Posted by Karen Smith
Now that you’ve read about 10 benefits of a Proof of Concept and working with your trusted vendors, we’re ready for the final installment, your wise investment.
The Wise Investment
Utilities today are investing billions to modernize their energy infrastructure and upgrade their systems. As such, many are seeking radical savings across their operating units including their vegetation management operations. While digitizing an existing process by deploying software can clearly save time and money, radical savings can only come through transformation (not digital enablement). In other words, why digitize a suboptimal process when there’s an opportunity to do things differently?
For utility line clearance, there’s an increasing need for better planning, improved targeting, just-in-time trimming, predictive maintenance, and more. Some utilities are completely changing their standards and moving from cycle-based to condition-based programs. With this need comes an opportunity to radically transform work flows with new technology.
It’s hard to predict how to run a business more effectively when switching technologies. As such, it can be extremely difficult to write an RFP or software specifications when there are countless possibilities and even more unknowns. Oftentimes the best way to determine what opportunities offer the highest transformational value to your environment can be uncovered during the actual development and deployment process.
For all of these reasons, an agile approach to development is becoming the new norm. Start small. Move fast. Gather feedback. Continue to learn and improve. And fine-tune your approach. This enables champions in the organization to lead their business unit instead of executives dictating the direction of technology investment. May you make a wise decision!