Market Analysis
published on Oct 23, 2017
Report Overview:
NelsonHall’s “Impact of Digital on IT Services in the Utilities Sector: 2017” 42-page report is based on global interviewing of senior executives across the utilities sector in four geographies: the U.S., U.K., Continental Europe, and Asia Pacific.
The report identifies the principal business issues faced by utilities firms over the period 2017-2019, the IT and digital initiatives planned in response to these issues, and their anticipated changes in IT spend and sourcing.
In particular, the report analyzes the importance of digital to utilities firms and focuses on the nature of the digital initiatives planned by utilities firms by application and technology, together with the key benefits required from digital by utilities firms and their supplier selection criteria when purchasing digital services.
Who is this Report for:
NelsonHall’s “Impact of Digital on IT Services in the Utilities Sector: 2017” report is a comprehensive market assessment report designed for:
- Sourcing managers investigating sourcing developments within the utilities sector
- Vendor marketing, sales and business managers developing strategies to target IT services (ITS) opportunities within the utilities sector
- Financial analysts and investors specializing in the IT services and BPS sector.
Scope of this Report:
The report is based on interviews with executives in the utilities sector in the U.S., U.K., Continental Europe, and Asia Pacific.
The report analyzes the worldwide market for IT services within the utilities sector and addresses the following questions:
- What are the principal business priorities faced by organizations in the utilities sector?
- What IT initiatives are planned by organizations in the utilities sector?
- How relevant are digital initiatives to organizations in the utilities sector?
- What digital initiatives are planned by organizations in the utilities sector?
- What business areas are targeted for digital initiatives by organizations in the utilities sector?
- What digital technologies are planned to be introduced by organizations in the utilities sector?
- What are the key selection criteria used by organizations in the utilities sector to select suppliers to implement digital initiatives?
- What shifts in sourcing approach are expected by executives in the utilities sector over the next three years?
- How do companies in the utilities sector expect their spend on ITS services to change over the next three years?
Key Findings & Highlights:
Utility companies are tailoring their digital and IT initiatives to improve their ability to react to uncertainty in pricing, demand and utilities pricing.
With regulatory frameworks often limiting their ability to adapt through pricing changes, utility companies are focusing their initiatives on cost reduction and becoming easier to do business with, thereby maintaining profitability as pricing fluctuates. In particular, digitalization of customer interactions around online commerce, CRM and customer service, is increasingly being targeted by utility companies, both to reduce their operating costs and to increase their average revenues per customer by improving their customer interface.
Accordingly, their digital initiatives are focused on both digital commerce and on the key operational areas of plant and work management.
At the same time, with flat IT budgets and driven by a desire to free up their IT budgets for new digital initiatives, utilities have a strong focus on IT transformation, principally around application modernization, cloud migration, and SaaS adoption.
Although utility companies still have a strong need for digital maturity assessments and roadmaps to support their digital journeys, their new digital initiatives will increasingly be supported by niche specialists.