Press release from Business Wire India
Source: pManifold
Thursday, June 13, 2013 10:10 AM IST (04:40 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Economy, Environment, People, Social issues; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Electronic appliances & components, Heavy industries, Information technology, Major diversified industrial groups, Media & entertainment, Retailers, Telecommunications, Water; Technology
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Power Discoms and Franchisees Discuss IT Challenges and Way Forward at pManifold's Business Technology Conclave
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Thursday, June 13, 2013 -- (Business Wire India) -- The India Utility Knowledge and Networking (I-U-KAN) Forum held a Business Technology Conclave on "Organised IT: Recoding for Indian Power Discoms and Franchisees", at the Hilton Mumbai International Airport in Mumbai on June 12, 2013. The conclave saw a gathering of several leading CIOs, Business Unit Heads and decision makers from state utilities, private operators, international agencies in the Power Utility and IT community, to discuss the rapidly changing landscape of Power Distribution, emergence of new business models, challenges faced by Distribution Companies (Discoms) and how recoding the utility IT can help the sector. The event saw several eminent speakers and thought leaders from the industry who shared insights and shed light on the topic.
Power utilities in India manage complex networks serving thousands of customers across the country. State Utilities and Private Discoms have continuously directed investments towards information technology to reduce Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses, optimize operations and satisfy customers. However, they struggle to curtail AT&C losses and improve last-mile services for customers. With these challenges in mind, the Conclave attempted to chart a viable trajectory for Discoms going forward when it comes to leveraging information technology. The event discussed how Organized IT can be a panacea for Discom's woes.
"As the Power Distribution Sector in India evolves, significant importance is being given to real-time decision making through business intelligence gathered across business functions. Information Technology and its confluence with business processes and overall performance management in the Power Distribution Utility has to be the core of growth strategy for these utilities. The conclave exclusively focuses on IT as a core business strategy for addressing the challenges faced by power distribution utilities in India." says Faiz Wahid, Co-founder of pManifold.
The conclave started with the first session focusing on - 'Understanding Technology in light of People's Interface and Culture' emphasized that utilities do not treat IT in an integrated manner and fail to synthesize technology with people dimension - from both employee's and customers' perspective. Understanding technology from people aspect can help address utilities' challenges to a large extent. Shri Ajoy Mehta - MD, MSEDCL held a 'Vision Talk' sharing his views on the broader Road Map and stressed the necessity for greater transparency and customer satisfaction by Franchisees and private operators. Rahul Bagdia, Director of pManifold anchored the talk. Mr. Pramod Jhanwar - Director (Finance), MP Paschim Discom, shared learnings from R-APDRP investment and integration from their own experience of internal technology adoption. Mr. Rajeev Sharaf, CIO - Reliance Infra talked about how empowering customers and having good CRM and MBC handling practices can impact loss reduction.
The second session 'Changing Market Scenario and Utility IT needs' focused on the rapidly changing market scenario and the challenges it poses. IT needs of utilities depends on their value chain model and the growth phase they are in. Selecting suitable IT systems to bring efficiencies and streamline operations is the key. Mr. Satish Kulkarni - CIO, Essel Utilities, spoke on the challenges of owning legacy network and data that their organization faced while operating Distribution Franchisees and the steps to address the issue. 'Smart Grid' has become the talk of industry, but Mr. Harshvardhan Sethi - ED, SPML, emphasized that before turning to Smart Grids, utilities should act upon the existing data smartly for revenue assurance - a term coined as 'Smart - -' (Smart minus minus)
The third session 'Organized Solutioning and Economics' highlighted that Distribution Franchisee operators have a very tight timeline of around 3 months to takeover new regions and need to steeply reduce losses in the first 2-3 years, where the learning curve of new network, new region and new customers is already high. In such a scenario, unorganized solutions, quick-fix IT patches and unconsolidated bolt-on systems unable to handle future growth phases and changing dynamics can prove to be very expensive and loss making. Mr. Manu Puri - Principal, Energy & Utilities, Accenture, mentioned that for a faster turnaround of DFs, IT and business transformation is necessary, which can be achieved through Organized IT. Mr. Somenath Byabortta - Industry Director - Utilities, SAP, focused on appropriate IT architecture for building an efficient DF. Mr. Vipin S - Head Utility IT Development, SAP Labs, talked about localization of best global Utility IT and BPM practices to Indian culture.
The final concluding session - 'Best Practices and Innovation in Utility Sustenance' talked about various best practices and their impact across Business Strategy, Functional (Operational & Financial) and Customer service levels, in light of the growing interest of Indian players to work in international emerging markets and similar interest of many global companies eyeing the Indian energy and utility space. Learning from international counterparts and adopting global best practices can help Indian power utilities for sustenance. Mr. Gautam Bhattacharya - Head - IT Engineering, CESC, briefed about GIS integration with IT applications. Mr. Harsh Sharma - VP (NMG, EA & IT), BYPL, shared about an asset management tool - 'MIDAS' (Modular Integrated Distribution Automation System) that they have developed over SAP, which integrates Outage Management system, GIS and loss reduction via Energy Audit.
The one-day conclave discussed on the Power Distribution sector's pain points, challenges faced by Discoms and Franchisees, imperativeness of recoding IT in utilities and global best practices and elicited unique insights and thoughts, bringing together numerous live-case studies and techniques. The event was highly appreciated by all the participants, who felt enlightened with new ideas and approaches for way forward in their organizations.
This event was organized by IUKAN (India Utility Knowledge and Networking) forum and was sponsored by SAP, with Accenture as Associate Sponsor and pManifold Business Solutions as Organizing Host.
Please visit http://www.iukan.in/btc-power-2013 for further information.
ABOUT PMANIFOLD
pManifold is a Utility focused Management Consulting firm specializing in research and consult implementation on emerging business models in India. Our key focus rest in private utilities - their go-to-market strategies; customer intelligence & business analytics; financial modeling and bid advisory; and performance monitoring and improvements. We have portfolio in Power, Water and Waste utilities.
CONTACT DETAILS
Sandeep Waghmare, Partner Consultant, pManifold, +91 9823758532, Sandeep.Waghmare@pManifold.com
Faiz Wahid, Co-Founder Director, pManifold, +91 8805655069, faiz.wahid@pmanifold.com
KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT, PEOPLE, SOCIAL, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, ELECTRONICS, HEAVY INDUSTRIES, IT, GROUPS, MEDIA, RETAIL, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, WATER, TECHNOLOGY
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