With the increasing availability of distributed energy resources (DER), Energy and Utility businesses now face competition from new market entrants equipped with the latest digital technologies, processes and organizational models that cater to the needs of the energy consumer. Energy and Utility stalwarts also need to increase the agility of their operating models so they can offer energy choice, enable consumer self-selection and develop new energy trading models. Success here will be highly dependent on digitally-enabled processes and modernized IT infrastructure and data architectures.
In this environment, crucial questions arise about how to keep moving forward: what’s working, what’s not, where investments are paying off, optimal next steps, and what separates leaders from followers.
To find the answers, ThoughtLab worked alongside Cognizant to survey 2,491 business and technology leaders from multiple industries globally (including 191 E&U organizations) that collectively account for about $21.6 trillion in annual revenue. ThoughtLab also interviewed a cross-section of C-level executives and their direct reports across regions and industries, and from a mix of functions across the enterprise.
This research reveals how much businesses should be investing in advanced technologies as a percent of revenue today and in the near future, the investments that are yielding the greatest returns, the next best areas to focus on, and the returns they can expect at various points of the maturity curve.