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The situation

With the transition to greener energy underway, the traditional supply and demand model has been completely overhauled. While households are becoming more self-sufficient thanks to solar panels, energy demands have boomed due to the use of electric cars, gas-free homes, and other changes in society radically changing the market.

Our customer

Enexis is a regional grid operator responsible for helping keep up the Netherlands’ energy network and servicing an area of over 3 million households and businesses. It is part of Enexis Group, with over 4,700 employees and an annual turnover of more than 1.5 billion euros.

The IT question

To deliver steady service to all consumers, Enexis needed IT and infrastructure that would ensure 100% uptime, easy operability, and resilience. No matter how great consumer demand would grow or energy supply would evolve, performance had to be stable and optimized, ensuring 100% consumer satisfaction.

The business behind the question

To safeguard business continuity into the future, Enexis wanted to wield more IT control rather than have to rely heavily on third parties. However, the company didn’t want to feel burdened by market fluctuations, convinced that peace and quiet are also essential to grow and innovate.

Our solution

We helped Enexis by first building a platform to which its applications could be migrated. After implementing a solid foundation for the platform, including a landing zone and tools for automation and real-time data-sharing, we helped the company determine that more than 120 applications should be migrated and optimized. We undertook those processes together. Using that same cloud technology, we also replaced Enexis’s old data platform with a new one that is stable, conducive to analysis, and extremely scalable. Along the way, we supported the company’s implementation of a DevOps way of working.

The mission-critical transformation

With its new platform, Enexis can conduct sophisticated data analysis in very little time. Better data analysis has allowed the company to reduce energy theft by 75 million euros annually. Whereas in the past, the company needed months for scenario analyses of its network or a particular substation (of which there are currently 40,000!), that analysis can now be run in four hours at a fraction of the cost. Technical changes to the platform itself have sped up, with most changes now able to be completed within an hour. Server deployments are now 100% automated. This lets the company’s data teams be more decisive, which saves time too. Within just a year, we also helped Enexis save over 70% in annual cloud costs simply by monitoring the public cloud’s changing features and implementing regular rounds of improvement. The company’s new cloud environment is conducive to low-risk experimentation and innovation, which Enexis continues to entrust to our leadership.

The situation

As Europe’s largest port, Rotterdam-Rijnmond is intensely trafficked and populated with terminals, refineries, and chemical factories. To ensure optimal accessibility of the port, sea vessels operating in this region are piloted by highly trained professionals who specialize in navigating the local waters.

Our customer

Loodswezen is an independent organization that keeps maritime traffic smoothly running in and out of the Dutch and (partly) Flemish seaports. The organization is privately owned by the pilots who work for it and is legally appointed by the Dutch government to execute the compulsory pilotage for sea vessels.

The IT question

To maximize the uptime for all mission-critical applications, Loodswezen sought to improve the resilience of various applications. These included applications for handling the radar and AIS data from the port; the planning of pilots and voyages; collaboration between the port authority and the port community system via a digital chain; coordination between nautical service providers, such as the port authorities, boatmen, and tug companies; and operational communication with ship agents.

The business behind the IT question

Keeping maritime traffic running smoothly is a public responsibility. Vessel by vessel and sail by sail, Loodswezen’s work requires balancing the economy’s need for smooth commercial operations and society’s right to safety. Having accurate, timely information exchange has always been crucial for Loodswezen since miscommunication or insufficient communication can cause friction, conflicts, and/or traffic delays. Any IT downtime lasting over four hours can cause a complete shutdown of traffic in the port.

Our solution

Our first priority was to achieve 100% stability of Loodswezen’s IT platform, which we did by quickly moving it to our datacenter. We ensured that the migration did not cause dangerous downtime and applications remained up and running. Once we achieved 100% uptime of the applications, we supported Loodswezen in a digital transformation of its daily operations. We helped transform the organization into an agile DevOps IT operation, ensuring knowledge and expertise were secured within its own teams. We also co-created software that increased productivity, such as an application for automated communication between pilots and vessels, which was previously done manually. Eventually, we also moved Loodswezen’s IT platform and application landscape to the public cloud, which was more conducive to innovation.

The mission-critical transformation

Loodswezen’s new IT platform has increased staff efficiency. For example, pilots now can use tablets providing easy access to the systems needed to safely transport vessels into and out of the ports. Moving to the public cloud has also increased functionality and effectiveness while letting the organization maintain the same infrastructure costs. Moreover, the digital transformation has encouraged Loodswezen to leverage the cloud for data and better insights to increase pilot productivity, efficiency, and digital cooperation. Last but not least, it has boosted supply chain optimization, thereby supporting the Rotterdam harbor in its objective to be the world’s smartest port.