Sometimes all is not lost

Date of recording: 20.10.2023.

In this podcast episode, we spoke with Zsolt Gerebenics, IT Director at Audax Renewables and Sándor Mester, about starting over after a troubled system implementation.

Participants

Sándor Mester - Moderator Mester Sándor
Zsolt Gerebenics - Audax IT director Agárdi Györgyi
András Tresch - Quattrosoft managing director Tresch András

Note that the podcast is in Hungarian.

Summary

Let me tell you about one of our most interesting project stories, which can be extremely instructive for anyone starting digitalization projects.

In the joint podcast series of IT Business and Quattrosoft, we discussed what happens when an IT project doesn't go according to plan and a vendor change becomes necessary. Our guest was Zsolt Gerebenics, IT Director of Audax Renewables, with Sándor Mester hosting.

The backstory is that around 2018, E.ON was required by the European Commission to divest certain assets, including its commercial unit serving Hungarian small and medium enterprises. This was purchased by the Spanish company Audax, creating Audax Renewables in Hungary. The Spanish company owns significant solar parks in their home country and wants to expand in this direction here as well.

When establishing the company, they naturally needed to build the IT infrastructure too. After separating from E.ON, they needed a system that could handle the complete document lifecycle - from receipt to storage and processing. This required complex processes, full of business problems and IT challenges.

The difficulty was increased by the fact that they needed to implement the business processes inherited from E.ON on the new infrastructure. Audax is present as an owner, but the Hungarian business unit basically operates independently, with processes inherited from E.ON.

The Pitfalls

The first problems emerged early in the project. It became increasingly clear in the details that the framework provided by the selected vendor didn't necessarily fit perfectly with the actual requirements. Questions also arose about what happens when business processes cannot be fully mapped in the new system.

As Zsolt put it: "During implementation, there's always that point where the vendor says: we can do this, but that needs to be done differently. And here's the big difference - what gets placed outside the system that would be important for us in terms of automation."

The situation was further complicated by the fact that in 2022, with the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the energy sector entered an extremely turbulent period. This increased the demands on the system, as the volume of customer inquiries significantly increased.

The Decision

After three to four months of assessment, it became clear that the framework was so rigid that they couldn't break out of it, or only at such tremendous costs that couldn't or shouldn't be paid.

Zsolt said: "We weighed the energy invested so far, the money, the data quality, and what starting a new project would mean. Finally, we said: we understand, this system is good, but this won't be our direction because due to the limitations, we don't see the possibility for further development and advancement with the intensity we need."

Quattrosoft came into the picture partly because company employees already knew and liked Quattrosoft's BürOffice system, which they had worked with before. This also reduced internal resistance to the change.

As I entered the project, I saw that there were basically two challenges: the migration risk and the fact that we had to switch during an extremely turbulent period. Since we had worked with E.ON before, we knew their system, so we knew what data to expect.

The Implementation

The project ran from the end of January 2023 to the end of July. During this time, we specified, developed, migrated, and went live. It wasn't an easy process, but the existing trust helped.

Migration posed a significant challenge. We had to move 3-4 terabytes of data in the background, but this is where the flexibility of BürOffice came in: we didn't have to physically move everything, just migrate the references. This significantly accelerated the process.

According to Zsolt, this is an important lesson: "If we choose a framework where the migration tool is also rigid, then its constraints dictate the speed. However, if there's enough flexibility in the migration tool to adjust it for efficiency, we can save time and resources."

The Uniqueness of the Solution

With BürOffice, we represent a distinctive approach in the digitalization solutions market. Large companies offer infinitely parameterizable frameworks, while traditional certified case management systems primarily support processes that comply with government regulations.

However, from the beginning, we designed our system to handle three key areas simultaneously: processes, electronic content, and physical documents. We don't integrate separate systems but handle them together from the start.

This allows us to work with linearly increasing costs, with no exponential rise during customization. Since we created everything ourselves, we don't run into the limitations of other tools.

The Future

Thanks to the successful project, we're already discussing further collaboration with Audax. As Zsolt mentioned: "We're moving forward. We're thinking about further integration, considering how we can steer customer service more towards digitalization."

They plan to use company portal and business storage for sending offers, which also helps with tracking. Additionally, they're looking for solutions to serve the gas business unit, and Bürooffice has again emerged as a possible tool, thanks to its form generator and other functions.

Lessons Learned

  • Early concept development: It's worth developing a thorough concept at the beginning of the project. "Before we start implementing a specific process, let's create a concept for it," said Zsolt. The vendor can price this, and both parties clearly see what they're committing to.
  • Collaborative thinking with the vendor: "Thinking together with the vendor is always useful," emphasized Zsolt. Although there's a trap situation, since after commitment both parties have an interest in continuing, the initial conversations can reveal whether we're good partners for each other.
  • Accurate documentation: Zsolt highlighted: "I received a description, I got schematic diagrams, they told me many times: this is what it will be, this is what you asked for. I wasn't surprised, I really got what was promised." The written and drawn documentation provided a "clear language" during the project.
  • Courage to change: If a solution doesn't work, you must accept the pain of changing. As Zsolt said: "We understand, this is good, but this won't be our direction." It's a difficult decision, but pays off in the long run.
  • System flexibility: It's worth choosing a flexible framework that can adapt to business needs, not vice versa.

Perhaps the main lesson of the story is that although the pitfalls of IT projects can be painful, there's always a way out with the right partner and approach. Sometimes a change, however difficult a decision, may be the best choice in the long run.

And perhaps most importantly: clear communication, accurate documentation, and flexibility are always key to a successful digitalization project. Because as Zsolt emphasized: "It's difficult to align business expectations and IT competence so that we're thinking of the same thing."

Note that the podcast is in Hungarian.