![•
Major solutions provider worldwide – GIS, Engineering Design, IT Services
•
In Europe, focussed on Utilities, Oil & Gas, Transportation
•
Mature, highly skilled organisation with a history of innovation and market
leadership
•
Proven track record of projects in over 40
countries
•
SAP Strategic Global OEM Partner –
one of only 5 in the world
•
Close proximity to customers through
locations around the world: Mumbai, Houston,
Chicago, Reading, Amsterdam, Bahrain,
Dubai…
•
Oracle Platinum Partner- 7 Oracle
“Titan” awards and Microsoft Data
Management Partner Award
•
Forbes Global “200 Best
Companies” [outside US] - 4 times in
6 years
•
Employs over 4000 professionals worldwide
© Rolta 2014](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (8)
Similar to Disruption on the Network - GeoUtilties 2014
Similar to Disruption on the Network - GeoUtilties 2014 (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Disruption on the Network - GeoUtilties 2014
- 1. Disruption on the network the emerging IT and geospatial technologies set to transform the Utility; how you and your organisation can benefit
- 2. • Major solutions provider worldwide – GIS, Engineering Design, IT Services • In Europe, focussed on Utilities, Oil & Gas, Transportation • Mature, highly skilled organisation with a history of innovation and market leadership • Proven track record of projects in over 40 countries • SAP Strategic Global OEM Partner – one of only 5 in the world • Close proximity to customers through locations around the world: Mumbai, Houston, Chicago, Reading, Amsterdam, Bahrain, Dubai… • Oracle Platinum Partner- 7 Oracle “Titan” awards and Microsoft Data Management Partner Award • Forbes Global “200 Best Companies” [outside US] - 4 times in 6 years • Employs over 4000 professionals worldwide © Rolta 2014
- 3. Rolta How to adopt and integrate ? In what order ? When to adopt ? © Rolta 2014 How to manage the change?
- 5. © Rolta 2014
- 6. Audit and record Safety warnings and alerts Voice and visual instructions and guides Wearable inventory scanners © Rolta 2014 Customer alerts
- 7. © Rolta 2014
- 8. * Figures as at 31/12/2013 UK Companies with a Twitter account by Utility Sector 66% (20) 100% (7) 100% (6) Total number of Tweets 36K 42K 5K 2,310 5,235 5,109 Average No. of Followers © Rolta 2014
- 9. • Emphasis on prediction • Rapid time to insight • Emphasis on the business relevance of analysis • Ease of use and visualisation © Rolta 2014
- 10. Align IT and OT Standards and Practices Adopt Cloud and SaaS approaches to Increase Agility © Rolta 2014 Plan Architecture and Develop a Roadmap Link and Cleanse Asset Information Data Sources
- 11. © Rolta 2014
- 12. @spatialPhil phil.francis@rolta.com © Rolta 2014 Rolta 100 Longwater Avenue Green Park Reading RG2 6GP UK T: +44 (0)118 945 0450 E: info.eu@rolta.com W: www.rolta.com
Editor's Notes
- HiPleasure being here today.Take a perspective on the emerging technologies in UtilitiesHow they’re set to transform the UtilityThings you and your company can do to benefit.
- Very briefly - so who are Rolta?Global Solutions Provider. Specialisms iblend of IT with vertical, industry specific expertise.In Europe this expertise is Utilities, Oil & Gas and TransportationHQ Mumbai (Bombay) – but offices all over the place. In UK based in Reading.Over 4000 employees worldwide.
- Disruption – buzzword.Few years – most technologically capable. No other sector will IT shape, influence and integrate the running of the business.I wonder how many of you here today feel your Company has reached this technological capability? not many.conservative and slow moving industry.Gartner last year 2013 – “protecting the security of critical generation and delivery infrastructure, as well as maintaining system reliability with aging physical assets (sic. is a top priority). Public and private utilities are looking at how technology can reduce cost, drive efficiencies and enhance competitive advantage.”tech innovation to drive efficiency is a must. Increasing CAPEX due to ageing infrastructure; energy demand decreasing with consumer consumption awareness and population levelling off.Some tech not new; visible on the hype horizon for a while. But effect of these is really about to take hold.Navigating the implementation of these tech will be a major challenge.HowWhenWhat orderSo there really is going to be disruption – impact ranging from how we work right through to potentially shifting the entire economic market of utilities.Objectiveof slide:Outline what I’m going to be speaking about and why it is important… the disruption bit.Disruption…… a much over-used buzzword. In fact so over-used I almost regretted including it in my title. But then the more I thought, and the more I questioned myself; actually the more comfortable I became with it’s use in this context.In a few years’ time, the successful utility company will become some of the most technologically capable organisations in the world. In no other sector will IT shape, influence, integrate and control the operational running of the business as utilities. How many of you would class your Company as one of the world’s most technologically capable today?Traditionally a conservative and slow-moving industry is facing the disruptive influence from a wide range of innovation from within and outside traditional IT. Last year Gartner noted:“protecting the security of critical generation and delivery infrastructure, as well as maintaining system reliability with aging physical assets (sic. is a top priority). Public and private utilities are looking at how technology can reduce cost, drive efficiencies and enhance competitive advantage.”Indeed in many ways the need for technology and innovation to drive efficiency is a must – increased capital expenditure to maintain and replace ageing infrastructure whilst a levelling off of energy demand as consumers become more consumption aware and population levels off, increase the drivers for efficiency in most developed countries and could trigger further mergers and acquisitions in orderto make the numbers work.Some of these disruptive technologies are not necessarily new – they’ve been talked about for a while, visible on the ‘hype-horizon’. They’ve even been adopted to some extent in other sectors already – but it is also my contention that disruptive nature of some of these is about to really start to be noticeable in our sector over the coming years as IT convergence, and IT/OT convergence becomes a reality.Thus the multiple ripple effect these technologies it isapparent of navigating the implementation of these technologies will be a challenge.When to adopt;How to adopt and integrate;In what order;How to manage the change.So point number 1: our industry is facing disruption from technology, and it’s impact range from changing the way we work right through to entirely shifting the economic market of utilities.
- So what about the geo bit?2nd contention:Place provide context and meaning (John Carpenter from the OS)Increasingly it’s the informatic glue; the key to integration. Geography – bridge between human and physical sciences – broadGIS and geographers are broad in outlook. Mutli-disciplinary.The resond’etre of the utility; delivery if a service across a distributed netwrok – place spatial right at the very epicentre.Therefore the utility GIS professional is well placed to understand, anticipate, coordinate and realise the benefits of the disruption.Objective of slide:Outline what I’m going to be speaking about and why it is important… the geo bit.So on to my second area of interest… the ‘geo’For decades as GI practitioners, as GI champions we have wrestled collectively with the desire to push GIS away from the departmental workstation in the corner and out in to the big bad world of the corporate infrastructure.Place provides context and meaning to other information. As we try and make sense of all the information and the world around us; it’s increasingly being seen as the glue that helps us associate these things together; the key by which to integrate. I think this quality does make it special; maybe not unique – and there are other contexts (such as time) which you could make a similar case for; but special none the less.The subject of geography, the ‘bridge between human and physical sciences’ is a broad subject. As a result geographers and GIS professionals are broad in outlook and adept at multi-disciplinary thinking and working.Thereforein arguably more than any other industry; the resond’etre of the utility (the management and delivery of service on a geographically distributed network), places geography and spatial technology at the very epicentre. I would contend that utility GIS professional should be well placed to understand, anticipate, assess the impact , coordinate and realise the benefits and opportunities from this disruption.
- OK – categorising the disruption4 mains themesMore efficient use of resource to manage the distributed network e.g. Mobile and Location aware technologies, Wearable-techNetwork automation and enabling of the smart grid: Communication Technology / Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Sensor technology, IT/OT convergenceSocial. Leveraging and making sense of all of this new information: In memory computing, Big data ( & linked data), predictive analytics, Cloud and SaaS
- Wearable techIn the news. 3-5bn – 30-50bn in the next 2 years.A lot at consumers; but to achieve upper ends of growth adoption within enterprise.Within an enterprise all about making employees more efficient.For field working this introduces all usual considerations (battery life, ruggedness etc.)Potential uses:Audit and record – police forceSafety warnings and alerts – working in an asbestos area, confined space, Voice and visual instructions and guides – challenging task in field. In situ resources and hand-free, enable other people within the organisation to see the real-time view of the field worker.Wearable inventory scanners – helping to tag and maintain the link between asset information from stores through to deployment Customer alerts – Immersive; heads-up augmented display (Google Glass) asset information being streamed to the field worker. Only a matter of time before someone get’s it right – and actually in a field-based, job environment such technologies may not be as subject to the perceived social awkwardness of interacting with technology this way. Jeremy Heath – size of Android tablets fitting in the pocket.a.k.a Kindle ‘Mayday’ buttonObjectiveof slide:Disruptive tech 1…. wearable techWearable Technology; very much in the news recently and was the main attraction at the CES in Las Vegas earlier in the month.In 2013 $3-5 billion market; predicted to rocket to £30-50 billion in the next 2-3 years! Presently much of the wearable tech is aimed at consumers (fitness and lifestyle monitors etc.); but to achieve the upper ends of the market growth it is expected to be in the adoption within the enterprise. For field working wearable technology also introduces the additional ‘field’ tech requirements we are also all familiar such as ruggedness, durability, battery-life and ability to use in all sorts of environments and environmental conditions.So what are the potential uses for Field Service Organizations such as the utility?But by staying up on the most current technological trends, field service organizations can make sure their operations are as efficient as possible, eliminating waste and improving profits. So what are the potential uses for Field Service Organizations?Audit – Police cameras, tracking field-staff and recording their interactions.Voice and Visual Instructions and Guides—When faced with challenging tasks in the field, it’s tough for technicians to solve complex problems with just a generic manual in front of them. The future of mobile field service software will offer ‘in situ’ access to technical manuals and resources, and even real-time video interaction with other professionals either within or outside the organisation. There are even products that offer 3D video tutorials, explaining how to fix specific problems. Equipping techs with the right tools to access these helpful resources will make them better at their jobs and your company more productive. 2. Safety Warnings and Alerts—One way field service organizations can utilize wearable technology is to monitor safety in the field. For example, all workers could wear monitors to alert them when they’re approaching a dangerous area or about to have an accident. 3. Wearable Inventory Scanners—Inventory workers could wear scanners that alert them if an incorrect parts order is being filled. By letting workers know when a mistake is about to be made before it is made, companies can increase inventory accuracy, making techs more productive and customers happier. 4. Customer Alerts—GPS and wearable technology can help customers get a more exact estimation of when a technician will arrive on site. If techs are wearing a tracking device, for example, alerts can be sent to customers when they’re within a certain radius of the job site. Aside from this direct attempt to improve customer satisfaction, the overall improved accuracy and productivity of organizations with advanced technology will increase customer satisfaction as well.Perhaps most obvious is an immersive, heads-up augmented reality display (such as Google Glasses) where context aware asset management information can be streamed and delivered to a field-worker. After all heads-up displays are not entirely new – fighter pilots have had such technology for years.A utility worker arrives on a site, say a switching station. They look at the station and see overlays of the internal structure of the switch, access electrical one line or schematic diagrams, and then invoke and access results of diagnostic tests. These tests may involve actuation of the switch gear, introduction of stimulus signals etc. and may combine automated and manual operations.So how will this affect geo? Well I think it will have a massive impact. If you think about how much user-interaction and user-experience has been transformed through the move from Computers to Tablets to Smartphones; then I believe that the transition to something like an augmented heads-up display technology will be even greater. Representing spatial information on a HUD will result in completely new forms and standards of cartographic visualisation, new ways of computer-human interaction. Sure the initial beta testers of Google Glass may say it appears at bit awkward and a little clunky to interact with, but sooner or later they or someone else will get it right – just like Apple did with the iPad (10 years after Microsoft unveiled it’s first tablet to market) and the market for devices will soar.
- Communication Technology / Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Sensor technology, IT/OT convergenceBiggest single disruptive theme.
- Social5 mains ways:outage communications is also rising in importance and value for utilities and customers experiencing outages;Social media as a customer acquisition and retention medium for competitive energy retailersconsumer engagement channel to drive customer participation in energy efficiency programsemerging area of crowd-sourcing distributed energy resources coordinationopportunities to use social media to improve internal utility business processes are starting to emerge.Perhaps nothing too obviously ‘geo’ here although I know of at least one utility who has or is planning CS department going to implement an ‘fix my street’ type application for customers to log and map incidents graffiti and vandalism to substations. Objectiveof slide:Disruptive tech 3…. socialMost UK utilities now have a ‘social’ presence in the form of a Twitter account and/or Facebook page.Social media for outage communications is also rising in importance and value for utilities and customers experiencing outages;Social media as a customer acquisition and retention medium for competitive energy retailersconsumer engagement channel to drive customer participation in energy efficiency programsemerging area of crowd-sourcing distributed energy resources coordinationOpportunities to use social media to improve internal utility business processes are starting to emerge.
- Disruptions – 1 common feature – massive increase in quantity of data, but also varietyBut data is itself worthless, it the information, knowledge, wisdom and interconnectedness between this data which Objectiveof slide:Disruptive tech 4…. Big data, In memory computing and analyticsThe technologies and trends we have just seen have all have 1 common feature; they will all increase data quantity by several orders of magnitude. In addition to significantly impacting data volume, theywill also produce a richer variety of data, such as temporal, spatial, transactional, streaming, structured and unstructured.Some of this data will not be best suited to loading into the traditional centralised-enterprise database; although organisation will want to analyse and extract (and re-analyse and re-extract) some of this information and integrate it with existing corporate information. The best utilities organisations will be able to not only store this information, but then go on to extract information and derive knowledge from this vast quantity of data.Traditional business analytics has tended to access information and perform analysis against a centrally-stored data repository. The limiting factor of all such operations has been the physical speeds associating with accessing and retrieving data on these disksThe lowering cost of DRAM, in-memory hardware and technologies like Hadoop make this possible. Apache Hadoop is an open-source software framework for storage and large scale processing of data-sets on clusters of commodity hardware, and is based upon Google’s MapReduce framework which Google used to successfully completely re-build it’s index of the World Wide Web.All this allows for much faster and responsive analysis of large datasets. And it’s moving beyond simply the ‘backend’ data warehouses; SAP Hana (SAP’s column-based in memory db) technology has now been now rolled out to SAP ERP and CRM modules. Increasingly such business intelligence and analytic capability is needed real-time.Spatial and location continue to grow in importance in relation to business intelligence and analytics spawning the terms like GeoBI, Location Intelligence and Spatial Analytics.In this regard I believe one of the most significant enterprise-spatial piece of news which came out last year was the introduction of spatial processing for SAP Hana. Through its ‘engineered systems’ Oracle are also promoting in-memory benefits across the eBusiness Suite. Oracle are continuing to promoting ‘spatial’ within its business intelligence stack of technologies and indeed as part of its 12c database release have re-written quite a substantial component of the geometric and spatial functions to better leverage in-memory and parallel execution of spatial analytics. 2013 also the release of SpatialHadoop as an open-source extension to Hadoop and a fully-fledged MapReduce framework for efficient processing of spatial operations. These and other technologies are realising the efficient analysis of big spatial data which is going to be required by the utility.The traditional GI vendors are all clambering to ensure their technologies are reflected and/or integrated with business intelligence in mind, whilst there is also a burgeoning number of start-up companies offering dedicated spatial intelligence platforms and services. The allure of integrated spatial and business-intelligence continues to be one of the most prominent drivers for transitioning geographic information into the mainstream enterprise consciousness.The role of the GI Analyst is not dead, although they need to ensure their capability extends purely beyond solely geographic information and includes a good sprinkling of technical skills which allows them to unlock the secrets behind any from of data and be able to narrate a convincing story via the data… the role of the ‘data scientist’.With all these things the utility can reach the holy grail of predictive analytics with an:emphasis on prediction,rapid time to insight,an emphasis on the business relevance of the resulting insightsand an increasing emphasis on ease of useFailure patterns / future load patterns. Maximising RoI for investment.
- Organisations which have a strong IT capability and which are well integrated to the operational business will be the ones best placed to design and configure their enterprise roadmap to best take advantage of these new opportunities, and there are some very practical things to be getting on with today/tomorrow which will help organisations prepare for this disruption:Align OT and IT SupportThe industry will benefit by aligning their OT support, standards and procedures with those used for IT, shortening the time to develop governance over OT. This will ensure that when integration of IT and OT is inevitably done there is already some alignment in standards. For example a utility which adopts or has adopted ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) for its IT operations would be prudent to consider extending this framework to OT.Link Asset Information SourcesIT and OT convergence will mean that increasingly network control and asset management systems within a utility will all need share much more information.Northern Powergrid. Adopt Cloud and SaaS approaches to increase AgilityUtilities have been slow to adopt cloud and SaaS models. To me this is somewhat ironic as the whiole concept of cloud-computing is to provide computing resource as a utility.Security and network resilience are of no doubt a real issue for modern utilities and I’m sure that this concern at least goes someway to explaining the slow uptake of these technologies. However such concerns are usually unfounded and cloud providers adhere to the same or higher security accreditation, data ownership etc.In many ways I believe the arrival and increasing impact of other new technologies will drive greater adoption of the cloud within the utility, if only for the benefit of the short lead times to procure and configure cloud services, and utility-based cost models associated with such services which lend themselves well to organisations trialling, experimenting and piloting such technologies.
- Objective of the slide:Summation - outline the opportunity for GI professionals Need to make sure they have broad-horizons; can’t just be GIS – need to have deep understanding of the utility, it’s data and systems and how they are currently connected; but also not to be constrained by this. To have an eye for ‘what could be’. Echoessomething Steve Eglington was talking about. Your thinking should not be insulated either by the organisation in which you work – or the utilities sector itself.. Need to be conscious of wider developments both ‘horizontally’ in spatial, location, business intelligence, mobile computing and technology trends in general and well as understand the dimensions of the utility vertical. Probably like most professions of the future those who are able to combine in depth subject matter expertise, combined with a level of technical proficiency will be the most marketable.The utility GIS professional who can do this well; and is then also equipped with some of the softer skills of proactiveness, communications, influence, persuasion will quickly become an increasingly key asset to the utility.You will be helped though. Like a lot of industries the utility is experiencing is a ‘brain drain’ where a lot of the workforce who joined the industry in the 60-70’s are hitting or approaching retirement. This itself provides an impetus for better knowledge management within an organisation but it will in turn also require some resource and new-blood to be taken-on. The next generation of employees will take ‘tech savvy’ to a whole new level. The current generation of school and university leavers are the first of those who have never known a world without personal computing, mobile smartphones, the always-on internet. They have expectations of technology and its use within the workplace which will be no different to, and in fact will be increasingly blurred with the same technology capability which is so pervasive in all other aspects of their lives. And I’m not just talking about the IT worker, the GI Champion or the engineer here; this will apply equally across the all the workforce; the call centre operator, the jointer. They too will be the agents of this change.Working with organisations like Rolta…….