Utilities have ever increasing amounts of data to which they can apply analytics to gain business insights as they evolve to a digitally enabled grid.
According to the Accenture report, The Digitally Enabled Grid – Unlocking the Value of Analytics (2013), 96% of executives working in Transmission and Distribution view data management as a key organizational capability to develop by 2020. What is less clear among those surveyed is how to transform from an organization that uses analytics on an ad-hoc basis into an organization that is powered by data and analytics.
The Accenture Analytics Maturity Model for Utilities shows how organizations can chart where they are today and where they have room to grow to deliver on their business priorities. All capabilities are important, but it is in combination that a utility can grow to become an analytics leader. Accenture has five recommendations that utilities companies should consider in order to elevate and evolve their mastery of data:
- Articulate business priorities and design analytics outcomes: Utility leaders need to target and prioritize the areas to be improved with data and analytics. According to executives surveyed, the top three analytical areas representing greatest value from smart solutions deployments, are analytics related to grid operations (96%), asset management (92%) and outage management (85%).
- Assess existing capabilities: Data and technology spring to mind as key areas for assessment. Utilities should also evaluate maturity as it relates to end-to-end processes affected by analytics, as well as data discovery, overall data management, analytics talent, organizational culture and performance management.
- Consider process redesign and data quality/governance improvements: Define an organization-wide analytics strategy, communicate changing practices and evaluate processes in light of innovative practices. A review of impacted processes from end-to-end can identify potential gaps, as well as data accuracy and quality issues, and inconsistencies between systems that might undermine the value of the analytics.
- Develop an analytics roadmap: Once a utility has performed an objective assessment of its current state, it should evaluate the costs and the benefits associated with moving up the data and analytics maturity curve. Organizations can evaluate desired outcomes in terms of executive priorities and what it will take to reach the next level of maturity.
- Promote a cultural shift to an analytically astute, insight-driven utility: Utilities can take several actions to promote integration of insight-to-action processes: Senior executives should lead by example; they should attract, develop, and retain data and analytics talent; and they should foster new behaviors with a change enablement program because an analytical mindset is not innate to the majority.
Explore the Accenture Analytics Maturity Model for Utilities by downloading Transforming to become an insight-driven utility
