Warren Causey Sierra Energy Group Guest Editor

Many information technology professionals in all industries, not just utilities, are coming to focus like never before on solving business problems. Many now say that "understanding" should be the goal of technology, rather than constantly upgrading and improving computers. Computers should help to develop understanding across a business or in any environment in which they are used.

Yet, increasingly thoughtful observers are coming to the conclusion that while computer science has made exponential strides in enabling the transfer, manipulation and storage of data and increasing the speed at which work can be performed, it hasn't done much for understanding. In fact, as installed over the last 20 years or so, computers may in fact have made it harder for business executives to understand the businesses they are trying to operate. The following lists several reasons for this conclusion:

• Computers installed in most businesses tend to manipulate data and facts very rapidly, but they are very poor at collating and expressing information in comprehensive thought pictures. One of the marvels of the human brain is its ability to take disparate facts and develop an understanding of a complex situation. These insights tend to take the form of thought pictures or comprehension.
• The human mind tends to seek to create order from chaos. Computer presentation of information tends to be chaotic. No matter how many rows of data there are, if they don't present a whole picture, and are accompanied by dozens of other tables of data, the result is chaos.
• Computers create tremendous amounts of work for those who rely on them to do their jobs, and doing these jobs often involves many frustrating searches for information and for correct patterns of information. They also tend to isolate individuals in front of their keyboards rather than enabling conversation and reading, two processes that have shown to improve brain wave activity and learning.
• For most utility office workers, computers are the modern equivalent of repetitive factory work: put Part A onto Part B, tighten the screw and let the belt carry the product to the next station. With computers, it is enter the data, save it and go on to the next piece.

Some observers see a "devolution of understanding" that tracks quite readily with the development of computer systems.

In this theory, prior to the beginning of the computer revolution in businesses in the 1970s, individuals used conversation and reading to enhance understanding. As mainframes, desktops and wide-area networks came along, conversation declined and reading became an exercise in data manipulation rather than perusal of cohesive thoughts designed to improve understanding. In the mid-2000s, utilities perhaps more than many other industries, had a wealth of information and a paucity of understanding.

That has begun to change, as many utilities seek to integrate the widely disparate "silos" of data they have accumulated into more comprehensive integrated systems. With integrated systems it becomes a bit easier to see the whole picture.

To really reach understanding, two additional steps are necessary. Computer systems must become "intelligent." That is, they must be capable of integrating data and presenting it as ideas, rather than as numbers. And, interfaces with human beings must go back to presenting information in the ways that best match the way the human mind works -- reading and conversation. In other words, we need Dr. Spock's talking computer from Star Trek, and we need data collated into comprehensive ideas that we can read or listen to, rather than the textual equivalent of bits and bytes.

Studies conducted by The Sierra Energy Group of Energy Central over recent months and years show that utility executives recognize this problem. In virtually every study, executives say their most pressing technological need is for better architecture and integration of their systems.

With 75 percent of respondents -- utility CIOs -- recognizing the problem, the industry would seem to be on its way to solving it. However, there are many challenges to just moving to "integrated enterprise systems" much less intelligent, communicative systems. The second most selected issue shown above, "Cost constraints preventing much improvement," is an important factor.

Another major problem utilities face is a lack of consensus among utilities, vendors and consultants on the best approach to integration and reluctance on the part of many vendors to embrace open communications standards. Proprietary languages and interface technologies still dominate much of what comes out of the computer industry today. Even CIOs are uncertain of the best approach, a January 2006 survey shows.

Many utilities have some or all of these architecture/integration techniques in place, with many vested interests across the industry behind all of them. However, if an enterprise truly wants to be open, not only internally, but also in communications with other entities which utilities increasingly must communicate, open standards would seem to be the way to go. Otherwise, you're constantly working through translators -- not the most efficient way to go, as is demonstrated daily in international business relations.

While many utility executives have come to understand that their systems do little to create understanding, much less an enterprise view of the businesses, they have just begun what is likely to be a long process to get to where they want to be. Most utility systems are not very well integrated. "We are not where I would like us to be," said another CIO. "We are ahead of the competition related to AMR type data. The next step is to provide AMR data for load and demand management decision-making. However, more work is required in terms of providing the right data for Customer Information Systems (CIS), Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) and Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP)."

As that CIO points out, there still is a lot of work to be done integrating traditional utility database-type systems such as customer information, financial, materials and maintenance. Furthermore, work has just begun on integrating real-time operational systems such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems (SCADA) and Distribution Automation systems (DA).

In fact, only about 11 percent of CIOs claim their systems are well-integrated, which means managers and executives are not extracting maximum value from the information captured by their enterprise.

Given the current state of computer systems in the industry, what can utility executives and the vendors who serve them do to heighten understanding of the business issues they must confront? Here are some suggestions:

• Build systems that communicate -- move toward open standards/integrated systems.
• Consider how the user communicates/thinks.
• Look for breakthroughs in human-to-human, human-to-computer-to-human communications.
• Remember, you're not just building data-processing systems; you're trying to help others toward understanding.
• Look for opportunities to "steal a march" -- that is, seek a breakthrough technology that moves a step or two beyond where we are now.
• Communicate effectively with all stakeholders to gain their buy-in and their understanding.

Business is like any other human endeavor. It requires understanding by and among a community of individuals to be effective. The computer systems currently in use don't seem to contribute very much to understanding. They accomplish work at a much faster rate and in much more massive volumes. Yet to enhance understanding, computers must also evolve toward intelligent, anticipatory, communicative devices that work with humans in ways that more closely match the processes of the human mind.

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