Digital Transformation: Why Strategy Comes Before Technology

In the face of mounting climate challenges, more stringent regulatory requirements and aging infrastructure, water and wastewater utilities are under increasing pressure to adopt advanced technologies that can modernize critical infrastructure. Struggling under tight budgets and a low tolerance for risk, many are understandably hesitant to undergo a digital transformation. Without a prescribed path forward, the idea of digital transformation may be intimidating, but it need not be a burden.

As outlined in Ripple Effect: A Movement Towards Digital Transformation, the most successful transformations are those that build incrementally over time. The key is to start with strategy.

How To Put Strategy Before Technology

Technology is a means to an end, not the end itself. Thus, an effective digital transformation must be rooted in a well-thought-out strategy designed to address a key need. For example, consider the origins of geographic information systems (GIS). In the early days of environmental planning, it was often difficult to see where specific land use types overlapped, creating an either advantageous or negative effect from one spatial view. To solve this problem, land use planners used tracing paper so that different zoning maps could be layered over each other and compared. As GPS and relational database technologies evolved, GIS expanded upon this capability even further, enabling faster, more powerful, and robust mapping and analysis capabilities.

Applying technology to water utilities is no different. Often the best application of technology builds upon an existing idea or approach to addressing a real-world problem, then working to expand the solution in breadth, efficiency, performance, etc. To begin with strategy, therefore, means finding these opportunities. This requires understanding both the people and the process in place.

Leveraging Data

Utilities have a wealth of data at their fingertips. But simply collecting and sharing data across departments is not enough to deliver results. The data often needs to be further refined and translated into something actionable that addresses pain points experienced by one or more departments within the organization. Utilities can then derive and apply insights that help make better operational and investment decisions while getting the most out of infrastructure already in place.

In order to leverage data to help deliver strategic priorities, utilities should:

• Catalog the real-time data currently available. This is key to achieving the granular understanding of operations mentioned earlier. Identify the sources, types, and relevance of data streams, and assess how these align to support the overall goals of the utility. Just as critical, is for the utility to determine what data is not available, inaccurate, or being calculated with insufficient frequency.
• Determine the accessibility/usability of the data. Before water utilities can act on data, they first have to know who has access to it, who needs access, and how they will use it.
• Prioritize projects aligned to challenges. Utilities should prioritize projects based on the specific challenges they are trying to address. This involves ensuring technological initiatives support strategic goals and projects that offer the most significant impact. Projects should also be rolled out incrementally, giving time to evaluate results, ensure alignment with strategy, and offer the flexibility to pivot should circumstances change.
• Apply programmatic thinking. Implementation of technology is most successful when applied programmatically. In other words, projects should be organized within a program that is driven by key business metrics or goals. This creates a continuous improvement mindset that enables the utility to build on past successes and learn from mistakes, while also making it easier to extend across divisional silos and orient towards common goals.
• Evaluate solutions with pilots. To avoid overcommitting or investing in technology for technology’s sake, utilities should test solutions via pilot projects. Pilot projects offer a low-cost, low-risk avenue to assess challenges, opportunities, and the potential return on investment (ROI). They also ensure that technology initiatives are practical, align with strategic goals, and receive valuable feedback from end users.

Adapting To Change

Cities across the US and the world for that matter have been transporting and consuming water for hundreds of years. The development of water systems in large part mirrors the development and growth of cities which are dynamic by nature. For example, it is not hard to see how waterways transportation, commerce, zoning, topography (to name a few) shape where people live and in what capacity. These forces directly influence and shape the design and expansion of water systems. Adapting to outside changes and forces is one of the biggest challenges water providers face. For on top of the changes, they have the responsibility to continually provide essential services to the public for safety (fire) and health. 

For example, the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) of Greater Cincinnati had been struggling with as much as 11.5 billion gallons of sewer overflow pouring into the Ohio River and its tributary streams within Cincinnati’s urban watershed. As a result, the city entered into a federal consent decree mandating the elimination of sanitary sewer overflows and significant mitigation of combined sewer overflows (CS0) into receiving waterways. Engineers estimated the capital expense to come in at $3.1 billion.

Digital solutions, like Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua offer a more affordable path. MSD implemented a real-time decision support solution that delivers automated, optimized control of existing assets. The utility then took its CSO monitoring data, flow monitors, and real-time control facilities, and tied them together in a SCADA system. MSD has now reduced sewer overflow volumes by 247 million gallons and saved $38 million in the process. Furthermore, the utility achieved its overflow-mitigation targets for less than $0.01 per gallon, a saving of 90 percent when compared with the original estimated cost.

Balancing Capabilities With Goals

Many digital tools and solutions have impressive capabilities. While this is ideal in the long run, it poses a risk at the start of the digital journey. Advanced capabilities can potentially derail goals by distracting workers away from programmatic thinking and priority projects by distracting workers from putting into place the necessary building blocks for lasting transformation. It’s here that leadership must step up and holdfast to a structured approach and roadmap guided by key metrics and goals. Utilities would do well to form a network of steering and working committees made up of leadership, middle-managers, and end users to ensure projects stay on course and support strategic objectives.

For water utilities, the journey towards digital transformation requires a clear and well-defined strategy. Technology must be aligned with the practical needs of utility workers, leveraging data, while keeping in mind potential regulatory hurdles. As water utilities navigate the complexities of technological advancements, a strategy-first mentality emerges as the linchpin for successful digital transformation.

Learn more about Xylem’s digital solutions

Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua gives utilities a holistic view of their data all in one place. It collects and analyzes data for wastewater networks, treatment plants, drinking water networks and asset management. This enables utilities to reduce sewer overflows, cut infrastructure costs, lower energy costs at treatment plants, detect leaks earlier, and identify and prioritize at-risk assets that need repair.