Smart Utility Systems: Driving Digital Transformations in the Energy and Utility Space through Cloud Based Platforms

Deepak Garg , Founder, Chairman & CEO

The energy and utility sector has been going through a tumultuous time causing it immense trouble in the past decades. The industry has even been living through a decline in power demand in the recent past leading to sluggish growth. On the other hand, severe challenges including ageing infrastructure, increasing demand supply deficit, lack of skilled workforce, stricter government mandates for energy efficiency and water conservation have been surfacing. And, in such a troublesome situation, slow adoption of technological advancements such as cloud, mobile, big data and analytics, and machine learning only added to the woes, requiring intervention of technology to keep utilities to overcome the crisis and beat the competition. This was the time when technological support to help utilities seemed much needed and that’s when the foundation of Smart Utility Systems was laid. The company was established in 2009 with a vision to address the global challenges of energy and water sustainability. The idea was to help utilities in their digital transformation and redefine the traditional relationship between utility and its customers.

Thus, the SUS team brought cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for customer engagement, workforce mobility, and big data intelligence & analytics to the energy and utility sector. Ever since the beginning, Smart Utility Systems has been delivering best-in-class industry leading platforms that are helping global utilities improve their business processes, achieve operational excellence, reduce costs and maximize their return on smart infrastructure investments. In its bouquet of solutions, SUS includes SCM (Smart Customer Mobile), SMW (Smart Mobile Workforce) and SiQ (Smart IQ). SCM is the company’s flagship product, which is an award winning customer-engagement web and mobile platform. It provides self service capabilities to utility customers and enables real-time, two-way communication between the utility and its customers. SCM comes with various in-built and configurable modules and can be customized according to the specific requirements of electric, water and gas utilities. “The uniqueness of the solution lies in the fact that it positively impacts the entire value chain in the utility industry and facilitates collaborative efforts between utility and customers to achieve energy and water sustainability,” details Deepak Garg, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Smart Utility Systems.

Another major offering by the company is SMW, a single integrated mobile workforce platform. SMW helps utilities improve productivity and efficiency of utility employees by providing them job, safety and asset related information in real-time on any device.

It also helps utilities in effective decision making by providing analytics for monitoring field worker performance against operational KPIs. Further, with Big Data/Analytics SaaS Cloud platform Smart IQ, the company provides real time data analysis on peak load management, customer segmentation, performance evaluation, energy efficiency and water conservation. “Through our unique suite of solutions, we have helped major electric, water and gas utilities redefine their relationship with their customers. Today, SUS is the top most Global Smart Energy & Water Cloud Platforms Provider,” adds Deepak.

Smart Utility Systems with its unswerving efforts has been working towards delivering the best to the utility industry in terms of digital transformation. With its distinctive solutions, the company hasn’t just redefined the digital transformation for the utilities but has also ensured to positively impact the entire value chain including the end-consumers. Further, over the years, it supported its clients to adopt a customer-centric approach to improve their customer service levels and maximize their customer acquisition and retention. “What sets us apart from others is the practice of not just delivering the solution but accompanying the clients in their journey of digital transformation. All our products are customizable and can be moulded according to the clients’ requirements,” elaborates Deepak.

SUS has emerged as a game changer and a “partner of choice” for utilities in their transformational journey to address the challenges pertaining to energy efficiency and water conservation.

Abiding by its consistent urge to lead digital transformations in the utility space, the company has also received recognitions in the form of reputed industry awards. Some of these include Golden Bridge IT Awards – 2015 & 2016, CS Week Expanding Excellence Award 2016, Big Innovation Award 2016 and Fierce Innovation Award 2015 among others. SUS has emerged as a game changer and a “partner of choice” for utilities in their transformational journey to address the challenges pertaining to energy efficiency and water conservation. In the future too, SUS envisions continuing its quest for excellence by developing innovative, customer-centric solutions to help utilities engage and empower their customers. It aims to help them deliver an enhanced digital experience by leveraging mobile, social networking, and big data & analytics.

Since its inception, SUS has successfully helped numerous major utilities in North America to make a smooth transition from a utility to a digital utility. Going forward, the company plans to take its vision to other geographies to help more utilities replicate the same customer-centric business model and benefit from it. Detailing the company’s future focus areas, Deepak adds, “Keeping this in mind, we are looking forward to expand our geographic footprint and also scaling up the team size. We are further looking forward to diversify our suite of solutions to cater to the entire universe of challenges that plague the energy and utilities sector.” To help ease the task, the company seeks to partner with other industry players and associations, leveraging technologies that can enable it strengthen its delivery capabilities.