Water Utilities Trends Report
An industry strategic foresight trends report.
Water utilities are overwhelmed by the number of unprecedented changes and disruptions in the industry. Facing uncertainties about transforming the digital business to adopt rapidly changing technologies, leadership teams often lack insights to identify relevant and critical trends.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
When facing disruptions and uncertainties, water utilities need to focus on strengthening their core business capabilities and embracing technology advancements to bolster business resilience.
Impact and Result
Info-Tech’s Water Utilities Trends Report investigates strategic foresights and identifies the relevant trends for water utilities. Our aim is to guide you through this transition and help create a sustainable future we can all imagine together.
- Perform a broader scan to highlight the demonstrated and relevant trends to water utilities.
- Demonstrate how industry leaders capitalize water utilities tech trends.
- Highlight the opportunities and risks associated with these trends.
- Provide practical recommendations on people, process, and technology.
Water Utilities Trends Report
An industry strategic foresight trends report.
Analyst Perspective
In the past year, the world has witnessed a spate of water-related disasters. Record-breaking droughts in the western United States is one of the many wake-up calls that we have been getting. The cracks in Lake Mead painted a vivid reality of the severity and urgency of the water crisis we are facing. Devastating floods worldwide have forced millions of people to evacuate and left many homeless.
Nature is giving us no choice but to change. Water utilities, providing one of the most essential services to societies and communities, have a crucial role to play in changing the trajectory of the water crisis. In the face of challenges, water utilities must embrace collaboration and innovation.
Technology leaders must become strategic partners with business leaders to proactively plan and transform their operations to ensure their future resilience. Info-Tech’s Water Utilities Trends Report investigates strategic foresights and identifies the relevant trends for water utilities. Our aim is to guide you through this transition and help create a sustainable future we can all imagine together.
Jing Wu
Principal Research Director,
Utilities Research
Info-Tech Research Group
Executive Summary
Your ChallengeWater utilities are overwhelmed by the number of unprecedented changes and disruptions. Leadership teams often lack insights to identify relevant and critical trends. There are uncertainties about transforming the digital business to adopt rapidly changing technologies. |
Common ObstaclesUtilities leaders often think IT does not have an important role in defining and achieving digital business goals. Risk-averse utilities do not see the value of trends or how they link to the digital business plan. IT leaders might not think that industry trends have a significant impact on the IT organization. |
Info-Tech’s ApproachPerform a broader scan to highlight the demonstrated and relevant trends to water utilities. Demonstrate how industry leaders capitalize on water utilities tech trends. Highlight the opportunities and risks associated with these trends. Provide practical recommendations on people, process, and technology. |
Info-Tech Insight
When facing disruptions and uncertainties, water utilities need to focus on strengthening their core business capabilities and embracing technology advancements to bolster business resilience.
Water pressure is on the rise
Source: “Water Stress,” Statista, 2022
“Quickening urbanization, population growth, climate change and economic development are placing pressure on water systems.”
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2021
Water operations interconnect with the digital environment
Consider the digital water journey through different lenses
Digital transformation is key to developing resilience in water utilities and strengthening business capabilities. Those who seize the opportunities to embrace the paradigm shift will set the stage for the future of water utilities.
Customer: A customer-centric approach to improve customer services and engagement while providing reliable, equitable, and affordable services
Water Utilities: A business model shift that supports sustainability, resilience, efficiency, and a digitally native workforce
Digital Team: Accelerated adoption of data-driven decision making, enterprise governance, and service agility
Download the Future of Utilities Trends Report
The future of utilities: foundational IT elements
The business requires leadership from it for digital transformation to succeed
Work and Asset GIS Systems
Effective use of a GIS-powered work and asset management system can streamline location-aware operational workflows such as inspections and maintenance of water infrastructure.
Customer Engagement
Elevated external customer expectations require utilities to provide an intuitive, unified omnichannel platform to interact with customers for all services provided.
Digital Workforce
Deployment of mobile devices and applications to assist frontline workers and backoff employees with near-real-time data to support their daily operational tasks is essential to realize the benefits of the digital transformation of utilities.
Hybrid Integration
A hybrid framework to support various integration patterns such as on-premises to on-premises, on-premises to cloud, and cloud to cloud is key to enable smooth business workflows.
Cybersecurity
A robust cybersecurity program covering IT, operational technology (OT), and internet of things (IoT) landscapes is critical to ensure organizational information and assets are protected against the various forms of attack.
Advanced Data analytics
The enablement of an advanced data analytics platform to support data-driven digital utilities is the foundational step necessary to support any core business transformation initiatives.
Water utilities: four transformational trends
SUSTAINABILITY FOR WATER UTILITIES
Finding your pathway in the race to net zero
Water utilities play a role in contributing to the net-zero target. An achievable sustainability plan is becoming a top priority for water utilities and smart cities.
NETWORK TRANSFORMATION
Building a resilient physical and digital infrastructure
Water stress caused by extreme weather patterns, expanding urbanization, and growing populations require water utilities to optimize their investment in maintaining the aging physical infrastructure and building up its digital twin to provide further insights.
CONNECTING WITH THE EDGE
Expand digital intelligence
Evolving from the pervasiveness of internet of things (IoT) devices, edge devices allow decentralized computing to complement conventionally centralized decision making.
DARE TO INNOVATE
Networks of collaboration to challenge the status quo
The challenges utilities face are complex in nature and require collaboration across nations and borders. It is necessary to rethinking innovation in utilities during the utility transformation period to realize potential benefits of efficiency, cost savings, and client satisfaction.
Next step
Leverage this trends report to develop your digital business strategy
Leverage this trends report for priorities that drive measurable, top-line organizational outcomes and to unlock direct value.
The future will bring more trends and technologies, making it pivotal that your utility continues to establish itself as the disrupter, not the disrupted. You must establish a structured approach to innovation management that considers external trends as well as internal processes. Info-Tech’s Define Your Digital Business Strategy and Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy blueprints give you the tools you need to effectively process signals in your environment, build an understanding of relevant trends, and turn this understanding into action.
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Unlock Sample ResearchContributors
- Aron Calfas, Head of Digital Risk and Assurance, Sydney Water
- Barbara Wilson, Vice President of Technology Programs, AMPCUS Inc.
- Lee Haller, Chief Information & Performance Officer, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority
- Russell Hammersmith, IT Senior Analyst, Monterey One Water
- Virginia Roberts, CIO/Director, Enterprise IT, Denver Water