On June 5, the data strategic sharing group convened for its third meeting. Aravin Amirthalingam from the City of Calgary outlined his team’s approach to digital transformation. The utility has made significant strides in creating a system for continuous improvement. However, Aravin highlighted that digital projects frequently fail due to a misalignment between strategy and project execution.
To address this challenge, the City of Calgary established a Water Technology Committee. The committee identifies and prioritizes the utility’s needs before considering technology opportunities. Doing so reduces the likelihood of receiving varied solution proposals based on which team or business unit is approached. The result? Better alignment of digital portfolios while maintaining a balance between different visions.
Additionally, the Water Assets Technology and Spatial Utility Network (WATSUN) Group has been pivotal in transitioning the utility from a traditional project mindset to a mindset of long-term, continuous, and incremental improvement. Project managers retain ownership of their initiatives, fostering continuous improvement throughout the entire life cycle. Aravin stressed the importance of understanding user needs, training requirements and business functionality needs when implementing new technologies. For instance, dashboards are presented to service committees for feedback, which informs decisions on automation investments.
Taking a program perspective, rather than solely focusing on individual projects, allows for a better understanding of how individual project delays impact the entire group. This approach also improves understanding of how individual team changes influence the broader business. It also introduces new processes for work orders, asset management and engineering requests designed for continuous improvement.
Participants concluded the meeting by discussing the next steps their organizations need to take to increase the alignment of people, processes, technology and data. These steps include:
- Securing buy-in from senior management and council.
- Establishing and communicating data management strategies to all staff members.
- Developing a plan or roadmap and executing it.
- Raising staff awareness of what data is being collected and by whom within the organization.
- Increasing communications across teams by connecting data repositories across groups.
CWN will continue to host discussions about digital transformation as they relate to water and wastewater utilities. For more information about the data strategic sharing group, please contact Katina Tam at [email protected].