Recent Posts by Kathleen Wolf Davis

Two utilities and three vendors told us some interesting things about analytics today at Oracle Utilities Customer Edge Conference—interesting things that you need to know if you’re planning a program, expanding a project or implementing a change of data direction. Need to know #1: The biggest trends of all in the utility analytics world today can be summed up in six buzzy phrases and a bit of psychology. The buzz: (1.) AMI, (2.) machine learning, (3.) AI, (4.) silos, (5.)...

We talk a lot about the changes in the utilities business—how it’s all going to look right now and in the super near future. But, when you unpack the details, what do they mean—for your utility, your business, and your tech investments over the next year or so? We sat in on a few of the executive tracks today at the Oracle Utilities Customer Edge conference. Here’s what those 30 or so CEOs, CCOs and CIOs were talking about (and how it applies to you). (1.) The utilities...

Most stories start out of time and out of place—somewhere far away, somewhere long ago. Our story begins in right now, and it’s set in every town and in every place and within every utility struggling to balance a smarter, more interconnected grid with a more engaged and interactive customer. This story is about more connected spaces and more connected places. And its hero is a model we call the CONNECTED hub. Built in tandem with the We Do Team (a part of the Oracle Españafami...

The Internet is 30. Where has the time gone? Remember when data wasn't in a darn thing? Now it's in everything. Once upon a time just a few years into that digital-everywhere journey,  smart meters were going to change the world. They were going to change the game, and it was all going to be oh-so-very sweet. They were going to bring us all this data to work with. That was the goal. That was the sweet spot. And then, unfortunately, well, they brought us all this data to work...

It’s not going to be simple, and it’s not going to be easy—but, of course, you already know the growing pains involved in this massive industry-wide digital evolution we’re all immersed in. Still, there are some simple steps you can take to move forward faster with your digital transformation. We’ve got five bits of advice to share with all that transformation—the five don’ts to do to make sure you’re #InnovatingWithIntent. The good news with all this change is that you...

The raw water trend is all over the news. It’s a top hot thing—drinking unfiltered water straight from a spring (though sometimes diverted through a bottling plant and available in stores for nearly $20 a pop). It’s a trend that would make John Snow roll over in his grave. (No, not “Game of Thrones” Jon Snow. Read on.) The real-life John Snow was the father of a major component of the modern water system as we know it, though perhaps not in a way most people would immediately...

My very Southern momma would always use one very Southern saying—if something were so obvious as to be obvious: If X ain’t true, then grits ain’t groceries. I thought of that particular saying this morning while listening to Luke Williams, professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, discuss the recipe for getting ahead of industry disruption. Perhaps it was all the talk about recipes and cooking. Perhaps it was how true everything Williams said rang, just like the...

We overuse the word “electrifying” to mean excitement. A new chip flavor is electrifying. A new press release is electrifying.  A new pair of socks? Also electrifying. What’s truly exciting and truly electrifying in the colloquial sense? How about electrifying in the literal sense? DistribuTECH 2019 (#DTECH2019) offered an in-depth conversation on that literal (and figurative) form with an “Electrification of Transportation” mega session during the conference featuring speakers...

Everything I learned at the DistribuTECH keynote this morning I will now discuss in terms of king cake. There are two fabulous outcomes when it comes to king cake, that tri-colored staple of the Mardi Gras scene here in New Orleans: (1.) good eats or (2.) good eats and you get all the prosperity (if you find the small plastic baby hidden inside the cake). The first isn’t bad. The second is a bonus round, of sorts, but all that prosperity comes with a cost (at least around...