What Is The Right Pace For Digital Transformation?

When thinking about digital transformation, many water utilities imagine a radical overhaul of operations and a significant increase in productivity and other gains. While this can and does happen, it rarely happens overnight. In truth, the digital journey is a marathon, not a sprint.

As insights from Ripple Effect: A Movement Towards Digital Transformation reveal, utilities are more likely to succeed if they map out big-picture goals and then start with small projects. This requires focusing on what quality data can deliver upfront and building thoughtfully on each success.

Small Wins Mean Small Risk

The critical nature of the service that water utilities provide means that many are reasonably risk-averse. However, this aversion sometimes inhibits operators from experimenting. While no one wants to put their job or the health of their community on the line, it is important for water utilities to take calculated risks when it comes to applying digital tools. It therefore falls on leadership to overcommunicate what is acceptable and demonstrate it.

It also means focusing on small projects that address the highest pain points for operators and/or customers. After listening to team members, leadership should chart pain points and figure out how difficult it is to make an improvement. This offers the opportunity to balance risk with achievability and outcome value.

Quality Data Yields Quality Outcomes

The quality of data directly impacts the efficacy of digital solutions and the overall success of the transformation. Quality data must be accurate, complete, consistent, and timely. Operators can verify the quality and reliability of data by cross-referencing with multiple sources, performing historical analyses, and conducting operational validation. If data is found to be unreliable, operators have options. They can perform data cleansing to rectify inaccuracies, redundancies, or incompleteness. Source verification can help identify data sources that are consistently providing questionable data, which may necessitate taking them offline or upgrading the system.

At many utilities, data verification and purification are some of the first projects to be undertaken in the digital journey. However, it is important to realize that data need not be perfect in order to proceed. Even with the best data, the first plan is always going to be the least effective. But with focus and dedication, every project can result in a growing understanding that will improve the subsequent project. This is the purpose of starting small. Models will get more accurate over time, and predictions will get more precise allowing for future adjustments to equipment and processes within the utility.

Of course, pressure will come from stakeholders to deliver the best results. This is where leadership needs to step in and encourage a mindset shift while advocating for operators and for the project pace.

Setting The Pace

While challenges such as water scarcity and climate change are pressuring utilities to be more efficient, it’s critical to remember that there is no immediate deadline. Utilities must set a pace that works with their budget, their comfort level, and their current stage in the digital journey.

The U.S. City of Evansville, Indiana, has invested incrementally in technology and its people to deliver significant operational and environmental gains. Over time, the utility has added instrumentation, improved communications systems, and cultivated a strong culture of innovation.

Today, Evansville is implementing sophisticated real-time monitoring, control, and automation algorithms to reduce sewer overflows, labor costs, and energy consumption. But it did not seek to achieve all of this at once. Projects began small decades ago based on strategic vision. Its capital expenditures were incremental, and each step built off the achievements of those that came before it.

By understanding the current environment, and conceptualizing a vision for the future, French utility Angers Loire Métropole found the right pace of change for its digital transformation. This has enabled the utility to build incrementally, aligning each investment to its strategic priorities and available resources, and showing progress at every stage.

For Angers Loire Métropole, digital water efforts are part of a broader journey to transform how community services are delivered. Since 2019, the region’s local authority has embraced a smart city model focused on optimizing urban services by using sensors and data analysis. The application of digital technology in water and wastewater is a key element of the region’s plan to deliver more sustainable and cost-effective services for citizens.

Digital transformations are a journey that should not be rushed. By focusing on quality data, setting achievable goals, and staying true to a strategic vision, water utilities can realize the benefits of digital solutions with minimal risk and maximum reward.

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.