Oracle : Utilities Industry is Embracing Technology in Streamlining Their Business Processes

Date : 30-Mar-2019
Location: Singapore

Key Take-Aways:
  • Disruptive megatrends like rapid urbanisation, climate change, and volatile energy prices are continuously transforming the utilities sector. Yesterday's centralised market is being dispersed, disrupted and digitised by agile new entrants, alternative energy sources and in-control customers. In tandem, spurned by advancements in technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), ever-increasing amounts of data are being collated at every point of supply and demand, adding both complexity and opportunity to the mix
  • Customers now want from their utility providers the same instant access to the most up-to-date information—on the platform of their choice
  • In Singapore, liberalisation of the utilities industry with consumers now having the option of choosing their preferred electricity price plans from as many as 12 providers, since November 2018
  • With competition intensifying in the industry, utility providers need to turn to innovation in order to achieve competitive advantage, business performance excellence and to improve the customer experience, while aligning with the nation’s sustainability goals
  • Real-time data insights and actions such as sharing instant notifications on outages, problems, and power quality issues are driven by innovations such as Artificial Intelligence (AI)-programmed, self-healing nanobots. Consumers are also able to “order” audits of not just their overall energy usage, but at the granular appliance level, on top of being able to supply data history and analysis immediately. A customer service chatbot can also follow up through the same device
  • Both the government policies and key energy technologies must work in tandem to achieve consumer's goals of energy sustainability
  • In the long run, a dual and simultaneous approach that includes both core business innovation and future business innovation is required. Utilities providers will need to use a more modular approach by leveraging technology to look for new revenue streams.

 Spokeperson:
  • Francois Vazille, Vice President of JAPAC & EMEA, Oracle Utilities
Offerings:
  • Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management Cloud Service to improve their asset performance management operations. Specifically, a key benefit would be to confirm that appropriate resources are allocated and deployed when water asset issues arise. The platform will be able to establish work order management systems by providing integrated insights through the optimisation of work and maintenance schedules in real time
  • Asset operations today are able to detect and predict the risk of failures faster given the value of reducing the total cost of ownership and improving workforce deployment. The platform also allows utilities to get ahead with cloud technology in terms of data-led decision-making across their organisations
  • As businesses need to spend more of their time and budget on innovation and less on maintaining systems, utilities will reap the benefits of the cloud as well as having companies like Oracle assist in maintaining their environments for them, and ensuring the data and information are more secure, instead of having to do it themselves.
Editor's comments:
  • The energy sector in Malaysia is not very much liberalised yet, perhaps this is an area the new government will be working towards if the benefit is deemed greater than the cost.
  • When energy utilisation is a key aspect of life, technology providers can play a role in transforming the social-economical aspect of a society
  • Therefore, there is also an opportunity for startups to capture this trend by embracing the A.I trend
  • With increasing consumer demands, the public and private sectors have the tendency to lookout for new innovations and best practices from technology providers.


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