Managing your utility telecom network like a service provider

With the transition to IP, reduction in carrier options, Smart Grid, and the proliferation of large scale Utility Modernization, all utilities want more data to drive efficiency, reduce workload, streamline, reduce operations and increase safety. If you add on all the requests for connectivity to new applications in the field, how do you manage it? While predecessors in the digital banking and telecom industry have proven best practices with similar high speed, expansive transitions, utility networks are a little different.  West Monroe’s utility Telecom team roots are in the service provider arena and have worked with many utilities telecom teams over the last few years to develop best practices for an efficient operating model.

Our team blended best practices of FCAPS from the telecom industry with the ITSM approach from the IT world and created the Utility Telecom Service Model (UTSM). UTSM puts you on a proactive path to providing carrier grade services and SLAs to meet your business lines needs while operating as efficiently as possible. This process includes the planning, organization, deploying, managing, and customer self-service from a holistic expandable roadmap, as well as, incident management and preventive maintenance through event correlation and predictive analytics. In this fast paced transition, all utilities must learn to do more with less and because the Telecommunications network is the foundation of the Digital Grid, your work is paramount to its long term success.

If you are planning to attend UTC’s 2016 Telecom & Technology Conference next week in Denver, CO,  join West Monroe Partners’  Dan Belmont and ComEd’s Bart Enright for the session,  “Managing your Utility Telecom Network like a Service Provider”on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at 8:00 a.m.

In this session, Dan and Bart will discuss how ComEd has developed their successful plan and executed on deployment and operations of their “Digital Grid” Field Area Network (FAN). This network supports the TDM to IP conversion of backhaul circuits to substations and other critical endpoints through the use of many technologies from Fiber to Microwave and 3.65GHz WiMAX to LTE. Given the complexity of these new converged holistic networks for backhauling all grid modernization intelligence, operational excellence is a must. Dan and Bart will cover how to do that successfully with the balance between utility level SLAs and carrier like management concepts through the creation of the Utility Telecom Service Model (UTSM).

Dan Belmont is a Senior Director and lead for West Monroe Partners’ Utility Telecommunications Practice who has applied his 15 years’ experience in the telecom world to assist utilities, big and small, apply this approach to successfully build and operate their Field Area Networks (FANs). Bart Enright, Director of Smart Grid IT for Commonwealth Edison, has implemented many of these practices across their FAN.