New Research

Summary

This IDC MarketScape assesses evaluates providers of digital customer engagement software to utilities worldwide. It analyzes vendors' capabilities, strategies, and comparative success in the marketplace. It looks at how their products and services will evolve, providing metrics and context to utilities evaluating potential technology partners in this solution area. It aims to aid utilities and energy retailers decide on their current or future customer engagement implementations, and assists vendors in deepening their understanding of the competitive landscape. The evaluation is based on a comprehensive and rigorous framework that assesses vendors relative to the criteria and highlights the most influential factors for success in this market in the short and long term.

"The 2022 energy crisis jolted customer apathy globally. Customers are now more aware, educated, and eager to play more active roles by optimizing their energy consumption and water usage, as well as making a buck on their investments in self-generation, energy storage, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and so on," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights. "Having a digital customer engagement solution is now a core differentiator between utilities that have specific functionalities and those that do not, and the wedge will widen over the next 24 months as investments in dedicated solutions and more advanced ecosystem engagement functionalities pick up."

Summary

This IDC MarketScape evaluates vendors in the field service management (FSM) space for the utilities industry through a qualitative and quantitative assessment of their capabilities and strategies. It aims to aid utilities in deciding on their current or future FSM implementations, as well as to assist vendors in deepening their understanding of the competitive landscape.

"Field service and mobile workforce management are areas of critical innovation for industries such as utilities that need to handle growing complexity and volumes in the field in the face of a creeping technical talent crunch," said Jean Francois Segalotto, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights. "Vendors in this space are leveraging technology innovation to support assisted and automated decision making, technician augmentation, and deeper utility- and asset-centric functionality, all wrapped up in cloud delivery."

Summary

This IDC MarketScape evaluates vendors in the field service management (FSM) space for the oil and gas (O&G) industry through a qualitative and quantitative assessment of their capabilities and strategies. It aims to aid O&G organizations in deciding on their current or future FSM implementations, as well as to assist vendors in deepening their understanding of the competitive landscape.

"Aiming to drive sustainability performance in the operations domain, worldwide O&G companies, traditionally focused on asset-based workflow and process digitalization, are now shifting focus with significant investment in the area of digital field service management and field technician empowerment — truly enacting a connected asset strategy. Besides standard functionalities, FSM vendors also need to support O&G organizations in enabling effective integration and data sharing of operational assets, field services, and engineering data. This will eliminate barriers, provide a holistic view of the entire operations realm, and allow operators to get much-needed closed-loop feedback on asset performance, maintenance plans, and services effectiveness to drive continuous improvement." — Gaurav Verma, worldwide O&G lead, IDC Energy Insights

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides an overview of the utilities industry in 3Q23, covering M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; new financing deals; major renewables infrastructure projects; major green hydrogen projects; smart metering and smart grid initiatives; microgrid agreements; energy-efficiency initiatives; major flexibility, EV, and battery energy storage projects; IT ecosystem major acquisitions and agreements; major IT and OT contract wins; IT product announcements; and GenAI.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game among utilities, and the events of the past two years have been game-changers. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are vivid reminders that climate is a nonlinear process that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides an overview of utilities' asset operations in 3Q23, covering M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; new financial deals; major renewables infrastructure projects; major green hydrogen projects; smart meter and smart grid initiatives; microgrid initiatives and agreements; conservation and energy-efficiency initiatives; major flexibility, EV, and battery energy storage projects; IT ecosystem major acquisitions and agreements, major IT and OT contract wins, and IT product announcements; utilities; and GenAI.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game for utilities, and the events of the past two years have changed the game. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are a vivid reminder that climate is a nonlinear factor that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective analyzes worldwide smart customer operations in the energy sector. It outlines M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; customer care and billing events; customer engagement, smart metering, conservation, and energy-efficiency initiatives, and sustainability projects; digital transformation; major flexibility, electric vehicle (EV), and battery energy storage projects; and generative AI (GenAI) initiatives in 3Q23.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game among utilities, and the events of the past two years have changed the game. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are vivid reminders that climate is a nonlinear process that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC FutureScape presents the top 10 predictions and key drivers for the oil and gas industry for the next five years. It highlights the midterm and long-term challenges that enterprise business, technology, and IT teams face as they define, build, and govern the technologies required to thrive in the dynamically evolving landscape of oil and gas businesses.

"In pursuit of energy security and at the crossroads of the energy transition, oil and gas companies must carefully craft a digital-first business approach and design their technological architecture to support the emergence of new energy ventures, while significantly enhancing operational and energy efficiency of core processes," said Gaurav Verma, worldwide Oil and Gas Industry lead, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC study presents the top 10 predictions for sustainability/ESG for 2024.

"Worldwide, organizations are feeling the pressure to respond to changing sustainability requirements and new regulatory environments. They are doing this at different paces and are at different maturity levels regarding their sustainable transformation efforts, which poses unique challenges in terms of their strategy development, organizational and cultural changes, operational adjustments, and technology use," said Bjoern Stengel, global sustainability research lead, Sustainable Strategies and Technologies at IDC. "No matter where you are in your journey, IT is a critical enabler for that transformation and for value generation through corporate sustainability practices, and it is important to understand how to best leverage technology to move up to the next stage."

Summary

This IDC FutureScape provides the outlook of IDC Energy Insights' analyst team for the worldwide utility industry for 2024, as well as the planning horizon for the next five years.

"With their decades-long experience around electrification, decarbonization, and energy efficiency, utilities are not only in the driver's seat of the energy transition, but of the entire economy," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights. "It is imperative they continue to use cutting-edge technologies as a lever to offload non-core burdensome work, enabling them to focus on their core business of steadfastly managing the critical infrastructure the economy thrives on and unleashing new business opportunities."

Summary

This IDC study provides IDC's top 10 predictions for CIOs to have on their agenda in 2024.

"These predictions provide a strategic context that will enable CIOs to lead their organizations through a period of accelerated change and disruption over the next five years. They also lay out IDC's vision for the 10 important shifts that will happen in IT organizations to help senior IT executives form their strategic plans," says Daniel Saroff, group vice president, Consulting and Research, IT Executive Programs at IDC.

Summary

This IDC study provides a detailed description of IDC's security products segmentation methodology and taxonomy. It should be used as a companion piece for IDC's Worldwide Security Spending Guide data deliverables. Technology suppliers may utilize this approach and structure as well to help them build an industry-focused organization.

"IDC's Worldwide Security Spending Guide taxonomy provides a comprehensive, global, and detailed map of the security marketplace," says Serena Da Rold, program manager, IDC Spending Guides. "It is an invaluable resource to help vendors standardize definitions and identify industry- and company-size segments offering the best opportunities for security products."

Summary

This IDC Perspective recaps key insights from the IDC Retail Xchange 2023, held in Amsterdam on September 18 and 19, 2023. During the event, executives from top retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and technology companies shared actionable insights on how to develop customer-centric strategies through the concept of Reverse Experience, how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming retail, and how to best use the technology to strengthen efficiencies and enhance customer and employee experience,

"Reverse Experiences for Customer-Led Retail is a powerful framework to help strategists focus on the fundamentals — people, product, process, and planet — to deliver customer-centric, future-proof business models, with AI as the key tool to make this happen," said Filippo Battaini, research manager at IDC Retail Insights. "Companies empowered by AI are likely to outpace competitors that could not see the systemic changes this technology is bringing to CX."

Summary

This IDC TechBrief discusses image-based vegetation management.

"Image-based vegetation management enables utilities to move to a proactive condition-based approach to vegetation management by leveraging technologies such as satellite, lidar, drones, and infrared to capture imagery that can be collected and analyzed. By using the images collected, AI-driven models can be built to predict, prevent, and prescribe action on high-risk vegetation that can cause equipment damage, power outages and, in some cases, wildfires, property destruction, and even death of utility employees or customers. Mitigating these risks through a technologically advanced approach to image-based vegetation management is gaining traction in the industry and catching the attention of many utility executives. In addition, significantly lowering operating and maintenance cost and improving safety and compliance are key metrics that can be achieved when implementing an advanced image-based vegetation management system," says John Villali, research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC study discusses how utilities are on a mission to digitally transform to create a value-based utility system. IDC publishes research on digital transformation and its influence on technology spending. This research includes both quantitative research in the form of market forecasts and qualitative research that assists technology buyers in making better decisions as well as technology vendors in better serving their customers.

"As an organizing principle for this substantial research effort, IDC has created a use case taxonomy for digital transformation for multiple industry segments. The taxonomy follows a hierarchical structure that begins with the digital mission of that industry, the strategic priorities that support that mission, the programs that will be initiated to satisfy the priorities, and the funded projects, or use cases, that will be implemented under those programs. The taxonomy not only forms the basis for our market forecasts but also provides the framework for digital journey maps that will assist our clients in understanding the full scope of enterprise efforts." — John Villali, research director, IDC Energy Insights

Summary

This IDC study presents IDC's fifth iteration of the digital transformation use case taxonomy for facility management. It includes descriptions of the strategic priority, programs, and use cases for this horizontal function.

"With the global COVID-19 pandemic receding and some employees returning to the office while many remain working from home, facility managers are being challenged on several fronts, including scheduling service calls, managing leases, and maximizing their use of space in this new work environment. At the same time, the way facility technicians accomplish their work is changing, and they now have a range of remote monitoring and diagnostic tools to quickly spot emerging issues and prescribe timely maintenance," says Brian O'Rourke, research manager, Enterprise Asset Management and Smart Facilities at IDC. "Facility maintenance organizations must effectively use ever-increasing amounts of data to help ensure efficient facilities maintenance at the right cost with the right tools in a sustainable manner while facing an uncertain economic environment."

Summary

This IDC study introduces IDC's brand-new industry taxonomy and it provides a detailed description of IDC's worldwide vertical industry and company size methodology and taxonomy. It is intended as a companion for forecasts presented in IDC's Worldwide ICT Spending Guide: Enterprise and SMB by Industry and for all of IDC's worldwide vertical research. Technology suppliers may utilize this approach and structure to help them build an industry-focused organization.

"We have exciting news in this update of IDC's worldwide industry and company size taxonomy, as we are introducing for the first time the brand-new IDC industry taxonomy, which will be rolled out across our data products portfolio in the next few releases," said Serena Da Rold, associate research director, IDC Spending Guides. "This taxonomy continues to represent an essential companion to IDC's industry and company size spending guide forecasts. It presents a comprehensive and standardized view of the technology marketplace, helping vendors understand and navigate IDC's data effectively and define their target markets in terms of industry and company size segments."

Summary

This IDC Pivot Table provides a view of the U.S. public cloud services market opportunity by industry and state. The data covers cloud and noncloud applications, systems infrastructure software, and application development and deployment software segmented by 24 vertical markets and all 50 states in the United States, including the District of Columbia. The data aligns to IDC's Worldwide Software and Public Cloud Services Spending Guide, July 2023, V2. For the purposes of providing a holistic view of the cloud opportunity, the education, government, and consumer industries are included, but not segmented by state. Note that we have migrated to our new industry taxonomy. Read more about it in IDC's New Industry Framework, Definitions, and Transition Plan (IDC #US51064723, August 2023).

Summary

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation takes the utilities use case taxonomy for digital transformation and transposes it into a three-horizon road map. In each horizon, different uses cases are considered, introducing the logic of a transformation journey that is designed to be:

• Modular — Breaks the effort into chunks (use cases) and delivers immediate business value
• Scalable — Thinks through how the road map will evolve
• Extendable — Accommodates changes as they develop

Summary

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines the results from IDC's September 2023 Worldwide Utilities CloudPath Survey. Cloud adoption is on the rise in utilities as current cloud applications and plans to invest in cloud within the next 12 months continue to increase.

"This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights some of the core applications where cloud is gaining traction in the utility sector along with IDC's take on where and why cloud deployments are growing and where cloud deployments are most likely to grow in the future," says John Villali, research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Survey Spotlight provides a view into end users' ICT budget expectations for 2023. The chart shows the expected net change in ICT spend in 2023 compared with the previous year among survey respondents, highlighting a shift in mindset in industries that are traditionally slow movers in technology spending decisions. This IDC Survey Spotlight is based on IDC's 2023 Industry IT and Communications Survey, which surveyed 5,000 U.S. organizations spanning 27 industries across all company sizes.

Summary

This IDC Survey Spotlight provides insights from wave 6 of IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, conducted in July 2023 on the change in generative AI (GenAI) adoption between March and July 2023. Specifically, this IDC Survey Spotlight examines trends for utilities globally.

In what is considered a seminal moment in the technology industry, GenAI is quickly gaining the attention of technology and business leaders worldwide. The number of utilities worldwide investing in GenAI or initiating exploratory projects have risen since March 2023. This report examines utilities and energy and water suppliers’ inclination on the most promising use cases and most impacted business areas.

Summary

This IDC Pivot Table is the current release of IDC's United States IT Spending Guide: State, covering updated forecasts for IT spending segmented by 24 industries, 15 technologies (across hardware, software, and services), and all 50 states in the United States, including the District of Columbia. The data aligns to IDC's Worldwide ICT Spending Guide Enterprise and SMB by Industry, July 2023, V2, and IDC's Worldwide Black Book, V2, 2023. To bring a more holistic view of the IT market to clients, IDC is including total industry IT spending for the previously excluded industries of state and local government, federal/central government, and consumer. Note that these three industries are not segmented by state. Starting in this release, we have migrated to our new industry taxonomy (see IDC's New Industry Framework, Definitions, and Transition Plan, IDC #US51064723, August 2023).

Summary

This IDC study provides a detailed description of IDC's Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide methodology and taxonomy. This document should be used as a companion piece for IDC's Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide and all of IDC's worldwide industry research. Technology suppliers may utilize this approach and structure to also help them build an industry-focused organization.

"Artificial intelligence is arguably one of the most transformational technologies of our time. IDC's Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide provides a comprehensive global view and quantifies the dynamic and rapidly growing AI market," said Karen Massey, research director of IDC's Customer Insights and Analysis Group. "IDC's Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide Taxonomy is an invaluable resource that helps vendors standardize their vocabulary when approaching this fast-growing market. The AI technologies and use cases are continually updated to reflect rapid advancement."

Summary

This IDC Market Presentation provides an update on the status of the recovery and resiliency (R&R) plans for four major European countries: Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The analysis summarizes the overall fund allocations by the European Union as part of the NextGenerationEU program, created to support member states recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic. It then analyzes the macroeconomic and geopolitical changes of the past two years and their impact on countries' priorities and investments.

This report reviews the funds that have been already disbursed and received by the four countries considered up to 2023. It also details the ways each country has prioritized industries for allocation, analyzes the digital investments detailed by R&R plans and their spread among predefined flagship areas, and identifies technologies that will be involved. Moreover, it includes an estimation of R&R-driven digital investments in the EU up to 2026.

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides a detailed description of IDC's new worldwide industry taxonomy. It should be viewed as a guide to help navigate the transition from the old taxonomy to the new framework. Technology suppliers may utilize this approach and structure as inspiration as they evaluate their own industry strategy and organization.

"The development of a new industry taxonomy was not taken lightly or completed in isolation," said Serena Da Rold, associate research director, IDC's Data and Analytics. "IDC spent a year researching existing industry taxonomies. In this time, we conducted a study of economic standards, client inquiries, tech vendor industry taxonomies, and competitive taxonomies."

Program Vice President Eileen Smith added, "The conclusion was that a restructuring of the industry segmentation within IDC's taxonomy was necessary to keep clients informed to the degree expected in the modern world. With more thoughtful categorization and granular segmentation, IDC data users are better equipped to identify, analyze, validate, and action questions and insights specific to the industries they serve."

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides an overview of utilities' asset operations in 2Q23, covering M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; new financial deals; major renewables infrastructure projects; major green hydrogen projects; smart meter and smart grid initiatives; microgrid initiatives and agreements; conservation and energy-efficiency initiatives; major flexibility, EV, and battery energy storage projects; IT ecosystem major acquisitions and agreements, major IT and OT contract wins, IT product announcements; utilities; and GenAI.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game for utilities, and the events of the past two years have changed the game. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are a vivid reminder that climate is a nonlinear factor that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective analyzes worldwide smart customer operations in the energy sector. It outlines M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; customer care and billing events; smart metering, conservation and energy-efficiency initiatives, and sustainability projects; digital transformation; major flexibility, electric vehicle (EV), and battery energy storage projects; and generative AI (GenAI) initiatives in 2Q23.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game among utilities. The events of the past two years have changed the game. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are vivid reminders that climate is a non-linear process that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Web Conference provides an update on the current state of the global IT market and the latest outlook for technology budgets with a special focus on IT spending by industry.

The global economy and IT markets have remained resilient in the first half of 2023, even though many economists still anticipate a possible recession in the next six months. Surveys continue to show that projects related to the cloud and digital transformation are on track, while the AI hype cycle has served only to increase awareness around potential productivity gains from software investment. At the same time, capital spending on hardware has softened due to cost cutting and higher interest rates, as tech buyers in some industries are forced to make targeted reductions.

The presentation, featuring Jessica Goepfert and Stephen Minton from IDC's Data and Analytics team, will address questions such as:

• What is the new outlook for IT spending in 2023, in the context of market performance in the first half of the year, and how have expectations changed for 2024?
• What is the current and future outlook by industry, and which vertical markets are currently showing the strongest growth opportunities?
• Which areas of IT spending have accelerated since the start of the year, and which have seen reductions or reallocations by some organizations?
• How is hype around generative AI impacting the short-term and long-term outlook for IT budgets?
• What are the most likely scenarios for global IT markets, given uncertainty in the economic outlook for China, Europe, and some emerging markets?

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides an overview of the utilities industry in 2Q23, covering M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; new financing deals; major renewables infrastructure projects; major green hydrogen projects; smart metering and smart grid initiatives; microgrid agreements; energy-efficiency initiatives; major flexibility, EV, and battery energy storage projects; IT ecosystem major acquisitions and agreements; major IT and OT contract wins; IT product announcements; utilities; and GenAI.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game among utilities, and the events of the past two years have been game-changers. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are vivid reminders that climate is a non-linear process that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Perspective outlines some topics discussed at the 11th edition of the IDC European Utilities Xchange (IDCUEX23), hosted in Vienna, Austria, on May 8 and 9, 2023.

"As utilities navigate the complexities of the ongoing energy transition and strive to create a sustainable future, the pivotal role of purpose in utility companies becomes more evident than ever," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights. "IDCUEX23 demonstrated that despite continued disruptions to the sector, the European utility industry has what it takes to lead the way the energy transition to a net-zero future, showcasing the innovative approaches and work companies are doing in flexibility, new business models, the metaverse, AI, and much more."

Summary

This IDC Perspectives analyzes smart and sustainable roads intended not only for the instrumentation of roads with sensors and actuators to enable intelligent traffic management use cases, but also from a wider perspective of enabling innovation through the convergence of multiple industries.

"IDC defines smart and sustainable roads as the intelligent use of technology across road design, construction, operation, maintenance, usage, and upgrade and recycle of materials to reduce cost of ownership and increase environmental sustainability across the design, construction, operation, and maintenance life cycle of physical road elements; enhance convenience, affordability, accessibility, safety, and environmental sustainability for the movement of people and goods; and increase prosperity by enabling businesses to profit from new and existing economic activities related to designing, building, operating, maintaining, using, and decommissioning roads," said Massimiliano Claps, research director, IDC Government Insights.

Summary

This IDC Perspective explores key takeaways from interviews with Snam and Auticon. In today's fast-paced and transforming business landscape, companies are constantly seeking innovative solutions to meet their objectives and get ahead. Snam, a leading gas infrastructure company, is actively promoting inclusion and diversity by showcasing the unique talent and value that autistic persons bring to the table. To do so, Snam is partnering with Auticon, an IT consultancy firm that specializes in providing employment opportunities for individuals on the autistic spectrum. This report highlights Snam's journey with Auticon to become a more inclusive organization while harnessing unique benefits to its cybersecurity activities.

"By embracing the unique talents and perspectives of autistic persons, companies such as Snam are strengthening their cybersecurity capabilities and fostering a culture of inclusion and diversity," said Daniele Arenga, research analyst at IDC Energy Insights. "This collaboration with Auticon exemplifies the value that autistic persons bring to the field of IT consultancy. It serves as a powerful example for organizations seeking to enhance their DEI efforts and tap into less obvious choices for talent acquisition. The tangible benefits and intangible impact of such partnerships demonstrate the transformative power of diversity in driving business success and shaping organizational culture."

Summary

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation is one of the keynotes at the 2023 IDC European Utilities Xchange that was held in Vienna, Austria, on May 8 and 9, 2023.

The presentation looks at the challenges and opportunities for European utilities in the area of energy services in general and energy efficiency in particular. It starts by outlining the key role of energy efficiency in supporting the resiliency, security, and decarbonization of the energy system. It then analyzes three key enablers of a functioning energy services market (policies and subsidies, energy prices, and consumer demand), contextualizing them for Europe in 2023, based on the latest IDC Energy Insights research. Finally, it provides a view of the digital tools that support modern energy services. The closing offers IDC's own view of the business opportunity for European energy suppliers in offering integrated portfolios of supply, efficiency, decarbonization, and electrification services.

Summary

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation is a keynote IDC delivered at OverIT's 2023 Customer Advisory Board held in Milan, Italy, on May 10, 2023.

The presentation starts by looking at how modern field service management (FSM) technologies and practices have revolutionized how utility organizations manage assets and support customers. It continues by analyzing three "big shifts" that will make FSM even more relevant for the industry in the near future. They include:

The presentation closes by postulating that modern FSM solutions can help utility organizations as they face these shifts, moving from efficiency-only to "effectiveness tools," orchestrating asset and customer data, work execution, and worker knowledge.

Summary

This IDC Perspective focuses on the Philippine power utility, Meralco, and its customer experience transformation journey, which started in 2016, but was jolted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meralco's customer experience transformation included a technology platform overhaul, integrating digital channels with dedicated digital agents, and managed by a dedicated group overseeing all customer care within Meralco.

"Customer experience transformations have been imperative for utilities for a while now, especially in regulated markets, to meet more demanding customers' expectations. Meralco embraced its goal to better serve its customers through more reliable and convenient customer service by putting customers at the heart of its CX transformation," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights. "Meralco prioritized what was important to its customers, and it facilitated interactions with them through their preferred communications channels, all this while reinventing its operating models to overcome the challenges of the pandemic and carving out financial efficiencies."

Summary

This IDC Survey deck examines data from the IDC's Worldwide IT and OT Convergence Survey, 2022, which focuses on how asset-intensive industries are treating the progressive integration of information and operational technology (OT) systems, processes and organizations, breaking down data by industry, subindustry, and value chain segment.

IDC Energy Insights' Worldwide Insights IT and OT Convergence Survey is biannual study of utilities' attitudes toward IT-OT integration, their organizational maturity, governance model for IT and OT functions, budget responsibility, and investment priorities.

The 2022 edition covered 284 electricity, gas, and water utilities across two North American and eight European countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S.

This report is part of a series of two documents that provides insights into the convergence and progressive integration of IT and OT within the utility industry. This document, in particular, covers the following areas:

• Instrumentation and connectivity of operational equipment
• Remote operations capabilities
• Investment priorities within OT-related initiatives
• Edge computing adoption and devices

Summary

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines a portion of the IDC Energy Insights' Utilities Consumer Survey carried out in June and July 2022. It surveyed 1,730 energy customers around the world, covering the following countries: Australia, Argentina, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the U.K., the U.A.E., and the U.S.

This report is part of a series of documents unveiling EMEA energy consumers' (920 survey respondents) point of view over areas such as customer satisfaction, communication channels, expectations and satisfaction, reasons for interactions with energy suppliers, customer experience, the customer journey, and interest in new energy products and services. This report examines younger (Gen Z and Millennials) EMEA energy consumers' appetite for energy-related products and services as well as their propensity to buy beyond-commodity products and services from their energy suppliers.

Summary

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines a portion of the IDC Energy Insights' Utilities Consumer Survey carried out in June and July 2022. It surveyed 1,730 energy customers from around the world, covering the following countries: Australia, Argentina, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the U.K., the U.A.E., and the U.S.

This report is part of a series of documents unveiling energy consumers' point of view over areas such as customer satisfaction, communication channels, expectations and satisfaction, reasons for interactions with energy suppliers, customer experience, the customer journey, and interest in new energy products and services. This particular report examines younger (Gen Zers and millennials) energy consumers' appetite for energy-related products and services, and their propensity to buy beyond-commodity products and services from their energy suppliers.

Summary

This IDC Perspective examines how creating or enhancing digital customer engagement will help utilities in meeting net-zero targets and timelines.

"As utilities embark on their energy transition journey and efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions, it is becoming apparent that utility customers will play an important part in meeting their net-zero goals. Meeting net-zero goals and emission reduction targets will not be an easy task for the utility sector, but it is fairly certain that utilities will be unable to meet these goals without help from their customers," says John Villali, research director for IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Perspective examines some of the core areas where AI is gaining traction in utility operations.

"Operational segments across the utility value chain have established use cases that have proven to be beneficial to utilities. Whether it is in generation, transmission, or distribution, the use cases and deployment of AI are on the rise in operational areas of the industry with expectations to bring utilities positive results," says John Villali, research director for IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

Hexagon's HxGN LIVE Global 2023 event took place June 12–15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company's annual conference focused on educating its partners and customers on the entirety of its software offerings across its eight divisions:

• Agriculture
• Autonomy & Positioning (A&P)
• Geosystems (GEO)
• Manufacturing Intelligence (MI)
• Mining (MIN)
• Asset Lifecycle Intelligence (ALI)
• Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial (SIG)
• Xalt Solutions

Summary

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights some of the digital and technology investments utilities are making to support their grid modernization efforts.

Summary

This IDC study provides a detailed description of IDC's Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide methodology and taxonomy. It should be used as a companion piece for IDC's Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide. Technology suppliers may utilize IDC's use case approach and structure, as presented in this document, to help them refocus their products and services and build relevant business cases.

"IDC's Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide presents a comprehensive view of the digital transformation ecosystem," said Craig Simpson, senior research manager of IDC's Customer Insights and Analysis Group. "It is an invaluable resource to help vendors define and standardize their vocabulary when approaching this expanding and dynamic market."

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides a detailed description of IDC's Spend by Tech Provider methodology. It outlines the key inputs and approach to developing account-level technology spending estimates by vendor and explains the relationship with IDC's Worldwide Wallet and Trackers.

"IDC's Spend by Tech Provider methodology is a reference document to help IDC's clients understand how to interpret the spend by tech provider estimates in this program," said Philip Wirth, research manager, IDC's Data and Analytics. "This expansion was a natural evolution of the Worldwide Wallet research and is created by intelligently uniting key long-standing IDC data sets, analyst expertise, data science, and third-party inputs."

Summary

"Italgas' ambitious billing transformation proves that progressive utilities still have the innovation capabilities, internal resources, and can-do attitude to take an unconventional 'build' approach to technology procurement," said Jean-François Segalotto, research director, IDC Energy Insights. "With the appropriate partner and risk mitigation strategy, this approach can pay off handsomely and become a real differentiator for both the core and emerging business."

Summary

This IDC study provides a detailed description of IDC's worldwide industry and company size methodology and taxonomy. It should be used as a companion piece for IDC's Worldwide Wallet and all of IDC's worldwide vertical research. Technology suppliers may utilize this approach and structure to help them build an industry-focused organization.

"In today's hypercompetitive, budget-compressed environment, technology companies need guidance around where they should be focusing their sales and marketing efforts for the greatest potential ROI," said David Lantsman, research manager, IDC's Data and Analytics group. "IDC's Worldwide Wallet research is critical to gathering tactical data that enables more effective sales operations and marketing analytics, leading to greater lead generation and ultimately improved sales."

Summary

This IDC Market Presentation provides the Industry Marketing Handbook, which is designed to support technology vendors marketers in building their marketing narratives for the utility industry. It can be used to tailor messaging to industry-specific challenges as well as build pertinent stories and campaigns that resonate with prospects and customers.

"Marketing leaders can use this report to gain an insightful perspective on utilities' ongoing strategic priorities and deployment horizon for key use cases. They can put emphasis on the most relevant capabilities and provide tailored guidance to support the digitalization journey of utilities. This approach would establish vendors as trusted advisors and strengthen their relationships with their clients," said Gaurav Verma, research manager, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective analyzes worldwide smart customer operations in the energy sector. It outlines M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; customer care and billing events; smart metering, conservation and energy-efficiency initiatives, and sustainability projects; digital transformation; and emobility developments in 1Q23.

“Unpredictability has become the name of the game among utilities. The events of the past two years have been game chargers. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are vivid reminders that climate is a non-linear process that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance,” said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Survey examines data from the 2022 IDC Energy Insights Energy Consumer Survey, which was conducted between June and July. The report provides an overview of the ease — or lack thereof — of carrying out various tasks along their customer journey. It indicates the extent to which energy suppliers keep their customers informed about issues or situations that affect them. Moreover, it provides an overview of how energy providers perform regarding specific tasks and how they are perceived by customers. This comprises a view across age groups, countries (in some cases), and smart meters installed.

The survey covered 720 energy customers in EMEA, covering the following countries: France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.

This report is part of a series of documents unveiling the energy consumer point of view over multiple energy industry areas such as product and service satisfaction levels, communications and interactions with energy suppliers, customer experience, customer journey, and new energy products and services.

Summary

This IDC study provides a detailed description of IDC's Worldwide Future of Work Spending Guide methodology and taxonomy. It should be used as a companion piece for IDC's Worldwide Future of Work Spending Guide. Technology suppliers may utilize IDC's use case approach and structure, as presented in this document, to help them refocus their products and services and build relevant business cases.

"How employers engage employees and how people work continue to evolve, enabled by digital transformation technologies and accelerated by the changing boundaries of digital workspaces and reimagined workplaces," said Karen Massey, research director of IDC's Customer Insights and Analysis Group. "IDC's Worldwide Future of Work Spending Guide presents a comprehensive view of the future of work ecosystem, and it is an invaluable resource to help vendors define and standardize their vocabulary when evaluating their positioning in this highly relevant and dynamic market."

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides an overview of utilities' asset operations in 1Q23, covering M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; new financial deals; major renewables infrastructure projects; major hybrid and battery energy storage projects; major green hydrogen projects; water new developments; smart meter and smart grid initiatives; microgrid initiatives and agreements; emobility developments; conservation and energy-efficiency initiatives; and IT ecosystem agreements, IT contract wins, and IT product announcements.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game for utilities, as the events of the past two years have changed the game. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from longer-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are a vivid reminder that climate is a nonlinear factor that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides a detailed description of IDC's Worldwide Wallet methodology. It outlines the key inputs and approach to developing account-level technology spending estimates and explains the relationship with IDC's Worldwide ICT Spending Guide: Enterprise and SMB by Industry.

"IDC's Worldwide Wallet methodology is a reference document to help IDC's clients understand how to interpret the account-level spending estimates in this program," said David Lantsman, research manager, IDC's Customer Insights and Analysis. "Marrying the Worldwide Wallet data with the Worldwide ICT Spending Guide data creates a symbiotic relationship and allows IDC to leverage the expertise of hundreds of analysts, inputs, and resources as well as robust financial information."

Summary

This IDC Market Perspective provides an overview of the utilities industry in 1Q23, covering M&As, agreements, reorganizations, and major business developments; new financing deals; major traditional infrastructure projects; major renewables infrastructure projects; major green hydrogen projects; water developments; major hybrid and battery energy storage projects; smart metering, smart grid, and energy-efficiency initiatives; major emobility activities; IT ecosystem major acquisitions and agreements; major IT and OT contract wins; and IT product announcements.

"Unpredictability has become the name of the game among utilities. The events of the past two years have been game-changers. While more immediate matters such as supply security, demand efficiency, and tariff impacts on energy consumers are drawing attention from long-term initiatives, contingent factors such as extreme drought and catastrophic weather events are vivid reminders that climate is a non-linear process that must be addressed with extreme urgency. Utilities will continue to prioritize their net-zero journeys and sustainability efforts, with affordability being of paramount importance," said Gaia Gallotti, associate research director, IDC Energy Insights.

Summary

The IDC Energy Worldwide Insights IT and OT Convergence Survey is a biannual study of utilities' attitude toward IT-OT integration, their organizational maturity, governance model for IT and OT functions, budget responsibility, and investment priorities.

The 2022 edition covered 153 electricity, gas, and water utilities across eight European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, and the U.K.

This report is part of a series of two documents that provides insights into the convergence and progressive integration of IT and OT within the European utility industry. This document covers the following areas:

• Drivers and barriers to IT-OT integration initiatives, including support of utilities' sustainability goals
• Impact of increased IT and OT integration on business performance in different areas as well as estimated economic value of downtime
• IT and OT functions moving away from the classic segregated model toward increased coordination and integration
• Structure and hierarchical model of IT and OT organizations
• Funding of IT and OT integration projects

Summary

This IDC Survey looks at the array of challenges that IT leaders face in 2023 as they develop IT budgeting plans that anticipate potential economic disruptions while still maintaining the shift to digital business models. In January 2023, IDC connected with IT leaders around the world to gain an early insight into how they are navigating disruptions and prioritizing technology investments.

IDC's Global Technology Thought Leadership group conducts a monthly survey (IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey or FERS) to understand how IT and business leaders in enterprises around the world are assessing risks and addressing cost management for their growing portfolios of technology resources. In this wave, IDC also asked IT decision makers to indicate how concerns about inflation, recession, skills shortages, and other developments affected 2023 budget decisions across all major IT sectors, including digital infrastructure, platform as a service (PaaS), application/dev software/software as a service (SaaS), devices, networking, services, and security.

This survey of 1,032 respondents from North America, Latin America, Asia/Pacific, and Western Europe was conducted in January 2023 while IT and business leaders were finalizing technology budget plans for 2023. They reflect the attitudes and expectations as of that moment in time.