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UTILITY WEEK | 5TH - 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 | 21 Sponsored report HALF-MEASURES ARE NO GOOD – IT'S GOT TO BE SEAMLESS "The key thing with digitisation is to understand that it really does have to be an end-to-end transformation of the entire customer experi- ence. The last thing you want to do is build a superhighway to a dirt track. You might build it stage by stage, application by application, but the end goal has to be seamless. "And what does it look like? How will you recognize it when you get there? That's easy: you're looking for the imme- diacy of Twitter, the reliable fulfilment of Amazon, and the intuitive customer experience of Apple. That's what digitisation must deliver." Jeremy Leach, head of the European digitisation practice, Wipro IT'S SO MUCH MORE THAN SMART METERS "People sometimes confuse smart metering with the Internet of Things, but the two aren't the same. Smart meters are perhaps a subset of the Internet of Things, but without requiring internet connectivity, whereas the Internet of Things is a much more broad collection of intelligent devices. In a network context, that includes devices such as sensors, circuit breakers, fault current indicators, and pumps, for instance. Within the home, it's potentially any domestic appliance. "For utilities, how they exploit the Internet of Things will differ from utility to utility, and util- ity sector to utility sector. There isn't a one-size- fits-all approach. Water will be different from electricity, and both will approach the Internet of Things differently from a gas utility. But the core principle is the same: intelligent devices, on the network or at consumer endpoints, communicating with the utility on a two-way basis." WATER NETWORK OPERATIONS In the water industry, the conventional view of the potential offered by the Internet of Things may be wrong. That's the blunt view of Laurie Reynolds, a 30-year Thames Water veteran, and these days managing director of Aquamatix, a developer of smart water technology solutions. "The general assumption when smart water technology is mentioned is that we are talking about customer metering and customer Big Data," he says. "In my view this completely misses the main opportunity arising from smart technology, which is in the network. "With the machine-to-machine communications made possible by the Internet of Things, there are significant gains to be had in energy efficiency, increased equipment reliability and reduced maintenance cost, and significant improvements in the performance of water and especially wastewater pipe networks, pumping systems, valves and tanks – all at the same time as delivering improved customer service and environmental benefits. That's the real prize that's on offer." vice president at customer relationship man- agement (CRM) specialist Salesforce.com, today's regulatory framework is rendering such personalisation an essential part of a utility's go-to-market proposition. "The regulator continues to make markets more competitive, forcing utilities to bet- ter understand their customers in order to compete more effectively," he observes. "If you look at where we at Salesforce.com have been most successful, it's where competi- tion has been toughest – and as competition intensifies we expect more utilities to look at CRM." Nor is digitisation a one-way street. Take the recent flooding in Scotland and the north of England, says Cambashi's Easterfield. Even as utilities in the affected regions were tweeting updates and posting on their Face- book pages, consumers were providing live information regarding the very latest devel- opments, information of obvious value to engineers battling to restore services. "Customer engagement works both ways," she says. "It's not just about offering customers more means of communication, it's also about soliciting customer input and reaction." For utilities unused to any kind of interaction with consumers, transitioning to this kind of dynamic and fluid communica- tion might seem daunting, but Jeremy Leach at technology and consulting giant Wipro, warns decision-makers not to be tempted to take half measures if they are disheartened by the enormity of the digitisation challenge. Only a complete end-to-end digital pathway will deliver the benefits they are seeking, he insists – aim high and make the climb stage by stage (see below right). Leveraging the Internet of Things serves a similarly ambitious agenda. The idea: using the internet for two-way communication with intelligent devices: sensors, micro-con- trollers, smart thermostats, and embedded computers installed in domestic appliances. According to analyst firm Gartner Group, the overall size of the Internet of Things is likely to reach 26 billion installed units by 2020, up from 900 million just five years ago. "The prize on offer with the Internet of Things is data: data streaming in from smart appliances, thermostats and the outer fringes of utility networks, giving utilities a clearer understanding of consumers' usage patterns," says Eric Woods, research director at Navigant Research. This is not science fiction. Worcester Bosch, the UK gas boiler manufacturing arm of German industrial giant Bosch, for instance, has recently announced a boiler add-on, developed in conjunction with Brit- ish Gas, through which consumers' boilers Brought to you in association with Anjan Lahiri, practice head for smart grid and the Internet of Things within the global utilities practice at Wipro