SESB Makes Digital Transformation Move with SAP

Ismail Chekima
SESB CIO Ismail Chekima

Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) has embarked on a digital transformation programme to realise greater operational efficiencies and further uplift customer satisfaction levels with an aim of becoming a world-class utility.

Its chief information officer Ismail Chekima said that SESB is currently working with world-renowned enterprise solutions provider SAP to establish itself as a leading energy enterprise, while also recognising the need to develop world-class data-management and business intelligence capabilities to accurately forecast energy demands and optimise operations.

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“SESB continues to apply innovative approaches to technology to support the growing demand for electricity and is fully committed to serving customers in the best possible manner in line with our tagline of ‘Your Light, Our Pride’,” said Ismail.

As a result, SESB has already upgraded to the SAP HANA platform to gain ‘live’ intelligence which helps the company to modernise for agility and scale cost-effectively.


Its adoption of the SAP Business Suite means that SESB is now able to run core business operations more efficiently with end-to-end process support for areas such as customer engagement, finance, human resources, project management, utility billing, preventive/predictive maintenance, corrective maintenance procurement, logistics and IT.

“The SAP Business Suite not only combines transactions and analytics on a single in-memory platform but has helped SESB completely redefine the concept of real time,” said Ismail, adding that it has enabled business processes be re-thought. “It has also driven real-time business transformation while generating value for business and IT.”

According to SAP managing director Hong Kok Cheong, the HANA platform enables SESB to harness the power of its data while accelerating trusted outcome-driven innovation through intelligent and live solutions for real-time decisions and actions on a single data copy.

“With SAP HANA, SESB is also able to support next-generation transactional and analytical processing with a broad set of advanced analytics,” added Hong.

“SESB is also SAP’s first customer in Malaysia to run the full SAP HANA suite for utilities and it is pleasing to see them reap significant technical and business benefits.”

“Today, digital is transforming the way power and utilities companies create value, serve customers, manage costs, optimise processes, and capture new market opportunities,” said Ismail.

In forthcoming months, SESB will also be rolling out mobile applications for its field force and customers.

“Our field force would thus be able to gauge any situation in ‘real time’ and with greater responsiveness,” said Ismail.

“Meanwhile, our valued customers stand to also benefit from the mobile applications. They could apply for electricity via their mobile application, and also check and pay their bills through their mobile phones,” added Ismail.

Through this digital transformation programme, SESB is also able to develop new and more accurate electricity power generation forecast models.

“SESB is now able to take advantage of big data mining and additional forecasting capabilities. These capabilities make it possible for us to pursue our transformation agenda with greater purpose, speed and confidence.”