Utility Week

18 | 1ST - 7TH DECEMBER 2017 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Roundtable Wipro Open Doors Dinner, Monday 13 November 2017, Haymarket Hotel, London Doors to success Open Doors Dinner guests discussed how technology, and skilled staff able to apply it, are key to successful customer engagement. D ata is the new oil. Such is the man- tra rippling through a broad range of industries, and utilities is no exception. Precious data from varied sources can help companies engage better with their cus- tomers, deliver better value via more effective asset management and identify opportuni- ties for growth or regulatory outperformance. However, data is only as valuable as the intelligence and action it creates. Rising technologies that can be used to capture and transmit data to utility companies, such as artificial intelligence and advanced teleme- try, need to be backed up with systems, skills and processes that transform raw data into insights and create an impetus for change. This was one of the overriding themes dis- cussed at the Utility Week-Wipro Technology and Innovation Council's annual Open Doors Dinner, which took place in London last month. The event welcomed regular attend- ees at Council events and other interested industry leaders with responsibility for tech- nology and innovation in their organisations. In three groups, guests discussed the out- comes and challenges posed by a piece of Council-led research that asked individuals how important customer engagement, skills shortages and technology adoption are to the fulfilment of organisational strategies for success in the future. Skills crisis looms Amid a range of other insights, the research warned that the utilities industry expects to meet a skills crisis in the next three to five years, and that the availability of data- crunching skills will sit at the heart of this. It also highlighted customer engagement as an increasing focus for strategic innova- tion efforts and identified the customer- facing processes, along with asset management, as the top two business areas in utilities that are ripe for technological transformation in the near- to mid-term future. Faced with these insights, our three dis- cussion groups latched onto a selection of themes, some focusing more heavily on skills, talent retention and sector attractive- ness issues, while others gravitated more readily towards discussion of the technology itself, or the role that regulation plays in allowing utilities to innovate freely – easing the path for technology adoption and allow- ing utilities the creative space they need to attract skilled innovators. The freedom or will of utilities to offer real challenges to up and coming talent with the capabilities utilities need for the future was considered a key problem. For while many said that attracting graduate recruits with exciting new data science skills is not hard, they also admitted retaining them can be. One delegate suggested this is because traditional utilities, especially those with asset-heavy businesses, lack imagination in the scope of the innovation challenges they set. Aspirant talent with a desire to effect real change can therefore feel suffocated, and pushed to seek a greater challenge in more liberal sectors such as tech development, manufacturing and even retail. Another people-oriented challenge for effective technology exploitation in utili- ties was seen in relation to traditional team structures and one group proposed that busi- nesses should move more assertively to group varied skills and resources around strategic challenges, rather than outdated functions. In this way, new technical capability could be paired with industry knowledge, cus- tomer focus and process efficiency expertise. Multi-skilled collaborative and flexible teams would be better faced to meet the rapidly evolving challenges of the future, they said. Understanding future customers Of these challenges, understanding future customers was considered core. While 69 per cent of individuals responding to the Coun- cil's 2017 research felt their organisations already engage effectively with their custom- ers, 81 per cent also said they see improving customer engagement as imperative to the future success of their businesses. Discussion around this finding prompted nuanced observations about the different engagement needs of different customers. There was agreement that utilities must become more proactive, anticipating cus- tomer needs rather than responding to them. Unsurprisingly, Amazon was referenced frequently as an engagement role model and the launch of its voice-controlled smart home technology, Amazon Echo, was seen to mark a new age in customer engagement. A future in which this kind of artificial intel- ligence dominates the way in which custom- ers engage with service providers, offering simplicity of interaction and advanced sen- timent recognition, was seen as inevitable, exciting – but also potentially threatening. As customers increasingly expect new levels of sophistication, simplicity and inte- gration in the platforms and devices they use, the market power of companies such as Amazon and Google can be seen on the ascendant. Meanwhile, the ability of utilities to provide technically innovative solutions that can maintain customer engagement in a new paradigm, seems less likely. Importance of innovation What does this mean for the way in which utilities must innovate for customers in the future? New models for partnership and col- laboration with third parties were discussed, as were the implications for regulatory expectations of customer engagement. But even as these considerations were exchanged, guests defended the ability of utilities to maintain and develop useful inter- action with customers far into the future, refusing to be completely muscled out of the relationship by consumer tech giants. As macro pressures such as climate change, decarbonisation and resource scar- city come to bear, utilities see scope for a rich future in which innovation and customer engagement go hand in hand – participants from power distributors in particular saw this as fundamental to their ability to man- age network capacity flexibly in the future. Coupling customers and innovation with increasing effectiveness will require an accept- ance of customers as disruptors and will push more firms to become pioneers – or at least fast followers – in new technology adoption. This will mean a step change for some, since Council research suggested almost a third of companies in the sector still characterise themselves as third wave followers of technol- ogy, who wait for it to become mainstream. Ultimately, however, guests were optimis- tic that utilities with the right people and cul- tures do have the scope to thrive in a world in which old strategic drivers are ousted by new tech capability, fresh data insight and empowered consumers.

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