to-five-year horizon, and buttress against shifting priorities throughout. Various key enablers are necessary to have in place upfront to put utilities on the path to success when making this leap. A strong business case backed by estimates of measurable business value will be needed to develop a long-term road map and strategy and return value to the utility. The road map could include the series of strategic investments required to deliver the transformative business- enablement platform, and an estimate of the necessary foundational investments. Further, leadership will need to keep front of mind the necessity for significant new talent and partnerships to create the blueprint and execute the build-out of this platform. New technical capabilities and skillsets will be required, including cloud engineering, DevOps, and data science. Digital skills like these will be critical to deliver the target state platform. Utilities will need to ensure that best practices around core cloud and software engineering capabilities are in place—for example, Infrastructure as Code, cloud FinOps, automated testing, and cybersecurity. A well-defined set of foundational architecture principles and a lean tech governance mode l will be necessary to ensure that maximum value from the investment is returned to the business. This is essential to steer strategic design decisions made along the way. An architecture governance model, backed by a shared set of principles and guardrails, could drive delivery consistency through the use of acceptable patterns, streamline technical decision making, and empower delivery teams by giving them the autonomy to move at pace with agility. Strong organizational cooperation and commitment by multiple stakeholders will be essential, beginning with the C-team and board. As this transformation is a multiyear journey, dedication and support from top-level leaders will be important to stay the course, with frequent and consistent communication at all levels. The
investments. For the vision to succeed, it would require an open utility and regulator relationship, with both willing to explore a new partnership based on transparency and verifiable outcomes. What it will take Building a base that can serve as a comprehensive multi-utility platform will require a detailed, layer- based framework and associated design elements. These layers can collectively transform legacy utility architecture into a “digital-native-style,” secure, and inter-operable platform that allows business services to be scaled across utilities (exhibit).
How to build it: A new approach and new leadership
Most utilities are already building parts of these features across some layers of their tech-stack; in other words, these features are being built on a use-case by use-case scenario—think of it as “drip irrigating” a farm with new elements. While these enable specific use cases, the escape velocity that is needed for all the layers to be in place will take too long to deliver an efficient model quickly. Moreover, this is an optimistic outcome that will require a lengthy history of delivering cross-business use cases, alongside a visionary enterprise architecture team that can enable the organic build-out to collectively scaffold this cross-layer end state. Building the multilayer future state will require a cross-functional team and a close partnership with the enterprise architecture organization. The team needs to set the intention to focus on creating and delivering this future state, while the rest of the IT organization delivers nearer-term use cases and other “must-do” regulatory or systems migrations. A platform architecture road map Building such a platform will be a multiyear endeavor, and utilities will need the ambition and the resolve not only to embark on the journey but to stick with the aspirational vision over a three-
Accelerating the journey to net zero
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