Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
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wwtonline.co.uk | NOVEMBER 2018 WET NEWS 13 The apparent mismatch between IT investment and the observed increase in productiv- ity has led to several high-pro- file research projects. Professor Erik Brynjolfsson, who led a $4.5 million study across 800 US firms to show the correlation between IT investment and pro- ductivity concluded that "IT is significantly more productive when combined with organisa- tional change". Organisational change So what level of organisational change is required to support smart networks? This starts to be answered when you build a case for investing in new smart technologies. Whether the potential benefits are a reduc- tion in leakage or improved cus- tomer service, the development of a strong case for investment is driven by the range of potential benefits. For example, the replace- ment of one range of sensors for a new one with a better bat- tery life has only local and mar- ginal benefits associated with it. Likewise, the degree of busi- ness change is also relatively small. However, compare that with smart solutions that have a high range of potential bene- fits, such as the deployment of advanced metering infrastruc- ture (AMI), which provides cus- tomer consumption data in real time to both the utility com- pany and the customer. The potential benefits of this AMI technology are wide ranging and significant in terms of pro- actively managing and under- standing true network usage and leakage as well as driving behavioural change across the customers that have adopted these meters. To achieve these significant benefits, companies will need to address a whole host of organi- sational and technological ena- blers. This will range from a potential change in the companies' metering policy; how the company promotes the use of meters to its customer; the change in processes and personnel required to manage and respond to more informed customers; and the IT systems that can store, integrate and analyse this new and vast amount of time series data to enable it to provide better insights in network management. The four-stage model below has been adapted from the five levels of IT-enabled business transformation developed by Venkatraman (1994). This model illustrates how companies may need to make decisions when acquiring and implementing new OT by firstly considering the value of the expected benefits and then the required degree of business change needed to suc- cessfully embed it. The above framework ranges from local enhancements with minimal business transforma- tion to business network rede- sign, which involves not only redesigning internal processes but also bringing the benefits of supply change and ensuring processes are seamlessly inte- grated. The example given could be the collection, transfer and analysis of meter data by a third party, external to the water and wastewater company. Achieving significant bene- fits means making new OT part of the fabric of the company. So, while there are a few challenges associated with successfully embedding smart water net- work solutions, there are also vast benefits for having more data-driven technologies sup- porting network management. A key factor in the success of smart network solutions is the way in which the technology becomes part of the fabric of a company, as the integration of the new technology can be as important as the technology itself. NEED TO KNOW • Stantec, founded in Canada in 1954, integrated MWH UK and MWH Treatment at the turn of the year • Stantec has 22,000 employees • The company operates in 400 locations across six continents WASTEWATER 2019 CONFERENCE BRINGING YOU THE UK'S LARGEST SINGLE-DAY WASTEWATER SHOWCASE RUNNING 4 DISTINCT PROGRAMMES IN PARALLEL Choose your stream for 2019, visit: wwt.events/wwater19 REGISTER NOW @WWTLive and use #wwtwastewater19 to tweet about the event FOLLOW US 29 JANUARY 2019 | BIRMINGHAM WWT-Wastewater19-A4ad-final vs.indd 1 14/09/2018 14:21 continuous battery powered turbidity for network monitoring t. 0800 8046 continuous battery powered turbidity for network monitoring t. 0800 8046 062 www.atiuk.com e. sales@atiuk.com