In 2018, Hydro Tasmania reviewed the market for a new mobile asset management application that connected harmoniously with its SAP ERP back-end and fit its existing and required data structures. As a confident SAP house, it wanted to implement and maintain the new solution with internal resources and minimal vendor support.

Hydro Tasmania required new functionality including GIS Maps and add components as well as improved functionality for work orders, notifications and attaching documents and videos. They also wanted to increase the regular user base from 20 to about 50, which includes generation technicians, supervisors and administrators.

BlueWorx is Zag’s easy-to-use, comprehensive and affordable solution for mobilizing SAP Plant Maintenance that works where users are. Hydro Tasmania selected BlueWorx for the following reasons:
“Faster sync times and more data transferred.” BlueWorx synchronization with SAP is swift and painless and works in the background.

“Ability to use both mobile devices and desktop with a consistent look and feel.” – BlueWorx is device-agnostic working across iOS, Android, Windows 10 and desktop browsers.

“Fiori look and feel with offline capability.” – Built using Neptune DXP, BlueWorx has the latest SAPUI5 Fiori user experience (UX) and works completely offline which is perfect for remote areas of operation without connectivity.

“It can be used by different workgroups with different requirements.” – BlueWorx is very adaptable to unique requirements, for example, asset-specific inspections can be easily configured in the administration and monitoring console.

“It can easily be supported by Hydro Tasmania’s developers, greatly reducing the total cost of ownership.” – BlueWorx is fast and simple to deploy, enhance and support, and requires no middleware or additional infrastructure, delivered from within an SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA system.

Hydro Tasmania opted to install and configure BlueWorx themselves with minor assistance from Zag. This involved two days of initial consulting to familiarize themselves with the product and ongoing ad-hoc support from the Zag product development team when required.

The implementation took 60 days end-to-end using functional, development, basis and security personnel part-time with involvement from business users. BlueWorx was rolled out to 49 users tasked with inspecting and maintaining hydropower assets across 2,000 locations. Despite the larger scale, there was only one performance-related bug after the first month of use.

Vance Chinnery, IP and S – (Acting) Corporate Solutions Manager/SAP Solution Architect said, “BlueWorx was fast and easy to deploy with the initial setup taking our people only 30 days. The implementation costs were minimal too, despite us deploying the solution to a larger user base.”

“As you’re completely within the ABAP environment coding ABAP or JavaScript – everything is visible with no black boxes,” adds Matt Harding, SAP Technical Advisor and Developer.

“The BlueWorx team at Zag were readily available to provide support and guidance throughout our BlueWorx implementation. They understood what we wanted to achieve and helped us to make the right moves towards a swift, successful outcome.” – Anthony Pierotti, SAP Functional Analyst

Hydro Tasmania was the first to implement both BlueWorx and Crew, a new optional component of BlueWorx that allows supervisors to schedule and monitor work orders, and their staff, on the fly.

With BlueWorx Crew, supervisors easily view tasks assigned to their team and can allocate, reallocate and manage them directly, in near real-time, via the console. Planners can juggle field workers’ schedules efficiently according to changes in priorities and resources.

After all, work that is allocated faster is work completed sooner. Fewer delays and less paperwork mean lower costs, well-maintained assets and better business outcomes.

For Hydro Tasmania, “the low implementation cost, streamlined deployment and swift user uptake were driven by BlueWorx being a great match for the business’ existing skills, technology and data,” said Anthony Pierotti, evidenced below.

Amount of new technology implemented – BlueWorx was deployed on Hydro Tasmania’s existing iPads and utilizes the same SAP database and app servers. The development languages are ABAP and JavaScript which is the same as Fiori.

Match between existing skills and required skills – The SAP and related skills required to implement BlueWorx Crew were skills Hydro Tasmania already had resourced internally – basis, development (knowledge of ABAP and JavaScript) and functional (knowledge of SAP Plant Maintenance).

Data changes required – Hydro Tasmania found that BlueWorx supported the data structures created for its previous solution, so they plan to gradually migrate this data to BlueWorx over time. New data creation aligns with BlueWorx data structures to fully gain the benefits of the solution.

Number of enhancements needed – Only a few enhancements were executed, including a measurement reading input screen and the ability for contractors to timesheet against purchase orders.

“Zag completed these enhancements and kindly modified the timing and order of BlueWorx road map items to align with Hydro Tasmania’s needs,” Anthony Pierotti, SAP Functional Analyst.

Number and duration of training courses – Training is broken into process and system training. Process training was very small due to this being a migration from an existing mobile solution to a new one. The simplicity of BlueWorx means minimal training time is required – only two hours per location.

“The team finds the interface simple to navigate and very easy to use. They like using BlueWorx, which makes support of the software a breeze.” Anthony Pierotti, SAP Functional Analyst

‘Worx’ now and in the future…
BlueWorx Crew fits Hydro Tasmania’s requirements as it has the right balance between extensive functionality and simplicity of configuration and use. It has many features to streamline the support of a larger user base and has a rapid development cycle.

Now embedded in the business, Hydro Tasmania is rolling out BlueWorx Crew to other areas of the business, including; engineering, facilities, land care and Bass Strait islands. Hydro Tasmania continues to benefit from the road map of BlueWorx Crew innovations as they are released.

Hydro Tasmania has been at the forefront of clean energy innovation for over one hundred years. They are Australia’s largest producer of clean energy – generating hydro and wind power – and the largest water manager in the country. Hydro Tasmania has 55 major dams, operates 30 hydropower stations and has built some of Australia’s largest wind farms.

Industry Focus: Energy and Utilities
Timeline:  60 days
System Version: SAP ERP
Devices: iPads/iOS
Solution Scope: Create a new mobile asset management application that connects to their SAP ERP backend and fits existing and required data structures