Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | JANUARY 2022 | 33 Business transformation in association with and the digitalisation of operations to deliver a highly utilises, and optimised, system," hesays. "As leaders we need new ways of deliv- ering the change required fast, at the same time blending a mix of di• erent skills, while taking our inherently traditional business culture along the change journey too." Carmeron says agile changes should help reduce the challenges. "There are fundamental changes under- way in our sector and we strive to be progres- sive to anticipate and plan for these, taking an agile approach which reduces the chal- lenge into smaller delivery sprints, helps us deal e• ectively with big change programmes. For example, net zero and climate change, Covid, Brexit, growing fuel poverty and the need for more energy e€ ciency are some of the socio-economic factors which now in‚ u- ence our daily business and future plans. Most of these were unheard of a few years ago. We operate dynamically to constantly scan the horizon for risks and opportunities and … nd ways to progressively improve what we o• er for customers." Williams explains that Ever‚ ow shares its expertise to raise the playing … eld across the industry. "By encouraging best practice, you raise your own game," he says. "Changing cultures is di€ cult, it's not always going to be successful. The key thing is you have to promote it from the top down, and then you need a team of people who really believe in it and give them the time, skills and motivation to do so. This takes time and perseverance but the rewards come with each step. "The utilities industry, like any indus- try that for a large amount of time has been monolithic, slow moving – that's not as a criticism, it's because they didn't need to move fast – they are going to have the hard- est job changing." He summarises the agile philosophy as: "Start with something small, get into the habit, celebrate those small wins and then do more and more." Kraken is a prime example of start-ups sharing their agile expertise. The platform was built around scalable, cloud-based archi- tecture running continuous deployments, to help teams innovate and accelerate. In November, EDF became the third sup- plier to adopt the system, following Eon and Good Energy. James Doyle, head of operations for Octo- pus Energy, says that small decentralised teams drive creativity and e€ ciency. "We practise agile more than we talk about it," he says. Octopus's universal agent programme – with all sta• trained in customer service, bill- ing, technical complexities and smart meter problems – taps into the agile philosophy. "Teams are empowered to make decisions about how and when and where they work, focusing on the objective rather than the processes needed to get to that objective," says Doyle. "It drives a really great element of creativity to uncover better ways of doing things and issues we might not have seen. "Agile has become something even more developed as we learn to cope with the pan- demic. That freedom allows our sta• to be creative about how they solve problems." Doyle says Octopus's sta€ ng model "inspired by bad customer service in energy and other industries" is now helping tradi- tional operators. "We have some big clients we are help- ing to transform by delivering our tech and operating model. They are moving from that traditional mode and it's a huge change to transform not just operating structure but behaviours of people, what they prioritise and how they response and react to issues." An agile workforce is a resilient one Agile change in the shape of more ‚ exible working is part of UKPN's move towards being increasingly ‚ eet of foot. The distribu- tion network operator is currently trialling options for hybrid working patterns likely to be phased in during 2022. Mark Norman, head of sustainability, says sta• ‚ exibility will also improve the company's environmental impact. "Limiting the journeys we make as a workforce results in a meaningful reduction in our emissions because transport is a signi… cant part of our carbon footprint," he says. "An agile workforce is also a resilient workforce. In our sector, being able to work seamlessly when either at home or in the o€ ce enables us to respond e• ectively when faced with adversity such as a storm conditions." In association with U T I L I T Y W E E K E X P L A I N S : How to drive multiple layers of value through LV network monitoring In this report: Low voltage monitoring and the energy transition Options for LV monitoring Advances in LV monitoring Reaping benefits from LV intelligence Download the report To read Amazon's key actions for adopting an agile approach and to read the full report, go to: https://utilityweek.co.uk/move-fast-and-• x-things-can- utilities-embrace-agile-ways-of-working/ AWS comment Bree Wimbush, utilities specialist at AWS, says Amazon has always fostered innovation and organised itself in a way that aims at encouraging innovation and agility. She says: "In relation to its culture, it is customer obsessed, hires builders, and then supports them with a belief system. It builds mechanisms that encode behaviours that facilitate innovation thinking. Amazon's approach to innovation is successful, distinctive, and heavily reliant on the power and agility of the culture, mechanisms and technology. "Leaders across utilities understand that they need to transform, but there can be teething issues with executing the change. "As mentioned by the enterprise leaders interviewed in this research piece, innovation and agility need to be pervasive across the organisation and not just in the technical teams. "As Mik Kersten in Project to Product said: 'The problem is not with our organisations realising that they need to transform; the problem is that organisations are using managerial frameworks and infrastructure models from past revolutions to manage their businesses in this one." "Enterprise businesses are still focused on yearly planning and yearly budgets, but the customer focus needs to be reviewed and re• ned far more frequently than this framework allow for." allow for."

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