Interview: Q&A on the Go Live of Copperleaf at RNG
The Copperleaf Decision Analytics Solution is now live at Rheinische NETZGesellschaft (RNG), a 100% subsidiary of RheinEnergie AG. RNG manages and operates over 30,000 km of distribution networks for electricity, gas, water, and district heating in the city of Cologne and the surrounding region of Germany.
For Copperleaf, this is our first live Copperleaf system in Germany, and hopefully the first of many implementations led by Fin Jennrich, Copperleaf’s Customer Experience Lead in the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region. To celebrate this milestone, we interviewed Fin and RNG’s Head of Network Strategy, Jan Patrick Linossier, to find out how Copperleaf will support RNG on its drive to become ISO 55000 certified.
What were RNG’s main goals for this project?
Jan: “Over the past several years, RNG has been on a journey to establish a value- and risk-oriented asset management approach and continuously improve its asset management capabilities. The implementation of an AIPM solution like Copperleaf is one of the key building blocks to further solidify the foundation of ISO 55000 aligned asset management at RNG. The implementation was driven by five goals:
- Establish an ISO 55000 compliant solution to support value-based decision making
- Establish system support to strengthen the implementation of our new asset management process model
- Support RNG’s complete workflow from portfolio creation to investment/project execution
- Establish adequate management and control capabilities for risks and investments in our complex environment with 25 networks and 13 different asset owners
- Create transparency at the interfaces to asset owners and asset services”
What were the key things you felt made the project successful?
Fin: “The team! We established an excellent working relationship with both the RNG and Capgemini Invent team members and worked closely and intensely together throughout the entire project.”
Jan: “The staged implementation process, starting with a proof of concept (PoC), helped us verify that we had selected the right solution prior to fully implementing it. We had also established a solid and common understanding of the underlying ISO 55000 core processes. Thus, we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve, which enabled us to always steer things in the right direction.”
C55 will give us transparency about risks, portfolios, investments, and related decision-making processes across the electricity, gas, water, and district heating networks we manage.
Jan Patrick Linossier
Head of Network Strategy
Rheinische NETZGesellschaft (RNG)
Were there any lessons learned?
Fin: “Involving future users as early as possible to get them on board is really critical for project success.”
Jan: “We also learned that it’s not necessary to have everything (data, organization, and processes) perfectly right in order to start an AIPM project and successfully complete it. The key is to get started and make improvements as you go.”
What are the key benefits you think you’ll get out of implementing the Copperleaf solution?
Jan: “RNG has voluntarily and proactively set compliance requirements, including transparency, unified processes, and improved decision-making approaches, in order to ensure alignment to ISO 55000. Copperleaf will be a key component to help us realize this. With Copperleaf, we will get transparency about risks, portfolios, investments, and related decision-making processes across the electricity, gas, water, and district heating networks we manage.”
Have there been any other added benefits?
Jan: “We’ve only just started to really use the Copperleaf solution and therefore, expect to see the real benefits over time. However, we’ve already been able to identify issues and shortcomings, related to our data for example, that we can now tackle.”
Fin: “It was exciting to see how the implementation generated some great discussions that will ultimately lead to further improvements and streamlining of RNG’s processes.”
What’s next on RNG’s asset management journey?
Jan: “RNG is aspiring to get an ISO 55000 certification and the implementation of Copperleaf is a key factor in helping us comply with the standard. A pre-audit is scheduled to be executed before the end of 2019, and beyond that, we look forward to continue to evolve our AIPM processes and the use of the Copperleaf solution.”
Learn more about our work with RNG.