Cloud utility management is a powerful approach that allows utilities to quickly adapt to new power models. It offers scalability, efficiency and agility that utilities need to manage new energy transition requirements while achieving their corporate sustainability priorities. However, many utilities have a long way to go in their enterprise cloud adoption.
The first step to a successful utility cloud strategy is to empower the power users who will become internal support and Utility Cloud experts within your organization. We recommend training one or more of these power users to serve as business system administrators (BSA). BSAs will be able to administer and customize the software to meet your unique needs, while managing assets, work, reports, and users.
A utility cloud solution that is configured correctly will keep you up and running, even during a data center outage. This is accomplished by storing a large amount of data at multiple redundant locations. It also maintains 15-minute transactional backups and daily full backups that are marshaled offsite to redundant storage facilities. It may also have multiple servers that launch automatically to replace any of the original servers that fail. The solution should also track all user actions in detail so that system history and asset performance can be analyzed down to the click event.
The next step to a successful utility cloud strategy is providing quick access to consumption data for customers and staff via self-service tools, simple communication and clear documentation. It helps reduce debt and improves collections by allowing customers to view their bills 24/7, and it supports the digital conversion of new and existing customers with online or mobile access to accounts and customer service. It reduces the cost to serve by simplifying complex regulatory and business workflows, reducing errors from manual reporting and providing field workers with the tools they need to collect data and automatically report throughout the enterprise. cloud utility management