TECHNOLOGY
The origins of the firm ’ s digital transformation can be traced back to April 2017 , when National Grid sold a majority stake in its gas distribution business and became Cadent , an independent , privately-owned organisation .
As part of this division , Cadent also has to separate all of its technologies – its networks , the data centres , applications and more – by March 2019 . It is a mammoth task , but Houlton says that it ’ s helping the Cadent team to focus on what matters – “ being as efficient and effective as we possibly can , maximising performance and productivity , and delivering a great service to our customers .”
An agile , fast-moving platform But when technology is everchanging and constantly improving , how does Cadent keep up with the pace of innovation ?
“ I ’ m a great believer in the fact that you can ’ t really future-proof technology because of the pace and the rate that things are changing today ,” Houlton says . “ Our strategy was to create a foundation that allowed us to be agile and fast-moving so that we could respond to the changing demands of the business .”
To this end , Houlton says that the company ’ s move to a public cloud , specifically Amazon Web Services ( AWS ), was “ fundamental ” to give the company the scalability and flexibility it needed to deliver solutions quickly .
A competitive edge What ’ s more , Cadent ’ s strategy has also involved looking at the areas where it equaled competitors in the marketplace such as its back-office operations , HR , finance , procurement , and its ERP system , and standardising the back office to maximise efficiency and value . Keen to deliver an effective SAP transformation , Cadent is moving to SAP S / 4HANA for its back-office functions . They key is simplification – removing the complexity built up over multiple years and adopting best practice driven by our technology .
“ It ’ s been an interesting shift in culture and conversation ,” Houlton
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