SAP joins forces with African Utility Week
Global software business SAP is supporting African Utility Week as a gold sponsor.
The conference and exhibition takes place between the 16th and 18th of May at CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa. Brian G. Williams, Industry Advisory Director, Utilities Industry, SAP EMEA is a featured speaker in the Transmission & Distribution conference track, and will be focussing on digital transformation and the impact of the Internet of Things on utilities.
“I believe the energy sector will go through a big transformation that is going to surprise all of us, and the energy sector will finally become cool!” says Williams.
“The SAP Africa message at African Utility Week will be that organisations need to focus on becoming a relevant digital utility of the future. SAP will focus on how new technology and big data can be used to significantly improve efficiencies and how the performance of utilities Infrastructure can be optimised, to prolong the asset life span, maximise energy production, minimise downtime and reduce maintenance cost.
He adds: “SAP is investing in all Energy & Natural Resource Industries (utilities, oil & gas, mill & mining & chemicals) and in all African regions (South Africa, Sub-Saharan, Lusophone, North Africa, East and West Africa). We have studied the full map of the 53 African countries where we have identified the regions of high, medium and lower opportunities for transformation in each of the four industries. For instance, in utilities we considered that all countries are potentially capable to transform and use the power of digital, to improve their energy value chain, because every country has an electricity, gas or water champion.”
This year’s annual African Utility Week is the 17th of its kind, bringing together more than 7,000 decision-makers and 300 suppliers from over 80 countries, plus 300 expert speakers.
The full interview with Brian G. Williams can be read here.
