This report is brought to you by Utility Week Intelligence in association with Wipro and ServiceNow
Time for a digital renaissance
Utilities need to refresh their approaches to digital transformation as major challenges hit home. Senior representatives debated the challenges and opportunities involved at a Utility Week event.
Introduction
The phrase “digital transformation” has been a common feature of business vernacular for well over a decade, across industries and geographies. Yet for all the longevity of the term, many organisations, not least in the utilities sector, feel they still have a long way to go in realising the benefits of the digital age.
Of course, in part this can be explained by the ever-increasing rate of technological innovation. The pace at which emerging technology fields are maturing and making their presence felt in real-world applications has the potential to make a keen technophile who embraces the “next big thing” at breakfast feel like a luddite by dinner time.
But the dynamism of the tech industry can’t entirely explain away a strong feeling observed by Utility Week across a number of industry forums and focus groups, that there is significant untapped potential for digital transformation across the energy and water sectors and that companies need to make a concerted effort to pick up the pace of change.
The drivers for this renewed sense of urgency on digitalisation are varied, spanning new regulatory expectations and reporting requirements, downward pressure on operational costs and changing service level demands.
Nevertheless, the overarching and most compelling argument for a renaissance in digital transformation in the utilities sector is the existential threat of climate change. This is demanding the creation of much more dynamic infrastructure operations which can provide real time insight into the environmental and carbon impacts of decision making, as well as optimising supply and demand for better resource management.
At a recent debate, hosted by Utility Week in association with Wipro and ServiceNow, senior industry representatives discussed the challenges they are encountering as they seek to push digital transformation forward in their organisations, managing associated risks and maximising rewards.
This report outlines core insights from that discussion with anonymised quotes from the individuals who took part. Our guests represented regulated energy and water utilities and held expertise across a range of functions, from cyber security to operations and data management.
Insights have been grouped under the following core themes, with concluding remarks provided by industry experts from Wipro and SerivceNow.
Participants said: