Welcome! Cut Costs & Boost Productivity... The NorthWestern Energy Way

1. Welcome!Cut Costs & Boost Productivity...The NorthWestern Energy Way Presenters: Donnell Kuchtyn Mark Vasquez Soshima Kocharekar

2. SAP ERP

3. Why is Usability Important? • Easy to Learn • Efficient to Use • Easy to Remember • Enjoyable to Use

4. What Can Usability Do For Business? ROI Productivity • Impact on Business: • Project Cost • Productivity • Calculating ROI Usability Cost

5. How can GuiXT Solutions improve Usability? • Remove Distractions/Confusions • Consolidate/Optimize Data Entry • Use Familiar Terms • Images to Aid Identification • Instructions for Complex or Seldom Used Procedures

6. Bundled with SAP ERP Certified by SAP for NetWeaver Portals No backend code changes Do it faster with fewer resources Minimize Risk Maximize your SAP ERP! GuiXT Solution

7. Activate GuiXT Embedded within SAP!

8. How GuiXT Works

9. Donnell Kuchtyn SAP PM/CS/SD Business Analyst/Configurer Primary Liaison with the T & D Operations Division Project Team member for original SAP implementation NorthWestern Energy Employee for 27 years

10. GuiXT Implementation Cut Costs & Boost Productivity... The NorthWestern Energy Way

11. Talking Points: • Background of Northwestern Energy • SAP and GuiXT • Why GuiXT? • Let’s see some GuiXT • Results/Benefits • Lessons Learned • Suggestions • Questions

12. About NorthWestern Energy (NWE) • Regional Electric & Gas Dist. & Trans. Utility • 400K electric & 250K natural gas customers in Montana, S. Dakota, Nebraska • Corp. Headquarters – Sioux Falls, SD • IT operations located primarily in Butte, MT • Montana operations previously know as The Montana Power Co. (MPC) until purchase by NorthWestern Corp. (NWE) in 2002. • MPC HQ has been in Butte since 1912. • Approx. 1,300 employees

13. NorthWestern Energy (NWE) Service Area

14. SAP & GuiXT at NWE • MPC live on 4.5b in May 2000 • NWE – SD/Neb operations live June 2002 • Upgrade to 4.6c in Nov 2002 • GuiXT implemented December 2005 • GuiXT expanded to entire New Construction process June 2006 • Upgrade to ECC 5.0 Oct 2006 • Upgrade to ECC 6.0 – SP12 EP2 June 2008 • GuiXT expanded for all Capital work processes in the CU/OLC Go-Live Feb. 19 2009

15. Why GuiXT? • SAP Not intuitive • Hard to navigate between transactions • Too many fields and tabs on the screens • Field descriptions did not make sense • Very time consuming to train • Lost some of the controls and edits we had in the legacy system • No consistency across areas for the same process

16. THE PROCESS FLOW Customer Request E or G Service only? LD Pro Design Create Notification NO YES Create Customer Adders or Services Needed? Add Adders or Services Using VC Create Design Using VC YES SAP GuiXT Step NO • PERFORM WORK • Materials • Labor • Contract • OH Loading Manual Step/Decision Release Design LD Pro Step To Crews Bundling Process Generate OLC Order ORD 24000670 Oper 1310 Oper 2330 Oper By Act Quote $$$ Create Quote – to Customer ??? OK OLC ORDER Quote Accepted Release OLC Order Print Job Packet

17. Let’s see some GuiXT • Launch Pads • Scripting • Screen Scrubbing • Standard screen vs. GuiXT screen • Scripting • Business Control • Edits within GuiXT scripts • Create Notification and Customer (screen cam) • Standard SAP • GuiXT

18. Launch Pad Launch Pad Button for our New Construction Process Script to place button on SAP Easy access screen. Initiates transaction zw_guixt_001.

19. Launch Pad Launch Pad Buttons for Each Functional Area for the process – used a custom ‘Z’ transaction. Script to initiate the launch pad

20. Launch Pad “Include” means to read that particular script. No Screen is selected so the Functional Area selection is initially presented, once you click on a Functional Area button a screen number is set (l_scrn = “#”).

21. Launch Pad Each Functional Area Launch Pad is different based on the functions they perform in the process.

22. Launch Pad If the New Construction Desk Button is selected then the screen is = 1.

23. Launch Pad Scripting for the New Construction Desk launch pad

24. Launch Pad Click on Create Capital Work Notification (Z4) pushbutton (9,3) "@0Y\QCreate Capital Work Notification (Z4)@Create Capital Work Notification (Z4)" "/niw51" size=(3,50) process="iw51_navigate.txt“ using l_launch = "MAIN" using l_notif = "Z4"

25. Notification Screen process “iw51_navigate.txt” Executes transaction IW51 and sets notification type Z4 and enters.

26. Notification Screen Z4 Notification with GuiXT: “Screen scrubbing” Additional GuiXT buttons/fields Inserting the Create, change, and display customer transaction

27. Notification Screen Z4 Notification without GuiXT Extra Icons, tabs, fields

28. Notification Screen Z4 Notification without GuiXT Second page

29. Notification Screen Notification Screen script example to: delete unwanted toolbar icons, tabs and fields re-size boxes re-position boxes and fields

30. Notification Screen Z4 Notification with GuiXT: Embedded the Create Customer, Change Customer and Display Customer transactions

31. Notification Screen Notification Screen script example: Checks to ensure user has authorization prior to showing the button for Create or Change Customer.

32. Screen Cam • Create Notification and Customer (screen cam) • Standard SAP • GuiXT

33. Results Just from create notification transaction and embedding the create customer transaction: • Decreased time from 7 ½ mins. to 4 mins. • From 21 screens to 4 • Eliminated 21 navigation clicks • From 50 input fields to 42 • Defaulted 8 fields • Eliminated 9 fields not used • Organized fields in an intuitive order • 2 concurrent SAP sessions to only 1 • In 2008 4,900 customers created and 6,190 notifications created • Similar results achieved throughout entire notification through order completion process

34. Benefits • Processes intuitive and easy to navigate • Embedded many processes and navigation between transactions with a “push of a button” • Forces consistent process across organization • Auditable processes for business control • Users only see fields/tabs they need to see • Data which is consistently applied is defaulted • Users do not need to know transactions • Use of Launch pads and buttons • Training new employees on the process is cut in half • From 6 hours to 2 hours for create notification/customer • Screen changes in Upgrades are ‘invisible’ to users

35. Lessons Learned • SAP upgrades • Virtually Seamless • Do Test - SAP changes field descriptions/Screens • 4 field descriptions and 2 screens were changed by SAP in our last upgrade • Synactive Tools make them easy to find/fix • Make sure all transactions which initiate a screen are included in the script • Example: a notification can be executed from list edit or an order as well as the notification transactions. If you want all the ‘screen scrubbing’ to appear then those transactions should be included. • Works best if business process analyst/configurer and ABAP persons know how to script • Easy to use, but may need ABAP assistance for more complex processes (to create custom transactions, function modules, etc) • Users want more!

36. Suggestions for Roll-out • Define Business process/specifications before you begin • Start with just a few transactions that have big benefits • Preferably something you can build on • Web repository is more efficient and offers better control • Use Synactive Consultant on-site • Have a business process analyst/configurer and ABAP person with the consultant as they build the scripts • Proved to be great knowledge transfer and speedy roll-out • Expertise and knowledge for troubleshooting • They’ve seen it, done it and have direct contact with other Synactive folks if needed • Initial implementation literally only took 1 week to implement – money well spent!!

37. “If we had implemented GuiXT in 1998, it would have saved us millions in training.” - John LeBas Shell Exploration

38. Butler Supply “Our custom point-of-sale Cash Solution, developed in ABAP, would be unusable without GuiXT.” - Bill Immer

39. Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District “I’ve never been so excited about software in my life” - Kathy Lynch

40. About Synactive Founders Bundled since 1998 Certified by SAP SAP Support Portal Full complement of Professional Services Enterprise functionality in use by >250,000 end-users

41. 5 Points to Take-Away Certified, Proven and Bundled with SAP ERP A Super-Charger approach to make changes to the SAP interface Minimal maintenance & avoids/minimizes problems with future SAP upgrades SAP employees worldwide NO losing support from SAP

42. Questions?

43. For More Information: Synactive, Inc. www.GuiXT.com Tel. +1-650-341-3310 rfi@guixt.com Survey at the end of the meeting