A corporate vehicle in which to bring together all the information technology activities of the group, including the “digital factory”, the permanent laboratory in which multifunctional teams work on the 4.0 revolution desired by the CEO Paolo Gallo since his arrival at the helm of the company in 2016. In short, a new technological hub called to give further acceleration to the digital transformation of Italgas. The final outlines of the newco are still being evaluated, but the new company should include a hundred resources and contracts for several tens of millions of euros. “Thanks to this step that allows us to put further order into all IT activities – explains number one Gallo at Sole 24 Ore -, we will be able, on the one hand, to create synergies, and, on the other, to focus on more on the development of proprietary applications that will serve to carry on the company’s digital transformation path started some time ago ».
Ad Gallo: we will also offer the service to third parties
The decision to concentrate and rationalize one of the “engines” of the group’s development in a newco also responds to another objective: to launch a commercial offer of IT services also towards the outside world. “The next step – continues the CEO – is to offer some of our proprietary applications to third parties who can be both operators in our sector and in other sectors”. Not surprisingly, the group has already collected the substantial interest of many operators (from energy to insurance) for its 4.0 revolution and the number of opportunities with which Italgas can present itself to the market is wide. Gallo rattles off just a few examples.
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The apps developed by the group
“The digital factory – he clarifies – has developed an application, Work On Site, which allows remote control of site compliance and work progress and which, suitably adapted, could be used on any site”. But the Italgas digital team has also signed an app that allows remote collaboration, precious for maintenance activities, supporting technicians working in the field, as well as a platform for the intelligent management of meters throughout their life. The latter is a piece that the group effectively exploits to remotely control the 8 million devices located throughout the peninsula.
The startup times of the newco
In short, the road has been drawn and, within a month and a half at the most, the company should see the light. «The path has begun – continues the CEO – and we have already made the necessary communications to the trade unions. It is an important step that will allow us to take a further step also in the separation between our regulated activities and those on the market because the newco will be able to have a very well-defined contractual relationship with the various souls of the company ».
The investments made for digitization
Italgas is therefore ready to make this new leap which comes to crown the great effort, over 2 billion euros, put in place so far by the group for digitization. A commitment destined to grow in the new 2021-2027 strategic plan that will be presented in mid-June. «The need to obtain data to better manage the network pushes us to imagine new devices that will support us in this direction – adds Gallo -. Two examples: network bottom pressure detectors that will be placed throughout our infrastructure and gas chromatographs to measure the quantity of odorant in the network today, tomorrow also that of biomethane and hydrogen. Already today we are experimenting with them successfully and at this point we are going to plan a more massive release. And, to give these components a boost, we will have to increase – concludes the head of Italgas – the mass of investments in order to have a completely digital network at the end of next year ».