Opening up ecosystem collaboration in the utility business

When a tiny company like ServusNet made a huge piece of software – OES - the backbone of their wind farm management platform, it showed just how flexible it was. Ian Oppermann, Head of Service Management and Charging Sales Partnering explains.


 

 'OES is probably the best piece of software we've ever produced.' says Ian Oppermann. 'It's a platform for developers to build applications on and because of that we have started up a sales partnering group so that we can engage with forward-thinking companies like ServusNet.' 

At a recent Middleware Workshop, hosted by Nokia Siemens Networks, ServusNet presented their wind farm management software to a mix of utility companies, large consultancy firms and systems integrators.

'This is our first attempt at trying to create an 'ecosystem' for the utilities industry' says Ian. 'By which I mean bringing large companies into contact with very small companies that can have an innovative impact on their business and management processes. We are promoting our middleware here as a framework to try to pull together a variety of third party applications.'

Big system integrators, whether they work in the telco space - or in the utility market - use complex mixes of third party software components, often developed in isolation. These building blocks, reaped from a wide variety of sources, are bound to cause integration issues. A middleware framework that can reduce the connections needed is far more likely to produce a solution that works robustly.

'It's not just about introducing David to Goliath though. There's plenty to be achieved with medium sized companies that already have their own portfolio of products in the application space. What we say to them is that this is a place where you can integrate your own applications. If you haven't yet developed a broad platform, or if you are up-selling into major enterprises, then you can plug straight into the strength of this offering.'

'What we find is that the challenges these utility companies have are very similar to those of a mobile operator, where we - as Nokia Siemens Networks - have extensive and ongoing experience. In talking to them we find they need to carry out recording, performance management, configuration, provision devices etc. So, when a gas utility talks about provisioning gas meters it's almost exactly how the same procedure as provisioning mobile phones in a mobile network. And, when we talk to people from the electricity utility area about distribution and generation - and the problems they have with load balancing and making sure that there is appropriate distribution and generation to match expected consumption - it sounds very similar to our experience in mobile networks, where you take traffic from one part of the network and move it to another part, from a smaller cell to a larger cell and vice versa. The buttons we push and the buttons utilities push to effect these changes may look different but are doing a surprisingly similar job.'

'In provisioning for instance, where a gas company may have three or four device types they are trying to provision, a mobile operator may have to deal with say, 14,000 different handsets, and yet the problem is very similar. This is where the likes of ServusNet can win with highly specific solutions that address the big companies' pain points.'

'I suppose where we want to fit into the overall picture is to be an enabler and to create a fertile landscape where these sorts of relationships can blossom.'