International engineering enterprise, China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE), has been at the forefront of the utilities sector since its establishment over 60 years ago. With a specialization in water resources and hydropower engineering, CWE has established a global presence in more than 40 countries and has been among the Engineering News-Record’s Top 250 International Contractors for 30 consecutive years.
Innovation has been a key priority for CWE through the years, particularly in internal informatization and improving its services. Key to this strategy has been the building of a robust internal IT infrastructure, made possible by significant investments in digital products and services.
Uncovering new opportunities with Surface
Today’s workplace has necessitated versatile and reliable digital devices that can enhance the user experience and simplify complex processes. To meet these needs, CWE introduced Microsoft Surface devices for its employees.
This has included the use of the Surface Book, Surface Hub and Surface Studio across CWE’s workplace for different scenarios, including the development of applications as well as drawings and enhanced visualizations. This has helped to significantly improve user experience and presentations. The use of Surface Go has also increased the efficiency of video conferencing. Employees no longer need to manually record meeting minutes, and instead can rely on the device’s superior sound quality for recordings.
CWE’s employees utilizing Surface Go to conduct remote meetings
With the evolving COVID-19 situation necessitating remote working, employees have also been able to utilize Surface devices for contactless signing. The touch screen interface makes it convenient for them to approve and acknowledge documents automatically.
Hu Haojie, Chief Financial Officer of CWE, explained, “Regardless of the size of an enterprise, the operations, maintenance and deployment of its IT infrastructure remains integral to continued scalability and development. Through our partnership with Microsoft, CWE has leveraged Microsoft’s innovations, from cloud applications to Surface devices, as well as Office 365 and Dynamics 365, which has facilitated the optimization of our IT infrastructure. We definitely see how the synergies created by the integration of software and hardware has played a significant part in this.”
Microsoft Surface devices have been introduced to meet the diverse needs of CWE’s departments
Integrating across Microsoft’s family of software and hardware solutions
A believer in keeping updated with the latest in enterprise technology, Hu has introduced every generation of Surface within CWE, including the newly launched Surface Pro X. He has also ensured CWE ran on the latest Microsoft solutions to keep systems running on the highest quality.
This includes the use of SharePoint 2019 in the development of CWE’s internal operations platform. This enabled the automation of key functions, including finance and enterprise resource planning (ERP), customized to meet specific requirements across departments.
Strengthening foundations for digital transformation
Looking ahead, CWE aims to forge ahead with the continuous evolution of its digital suite to uncover more areas of business value and productivity.
“In our current market environment, where cloud solutions continue to impact and redefine business operations, our organizations need to ensure it remains consistent and comprehensively embedded within the business. This way, substantial value can be uncovered, and business needs can be met. Working with Microsoft has been integral to our business. Through software, we have been able to integrate our entire operating system from our database to our end-user platform. Through hardware, we have changed the way employees work, communicate, and collaborate,” shared Hu.
