Change Management: it’s More than Attitude

Technology in the New Utility
The opportunities and challenges promised by competition in the utility industry have been looming for several years. Utilities throughout North America have been scrambling to establish their position within the upcoming marketplace as evidenced by the wave of mergers and acquisitions that have swept the industry over the past three to four years.

Fundamental to all of these new organizations is the notion that information technology will allow them to reach economies of scale that will make them more competitive. While many utilities are still focusing on improving their customer information and billing systems, there is renewed interest in the application of information technology to improve the efficiency of service provision. In particular, AM/FM, Work Management, Trouble Outage Analysis, and Computer Aided Dispatch systems are being used to shore up the utility’s ability to provide flexible and responsive service to its customers.

These systems, however, are expected to deliver benefits that directly affect the utility’s bottom line. No longer is it enough for these systems to improve productivity. Utility executives are now asking how the implementation of such systems will increase revenues and improve profit margins.

This shift in expectations has drastically altered the manner in which these systems are implemented within utilities. Because of the rate of change within the industry, utility executives expect implementations to be in a matter of months not years. Furthermore, they expect that the new systems will be fully integrated with other systems within the organization.

As a result of these pressures, several large utilities are now in the process of implementing various combinations of AM/FM, Work Management, Trouble Outage Analysis, Computer Aided Dispatch, Materials Management, and Customer Information Systems within a timeframe of eighteen to twenty-four months. The furious pace that is required to meet this schedule has meant that many implementations are forced to forgo such “luxuries” as detailed specifications and pilot projects in favor of focus groups and rapid prototyping.