Project aims to foster innovation and digital transformation of the generator’s business
CTG Brasil, the second largest private generator in the Brazilian electricity sector, joined the Santa Catarina Technology Association (ACATE) to announce the creation of its first innovation laboratory in the country. Named Digital Innovation Lab, the initiative is part of a partnership between the two organizations and aims to foster innovation and digital transformation of the generator's business.
With the creation of the innovation laboratory and the partnership with ACATE, CTG Brasil advances in promoting a culture of innovation in the organization. The entire project will be developed from the application of management methodologies adopted by startup companies, such as Lean Startup, Design Thinking and Scrum, whose concepts will be disseminated among the company's employees.
In addition to fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and the dissemination of agile management methods, the initiative will accelerate projects in the Information Technology (IT) area adhering to the Research & Development (R&D) Program of the National Electric Energy Agency. (ANEEL). The total project investment is R$ 2.4 million.
“With the implementation of the Digital Innovation LAB and through the ANEEL R&D program, we are bringing the company closer to the Brazilian innovation ecosystem, building a connection with startups, universities and companies. We will use the entire ACATE ecosystem to meet IT demands with an innovative vision, focusing on collaboration and agility, says José Renato Domingues, Corporate Vice President of CTG Brasil.
Mapping and solving challenges
The partnership between the parties provides for the development of the project in two phases, with a total duration of 24 months. In the first six-month stage, the ACATE team will perform an immersion in CTG Brasil, mapping the main challenges, strategy, organizational culture, human capital and the IT systems used. During this phase, the structuring of the Digital Innovation Lab will be carried out, which will be implemented in the city of São Paulo, headquarters of the generator.
Once the main IT challenges have been identified, the work sequence and the definition of the teams allocated to each of the projects (squads concept) will be prioritized. Each group, from then on, will define the hypotheses and the action plan for the construction of a minimum viable product (MVP) to address the defined challenges. The approval of the proposals will occur in a “pitch” of each squad to the Innovation Committee of CTG Brasil.
With the MVP of the challenges approved, the second phase of the project begins. The expectation is that, at the beginning of this stage, the opening of the laboratory will also take place, which will be located inside the new ACATE innovation hub in São Paulo, at an address in the final phase of definition. The place will house the Acate team and the startups that will develop the solutions defined above.
For Daniel Leipnitz, president of ACATE, the creation of the innovation laboratory will bring effective results and, mainly, improvements to the processes that CTG Brasil develops today. “More than that, the company's partnership with ACATE will allow them to be even closer to our technology and innovation ecosystem, having greater contact with startups and different innovative projects.”
Investments in Innovation
The creation of the Digital Innovation Lab is in line with the company's objective of positioning itself as a provider of solutions for the electricity sector. In 2019, the generator will invest R$ 12 million in 21 R&D projects, an increase of 66% in relation to the amount contributed in 2018.
Among the main initiatives being developed by the company and its partners are a research to transform macrophytes, an aquatic plant present in the reservoirs of the plants, into biofuels and a research on the biotechnological control of the golden mussel to reduce the reproduction of the species, considered invasive in the basins. Brazilian hydrographics.
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