Accenture announced a collaboration with SAP SE  to develop the next generation of predictive analytics solutions for asset management in the utilities industry to enable condition-based maintenance. The SAP® Predictive Maintenance and Service solution is planned to be extended to better manage risks by improving equipment uptime in transmission and distribution, as well as maintenance and equipment-replacement planning. The announcement comes after both companies announced in January a comprehensive program of ongoing collaboration on the core development and go-to-market for SAP S/4HANA®.

CenterPoint Energy, a U.S.-based energy distribution company, is collaborating with both companies to implement next-generation asset analytics solutions to complement its ongoing work in this area. SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service is a key part of the technology solution underpinning this approach. This follows an initial proof of concept that proved the business and technology value proposition of the SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service solution, enabling CenterPoint Energy to make better maintenance and renewal decisions using predictive analytics and insight into asset health.

“The proof of concept allowed us to quickly determine how to optimize our asset renewal strategy for underground residential distribution,” said Gary Hayes, CIO and SVP from CenterPoint Energy. “We are looking forward to achieving similar results across the full asset management lifecycle for a wider scope of assets, working with Accenture and SAP in a co-innovation project.”

“The utilities industry continues to face regulatory pressure to optimize its operating costs and improve the quality of power supply by better managing more complex grid networks, which are destabilized by new distributed energy resources,” said Matias Alonso, senior managing director, who leads Accenture’s utilities practice. “This solution arrives at the right time to help utilities manage the risk of asset failures and their related costs.”

SAP’s next-generation SAP HANA® platform together with the SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service solution provide the extendable, open platform for utilities to bring together IT and operational technology (OT) information, while building new digital applications to garner new business insights in real time from data analytics.

“SAP’s approach is to work with our customers and Accenture to help ensure that our products meet industry needs, bring innovation on the SAP HANA platform and deliver tangible business value,” said Henry Bailey, global vice president, head of Utilities Industry Business Unit at SAP. “We will be onboarding new charter clients who want to participate in this exciting program with Accenture to contribute to the requirements for SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service, add-on for utilities.”