TMG–Utility Industry Changemakers

TMG took part as a Platinum Sponsor of the Oracle Customer Edge Event in San Diego, CA and the 14th annual Oracle Utilities User Group Conference (OUUG) as a Presenting Level Sponsor. For one week in March, team leads from TMG joined our utility customers to explore project insights and challenges and lessons learned from those with boots on the ground.

Vice President Alec O’Brien presented along with Amy Jones, Director, Customer Technology Integration, and Julie Standley, Director, Customer Information Transformation at American Electric Power (AEP), on AEP’s Agent Desktop Initiative and how they address business and technology challenges, both historical and current.

Chris Montoya, VP–PMO Services, and Mike Mayener of ATCO shared about the journey to the Cloud to provide insight into the organizational and operational transition for managing a cloud CIS solution. As many utilities consider migrating their CIS Application to a cloud solution, many things must be considered. This presentation will take you through the journey of one utility (with multiple services, gas distribution, electric distribution, and electric retail) as it migrated its CIS application to Oracle CCS. This will focus on the differences in operating an on-premises solution vs. a cloud solution, including operating model changes, skill set requirements, skills development, role and responsibilities, enhancement management, and cross-company and inter-departmental communication.

TMG’s Corey Boggess, Director–Professional Services and Data Migration Services,  and Cary West of Grant County PUD shared lessons learned on converting data to CCS. For most implementation and upgrade projects, data migration is a fundamental activity determining a project’s success or failure. The mere mention of data migration activities can evoke a sense of worry, and often data migration activities and the complexity and impact of these activities are misunderstood. Add new rules associated with migrating data to the cloud, and data migrations become even more complex for the most experienced utility leaders.

Pete Doyon, Director–TMG, Obe Everett of Louisville Water and Jeremy Marquette, and Thias Gomes of Pasadena Water & Power (PWP), presented a panel discussion on the role of OCM when dealing with the many different personalities that help and hurt implementations. They explored experiences with the complexities of a new team that helped and hurt successful projects. They explored the serious and humorous sides of just getting along for successful projects, how to leverage these personalities for success, and when to act to address the disruptor.

Robert Thomas, VP–TMG, also joined Pasadena Water & Power for a session on building the support organization of the future, in partnership with TMG, to develop a plan to support and enhance systems while providing knowledge transfer to internal staff. Pasadena Water and Power recently completed an implementation of Oracle Customer to Meter (C2M), Oracle Field Service (OFS), and Accelerated Innovations MyMeter customer portal as the foundation of a multiple-year plan to bring digital transformation to the utility. It was evident that PWP needed the right team to keep up with the ever-changing utility industry, leverage its investment, and staff upcoming projects.