Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/944532
P R E S E N T S I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | MARCH 2018 | 31 E mbracing the digital world is cri cal, whether you're a supplier, an investor or an innovator. New technologies disrupt the u li es industry constantly, and companies must always be ready to adapt strategies, processes and organisa onal infrastructure to ensure they are not outpaced in the race to keep up with ever increasing customer service and effi ciency expecta ons. Most u li es have recognised that while this disrup ve churn is challenging, it is worth the eff ort to keep running with it. As a consequence, even companies with stringent effi ciency goals and slim margins are increasingly making money available for investments in technologies they see to be closely aligned to their futures. By and large, this means investment in digital technologies, which will underpin data-enabled smart services and the opera on of intelligent infrastructure. Digital disrup on of u li es, if embraced eff ec vely, will allow them to meet customer demands, appease regulators, overcome environmental challenges and, in short, remain relevant. Recognising the signifi cant and fast-paced changes u li es are grappling with on many fronts, U lity Week Live 2018 (22-23 May) has chosen disrup on as its headline theme. Held at the NEC in Birmingham, U lity Week Live 2018 will explore disrup on themes in rela on to water – retail and wholesale - gas and power networks, energy retail and pan u lity opera ons such as streetworks. We'll also have technology specifi c content on off er however, and in the run up to the main event, U lity Week Live got to the heart of which technologies hold most disrup ve poten al for u li es by surveying its audience, and those of its sister brands U lity Week, WWT, WET News and Network. We asked about the impact disrup on is having on their businesses, the technologies they believe will most disrupt u li es in the next fi ve to ten years, and why. In the second of a fi ve-part series detailing the responses of more than 700 u li es professionals, we reveal the top ten technologies disrup ng the sector – and what they will mean for the industry. As we approach U lity Week Live 2018, we look at the trends, technologies and factors that are set to disrupt u lity business models in the years to come. In this issue: Disruptor technologies D I S R U P T I O N