Anglian Water partnered with Capgemini to implement a new SAP delivery model, leading to faster ticket resolution times, higher customer satisfaction, and enhanced system visibility.

Client challenge:

Anglian Water sought to enhance SAP delivery by adopting a product-first DevOps model, empowering business teams to own services and shape SAP strategy for improved agility and accountability.

Solution:

Capgemini partnered with Anglian Water to design an SAP operating model and deploy cross-skilled product and platform squads, integrating S/4HANA and ECC6 with end-to-end “build to run” teams.

Benefits:

  • Increased customer and stakeholder satisfaction scores
  • Higher visibility of SAP backlogs and roadmaps thanks to the use of collaboration tools
  • Improved mean time to resolve statistics for DevOps squads
  • More value delivered via embedded business experts an SAP prioritisation framework

Anglian Water redefines SAP delivery through new operating model

Anglian Water, the largest water and water recycling company in England and Wales by geographic area, serves nearly seven million customers. With an ambitious Digital, Data, and Technology (DDaT) leadership team focused on implementing a Digital Operating Model and upgrading SAP ECC6 to S/4HANA over several years, the company recognised the need to modernise delivery as well as technology.

Based on modern industry standards focused on product-centric and DevOps delivery, and a Digital Operating Model in place in some parts of the organisation, Anglian Water wanted to deliver SAP in a new way. Focusing on maximising value and increasing in-house ownership of both day-to-day decisions and long-term strategy. In doing this, Anglian Water will secure the future of business-critical systems by increasing expertise and understanding inside the organisation, and increasing value from their third-party suppliers, including Capgemini.

A leading example of client-supplier collaboration

To achieve this goal, Anglian Water partnered with Capgemini, forming a team that could carefully design and implement the new Digital Operating Model. Initially as a small discovery and design team working closely with senior DDaT stakeholders, the team quickly expanded into an operational rollout involving a wide range of Anglian Water and supplier stakeholders.

Over a six-month period, Anglian Water and Capgemini used a combination of structured training sessions and adaptive methods to incrementally roll out the new delivery model and associated tools to nine different Agile squads and associated stakeholder groups. Supplier teams and business experts underwent specific training to enable more effective end-to-end ownership of their specific product or platform area and enhance their practical knowledge of Agile delivery.

The project was led by critical roles from Capgemini Invent including a Digital Operating Model expert, Product Leader, and Agile Delivery Lead. During transition to the new model, Capgemini supplied an Agile Coach to newly appointed Scrum Masters and supported the setup of new tools, while tracking the rollout of training and troubleshooting along the way. A particular benefit of this transition was the retention of individuals with many years of client-specific knowledge and experience – all now trained in the new mode of delivery.

Reaping the benefits and rolling out the model further

Since the rollout of the new delivery model in February 2025, Anglian Water has seen steady, incremental improvements in SAP delivery as all teams have been onboarded and have increased in maturity. Key impacts include:

  • The introduction of Agile work management tools has provided more visibility of work planned and in progress.
  • Ticket resolution times have decreased thanks to closer business involvement in prioritisation and escalation of blockers.
  • Customer satisfaction scores have improved thanks to better communication between teams and their stakeholders.
  • A product-centric approach means an SAP vision and strategy is evolving among the business user community – something that has not existed before.

Looking ahead, Anglian Water is committed to continuing its digital transformation. The company plans to complete the rollout of its Digital Operating Model, and its ongoing partnership with Capgemini will remain central to driving this. As Anglian Water transitions to cutting edge cloud and AI-enabled ERP systems, the focus will remain on delivering the best possible service to its customers, ensuring that they stay at the heart of every decision.