Innovation is one of the characteristics of Neoenergia and the company took another step with the creation of Agile Projects and Change Management managing area. The initiative aims to put into practice the philosophy of agile work, a worldwide trend that seeks to optimize the production process in the corporate environment, by enabling a more efficient management and delivery of projects. The agile model is present mainly in technology companies, and Neoenergia is a pioneer in the electric sector by adopting it, accelerating ideas and fostering innovation in an area as essential as energy supply.

To understand how the agile model is used in practice, Neoenergia has a successful case with the implementation of FiscNeo, a digital tool that brings a differential with the use of mobility for the execution of technical and safety inspections of daily activities performed by the distributors´ teams in the field. The main objective of the creation was to eliminate the paper, used by the responsible agents when carrying out the inspections. With this in mind, agile solutions to this challenge were sought. The result was the development of FiscNeo in only four months, currently used in tablets by 400 employees at Neoenergia's four distributors -  Coelba (BA), Celpe (PE), Elektro (SP e MS) and Cosern (RN). With this, the company reinforced its sustainable commitment, by ceasing to print 175 thousand sheets a year, and gained in productivity, with more quality and safety in its activities.

Neoenergia's Agile Projects and Change Management Manager, Isael Passos, explains that, with the agile model, it is possible to make deliveries in smaller parts, which makes the process more accessible and faster. "It differentiates itself by focusing on immediate results for the business, with solutions that seek agility in order to reduce the time of imprecision and uncertainty for application of the project. In addition, the employees involved are mobilized to think and act as 'owners' of the process, which leads to new workflows and self-management of deliveries, in a continuous process of evaluation and feedback", he says.  

DATA ANALYSIS

Within Agile Projects and Change Management area, there is a team dedicated to dealing with data analytics, whose goal is to generate value from the data. "There is a large amount of data obtained from the operation, equipment and distribution grids. The great challenge is to transform them into information that, in turn, will generate decisions and opportunities for the business", explains Isael.

An example of the use of data analytics can be seen in the performance of predictive maintenance, the one that identifies patterns to solve problems before they happen. Thus, data from grid maintenance systems are used to determine the main failures in order to predict and prioritize maintenance actions, considerably reducing the chances of an equipment presenting some problem, which reinforces the reliability of energy supply. "From the moment we have the data, we can use it in a scientific way to make decisions, guiding changes and strategies", concludes the manager.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

This entire philosophy with the use of agile methods and data analytics is supported by Change Management strategies, which Neoenergia has adopted transversally in the company as an organizational strategy, with the objective of leading the human side of any change to achieve the expected results. "With this, employees can be agents of the culture of change, identifying opportunities and potentialities, contributing to the efficiency of activities and incorporating innovation at several levels", declares the superintendent of Development and Application of Neoenergia, Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Soares.