This month’s Automation/IT Leadership Series interview is with executives from LogicaCMG, one of the world’s most prolific and successful providers of automation and information technologysystems and services. I had the pleasure of first meeting Jeff Provine – president of LogicaCMG’s Energy & Utilities Division in North America – nearly twenty years ago when we were both relatively new to the geospatial marketplace. Since then, Jeff has clearly remained on the cutting edge of automation/IT solutions. Joining him is David Price, consistently among the most insightful and visionary CTOs I’ve come across. Together, I think you will find their views on the business and technological issues and trends shaping the automation/IT industry in these exciting times both interesting and informative.
- Mike Marullo, Automation/IT Leadership Series Editor
EET&D: The merger of Logica with CMG in 2002 – as well as several subsequent acquisitions – have taken place over the past several years. The most recent of those was the acquisition of Worksuite from Severn-Trent in 2006. In your view, what are the primary benefits that have accrued from these moves?
Provine: Our stated strategic direction is to establish LogicaCMG as a global top 10 provider in IT services.The acquisitions that have occurred since the original merger between Logica and CMG have moved us steadily toward that goal.Notably, we are now well into the top 20 globally and the top 5 in several European regions.The benefits to our customers are really a result of the scale we now possess and the financial stability that accompanies a profitable $6 billion global enterprise.For the Energy & Utilities division specifically, the benefits of our Global Service Delivery Model and the international lines of business for energy and utilities (which represents nearly 16% of revenue) are key to our success as well as that of our customers.
EET&D: Just a little over a year ago, in February 2006, you acquired the assets and products of WorkSuite from Severn-Trent. How would you characterize the principal objectives of that acquisition, how the merger has progressed and perhaps how it figures into your plans for the future?
Provine: Again, the primary benefit to our organization and, more importantly to our clients is one of scale. The combined company is fortunate to have half of the top 100 utilities in North America as clients under contract with LogicaCMG and our established position in the U.K. is now stronger than ever. Along with rapidly integrating the organizations, we moved very quickly to combine the product roadmaps of the two companies and immediately adjusted our development activities. In many cases product benefits are realized very late for customers. In our case, both sets of clients have realized immediate benefits from releases of newly integrated products less than a year after the companies were combined as well as the longer-term benefits derived from a family of integrated solutions. EET&D: Do you feel that you now have all the pieces you need to go forward with a cohesive solution set for utilities, or are more acquisitions likely in the future?
Provine: While another acquisition is never out of the question, we are very nearly complete with the delivery of our overall Asset and Resource Management (ARM) product roadmap.The real focus for us over the next 24 months is on our customer base, which has nearly doubled through the Worksuite acquisition. We are very excited that the majority of our new Worksuite clients have contracted with us for long-term maintenance agreements and are committing to the roadmap. We still have a great deal of work ahead to help them all take full advantage of this product migration, but we’re making steady progress toward that objective.
EET&D: You have very recently announced a comprehensive mobility solution that would seem to be a direct result of the aforementioned acquisition and internal development. Why all the emphasis on mobility?
Provine: It really wasn’t a result of the acquisition; the acquisition simply gave us the ability to leverage the best technology from both companies in our resulting offerings and migration roadmap. Both organizations were already heavily invested in development and deployments of scheduling, dispatch and mobile and, as you know, we have been developing the next version of Real Time Asset & Resource Management (RTARM) with a group of our customers. If I were to add up all of the investments made in the development of this coordinated effort with our customers and partners, I’m sure the number would be quite substantial. However, the resultant benefits to our clients and the industry at large will also be very significant when we release the final product this spring… and definitely, well worth the investment. EET&D: Obviously, there are a lot of mobility solutions out there. What do you feel are some of the more important dimensions of this burgeoning market from the utility perspective and what kinds of benefits can utilities expect to accrue from these applications that were previously unattainable?
Provine: The opportunity these new solutions create for users will center on flexibility, power and interoperability. For the first time it won’t really matter what engine is managing work processes in the background, whether it’s one of our own or any of several competitive work management products. The benefits of automating the office are well proven, but the real boost in productivity comes in how the work is scheduled, dispatched and managed in the field – that’s where the real costs reside. Utilities can expect to see some very real cost efficiencies and performance gains once this new generation of solutions is deployed.
This would be a good time for David Price, our CTO, to add his insights about how we see the mobility market developing over the next several years and what can be realistically expected from this new wave of products and technology – some pretty exciting stuff, actually.
EET&D: (to David Price) Obviously there is much to be excited about with all of these new solutions on the immediate horizon, so perhaps you can offer some details about how users will benefit.
Price: From a resource perspective, an increasing number of our customers are seeking the next level of performance through uniting their field resources and re-deploying them in new, and as yet, unexplored ways. This is really a critical ingredient in their search to address increasing concerns about their aging workforce while also driving a step-function increase in overall productivity, most of which will necessarily take place in the field; not in the office.
EET&D: We hear a lot these days about the intricately interrelated issues of the aging workforce and productivity objectives. What can you tell our readers about how these concerns might manifest themselves in a mobility and/or work process context?
Price: This productivity drive is actually resulting in a new set of criteria for mobile solutions. It calls for an enterprise solution that can not only support current mobility and work process demands but also an increased level of flexibility across the organization of the future as more applications are pushed out of the office and into the field where they really belong.
In terms of work execution, mobile solutions are seen as a means to both increase the productivity of both field employees and their field management teams while also reducing the overall life-cycle time and cost of collecting and processing data for the entire utility enterprise. In turn, this is driving an even greater level of mobility sophistication. We firmly believe that field validation and a better definition of the scope of data capture will be important components of any new mobile initiative.
An even more interesting part of this trend, however, is the recent move toward utilizing the entire field workforce as a cost effective data collection and validation team. We see this as a direct response to the rising demand for more accurate, timely and complete information about the utilities’ distributed assets in support of increasingly challenging demands for better asset management and related decision-making from both a regulatory and utility business perspective.
EET&D: Perhaps you could elaborate a bit on what you mean by “…utilizing the entire workforce as a cost effective data collection and validation team”. It certainly sounds positive, but what does that really mean in practice?
Price: First, most any utility would readily acknowledge that it’s generally cost-prohibitive to operate a stand-alone data capture program in today’s environment. Additionally, for a typical distribution business to improve, it is vital that the field staff have access to – as well as the ability to alter and update – the critical data in the field simultaneously with work execution. As an example, the asset data pushed out to the field needs to be supported by appropriate levels of data validation at the point of entry.
EET&D: It sure sounds like there will be a lot of new demands on the field force as this strategy plays out; should that be expected? Price: Yes, that’s true, but our vision for accommodating this growing need is to engage the entire field organization in an integral role in the asset management process of the future, thereby spreading the work across a broader set of personnel equipped with better and more powerful, yet affordable tools. But admittedly this will require the complete integration of asset data collection and retrieval capabilities into the day-to-day work execution and reporting activities; no small challenge for suppliers and utilities alike!
EET&D: Where do you see mobile evolving and how does it fit in with other automation/IT initiatives, especially as regards advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)?
Price: As the network itself becomes increasingly “self-aware” through pervasive instrumentation coupled with the implementation of AMI platforms, a large portion of the workforce previously associated with connects/disconnects and meter reading will no longer be needed. At the same time, other demands on mobile solutions will also increase as more and more business logic is pushed out to the field in an attempt to further improve the corporate lifecycle of data collection and validation.
Some believe that more intensive streaming of mobile data may underlie a wholesale move to a thin-client environment, where field users are accessing their host systems directly. While this capability will probably be revisited, we believe it’s unlikely that stand-alone mobile applications capable of supporting key business logic in real-time or near real-time (i.e., even when disconnected from network communications) will be abandoned in mission critical applications such as those routinely used by utilities.
EET&D: What do you see happening with corresponding mobile field devices?
Price: We think that another future evolution will be towards truly hand-held business applications “slaved” from field fleet vehicles. In the interest of driving further productivity, this next generation of solutions will provide some pragmatic capabilities directly interfaced with the vehicle-mounted computer and facilitating efficient communications with the district or central office. Ultimately, this will allow the complete integration of work- and site-specific data collection devices into the broader mobile architecture of the business enterprise and automating the “last 50-100 feet” of the work process lifecycle.
EET&D: What does that say about potential longer-term changes now that the computing platforms employed in various automation/IT applications are far more standardized and interoperable than they were say, a decade ago?
Price: From a high-level integrationstandpoint, we should see some real progress towards the holy grail of establishing acommon information model, particularly as more of the mainstream vendors adopt these standardized architectures going forward. It’s also clear that the supplier consolidation is still ongoing. I think it’s safe to say thatutilities will actually benefit from a stronger – albeit reduced – set of suppliers, which will certainly include our team here at LogicaCMG. Moreover, improved market stability among suppliers and users alike will, in turn, allow the next generation of business processes to build on this new level of standardization and interoperability.
Finally, a new set of skills and processes - mostly centered on rapid diagnosis and repair of sophisticated network and data collection devices – will be required, driving consolidation of functions and a set of new applications infrastructure to support them.
EET&D: Jeff, David; thanks to both of you for taking time to share your thoughts, opinions and insights with our readers. Any parting words you’d like to add?
Provine: First, I want to thank you for this opportunity to share our thoughts and points of view with your readers. And please stay tuned; there is a lot more to come. Among other initiatives that will be unfolding soon, LogicaCMG will continue to bring best practices from around the globe in areas such as enterprise asset management, carbon trading and emissions management as well as vast experience in competitive utility markets and advanced metering infrastructure. We welcome the opportunity to visit further on any of these topics with you or your readers.
- Mike Marullo, Automation/IT Leadership Series Editor
EET&D: The merger of Logica with CMG in 2002 – as well as several subsequent acquisitions – have taken place over the past several years. The most recent of those was the acquisition of Worksuite from Severn-Trent in 2006. In your view, what are the primary benefits that have accrued from these moves?
Provine: Our stated strategic direction is to establish LogicaCMG as a global top 10 provider in IT services.The acquisitions that have occurred since the original merger between Logica and CMG have moved us steadily toward that goal.Notably, we are now well into the top 20 globally and the top 5 in several European regions.The benefits to our customers are really a result of the scale we now possess and the financial stability that accompanies a profitable $6 billion global enterprise.For the Energy & Utilities division specifically, the benefits of our Global Service Delivery Model and the international lines of business for energy and utilities (which represents nearly 16% of revenue) are key to our success as well as that of our customers.
EET&D: Just a little over a year ago, in February 2006, you acquired the assets and products of WorkSuite from Severn-Trent. How would you characterize the principal objectives of that acquisition, how the merger has progressed and perhaps how it figures into your plans for the future?
Provine: Again, the primary benefit to our organization and, more importantly to our clients is one of scale. The combined company is fortunate to have half of the top 100 utilities in North America as clients under contract with LogicaCMG and our established position in the U.K. is now stronger than ever. Along with rapidly integrating the organizations, we moved very quickly to combine the product roadmaps of the two companies and immediately adjusted our development activities. In many cases product benefits are realized very late for customers. In our case, both sets of clients have realized immediate benefits from releases of newly integrated products less than a year after the companies were combined as well as the longer-term benefits derived from a family of integrated solutions. EET&D: Do you feel that you now have all the pieces you need to go forward with a cohesive solution set for utilities, or are more acquisitions likely in the future?
Provine: While another acquisition is never out of the question, we are very nearly complete with the delivery of our overall Asset and Resource Management (ARM) product roadmap.The real focus for us over the next 24 months is on our customer base, which has nearly doubled through the Worksuite acquisition. We are very excited that the majority of our new Worksuite clients have contracted with us for long-term maintenance agreements and are committing to the roadmap. We still have a great deal of work ahead to help them all take full advantage of this product migration, but we’re making steady progress toward that objective.
EET&D: You have very recently announced a comprehensive mobility solution that would seem to be a direct result of the aforementioned acquisition and internal development. Why all the emphasis on mobility?
Provine: It really wasn’t a result of the acquisition; the acquisition simply gave us the ability to leverage the best technology from both companies in our resulting offerings and migration roadmap. Both organizations were already heavily invested in development and deployments of scheduling, dispatch and mobile and, as you know, we have been developing the next version of Real Time Asset & Resource Management (RTARM) with a group of our customers. If I were to add up all of the investments made in the development of this coordinated effort with our customers and partners, I’m sure the number would be quite substantial. However, the resultant benefits to our clients and the industry at large will also be very significant when we release the final product this spring… and definitely, well worth the investment. EET&D: Obviously, there are a lot of mobility solutions out there. What do you feel are some of the more important dimensions of this burgeoning market from the utility perspective and what kinds of benefits can utilities expect to accrue from these applications that were previously unattainable?
Provine: The opportunity these new solutions create for users will center on flexibility, power and interoperability. For the first time it won’t really matter what engine is managing work processes in the background, whether it’s one of our own or any of several competitive work management products. The benefits of automating the office are well proven, but the real boost in productivity comes in how the work is scheduled, dispatched and managed in the field – that’s where the real costs reside. Utilities can expect to see some very real cost efficiencies and performance gains once this new generation of solutions is deployed.
This would be a good time for David Price, our CTO, to add his insights about how we see the mobility market developing over the next several years and what can be realistically expected from this new wave of products and technology – some pretty exciting stuff, actually.
EET&D: (to David Price) Obviously there is much to be excited about with all of these new solutions on the immediate horizon, so perhaps you can offer some details about how users will benefit.
Price: From a resource perspective, an increasing number of our customers are seeking the next level of performance through uniting their field resources and re-deploying them in new, and as yet, unexplored ways. This is really a critical ingredient in their search to address increasing concerns about their aging workforce while also driving a step-function increase in overall productivity, most of which will necessarily take place in the field; not in the office.
EET&D: We hear a lot these days about the intricately interrelated issues of the aging workforce and productivity objectives. What can you tell our readers about how these concerns might manifest themselves in a mobility and/or work process context?
Price: This productivity drive is actually resulting in a new set of criteria for mobile solutions. It calls for an enterprise solution that can not only support current mobility and work process demands but also an increased level of flexibility across the organization of the future as more applications are pushed out of the office and into the field where they really belong.
In terms of work execution, mobile solutions are seen as a means to both increase the productivity of both field employees and their field management teams while also reducing the overall life-cycle time and cost of collecting and processing data for the entire utility enterprise. In turn, this is driving an even greater level of mobility sophistication. We firmly believe that field validation and a better definition of the scope of data capture will be important components of any new mobile initiative.
An even more interesting part of this trend, however, is the recent move toward utilizing the entire field workforce as a cost effective data collection and validation team. We see this as a direct response to the rising demand for more accurate, timely and complete information about the utilities’ distributed assets in support of increasingly challenging demands for better asset management and related decision-making from both a regulatory and utility business perspective.
EET&D: Perhaps you could elaborate a bit on what you mean by “…utilizing the entire workforce as a cost effective data collection and validation team”. It certainly sounds positive, but what does that really mean in practice?
Price: First, most any utility would readily acknowledge that it’s generally cost-prohibitive to operate a stand-alone data capture program in today’s environment. Additionally, for a typical distribution business to improve, it is vital that the field staff have access to – as well as the ability to alter and update – the critical data in the field simultaneously with work execution. As an example, the asset data pushed out to the field needs to be supported by appropriate levels of data validation at the point of entry.
EET&D: It sure sounds like there will be a lot of new demands on the field force as this strategy plays out; should that be expected? Price: Yes, that’s true, but our vision for accommodating this growing need is to engage the entire field organization in an integral role in the asset management process of the future, thereby spreading the work across a broader set of personnel equipped with better and more powerful, yet affordable tools. But admittedly this will require the complete integration of asset data collection and retrieval capabilities into the day-to-day work execution and reporting activities; no small challenge for suppliers and utilities alike!
EET&D: Where do you see mobile evolving and how does it fit in with other automation/IT initiatives, especially as regards advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)?
Price: As the network itself becomes increasingly “self-aware” through pervasive instrumentation coupled with the implementation of AMI platforms, a large portion of the workforce previously associated with connects/disconnects and meter reading will no longer be needed. At the same time, other demands on mobile solutions will also increase as more and more business logic is pushed out to the field in an attempt to further improve the corporate lifecycle of data collection and validation.
Some believe that more intensive streaming of mobile data may underlie a wholesale move to a thin-client environment, where field users are accessing their host systems directly. While this capability will probably be revisited, we believe it’s unlikely that stand-alone mobile applications capable of supporting key business logic in real-time or near real-time (i.e., even when disconnected from network communications) will be abandoned in mission critical applications such as those routinely used by utilities.
EET&D: What do you see happening with corresponding mobile field devices?
Price: We think that another future evolution will be towards truly hand-held business applications “slaved” from field fleet vehicles. In the interest of driving further productivity, this next generation of solutions will provide some pragmatic capabilities directly interfaced with the vehicle-mounted computer and facilitating efficient communications with the district or central office. Ultimately, this will allow the complete integration of work- and site-specific data collection devices into the broader mobile architecture of the business enterprise and automating the “last 50-100 feet” of the work process lifecycle.
EET&D: What does that say about potential longer-term changes now that the computing platforms employed in various automation/IT applications are far more standardized and interoperable than they were say, a decade ago?
Price: From a high-level integrationstandpoint, we should see some real progress towards the holy grail of establishing acommon information model, particularly as more of the mainstream vendors adopt these standardized architectures going forward. It’s also clear that the supplier consolidation is still ongoing. I think it’s safe to say thatutilities will actually benefit from a stronger – albeit reduced – set of suppliers, which will certainly include our team here at LogicaCMG. Moreover, improved market stability among suppliers and users alike will, in turn, allow the next generation of business processes to build on this new level of standardization and interoperability.
Finally, a new set of skills and processes - mostly centered on rapid diagnosis and repair of sophisticated network and data collection devices – will be required, driving consolidation of functions and a set of new applications infrastructure to support them.
EET&D: Jeff, David; thanks to both of you for taking time to share your thoughts, opinions and insights with our readers. Any parting words you’d like to add?
Provine: First, I want to thank you for this opportunity to share our thoughts and points of view with your readers. And please stay tuned; there is a lot more to come. Among other initiatives that will be unfolding soon, LogicaCMG will continue to bring best practices from around the globe in areas such as enterprise asset management, carbon trading and emissions management as well as vast experience in competitive utility markets and advanced metering infrastructure. We welcome the opportunity to visit further on any of these topics with you or your readers.
