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UTILITY WEEK | 13TH - 19TH NOVEMBER 2015 | 25 Operations & Assets In an interactive workshop during the second half of the meeting, council members set out their expectations for what their business and industry will look like in ten years' time. These expectations will be used to establish the first Utility Week-Wipro Utilities Blueprint, a document that will be produced annually and will keep track of utilities' evolving visions of the future. As time goes on, the intention is that the blueprint document will help to track progress towards achieving these visions, and to identify where and why expectations expressed in early iterations, have not been met. Utilities blueprint produced in partnership with: • Time to market and value creation for disruptive new technologies can be accelerated by col- laborating and shar- ing risk. • Standardisation can provide a frame- work for incremental innovation. • Embracing inno- vation will mean changes to tradi- tional management structure in utilities. • Rapidly advanc- ing manufactur- ing technologies could help utility companies reduce the whole-life cost of assets and improve the efficiency and productivity of exist- ing assets. • The Internet of Things can help companies to improve their performance within existing business models, and also holds promise for enabling entirely new business models. Five key points to take away The Internet of Things As well as exploring lessons from manufacturing, the council meeting also incorporated a focus on the Internet of Things and the relevance of this technology phenomenon to the rise of new utility business models. A presentation from Guy Courtin of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research showed how this technology, which many associate with "blue-sky" thinking about the future, is being used today to enhance the performance of asset-heavy organisations around the world, and how some are also already using it to fundamentally change their business models. Rolls-Royce is well known for having moved to a "power by the hour" service model rather than continuing to sell its engines as one-off units, enabled by embedded, connected technology in its assets. Courtin identified, however, that this model is being replicated widely as more and more firms seek to develop high value service models rather than delivering lower value one-off sales. One example he gave was of a US logistics crane company that is using sensors and data from intelligent assets to develop and service a model predicated on the number and duration of "lis" it supplies. Could such service models be achieved in the utilities sector? In many ways attendees agreed that this transformation could be close at hand given existing experience in the use of telemetry and sensors. However, questions remain around customer buy-in to service models as well as regulation and investor appetite for the associated impacts on risk. KEY POINTS IDENTIFIED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS IN WORKSHOP GROUPS • The key characteristics their organi- sations will exhibit in 2025. • What the management structure will look like in these organisations. • What services they will offer. • What technologies will enable them to offer these services. • Which partners will help them to deliver these services. • The first blueprint document will be published alongside an in-depth research report into the state of innovation in UK utilities in January 2016.