North American Utilities Expand Digital Transformations to Address Vulnerabilities Exposed by COVID-19 Pandemic
ISG Provider Lens™ report finds service providers helped utilities build work-from-anywhere and multichannel customer service platforms during lockdowns
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a new round of digital transformation at North America’s utilities, which were already modernizing and responding to climate-change challenges, according to a new report published by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
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“Successful players are making changes across the board to meet the new challenges.”
The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Utilities Industry – Services and Solutions report for North America finds lockdowns and social-distancing requirements revealed new vulnerabilities in an industry that traditionally has focused on the risks of weather and natural disasters, the report says. In response, utilities broadened their digital transformation efforts to strengthen supply chains, workforce collaboration, customer service, cybersecurity and other aspects of the business.
“Enabling remote work and improving the customer experience are major steps in utility modernization,” said Bob Lutz, partner in ISG’s Energy and Utilities Industry vertical. “Successful players are making changes across the board to meet the new challenges.”
Providers of IT and digital transformation services have helped utilities respond to the pandemic by building agile work-from-anywhere models with enhanced cybersecurity and service continuity, the report says. They are also assisting in the development of digital customer service platforms for a more seamless multichannel customer experience that includes voice, text, chatbots, social media and in-person contact.
As utilities reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and adopt more wind, solar and other green sources of energy, the operating patterns of both transmission and distribution companies and system operators are changing, according to ISG. This requires them to implement a whole host of new technologies for supply and demand forecasting, situational awareness, automated demand response and other functions. Providers of digital transformation services are using their data management and data science expertise to help utilities develop these capabilities.
Both power and water utilities are rapidly modernizing their networks with smart meters, more sensors and automated outage prediction, the report says. These overhauls also include more advanced analytics, forecasting, modeling and optimization technologies, along with grid resiliency programs for more robust responses to low-probability tail events.
Modernizing customer service infrastructure is another major challenge utilities are taking on, ISG says. Replacing customer information systems (CIS) requires major investments of time and capital, as well as organizational change management to foster acceptance of the new technologies in this traditionally conservative sector. Service providers are helping utilities carry out these changes through training, tools, accelerators and execution frameworks that reduce the risks of CIS transformation.
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The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Utilities Industry – Services and Solutions report for North America evaluates the capabilities of 37 providers across five quadrants: Digital Transformation Services and Solutions – Large Accounts, Digital Transformation Services and Solutions – Midmarket, Intelligent Business Process Management Solutions, Next-Gen IT Services – Large Accounts, and Next-Gen IT Services – Midmarket.
The report names Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, IBM, Infosys, TCS and Wipro as Leaders in three quadrants. Atos, Birlasoft, CGI, EXL, HCL, LTI, Tech Mahindra and WNS are named as Leaders in two quadrants, and Alorica and Teleperformance are named as Leaders in one quadrant each.
In addition, Conduent and Softtek are named as Rising Stars—companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant each.
