Brabant Water Benefits from Digitized Maintenance with SAP Service & Asset Manager
About Brabant Water
Brabant Water is a sustainable drinking water company supplying drinking and industrial water to 2.6 million residents and businesses in the province of Brabant and a small part of Zeeland. Together with the team from Ideo, the utility has taken a major step in digitizing its maintenance and asset management processes. By deploying SSAM, data quality has improved, job satisfaction has increased, and the organization is laying the foundation for predictive maintenance.
An interview with Kees Lombarts, Maintenance Excellence Lead at Brabant Water.
The Old Way: Paperwork and Errors
Until recently, technicians recorded their work on paper and entered it manually into SAP later—sometimes days afterward. Kees Lombarts explains: “That inevitably led to errors, incomplete notifications, and inconsistent data. Sometimes handwriting was illegible, or a notification was accidentally booked to the wrong asset. We were running into those issues on a structural basis.”
The New Approach: Fully Mobile
With the mobile solution, that is a thing of the past. Technicians now use an iPhone or iPad mini with the SAP Service and Asset Manager (SSAM) app. Upon arriving at one of the 29 production sites, they scan asset QR codes, open work orders, consult manuals, and enter notifications directly. Lombarts elaborates: “They can even add photos, videos, or audio recordings to a notification. A short video often says more than words—especially when dealing with issues like leaks or noise disturbances.”
Reliable Data as the Basis for Investment Decisions
With an investment wave of hundreds of millions of dollars on the horizon, reliable information is crucial. “In the past, we simply renovated installations every two years—whether it was necessary or not. Now we want to invest much more selectively. To do that, you need to know which components are vulnerable, how often they fail, and why.”
The SSAM solution provides Brabant Water with a solid foundation to better substantiate and prioritize investments. By structurally recording failure data, damage patterns, and root causes, the organization gains a data-driven view of the condition of its installations. This makes it possible to base future investments not on intuition or routine, but on hard facts.
Brabant Water now also benefits from more accurately and completely populated fields such as damage pattern and damage cause—essential for failure analysis. Lombarts says: “We’re truly moving from preventive to smart maintenance. Step by step, we’re building a data-driven maintenance strategy, and we’re already seeing the first benefits.”
Embedded in a Broader Data Landscape
The SAP solution is fully integrated into Brabant Water’s broader SAP landscape. The organization is currently migrating to SAP S/4HANA and uses a data lake for analytics in Power BI. “Soon, with SAP Analytics, we’ll be able to analyze data even more efficiently, without intermediate steps. We want to use AI for predictive maintenance. That’s why we’re investing now in collecting high-quality data—because that’s where it all begins,” Lombarts explains.
Attracting Young Technicians
Brabant Water also sees benefits in workforce development. “Young technicians expect this. If you hand them a notepad and a pen, they lose interest. But if you tell them they’ll be working with modern apps and data, their eyes light up. We’ve literally experienced that during recent job interviews.”
Pragmatic Collaboration with SAP and Ideo as a Key Success Factor
The collaboration with Ideo played a crucial role in the success of the implementation. “What I truly appreciate about Ideo is their pragmatic mindset and their ability to understand our day-to-day reality. They don’t just think in terms of technology, but especially in how our people will actually use it.”
During the pilot phase, a group of key users—from technicians to operations managers—were given the opportunity to test different devices and functionalities. Their experiences and suggestions were immediately incorporated into further development. “If something didn’t work quite right, we immediately looked at how to improve it. Some of the adjustments we proposed have even been incorporated as standard features in the solution for other customers. That says a lot about how well Ideo listens and adapts.”
The trust built through previous SAP projects between Brabant Water and Ideo also contributed to a smooth rollout: “We’ve been working together for quite some time, and that shows in the relationship. We can openly challenge each other, and that makes a real difference in transformation projects like this.”
Daily Practice
Erik van de Ven, Practice Lead Service Management at Ideo, emphasizes the importance of user involvement: “The strength of this implementation was the involvement of users from day one. Together with Brabant Water, we didn’t just implement a technical solution—we developed a way of working that truly aligns with the technicians’ daily practice. That’s where technology makes an impact.”
Looking Ahead: Data as the Guiding Principle
Brabant Water is currently defining its vision for 2028. Lombarts concludes: “If you don’t have ambition, you can be sure you’re moving too slowly. Our ambition is clear: standardized processes, reliable data, and smart technology that enables us to continue delivering safe, sustainable, and efficient drinking water. We are now better prepared than ever to achieve that.”
This interview was conducted by SAP Netherlands. Ideo is a SAP Gold Partner.
Facts
Client: Brabant Water
Industry: Utilities
Service: Process Optimization
Products: SAP Service & Asset Management (SSAM)
