East Africa Utilities Conference told to use IT to achieve savings, improve services

Utility companies that use the information locked in their computer systems more effectively can realise significant cost savings and ease the pressure on them to deliver more and better services on static budgets. Today delegates at the Applications in Utilities conference in Nairobi, Kenya, were told by Oracle, the largest enterprise software company in the world, that utility customers are able to divert more funding into expansion and service enhancement because of the success they have achieved in streamlining their operations and cutting costs.

“ Without accurate, complete and timely information companies cannot even begin to make changes that will save them money and improve their service ,” said Samir Eid, Industry Leader , Utilities, Oracle African Operations. “ Details of an unplanned outage, the number of customers affected, t he duration of interruptions and even customer account numbers – in many utility companies the information to answer these questions is to be found in these different applications, each possibly with its own database.”

Planning for extending service delivery to remote and underdeveloped communities can be made easier with reliable information. In addition, planning for asset replacement and infrastructure refurbishment are activities, which rely on accurate and complete historical data. “Utility companies, perhaps more than other businesses, understand the importance of integrating business systems to gain a proper understanding of where the costs lie,” said Mr Eid. “Manpower, money, plant and machinery, infrastructure – the more integrated the information systems that run these operations, the better the control and the greater the ability to change the processes to achieve greater efficiency.”

Utility companies were some of the earlier adopters of information technology, and those systems are now ageing and are not fully integrated with newer systems. “Lack of integration, multiple databases and the inability to apply standards to software characterise organisations running different software applications,” Eid said, “especially software which is ageing. Couple these problems with utility companies experiencing decreasing IT budgets and an increasing demand for information, and the problem of achieving greater operational efficiency rests squarely with the IT department.”

Oracle provides what it terms a “Fusion” approach to application development and application integration. Oracle Fusion Middleware simplifies the development, deployment, integration and management of applications. Oracle Fusion Middleware will also serve as the infrastructure that powers the next generation of Oracle Applications.

“Oracle Fusion Middleware presents a non-intrusive solution to application integration,” said Eid. “It extends the life of older applications. It provides the ability to create a single database rather than many, thus effectively dealing with the problem of information accessibility. Finally, it allows applications to work together to support business operations, thereby helping companies streamline and integrate their operations more effectively.”