperscaler environments while combining a range of offerings, from software to technical managed services. Franke adds, “We knew we could engage in the transformation together on an equal footing as partners. We also liked the fact that SAP sells its own software and has developers at its fingertips to address any problems.”
SAP Cloud ERP Private would also integrate smoothly with a range of SAP solutions designed to accelerate RWE’s journey from on-premises ERP to SAP Business Suite. This integration would underpin a single source of truth based on accurate data. For the first time, RWE would have an overarching view comprising processes, architecture, and software, allowing it to adapt quickly as needed.
RWE adopted a lift-and-shift approach that exported only data into the new system landscape. Franke says: “We were able to shut down our systems here, immediately open the cloud solutions from SAP, and use them right away.” Using SAP HANA system replication supported the goal of business continuity. The SAP Enterprise Cloud Services team was also key to project success. According to Franke, “There was no such thing as the SAP team and the RWE team: there was one team. We spent a full day here together each week without differentiating between who worked where.”
Head of SAP Technology, RWE Generation SE, part of RWE AG
Embracing a modern, scalable, and adaptable IT organization
Thanks to RISE with SAP, around 4,500 users experienced zero down time during RWE’s migration of key systems to SAP Cloud ERP Private, preventing business disruption and safeguarding customers’ services. After a successful transition, the company has reduced vendor complexity, cut its total cost of operation, and rationalized IT applications.
A simplified and agile IT infrastructure supports growth and enhances security. And higher operational service levels are standard with 24x7 support for productive ERP systems and 24x5 support for nonproductive systems.
Franke elaborates: “The benefits were immediately obvious to us. We have one contact person who is responsible for everything. We run a super-stable operation with a very high level of transparency over our landscape. We don’t need to worry about security issues, with patches applied automatically. Plus, we have speedy access to innovation as it’s delivered. In summary, we’re fast, flexible, and stable. That is exactly what we wanted to achieve.”
Continuing to rationalize and modernize IT
With its IT systems running efficiently and reliably in the cloud, RWE now wants to modernize them, starting with SAP solutions set to reach their end of life in 2027. After that, according to Franke, “The journey goes on. There will be new solutions and services we can use to generate the greatest value and support our energy transition. Our goal is to gradually replace our systems with cloud solutions from SAP so we eventually run a very small IT landscape.” This is why RWE has already been thinking ahead about how it can support a clean core strategy. Introducing an integrated suite of SAP solutions that can serve as a single source of truth is a logical next step in this journey. The additional services, tools, and knowledge provided by the integrated tool chain service can help accelerate this transformation.
Franke sees SAP Business Technology Platform as RWE’s “construction kit for the future, letting us react quickly and flexibly to business needs with the latest solutions and innovations.” The company is taking part in workshops with SAP to explore the potential of offerings such as the SAP Cloud ALM, SAP Signavio, and SAP LeanIX solutions as well as SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis. Franke adds, “These solutions offer us the opportunity to connect processes, architecture, and software solutions for the first time and gain a holistic view of them.”
Franke sums up RWE’s continuing journey with SAP solutions as follows. “RISE with SAP is more than an intermediate step: it’s a foundation on which we’ll continue to build. As long as SAP’s road map and our road map are in harmony, I think we’ll be taking this path together for many years to come.”