Utilities and The Customer Connection

A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit
How mobile is transforming the
energy and natural-resources sector
Utilities and the
customer connection

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 20141
Utilities and the customer connection
Preface 2
Introduction 3
Utilities and the new era of demanding, mobile-empowered customers 5
Meet the new entrants eyeing utilities’ customers 7
Controlling the gateways to customers 9
Staying out in front of demand-response 9
Tapping big data 10
Conclusion: Preparing for the future 11
Appendix: survey results 12
Contents
1
2
3
4

Preface
Utilities and the customer connection is one of three
reports in a series that examines how mobile
technologies are transforming the energy and
natural-resources sector. It explores how the
revolution in consumer mobile communications is
changing how utilities serve customers, encouraging
them to become more responsive and engaged and
to pursue strategies that make customers allies in
more efficient and sustainable operations.
As the basis for this research, The Economist
Intelligence Unit conducted in August 2013 a
global survey of 150 energy and natural-resources
executives, comprising 50 in each of the mining,
utilities, and oil and gas industries. The findings
and views expressed in this report do not
necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor. The
author was Mark Svenvold. Riva Richmond edited
the report and Mike Kenny was responsible for the
layout. We would like to thank all of the executives
who participated, whether on record or
anonymously, for their valuable insights.
Interviewees
Jesse Berst, editor of the SmartGrid News
Erich Gunther, chairman and chief technology
officer at EnerNex
Val Jensen, senior vice president of customer
operations at ComEd
Ian McCaig, chief executive of First Utility
Brewster McCracken, president and chief executive
of Pecan Street Research
Rob Pratt, scientist at the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory
Steve Raschke, CEO of Candi Controls
Doug Scheller, vice president of business
intelligence at BRIDGE Energy Group
John J. Simmins, technical executive at the Electric
Power Research Institute
Michael Valocchi, a global energy and utilities
industry analyst at IBM Business Services
Bill Wilkins, chief information officer of First Utility
The survey drew on 150 responses from energy and
natural-resources executives around the world,
comprising 50 in each of the mining, utilities,
and oil and gas industries. Equal numbers were
from North America (30%), Asia-Pacific (30%)
and Western Europe (30%). Of the 30 countries
represented, the most responses came from the
US, India, Australia, Spain and the UK. Half of
respondents are C-level executives or equivalent,
17% are vice-presidents or equivalent and 22% are
senior managers. About two-fifths (41%) represent
very large companies, with annual revenues of
US$1bn or more. Please see the appendix for full
survey demographics.
Who took the survey?

Introduction
The explosive growth of mobile communications—
and the rise of apps and highly mobile social
media, in particular—are radically changing how
businesses serve consumers. Even utilities, not
known for consumer savvy, are finding that they
must embrace these popular new communication
tools or face the competitive pressures from
companies that do. This digital embrace will
forever alter the utility-customer relationship,
making utilities more responsive and engaged—
and leading them to increasingly view customers
not as “captive rate payers” but as partners who
enable more efficient and sustainable operations.
This may be especially true for power companies,
which are operating strained grids and looking to
move into the smart-grid era.
Powerful mobile devices continue to proliferate
and alter consumer behaviour. Between 2011 and
2013, smartphone use grew 46% and tablet use
grew 98%, according to Deloitte Research. And
consumers are increasingly using their mobile
devices to do business with companies; Juniper
Research predicts that the value of mobile
commerce transactions globally will top $3.2trn in
2017, up from $1.5trn in 2013—driven by a surge
in mobile bill payments.
How will these trends affect utilities? According
to an August 2013 global survey of 50 utilities
executives by the Economist Intelligence Unit,
which also polled 50 mining and 50 oil and gas
executives, mobile strategies are having the
greatest impact on utilities’ efforts to improve
field-force efficiencies and outage management. But
a third, and perhaps more important, aspect—
improving customer engagement—is what has utility
executives really talking, but not always agreeing.
Most utilities executives acknowledge that
mobile strategies can play an important role in
The opportunity
to use mobile
strategies to
engage customers
has utilities
executives
talking, but not
always agreeing.
To what extent can mobility strategies help improve your company’s response to enhancing
customer engagement?
% of respondents in the mining industry
Strongly Moderately Minimally Not at all
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, November 2013.
33%
45%
8%
14%

customer engagement by providing storm and
outage information, helping customers manage
energy use and offering them advice and incentives
to conserve energy—and can generally build
customer loyalty. But how much utilities are willing
to invest in mobile technologies remains an open
question—one that is currently “rippling across the
industry”, says John J. Simmins, technical
executive at the Electric Power Research Institute
(EPRI), an industry-funded research organisation.
Executives are divided over whether their
companies will dedicate funds in the near term to
boosting mobile customer engagement. While 46%
of utility executives surveyed by the EIU see a
critical need to engage customers, only 36% say
their companies have near-term investment plans.
This gap suggests that, while mobile customer
engagement sounds good to many utilities
executives, the value proposition is still unclear.
This may be especially true for those who must win
regulatory approval to make large-scale investment
that might lead to rate hikes.
Utilities executives should look deeper. While
sceptics have valid concerns, utilities cannot afford
to miss the strategic opportunities that mobile
technologies offer to reduce long-term market risks
and fortify customer relationships.
Utilities face a difficult challenge: growing
demand must be served by an ageing infrastructure.
Much of the world’s basic infrastructure has
exceeded its design lifetime, says Erich Gunther,
chairman and chief technology officer at EnerNex, a
utilities consultancy. “Replacing basic
infrastructure globally would cost more than
$1.5trn by 2030.” Of course, inaction hurts, too. A
crumbling grid is a costly grid—EPRI estimates that
US power outages cost between $104bn and
$164bn a year. Most utilities are opting to make the
grids that are already in place smarter, more
connected and more efficient—and mobile
technologies will play a key role, Mr Gunther says.
Emerging risks that mobile strategies could help
mitigate include those from new market entrants
looking to own and leverage those relationships;
“demand-response” programs, which offer
electricity customers incentives to reduce usage
during times of peak demand or stress; and
micro-grids and self-generation systems that could
pull large customers off the electricity grid
altogether.
Meanwhile, the expanded deployment of smart
grids is affording energy companies opportunities
to harness a vast new universe of data—the big
data revolution—to improve customer satisfaction,
realise operational cost savings and develop new
sources of revenue.

Utilities and the new era of
demanding, mobile-empowered
customers1
After Hurricane Sandy slammed into America’s East
Coast, millions of people turned to the Internet,
often using smartphones, for information about
power and gas outages.
Some utilities saw a nearly ten-fold increase in
followers on Twitter and Facebook. According to Mr
Simmins of EPRI, three employees huddled in a
room at one north-eastern utility sent out 9,000
tweets and received 90,000 incoming messages.
The barrage was a wake-up call for executives, he
says. With tens of thousands of new Twitter
followers, many utilities began to ask themselves
what to do with all these newfound connections.
In most of the US and Europe, customer
engagement is king, and mobile devices and social
networks are increasingly the best means of
reaching customers.
In the UK electricity market, acquiring a
customer costs about three-quarters of his first
year of utility bills, says Bill Wilkins, chief
❛❛
Utilities are faced
with a decision.
They either need
to embrace the
vision of being a
consumer-facing
business, offering
consumers value
and convenience,
or they are
destined to
become a ‘wires’
company—and
they’ll do only
that.
❜❜
Rob Pratt,
scientist at the Pacific
Northwest National
Laboratory
To what extent can mobile communication (eg, alerts and apps) help improve the following areas
of customer engagement?
% of 41 respondents in the utilities and oil & gas industries that describe themselves as retail, integrated, downstream or services businesses.
Providing customers with advice
on consumption
Providing customers with
targeted offers
Facilitating smart-grid
deployment
Notifying customers about
potential or actual outages and
recommending actions
Receiving customer reports on
potential causes and actual
causes of outages
Incentivising customers to
reduce consumption during
high demand periods
Recapturing customer loyalty
and engagement
Facilitating and managing
increasing eCar2Grid loads
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, November 2013.
34%
54%
50%54%
35%37%
20%
38%

information officer at First Utility. To boost
loyalty—and, thus, the bottom line—First Utility
partnered with Opower to let customers monitor
and track electricity use with their mobile devices,
making information about kilowatt hours used
more meaningful and actionable.
“If you don’t have something other than a
transactional relationship with the customer,” says
First Utility’s CEO, Ian McCaig, “then your brand
has no relevance or meaning to the daily lives of
customers.”
Indeed, Jesse Berst, editor of the SmartGrid
News and long-time observer of electricity markets,
argues that a new era of customer engagement is
at hand. “Every business—and this absolutely
includes utilities—now needs to reach out
proactively to its customers whenever, wherever
customers want it,” he says. “It’s very important
that you find your customers where they are. It’s
about knowing what each individual customer’s
preferences are, what programmes they’re signed
up for and giving them that tailored experience.
That’s what we mean by customer engagement.”
At a time when banks and many other
businesses offer mobile services to consumers,
should utilities to do the same? They certainly have
challenges that better, quicker customer
engagement could help address. Mobile alerts
could help electricity companies encourage
consumers to curb electricity use during times of
peak demand. Utilities of all kinds could distribute
information and coupons that might build
customer loyalty.
Utilities also face critical long-term risks should
they fail to engage customers effectively, says Rob
Pratt, a lead scientist studying smart-grid
deployment, communications architecture and
electricity markets at the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington.
“Utilities are faced with a decision,” Mr Pratt
says. “They either need to embrace the vision of
being a consumer-facing business, offering
consumers value and convenience, or they are
destined to become a ‘wires’ company—and they’ll
do only that. They will be ‘dis-intermediated’, in
other words, from their customers by other entities
that offer these customer-facing services.”

Many utilities are diving into the customer-
engagement waters by partnering with energy
consulting companies and consumer-app
developers, mostly in an effort to boost brand
loyalty and build services that help customers
manage their energy consumption.
ComEd, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon, recently
partnered with energy app developer Opower to
build a platform that puts “control back into our
customers’ hands”, says Val Jensen, ComEd’s
senior vice president of customer operations.
Baltimore-based utility BGE is also handing over
control with its Peak Time Rebate Program, which
uses emails, tweets and other prompts to help
participating customers save on their electricity
bills if they reduce their electricity use during peak
periods.
All this is great for utilities—unless platform
developers like Opower and other new entrants
into electricity markets become the go-to player for
customers. As customers become more actively
engaged in their electricity delivery, such
companies are increasingly offering products and
services once exclusively under the purview of
utilities. For instance, companies like Calico Energy
of Bellevue, Washington, are offering an array of
analytics, demand-management, load-control and
smart-grid management services that utilities need
but increasingly are unable to handle on their own.
“The danger,” says Mr Berst, “is that what
happened to telecom companies might happen to
utilities. When rate-paying customers begin to
have a relationship with some other party—energy
management becoming just a piece of that
relationship—and customers don’t really care who
the utility is, that could have some long-term
negative implications for utilities.”
But others argue that the risk to utilities of
dis-intermediation by third parties is overblown.
“Mobile apps and mobile computing are
transforming just about every industry on the
planet,” says Brewster McCracken, president and
chief executive of Pecan Street Research, a
smart-grid and electricity markets research
consortium based in Austin, Texas. But he doesn’t
see apps taking off like wildfire. “Utilities apps are
things that people are, generally, at best
sporadically, interested in, but they’re not
transformative. They’re not useless; it’s just not
transformative.”
But soon things could be quite different,
according to Michael Valocchi, a global energy and
utilities industry analyst at IBM Business Services.
At a recent SAP utilities conference, Mr Valoccchi
predicted that, within 10 years, threats to utilities’
revenue streams from new entrants and demand-
response programs will force utilities to develop
new business models and alliances.
Already, electricity-rate aggregators are offering
middleman services; they will handle energy-
efficiency issues for businesses, find ways to save
them money and negotiate better power deals for
them with utilities companies. Some municipalities
are realising that their aggregated electricity
Meet the new entrants eyeing
utilities’ customers2
❛❛
The danger is that
what happened to
telecom companies
might happen to
utilities.
❜❜
Jesse Berst,
editor of the SmartGrid News

demand has become a key leverage point for
negotiating better rates on the open market.
Hospitals, universities, military bases and others
are exploring the idea of using cheap natural gas
for self-generation of power with micro-turbines
and other means, leaving the traditional grid
behind in a trend called “grid divorce”.
“That would be a disaster for utilities,” says Mr
McCracken, “because utilities make all their money
selling base-load electricity, and they make most of
their money from large commercial customers.
Micro-grids could take all the meat of utility
profits, leaving only the gristle.”
So while utilities might appreciate the reduced
pressure on their stressed grids today, they should
beware of too much of a good thing. “As new
entrants reach out directly to consumers and
bypass energy providers,” Mr Valocchi says, “the
unspoken mandate will be innovate, partner or
die.”

With increased deployment of smart-grid systems
and “smart” appliances, experts expect that
demand-response programmes will become a
long-term feature of the shifting electricity
marketplace—and customer engagement,
facilitated by social media and mobile apps, will
become important gateways for utilities.
Why? Because residential- and commercial-
customer loyalty will increasingly be won or lost on
the quality of utility-app dashboards. Take the
PowerTools app, a platform developed by Candi
Controls of San Francisco in partnership with San
Diego Gas & Electric. Like others of its kind, the
PowerTools dashboard offers customers a way to
visualise cost and usage information and make
consumption decisions. It provides a history of
customers’ electricity savings and lets them set
usage goals and track progress in achieving those
goals. It also provides alerts, coupons and bill-
paying services.
Most important for utilities, the platform will
eventually be a kind of Rosetta Stone for building
utility relationships “beyond the meter”, according
to Steve Raschke, CEO of Candi Controls. If utilities
can connect to any smart-grid device that a
customer happens to buy, no matter what language
that device uses, then utilities will own the
customer’s energy environment. The utility app
becomes a strategic-control point—a gateway—to
all systems and smart-grid-enabled devices.
“But if utilities don’t position themselves
correctly, they’ll end up paying for that position
later,” Mr Raschke says.
Staying ahead of demand-response
More than 38m advanced smart-grid meters have
now been installed in the US, with that number
expected to nearly double by 2015, when 50% of
households in 22 states will have advanced
smart-grid meters, according to the Institute for
Electric Efficiency (IEE). A more mature smart-grid
will increase customers’ expectation of choices in
how and when—and with what devices—they
interact with the grid. And when customers
exercise this choice, utilities will feel the
imperative to respond.
Add to the equation commercial and industrial
smart-building systems—systems that control
and monitor electricity use in offices and
factories via two-way smart-grid connections.
Such systems enable utilities to find extra
capacity when it is needed during demand peaks,
drawing extra supply from buildings that have
supply to offer. When smart buildings band
together—they can be connected as a suite of
aggregated buildings or smart communities—
that aggregated electricity demand and supply
creates an entirely new partnership between
utilities and their customers.
Indeed, a recent EPRI study foresees a new
landscape in which “commercial buildings are
increasingly able to provide a range of grid-
support functions.” In exchange for this new
demand-response service, commercial-building
owners will expect tailored or adjustable
electricity rates.
Controlling the gateways
to customers3
Aggregated
electricity demand
and supply will
create an entirely
new partnership
between utilities
and their
customers.

Tapping big data
The expansion of the smart-grid will usher in a new
age of massive data inflows. These data will bring
enormous new opportunities for utilities, says Mr
Valocchi of IBM, including cost savings from
improved efficiencies in smart-grid markets,
reduced electricity theft and the ability to predict
system failures and vulnerabilities. They will also
let utilities identify customer segments—for
example, groups based on energy-use patterns—
and offer them specialised products and services.
However, utilities have taken a cautious, albeit
inquisitive, stance towards big data analysis amid
uncertainty about the return on investment. They
should not be so timid. Small improvements in
efficiency can provide significant returns. For
instance, a 1% improvement in efficiency across
natural-gas-fired power plants globally would yield
$66bn in fuel savings, according to a study
commissioned by General Electric. Bigger returns
will come from improved ability to predict customer
needs, says Doug Scheller, vice president of
business intelligence at BRIDGE Energy Group, a
utilities energy consultancy based in Marlborough,
Massachusetts.
“As smart-grid data becomes richer, there is the
prospect of some significant income opportunities
emerging from data unrelated to electricity use,”
says Mr McCracken of Pecan Street. These data have
never been available to product makers before but
will be valuable to them. “Utilities will charge rents
for access to their digital infrastructure, the same
way that cable and mobile telecom [companies]
charge rents for access to their digital
infrastructure,” he says.

For many, the key benefits of mobile technologies
are of the blocking-and-tackling sort: field-force
improvements and operational savings from more
efficient maintenance, meter readings, response to
outages and the like. Much more could be done in
this regard; a 2012 EPRI study shows little has yet
been done to improve the efficiency of interactions
between utilities operations centres and field-force
workers.
To demonstrate the opportunities, EPRI used a
souped-up iPad 2 to help workers “see” electrical
networks out in the field in real time using
augmented reality. Field workers were able to
visualise important network-asset information,
create work requests while on site, access
maintenance manuals, obtain real-time analysis of
systems status and visualise problems in the field.
For example, electricity grid diagrams can be
superimposed on satellite imagery of a parking lot
to show workers exactly where important lines are
buried. Such tools offer the potential to greatly
reduce work cycles, reduce dangerous accidents
and shorten outage times, among other benefits.
Most utilities executives quickly grasp the
potential benefits to the industry, including lower
services costs and capital expenditures, reduced
risks and regulator fines and increased revenue.
Indeed, an overwhelming majority (80%) of the 50
utilities executives surveyed by the EIU believe that
mobile strategies can improve field-force
efficiency, productivity and capacity.
Following Hurricane Sandy, some electric utility
regulators began pushing utilities to implement
alternative ways to managing outages effectively
and prepare for a world in which severe storms
increase in number and intensity.
In an electricity environment where uncertainty
reigns, investing in innovation will not always
bring certain returns, says IBM’s Mr Valocchi.
“Where variables abound,” utilities should view
investments as “buying an option for potential
control points”. The mobile devices in tucked
customers’ pockets are key control points that
utilities can ill-afford to ignore.
With time, mobile control points will apply to
new markets. E-car connections to the grid will be
by definition mobile, and these “auto-mobile”
connections will be made through applications
accessed via handsets or built into e-cars
themselves. “You may or may not agree on the rate
of uptake of e-cars,” Mr Valocchi says. “But what if
they arrive? What control point do you want to
have in that eventuality?”
Other revenue opportunities are likely to emerge
from the Internet of Things revolution and the data
these machines produce as well as from strong
customer relationships established via social media
and mobile applications.
In this changing environment, those utilities
that act now to grab opportunities to bolster their
market positions and gain new revenue sources will
find themselves with the strategic advantage in the
electricity marketplace of the future.
Conclusion: Preparing for the future
4

Appendix:
survey results
Percentages may not
add to 100% owing to
rounding or the ability
of respondents to
choose multiple
responses.
Well above
average
Somewhat
above average
Average/on par
with peers
Somewhat
below average
Well below
average
Don’t know
Profitability
Revenue growth
Market share
Customer loyalty
Innovation
Productivity
Safety
Regulatory compliance
In your opinion, how effective is your organisation in each of the following performance indicators
compared with its peers?
Please rate on a scale from ‘Well above average’ to Well below average’.
(% respondents)
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
18 40 30 10 2
18 40 36 2 4
26 46 26 2
14 30 46 10
18 32 32 14 4
24 52 20 2 2
24 36 28 6 6
16 24 40 18 2
20 40 32 4 2 2
26 38 30 6
18 48 28 2 4
22 46 28 4
24 30 34 12
14 42 22 16 4 2
28 38 28 2 4
22 40 32 6
20 32 36 10 2
10 68 20 2
34 40 24 2
26 42 24 2 4 2
28 50 20 2
30 34 34 2
30 44 24 2
24 54 20 2

How do your employees access information in the field today?
Please select top two.
(% respondents)
Laptops
Smartphones
Radios
Tablets
Paper
Machine-to-machine communication outputs
Handheld computers
Other
Utilities Oil and gas Mining
62
64
52
22
38
40
24
20
42
18
26
16
22
18
12
20
14
16
20
14
10
2
0
0

How do you expect your employees to access information in the field 5 years from now?
Please select top two.
(% respondents)
Tablets
Smartphones
Laptops
Handheld computers
Machine-to-machine communication outputs
Radios
Paper
Other
66
56
66
38
62
48
38
28
30
16
28
16
12
14
18
10
6
12
4
0
4
4
2
0

Excellent Very good Fair Somewhat
poor
Very poor Don’t know
The workload and status of field workers
Conditions in the field that affect productivity (ie, assets, infrastructure and people)
Conditions in the field hazardous to health and safety
Market trends and events
Customer trends and events
How do you rate the ability of key experts or decision-makers at your company to understand and respond
appropriately in real-time to the following conditions using mobile data and communications?
Please select a response in each row on a scale from ‘Excellent’ to ‘Very poor’.
(% respondents)
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
6 46 46 2
14 42 34 8 2
14 60 24 2
26 34 36 4
22 34 34 10
32 20 42 6
10 48 38 2 2
20 44 26 8 2
24 50 26
12 44 30 12 2
10 46 32 10 2
18 46 34 2
10 46 38 6
6 36 50 6 2
12 58 24 4 2
What are the main constraints you face in getting access to timely field data in general?
Please select top three.
(% respondents)
Approvals cause lag-time
Wireless connections are not available or sufficiently reliable
Our data collection capabilities in the field are inadequate (eg, for inspections, surveys, audits)
Paperwork causes lag-time
Our data communication capabilities to and in the field are inadequate (eg, for coordination, collaboration, support, intelligence)
Mobile devices are not sufficiently reliable or safe
Other
None of the above
36
50
20
38
34
34
28
30
38
34
34
26
26
22
28
22
28
12
0
4
0
24
14
36

What are the main constraints you face in remote or hazardous locations, specifically?
(% respondents)
Other
None of the above
46
46
40
34
38
36
34
42
18
28
34
16
22
20
30
22
20
14
0
2
2
24
14
36
Highly Moderately Minimally Not at all
To what extent do these constraints affect your ability to make good decisions quickly?
Please select a response in each row on a scale from ‘Highly’ to ‘Not at all’.
(% respondents)
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
26 58 11 5
35 55 10
43 36 14 7
35 55 10
48 41 11
39 54 8
23 62 12 4
15 62 19 4
39 57 4
16 63 16 5
26 61 13
40 50 10
20 45 30 5
38 46 8 8
27 55 18
7 64 29
33 53 13
59 41

Appendix: consumer survey results
Which of the following are obstacles to your company expanding its use of mobile?
Please select all that apply.
(% respondents)
My company is concerned about the security of mobile data
My company is concerned about the cost of expanding its use of mobile
My company is concerned that mobile unreliability will put critical processes at risk
My company is concerned that mobile unreliability will require costly redundant communication systems
Cultural obstacles in my workforce (eg, discomfort with new technologies) limit our adoption of mobile technologies
My company sees other communications options (eg, fixed-line, radio) as preferable to mobile communications
Other
My company does not face obstacles to expanding its use of mobile
49
49
41
39
42
53
36
30
28
33
37
16
18
26
38
23
7
16
5
5
6
18
7
13
Do customer mobile apps aid your smart-grid management?
(% of respondents in the utilities industries)
Yes
No
62
38

Appendix: consumer survey results
Strongly Moderately Minimally Not at all Don’t know/
Not applicable
Reducing paperwork
Reducing approval lag-time
Scheduling and crew management
Crisis or emergency management
Preventing failures
Environmental safety and sustainability
Achieving high productivity and capacity (eg, reducing downtime)
Assuring regulatory compliance
Enhancing customer engagement
Taking customer meter readings
Peak-load management and demand response
Smart-grid management
Assuring product quality
To what extent can mobility strategies help improve your company’s response to the following
operational challenges?
Please select a response in each row on a scale from ‘Strongly’ to ‘Not at all’.
(% respondents)
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
UTILITIES
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
34 56 8 2
32 48 18 2
24 62 14
33 51 14 2
38 44 16 2
26 50 24
25 49 22 2 2
22 54 22 2
20 42 36 2
46 44 6 2 2
40 42 16 2
14 67 16 2
31 35 31 2 2
25 41 18 12 4
20 54 24 2
16 55 25 4
20 36 34 8 2
14 59 27
28 56 14 2
28 52 16 2 2
16 61 22
16 35 37 8 4
14 41 39 4 2
22 46 32
33 45 14 8
33 39 25 4
18 46 34 2
38 38 18 4 2
34 44 18 4
34 42 10 10 4
10 51 31 6 2

In which areas of mobility do you think your company most needs to improve to enhance its performance today?
(% respondents)
Mobile data security
Mobile connectivity (eg, wireless telecom network, Wi-Fi networking)
Data collection in the field
Big data analysis
4D (3D space and time) and visual display of geophysical data
Data delivery to offsite to headquarters or other sites where decision-makers are located
Mobile devices and platforms (ie, hardware and software)
Customer engagement
None of the above
48
52
32
46
40
34
34
32
36
40
28
32
34
28
38
30
22
36
32
32
16
16
8
16
2
0
12

In which areas of mobility is your company most likely to invest over the next five years?
(% respondents)
Mobile data security
4D (3D space and time) and visual display of geophysical data
Big data analysis
Mobile connectivity (eg, wireless telecom network, Wi-Fi networking)
Data collection in the field
Data delivery to offsite to headquarters or other sites where decision-makers are located
Mobile devices and platforms (ie, hardware and software)
Customer engagement
None of the above
46
58
32
46
30
50
36
46
34
36
34
28
26
24
42
26
28
34
28
30
14
22
8
10
0
0
10

What mobile technology do you use to enhance health and safety?
(% respondents)
Laptops
Smartphones
GPS/GIS for mapping sites and locating resources
Radios
Tablets
Mobile telemetry (ie, for collection and transmission of data to surface sensors and software systems)
Handheld computers
Augmented reality (ie, for interactive 3D visualisation)
Robotics for reaching difficult or hazardous areas
Other
We don’t use mobile technologies to enhance health and safety
None of the above
62
64
50
56
64
50
50
54
56
40
34
44
36
42
30
24
34
32
30
20
34
8
20
28
8
18
28
2
0
0
2
4
8
4
0
0

How do you use mobile technologies to improve worker health and safety?
(% respondents)
Workers have devices that improve their communication while in the field
Workers have devices that improve their communication while underground or in remote or hazardous locations
Mobile devices collect data on employee performance that we use to prevent incidents or put in place evidence-based health and safety improvements
Mobile devices guide workers in order to prevent incidents
Mobile devices detect and communicate hazardous conditions (eg, buildups of underground gases in mines)
Mobile communication facilitates quicker repairs and better maintenance of assets
Other
We don't use mobile technologies to improve worker health and safety
None of the above
62
72
46
38
44
48
48
32
48
38
26
36
24
32
40
32
30
26
0
0
0
0
6
12
4
2
0
Strong
improvement
Moderately
improvement
Weak
improvement
No
improvement
Don’t know
We have detected hazards (eg, buildups of underground gases) or prevented explosions and other incidents
We have prevented worker incidents and accidents
We have responded more quickly to worker incidents and accidents and unplanned outages
We have reduced worker incidents and accidents and related costs
We have saved workers’ lives
How much have mobile technologies helped you to improve on the following health and safety measures?
Please select a response in each row on a scale from ‘Strong improvement’ to ‘No improvement’.
(% respondents)
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
MINING
4 56 8 6 25
17 38 25 6 15
18 66 6 6 4
25 33 23 4 15
19 44 19 6 13
30 40 22 6 2
27 42 15 4 13
30 40 13 4 13
30 46 18 4 2
22 49 10 6 12
23 38 23 4 13
42 28 22 6 2
15 46 13 8 19
15 38 19 9 19
26 48 18 2 6

Strongly Moderately Minimally Not at all Don’t know
Recapturing customer loyalty and engagement (ie, from competing service providers, rate aggregators, utility intermediaries, etc)
Providing customers with advice on consumption
Providing customers with targeted offers
Facilitating smart-grid deployment
Incentivising customers to reduce consumption during high demand periods (ie, through time-of-day variable rates)
Receiving customer reports on potential causes and actual causes of outages (eg, storm damage, leaning poles)
Notifying customers about potential or actual outages and recommending actions
Facilitating and managing increasing eCar2Grid loads
To what extent can mobile communication (eg, alerts and apps) help improve the following areas
of customer engagement?
Please select a response in each row on a scale from ‘Strongly’ to ‘Not at all’.
(% respondents)
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
17 44 22 6 11
17 50 21 8 4
29 47 6 6 12
25 42 17 13 4
33 39 11 6 11
21 42 25 8 4
29 35 12 12 12
21 25 29 21 4
22 44 11 11 11
13 42 21 17 8
24 24 24 12 18
13 50 13 13 13
17 44 22 6 11
21 42 17 17 4
12 29 18 18 24
8 38 17 17 21
0-3 years 4-6 years More than
6 years
Don’t know
Recapturing customer loyalty and engagement (ie, from competing service providers, rate aggregators, utility intermediaries, etc.)
Providing customers with advice on consumption
Providing customers with targeted offers
Facilitating smart-grid deployment
Incentivising customers to reduce consumption during high demand periods (ie, through time-of-day variable rates)
Receiving customer reports on potential causes or actual causes of outages (eg, storm damage, leaning poles)
Notifying customers about potential or actual outages and recommending actions
Facilitating and managing increasing eCar2Grid loads
How long do you expect it to take for your company to rollout mobile capabilities to customers
to enhance engagement in these areas?
(% respondents)
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
UTILITIES
OIL AND GAS
64 21 7 7
60 35 5
57 36 7
55 35 10
57 36 7
80 15 5
62 31 8
50 33 6 11
71 21 7
47 47 6
58 42
44 44 6 6
60 27 13
59 35 6
50 40 10
40 40 7 13

United States of America
India
Australia, Spain, United Kingdom
Canada, Germany
China, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden
Thailand
Argentina, Austria, Colombia, Denmark, France, Nigeria,
Switzerland, Chile, Cyprus, Greece, Hong Kong, Lebanon,
Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia
In which country are you personally located?
(% respondents)
25
12
7
5
3
2
1
Asia-Pacific
North America
Western Europe
Middle East and Africa
Latin America
Eastern Europe
In which region are you personally located?
(% respondents)
30
30
30
6
4
0
Less than $100m
$100m-$500m
$500m-$999m
$1bn-$4.9bn
$5bn-$9.9bn
$10bn or more
What are your organisation’s global annual revenue
in US dollars?
(% respondents)
15
35
9
22
4
15
Board member
CEO/President/Managing director
CFO/Treasurer/Comptroller
CIO/Technology director
Other C-level executive
SVP/VP/Director
Head of business unit
Head of department
Manager
Other
Which of the following best describes your title?
(% respondents)
2
7
8
9
24
17
5
17
11
0
General management
Finance
Operations and production
IT
Marketing and sales
Risk
Legal
Procurement
Supply-chain management
Information and research
R&D
Customer service
Human resources
Other
What is your main functional role?
(% respondents)
21
16
15
13
11
6
5
5
3
2
2
1
0
0

Whilst every effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of this
information, neither The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. nor the
sponsor of this report can accept any responsibility or liability
for reliance by any person on this white paper or any of the
information, opinions or conclusions set out in the white paper.
About our Sponsor
As the world’s leading provider of enterprise application
software, SAP delivers products and services that help
accelerate business innovation for its more than 183,000
customers in more than 120 countries. See more related to this
report at sap.com/mobile-powerutilities
Cover:NASA

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