An IT leader’s mission to retrofit the tech foundation at Eon

Three years ago, Essen-based Eon’s IT function was in the dumps, according to CIO Sebastian Webers’ colleagues when he took on his new role. In his keynote speech at the Hamburg IT Strategy Days in February, Weber looked back on those first three years and the journey he and his team took during that time.

At first, Weber made it clear his initial focus wouldn’t be on outstanding chatbot or AI projects, but basic work, or “cleaning up the basement,” as he said.

IT modernization in four imperatives

In 2020 and 2021, Eon took over the power grids and electricity sales business from Innogy and integrated it into the company. Weber definitely didn’t want the merger of two old IT infrastructures to create one big old IT infrastructure. That’s why his focus was on grassroots work that modernized IT. This was followed by a phase in which the IT landscape was stabilized and the IT architecture was prepared for the future.

In his keynote, Weber shared the four North Stars that have collectively served as the catalyst for success so far, and also defined him as the company CIO over the past three years: employee satisfaction, stability of the IT systems, user satisfaction, and moving forward.

And for the remainder of the year, and moving into 2025, Eon, with the help of Weber’s guidance, has decided to look at the operating model in order to further optimize and modernize IT.

IT bashing had to stop

IT modernization also means, to a large extent, mindset work, according to Weber. Once in the CIO role, he observed that IT didn’t criticize itself in an appropriate or constructive way, with sarcastic barbs like, “Of course the printers don’t work.” So the perspective had to change for the better. “This bashing had to stop,” said Weber. Today Eon-IT is accompanied by the two sentences, “We love technology” and “Transform our IT from good enough to excellent.”

With this approach, IT faces a task together and tackles it. Weber wants his IT colleagues to start each day asking themselves what they’re doing to take a step forward. “After about a year and a half, everyone had settled in,” he said.

A multi-faceted approach

Modernizing IT at Eon also included upgrading the infrastructure, such as the offices, in terms of network stability. Another important step for Weber was the step into the cloud, even if it wasn’t easy at first. It took six months until the first workload could be migrated, but then, after just another six months, the entire SAP landscape was able to be migrated to the cloud.

But that’s not the end of the story. Weber named other areas that currently concern him about IT modernization. He’d like to continue modernizing and reworking in the cloud, as well as build a product-centric organization, away from traditional service teams. Other topics high on his agenda is developing into a DevOps organization, and sourcing; Eon-IT hired 400 new employees last year and is planning to hire more. Weber’s goal is to ensure that critical issues no longer lie with partners through outsourcing, but with the company’s own employees.

Companywide ambitions

Weber wants to take all employees with him on this journey. That’s why, for example, he recently opened a Leadership Excellence training program for everyone interested, with a separate conference for IT employees. This way, he ensures that IT is no longer perceived as the company backwater it used to, and continues on its modernization journey. But he knows the hard work will continue. “We’re not yet a wellness oasis,” he said. “There’s still a lot to do.”