Question Description
I’m working on a political science discussion question and need a sample draft to help me learn.
Smart city and Green IT
What emerging technology (that could be used in a public organization) has the most ethical implications? Describe the technology, the application of the technology, and any ethical considerations.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Hype Cycle for Sustainability Technology, 2017
Published: 19 July 2017
ID: G00314631
Analyst(s): Anshul Gupta, Angela McIntyre
IT leaders are including sustainability as a measure of corporate value. They
look to emerging technologies pertinent to sustainability to drive future
financial benefits and reduce business risk. Sustainability technology is
becoming more useful due to the evolution of the Internet of Things.
Table of Contents
Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
What You Need to Know…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
The Hype Cycle……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
The Priority Matrix……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4
Off the Hype Cycle…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
On the Rise…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
Blockchain in Sustainability…………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
Energy-Sharing Platform……………………………………………………………………………………………….8
Transactive Energy……………………………………………………………………………………………………….9
At the Peak…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10
Sustainability and COP21…………………………………………………………………………………………… 10
Energy Efficiency Gamification…………………………………………………………………………………….. 12
Energy Water Nexus………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13
Smart Monitoring for Public Infrastructures……………………………………………………………………. 15
Smart Parking Strategies……………………………………………………………………………………………. 16
Connected Home……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
Internet of Things……………………………………………………………………………………………………….20
Smart City Framework……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22
Smart Transportation…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 24
Sliding Into the Trough…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25
Water Management…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25
Car-Sharing Services…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Home Energy Management………………………………………………………………………………………… 29
Consumer Energy Storage…………………………………………………………………………………………..30
Emissions Position Management…………………………………………………………………………………. 32
IT/OT Integration………………………………………………………………………………………………………..33
Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure…………………………………………………………………………. 34
Microgrids……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 36
Corporate Social Responsibility…………………………………………………………………………………… 38
Distributed Generation……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 40
Green Money…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….41
Smart Lighting………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 43
Climbing the Slope…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 44
Sustainable Design PLM……………………………………………………………………………………………..44
Appendixes…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 46
Hype Cycle Phases, Benefit Ratings and Maturity Levels…………………………………………………. 48
Gartner Recommended Reading……………………………………………………………………………………………. 49
List of Tables
Table 1. Hype Cycle Phases………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 48
Table 2. Benefit Ratings………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 48
Table 3. Maturity Levels………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 49
List of Figures
Figure 1. Hype Cycle for Sustainability Technology, 2017………………………………………………………………4
Figure 2. Priority Matrix for Sustainability Technology, 2017………………………………………………………….. 5
Figure 3. Hype Cycle for Sustainability, 2016……………………………………………………………………………. 47
Analysis
What You Need to Know
Enterprises are looking beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) as sustainability initiatives and
are integrating CSR into strategic decisions to meet business objectives and identify strategic risk.
This requires IT leaders to understand the business issues relative to sustainability risks and
opportunities. But they also need to gain a broad understanding of various technologies to improve
operational sustainability efficiencies and to implement environmentally friendly techniques.
Page 2 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Sustainability in totality covers social, economic and environmental impacts. However, in this Hype
Cycle, we identify only those technologies and processes that will help enterprises reduce
environmental impacts. These technologies and processes broadly fall into the following three
categories:
■
Technologies enabling existing carbon-emitting industries, vehicles and infrastructure to
become more efficient and less carbon-emitting
■
Alternative energy-producing technologies that are less polluting and more environmentally
friendly
■
Processes, regulations and measures that help or provide a means to track, measure and
reduce carbon emissions
The Hype Cycle
Sustainability involves making decisions about the use of technology and business practices that
support long-term ecological balance. In this report, we focus on technologies and processes that
help enterprises decrease their carbon footprint, directly or indirectly; monitor carbon emissions;
and adopt less-polluting alternative energy sources. While there is increased awareness of
sustainability among enterprise IT leaders worldwide, which has led to initiatives to reduce carbon
footprint, there is still much to be achieved. The effectiveness of ideas must be validated, metrics
and monitoring processes agreed on, ecosystems of supporting technologies developed, and plans
implemented.
Enterprises are finding new ways of using Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor data to improve
operational efficiencies, to test innovative techniques, and to engage in sharing economy models
that enable industries to collaboratively commit to building a sustainable society. Technology today
is offering data of operations and the context in the business domain in real time, allowing
organizations to apply the assessment directly to the outcome of sustainability goals. Examples of
changes that increase sustainability include optimizing travel, building smart cities, and improving
efficiencies in manufacturing and agriculture.
In the eighth year of this Hype Cycle, we highlight the breadth of technologies that could make
significant contributions to the sustainability performance of enterprises and to the wider economies
in which they operate. We have added a number of new technologies and disciplines to this year’s
Hype Cycle to broaden and deepen our coverage of sustainability topics with regard to the three
key areas identified above:
■
Blockchain in sustainability
■
Sustainability and COP21
■
Energy-sharing platforms
■
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure
■
Microgrids
Page 3 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
■
Smart monitoring for public infrastructures
■
Smart lighting
■
Distributed generation
■
Transactive energy
Figure 1. Hype Cycle for Sustainability Technology, 2017
Source: Gartner (July 2017)
The Priority Matrix
In this Hype Cycle, we cover a sample of wide-ranging technologies that can be employed to
improve sustainability at different levels to reflect the priority of an organization’s strategies. The
Priority Matrix in Figure 2 presents the technologies on the Hype Cycle by the degree of benefit they
are expected to provide and their number of years away from mainstream adoption. IT leaders can
use the Priority Matrix to guide their strategic plans for investing in sustainability technologies. Nearterm priorities for evaluation or early deployments are those technologies that have high benefit and
are less than five years away from mainstream adoption. For example, IT leaders can follow best
Page 4 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
practices for sustainable design when planning IT infrastructure projects. They may also be called
on for data analytics to increase the conservation of water used in manufacturing and to set up
sensor systems to monitor water purity after it leaves the facility. IoT and smart cities enable
transformational change toward sustainability because they include wide-ranging technologies and
insights. For example, IT integration into operations technology (OT) and management can be a
differentiating enabler by providing real-time information sources. Likewise, enterprise stakeholders
in smart cities may find that smart transportation and car-sharing services improve sustainable
outcomes.
Figure 2. Priority Matrix for Sustainability Technology, 2017
benefit
years to mainstream adoption
less than 2 years
transformational
2 to 5 years
Smart Monitoring for
Public Infrastructures
5 to 10 years
Distributed Generation
more than 10 years
Transactive Energy
Internet of Things
Smart City Framework
Sustainability and COP21
high
Smart Lighting
Car-Sharing Services
IT/OT Integration
Smart Parking Strategies
moderate
Blockchain in
Sustainability
Consumer Energy
Storage
Connected Home
Smart Transportation
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Sustainable Design PLM
Energy-Sharing Platform
Water Management
Microgrids
Electric Vehicle Charging
Infrastructure
Emissions Position
Management
Energy Water Nexus
Green Money
Home Energy
Management
low
Energy Efficiency
Gamification
As of July 2017
© 2017 Gartner, Inc.
Source: Gartner (July 2017)
Off the Hype Cycle
To focus this Hype Cycle on technologies pertinent to sustainability, we have combined a few
technology profiles and removed others that have less direct relevance to sustainability, such as
smart parking, fuel cells for the data center, creating shared value and CSR reporting.
Page 5 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
On the Rise
Blockchain in Sustainability
Analysis by: Anshul Gupta
Definition: Gartner has defined blockchain as a type of distributed ledger in which value-exchange
transactions (in bitcoin or other token) are sequentially grouped into blocks. Each block is chained
to the previous block and immutably recorded across a peer-to-peer network, using cryptographic
trust and assurance mechanisms.
Blockchain technology can be applied to measure, record, track and account energy transactions to
improve energy efficiency. It can also be used to manage carbon marketplace to track and reduce
carbon emissions.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The “blockchain” term is hyped to include a loosely
combined set of technologies and processes that variously spans middleware, cryptography,
database, security, analytics/AI, monetary and identity management concepts. Blockchain is also
becoming the common shorthand for a diverse collection of distributed ledger platform systems,
with more than 80 offerings that are in various stages of entering the market. The first and most
visible example of blockchain technology is the distributed ledger mechanism in bitcoin digital
currency, and in dozens of “altcoins” (alternative digital currencies). While currently considered a
financial tool, the distributed ledger mechanism potential capability is potentially very broad,
encompassing nonmonetary forms of value exchange, as well as management of pure digital
assets, plus the dynamic-behavior capability known as “smart contracts.”
As the energy industry is moving toward a distributed power generation including renewable as well
as user-generated capacity, it needs a new way of recording, distributing energy to improve
efficiency. Blockchain’s distributed, peer-to-peer communications will — in the future — allow
direct, near-real-time sharing of information without the need for a centralized system. This will allow
new business models for distributed energy sources such as peer-to-peer trading and reduce the
need for long-distance transmission, cutting off losses and overall efficiency.
Blockchain technology has the potential use for tracking carbon emissions as IBM announced it will
release a blockchain-based green asset management platform in late 2017 to help companies
reduce emissions and be energy efficient. This platform can be used to let companies trade carbon
emissions credits like in marketplace and also reducing overall asset development cycle.
Although blockchain is fast emerging as an enabling technology for many use case beyond digital
currency but majority of those initiatives are still in the early stage. The distributed ledger
mechanism in bitcoin is the only proven blockchain, but it has its limitations too in the areas of
scalability, resource utilization, transparency, etc. Due to the intrinsic nature of distributed systems
and the different approaches to reaching consensus in a distributed ledger, the main concerns
center around scalability, security and regulatory framework. Another factor is that all major
blockchain initiatives are open source, and their innovation, evolution and support are heavily
influenced by the creators of these platforms.
Page 6 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Trials with regard to improved energy efficiency are being conducted across markets in the U.S. and
Europe. China being a major carbon-emitting country, IBM announced a carbon-tracking platform
targeted at Chinese enterprises.
User Advice: Recognize that the terminology, concepts and implementations surrounding
blockchain are in flux. This uncertainty masks the potential suitability of technology solutions to
meet business use cases. Consequently, use extreme caution when interacting with vendors who
have ill-defined/nonexistent offerings.
Various initiatives to build blockchain-based platform to track and trade carbon emissions have
struggled to gain momentum. This is due to both technical reasons (very limited scalability and
immaturity of technology) plus nontechnical (difficulty for established organizations to absorb new
concepts and business models). Even though records in blockchain are forever and transparent,
building an accepted relationship between the record and actual reality is tricky and difficult to
prove many a times. So consider what mechanisms are being used to build those relationships
between record and reality. In future, there could be AI systems, which could use data and machine
algorithm to build a relationship to arrive at a publicly accepted consensus on tracking and
recording carbon emissions.
With Scope 3 emissions reporting, there has been increased greenwashing and intransparency,
which can potentially become transparent and indisputable using blockchain technology.
Business Impact: Blockchain technology is the only technology that can unify flow of payments
with flow of information and flow of physical materials within a decentralized peer-to-peer business
ecosystem with many participants and no single central authority.
Energy efficiency can be improved by linking the distributed energy generation and direct peer-topeer trading.
Immutable and transparent record keeping would allow creation of digital assets to track and trade
carbon emissions.
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Accenture; Cognizant; Deloitte; Ethereum Foundation; IBM; Infosys; LO3 Energy;
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
Recommended Reading: “Industry Vision: Utilities as Platform Providers for the Energy-Sharing
Economy”
“Top 10 Trends Shaping the 2017 Utility Industry on the Road to Digital Business”
“The Bitcoin Blockchain: The Magic and the Myths”
Page 7 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Energy-Sharing Platform
Analysis by: Zarko Sumic
Definition: The energy-sharing platform leverages sharing economy (or network economy/economy
of connections) principles to enable energy exchanges between individual prosumers with extra
production capacity and consumers interested in using this capacity. It is a dual platform
architected to effectively integrate prosumers into energy markets in a controlled manner that also
provides additional revenue opportunities for utilities.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The emergence of prosumers — the most significant
disruption in the utility sector, driven by energy technology consumerization and innovation at the
edge of the grid — is creating challenges to the existing utility business model. One possible way
for utilities to counter the disruptive impact of prosumerization is to become a provider of the
energy-sharing platform. Such a platform would enable integration of prosumer-owned distributed
energy resources into energy markets by exposing available DER directly to consumers. By
managing an information exchange platform, utilities will enable value exchange (by leveraging data,
analytics, algorithms) among parties, and be able to capture a share of the created value. This will
allow utilities to supplement existing revenue, and compensate for loss of revenue caused by
customer exodus, by becoming a company that provides an energy-sharing platform.
Specifically, the energy-sharing economy will require two distinct platforms:
■
An energy-sharing economy platform that will bring interested parties together and deal with
the payments and financial aspects of microenergy transactions. This platform will leverage
consumption analytics and advanced algorithms to create additional value to platform operators
and participants.
■
A digital distribution platform that will maintain and operate an open-access distribution grid
for all participants. Distribution platform providers will calculate and charge for delivery services
for energy transactions among market participants, while ensuring the safe and reliable
operation of the distribution network and optimal utilization of the existing energy delivery
infrastructure.
User Advice: In the markets with a significant level of prosumer penetration, or in markets (such as
New York state) where regulators are encouraging innovative models such as the “open access
distribution network” approach, CIOs will have to work with a team of business and IT leaders to
explore the business implications — including opportunities and risks presented with a utility as a
sharing-energy platform provider. In addition, utilities will have to decide if they want to provide both
parts of the platform (energy-sharing platform and digital-distribution platform). If the utility decides
to embark on this new opportunity, CIOs will require new assets and capabilities such as app
development platforms for consumer/prosumer-facing apps, microtransaction billing and settlement
systems, APIs for integration with digital distribution platforms, and analytical capabilities for
discovery, bidding, negotiation and matching. In addition, CIOs will need to create an ecosystem of
partners and maintain research on emerging providers in this space.
Business Impact: An energy-sharing economy platform will impact the commercial side of utilities
via implications on the revenue management cycle (meter-to-cash) and consumption analytics.
Page 8 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Digital distribution platform side will impact network operation requiring a combination of traditional
network control function and economic-based control mechanism such as congestion management
via distribution marginal prices.
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: LichtBlick; Open Utility; Power Ledger
Recommended Reading: “Industry Vision: Utilities as Platform Providers for the Energy-Sharing
Economy”
“Utility Scenario: Pioneers Are Settling New Digital Frontiers”
“Blockchain in Utilities: Promise and Reality”
Transactive Energy
Analysis by: Zarko Sumic
Definition: Transactive energy (TE) refers to techniques for managing the generation, consumption
or flow of electric power within an electric power system through the use of economic or marketbased constructs while considering grid reliability constraints. TE is an economic-value-based
network control concept, not a system.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Traditional economic and business models for electric
utilities are being challenged by the growth and diversity of distributed energy resources.
Transactive energy is being proposed by industry leaders as a path forward. The TE framework
intends to develop new economic constructs that accurately capture the value of energy
transactions at the distribution-network level. These economic valuation techniques then make it
possible to optimize grid solutions across generation, transmission and distribution.
Challenges presented to the development of TE are many. It is difficult to define and develop
valuation mechanisms for grid services. The concept is not new, since it mirrors the identification of
“flow gates” and “locational marginal pricing (LMP)” for open access to transmission resources. TE
intends to define cost of delivery at a certain point to be defined as “LMP + D,” capturing both
energy costs and distribution grid cost. Objectives for system optimization span time ranges that
vary from milliseconds to years. Finally, the complexity of market redesign and the development of
new operational systems on top of existing infrastructure will be a daunting task and will require
active participation of stakeholders including policymakers, regulators and utility executives.
Additional complexity (in comparison to wholesale market operation and transmission operation
management) is the fragmented regulatory model, as grid operations vary significantly across
jurisdictions. Finally, economic and market contexts vary considerably from country to country (and
even from state to state in the U.S.).
Page 9 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
For these reasons the time to plateau for TE has been judged to be more than 10 years.
User Advice: Transactive energy is an example of digitalization of the utility sector. A new operation
model for networks and markets will emerge as a result of digital business and enabled by
increasing computational capability and assess to digital asset. Utility CIOs and business leaders
should, therefore, promote education and understanding of transactive energy concepts. While the
development of a transactive energy framework has been primarily U.S.-focused (beginning around
2011), international participants are now involved as well. The GridWise Architecture Council has
been the strongest proponent of TE and offers educational resources including conferences, white
papers and checklists. A small number of pilots have been conducted, mostly by national R&D labs
and universities. Since TE is still largely a framework, vendors are getting involved but there are no
“TE products.” However, there are still many lessons learned, especially from the largest pilot which
was conducted in the Pacific Northwest part of the U.S. Many vendors and utilities were involved,
and reports are publicly available.
Business Impact: CIOs at utilities that are affected by aggressive renewable portfolio standards or
by rapid adoption of consumer renewable energy technologies will want to start early on
understanding transactive energy. Operations executives tasked with minimizing transmission
congestion, managing peak loads, or integrating responsive loads will want to work with their
system vendors to understand how TE will affect their product roadmaps.
Benefit Rating: Transformational
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Enphase; IBM; Integral Analytics; Intel; Itron; Nexant; OATI; Opus One Solutions;
Oracle
Recommended Reading: “Cool Vendors in Energy and Utilities, 2017”
“Top 10 Trends Shaping the 2017 Utility Industry on the Road to Digital Business”
“Industry Vision: Utilities as Platform Providers for the Energy-Sharing Economy”
“How Utility CIOs Can Lead the Shift to Digital Business”
At the Peak
Sustainability and COP21
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Definition: During the 21st Conference of the Parties (or “COP”) to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December of 2015, around 450 cities and citystates pledged to reduce carbon emission and GHG emissions to contribute to the 2% global
Page 10 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
warming limit. This is an important contribution as cities are becoming environmental and
sustainability centers of excellence.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Cities are facing climate change-related challenges in
the form of rising sea levels, rising heat levels and droughts. These challenges linked to resilience
strategies like the ones of The Rockefeller Foundation for cities identify that cities have an
opportunity to build new collaboration and infrastructure, sustainable industries and ore holistic
citizen engagement. Speed of adoption will increase as COP 21, and sustainability strategies are
being set individually by cities, not only reflecting the priorities of energy sustainability, carbon
emission, air quality, but also waste management, social inclusion, demographic and digital equity.
The momentum and adoption rate is being driven by citizen and business concerns on the direct
impact of climate change, which is consolidated in interest groups such as C40 or European Green
Capital. Those forums share insights of initiatives that contribute to the carbon and sustainability
goals as well as the development of key performance indicators to measure this impact. Based on
some local impact, the social cohesion and contextualization of urban service environment
generated through determined projects that are solving distinctive needs of the city, cities will
outpace the sustainability and environmental momentum and execution of countries and region.
User Advice: CIOs in cities like Copenhagen, New York City, Dubai, Singapore or Santiago de Chile
have all started to support or develop a sustainable smart city strategy by using IoT and a range of
operational efficiency, data sharing and business process alignment elements to condense the
urban asset footprint while visualizing this impact to various channels. CIOs can support the
development of collaboration and dashboarding of “like minded” citizens that understand the
significance of environmental activities such as restrictions of high-emission vehicles in city centers
or energy conservation and green energy options for street lights and buildings. CIOs have the
opportunity to define the key performance measurements of smart city initiatives while also
mapping those to sustainability goals, including COP21 commitments. CIOs need to create advisory
on using IoT by citizens that not only measures emissions, air pollution but also waste and recycling
rate; citizens can build user groups and broadcast their insights into the cloud that public works or
environmental departments can use to understand citizen and respond with user services and
education. This includes starting cooperation with public private partnerships with utilities, waste
management companies or consumer goods providers to create business awareness and end-toend life cycle applications in microgrids, recycling or smart building and home ecosystems.
CIOs can build their city operations centers to orchestrate different datasets that can link public
safety to air quality and critical infrastructure resilience, mobility changes impacting reduction of
emissions from combustion engines and uptake of electric vehicles, or even citizen and social
crowdsourcing of green ideas with citizen engagement and feedback.
Business Impact: The impact to the local government CIO is profound: smart cities demand more
user-focused services and experiences, and also identifying business impact as influences of
environmental impact have become more transparent. COP 21 declarations of city leaders and
other non-state parties such as R20, ICLEI and C40 create opportunity for CIOs to connect to
industry and cross-jurisdictional governments to build innovation projects that support the city as
an incubator for green initiative and also new technology. In addition, as data becomes an
instrumental conduit for transparency and decision making for policy and user experiences, CIOs
Page 11 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
will be able to build data and shared infrastructure services to connect urban layers to spatial
development; they can also share valuable GIS data to insurance, real estate development, banking
as well as logistics and supply chain organizations to indicate impact of city or region by climate
change, which is posing a business risk. Local governments and regions need to mitigate this
operations and business risk through policy, industry outreach and civic engagement tools, with
CIOs being able to showcase which initiatives also relate to reducing the impact. Reaching
sustainability goals need to become more transparent which provides CIOs with the options to look
for frameworks such as Star Communities, The Rockefeller Foundation or World Bank Group’s
CityStrength Diagnostic to orchestrate data and create traction. Also, creating the triple-bottom-line
(“Corporate Social Responsibility Methodology Changes for the 2017 Gartner Supply Chain Top
25”) for smart city is key to build a sustainable and climate change respective urban smart city.
Benefit Rating: Transformational
Market Penetration: 5% to 20% of target audience
Maturity: Adolescent
Sample Vendors: Algebra; Deloitte; Esri; thinkstep
Recommended Reading: “Predicts 2017: Smart Cities Must Create the Right Data Orchestration
for Sustainable Citizen and Business Services”
“Use the Internet of Things in Smart Buildings to Achieve Work-Life Ambience”
“Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Utilities Market, Worldwide, 2015-2021, 1Q17 Update”
Energy Efficiency Gamification
Analysis by: Kathie M Hackler
Definition: Energy efficiency gamification applies game mechanics to drive ongoing consumer
engagement in energy conservation. Although typical strategies include contests and rewards for
conserving energy; social media elements, such as communities; and indicators of status and
success, including badges and leader boards, gamification is not a rewards program. Gamification
is designed to encourage ongoing interaction. It can be part of data and analytics for an energy
management system, or a stand-alone program or application.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Low consumer interest and engagement in energy
management are utility industry challenges, especially for utilities tasked with achieving end-user
energy efficiency improvements. Gamification applies game mechanics to motivate people and
change behavior. Utilities can use gamification to improve customer engagement in energy
efficiency programs.
By 2015, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) had identified 22 gamified
solutions deployed by utilities. The largest energy savings were achieved by winners of utilitysponsored contests (upward of 50%). However, results indicate that average savings among
participants can fall in the 3% to 6% range. In 2016, the ACEEE continued to study results and
Page 12 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
found that games can reduce energy consumption by as much as 6.6%. However, it is not clear if
energy savings persist after the game ends.
User Advice: CIOs in utilities with energy efficiency mandates or in competitive energy retailers
seeking differentiated energy services should investigate energy efficiency gamification and
compare it to other energy efficiency measures. Keep in mind that the body of evidence for energy
efficiency gamification results is still evolving, including analysis of persistence (that is, long-term
conservation) and rebound (the tendency for consumption to increase once the program is no
longer in place). Gamification programs are also cross-disciplinary in nature, involving energy
efficiency program managers, marketers and IT personnel in order to be successful. Because utility
IT organizations are likely to have little or no experience with the design and management of games,
utilities should look to third parties for solutions.
Business Impact: Energy efficiency gamification can be used by demand-side management
departments as a niche conservation measure that engages a subset of customers. Incorporating
consumption data from meter data management systems improves programs, and integration with
utility customer information systems (CIS) and/or CRM systems can help track and manage
customer participation. Gamification can also be used by competitive energy retailers to support
customer acquisition and retention efforts. It also has potential for improving utility employee
performance in call centers.
Benefit Rating: Low
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Bidgely; Intelen; JouleBug; Oracle; Simple Energy
Recommended Reading: “Utility Retail Domain Strategic Technology Map”
“Market Guide for Energy Management Systems, IoT”
Energy Water Nexus
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Definition: The nexus between energy production and water availability are directly intertwined. The
nexus contributes to main industries such as water-cooling of power plants, extraction of oil and
gas as well as irrigation of crops used for biogas. Innovative technologies utilizing data to project
the impact on different industries and urban areas are key to managing water supply and demand
relative to energy-water consumption, and its production circle.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: According to the UN-Water directive, by 2020, half of
the world’s population will be living in countries with water supply shortages. Factors include:
■
Water is critical to energy, such as hydrothermal, but also to nuclear power plants.
Page 13 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
■
70% of freshwater globally is used for agricultural, 22% for industrial and 8% for residential use.
■
Biggest loss of water is in transport and distribution of water.
■
Although there are new technologies on desalination (removing the saline from saltwater to turn
it into freshwater), the process consumes high amounts of energy (approx. 15 kWh to 17.1 kWh
per 1,000 gallons of water produced).
■
Water is integral to shale gas production.
Regions and countries with increasing droughts and the shifts in water allocation are challenged in
their economic and industrial performance, especially with high dependence on oil and gas. The
uncontrollable increase of population and rapid industrialization in the developing countries are also
major reasons. Time to plateau, therefore, will be long as there will be a wide range of suitable
technology solutions based on industry, government and city organization that can be applied.
User Advice: CIOs in different water-intensive industries need to build water management, the
critical factor of price volatility of energy, and water supply into their IT procurement models and
need to work with city leaders to make those conservations visible. IT leaders in the industry need
to track the volatility in real time by analyzing data through smart city, water, and energy
management platforms and boards. End users need to look to involve new energy sourcing that
includes waste to energy, circular economy to generate energy or broader energy-generation
models in microgrids and distributed grids. CIOs in Emirates, Brazil, Egypt or India should apply or
evaluate technology solutions such as sensors, IoT and analytics together with modeling and
simulation for energy use. They should also network with solutions that create water sustainability
and quality of water harvesting and management as those are key concerns for developed markets
as well.
Business Impact: The business is greatly impacted by the availability and cost of energy or water,
as well as the competing sources for other industries such as agriculture and food production as
well as urban centers. Cost of operations to produce water as well as energy based on the
competitive uses presents a significant issue, and the potential stigma of using water for industrial
uses instead of civic uses could prove a reputational issue. Lot of reporting and transparency has to
be shown to disperse the concerns for depletion or risk relative to the operations. For example, the
fracking industry in the South of the U.S. is using water from urban centers to bring it to the fracking
locations, causing discussions about droughts and water availability in the community. In different
industries, the energy-water nexus has caused businesses to change their business processes. The
textile industry is dyeing without water, saving the water and, in addition, also energy as the textiles
do not need to be dried.
Benefit Rating: Moderate
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: ABB; Accenture; Adasa; Black & Veatch; Deloitte; Fujitsu; GE Energy
Connections; Hitachi; Siemens; thinkstep
Page 14 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Recommended Reading: “Market Trends: CSPs in Smart City Projects, Worldwide, 2016”
“Innovation Insight: Smart City Aligns Technology Innovation to Citizen Expectations”
“Digital Business Success Depends on Civilization Infrastructure: A Gartner Trend Insight Report”
Smart Monitoring for Public Infrastructures
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Definition: Smart monitoring for public infrastructures refers to a solution that utilizes Internet of
Things (IoT) technologies (including sensor devices and cloud-based big data analytics systems) to
improve both the quality and timeliness of monitoring the integrity of public infrastructures.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The integrity of many public infrastructures — such as
large-scale bridges, railroads (train tracks), tunnels and water facilities that were constructed more
than 50 years ago — must be carefully checked for signs of deterioration. Protecting citizens is a
crucial mission — and should be a priority — of city governments, while at the same time, reducing
maintenance and support costs of public infrastructures is also important. Indeed, accidents,
including fatal ones, have been caused in the world by the collapse of bridges and tunnels, as well
as by burst water pipes. City governments, especially in the developed countries where many public
infrastructures were constructed half a century ago, must quickly check the integrity of public
infrastructures, and they can do so with IoT-enabled smart monitoring solutions.
User Advice: CIOs in local government need to focus on how to communicate and justify asset
management and maintenance cost reduction for securing the integrity of public infrastructures for
citizens’ safety, but also how to navigate government investment. Build key performance indicators
for safety and security of public infrastructures, showing that citizens will not be harmed from
deteriorating infrastructures and that the city has strength — and higher resilience — against
disasters, such as big earthquakes. For example, cities could quickly secure the logistics of
transportation routes for relief materiel, as well as supply of water and energy. Public infrastructures
also play an important role in the development or revitalization of the local economy by providing
the local enterprises with good and safe logistics and water. However, monitoring the integrity of
public infrastructures today is completed primarily via manual inspections that are expensive for the
city governments that face tight budgets.
CIOs should consider smart monitoring solutions for asset management. The use of IoT
technologies, such as sensor devices, big data analytics and simulations, will help reduce costs (by
prioritizing the damaged parts that need repair and by providing preventive maintenance). It also will
contribute to improvement in terms of the quality of monitoring and, thus, the resolution of unsafe
infrastructures. These solutions also provide real-time or near-real-time data — in terms of status
and condition — much faster than today’s inspections carried out by trained people. A smart
monitoring solution is an effective way to improve the quality of monitoring, while at the same time,
reduce costs.
Business Impact: Smart monitoring solutions need a wide variety of domain technology and
knowledge, which include architecture and building engineering, and disaster and business
Page 15 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
continuity programs, in addition to IoT technologies to improve the efficiency and quality of the data
collected. How accurately and how quickly city leaders make decisions at the time of disasters is
critical to saving citizens and helping enterprises with their business.
City government officials and leaders must take a new approach in maintenance of public
infrastructures and make this a priority. With the implementation of smart monitoring solutions,
damaged or deteriorated infrastructures could be repaired before a disaster strikes. Securing the
integrity of infrastructures provides value not only to citizens, but also to city governments
responsible for providing, for example, water, electricity and safe roads.
Benefit Rating: Transformational
Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: 1-Page; Hitachi; IBM; NEC; NTT Data; Siemens; Thales Group
Recommended Reading: “Competitive Landscape of IoT Platform Vendors”
“Forecast: Internet of Things — Endpoints and Associated Services, Worldwide, 2016”
Smart Parking Strategies
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Definition: Smart parking strategies are based on using sensor data and social or crowdsourced
data to identify available and occupied parking spots, aggregate this information, and then offer it to
end users via web applications. These offerings include telematics and connected-vehicle services
(for example, those integrated in navigation solutions). Sensors can be installed in a parking surface
and/or in parking meters as well as in parking garages.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Smart parking strategies have advanced in the past
years from parking space management through sensors and an application toward a user
experience platform. It continues to attract the interest of a broad ecosystem of established IT
vendors, automotive companies, public agencies and startup companies. Consumer interest in such
applications and services is high because of the potential user benefits of enhancing the driving
experience as in time reduction to find parking and a broader visibility of parking options. Local
governments are using smart parking as part of their mobility strategy and ownership experience.
Westminster City Council in London is using parking sensors and real-time parking guidance to
reduce congestion and create a better citizen experience. Santa Monica and Boston in the U.S. are
using even a dynamic pricing based on the supply and demand of parking in conjunction with
congestion management or air pollution. Requirements for infrastructure and technology
investments, the development of new business models, and the need to offer reliable and
ubiquitous real-time parking information will take time to evolve. The adoption will vary in different
regions based on the autonomous and connected car experience in smart cities that is planning to
connect a vehicle autonomously to a parking availability. This vision will blur the ownership and
Page 16 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
implementation scenarios between local government and parking authority on the one hand, and
the automotive OEMs and third-party providers on the other.
User Advice: Local government CIOs have the ability to use smart parking apps in conjunction with
a smart transportation or mobility strategy to achieve initial proofs of concept with a tangible
outcome such as congestion reduction, parking maintenance reduction, efficient tracking of parking
violations and the entire driver choice environment. Government CIOs and authority management
should be aware that many different applications for route management, parking space reservations
and increasingly also mobility options are becoming available that, for the citizen, will lead to a maze
of applications, impairing the scale of the definition of real-time parking management within a
spatial and efficient vehicle density operations. Smart parking will evolve into intelligent street
strategies quickly, therefore, joining the smart streetlight, smart building and real estate
development including new automotive requirements such as electric charging. Examples show that
for DriveNow in Europe, smart parking and car sharing will become a driver choice for convenience
mobility, so CIOs need to ensure that data and service management or also API development is
interoperable. Some open data resources will be utilized by noninstitutional API developers to
create additional social and commercial opportunities for location differentiation for a street,
neighborhood or region. Automotive organizations, service providers, IT providers and government
bodies should prioritize real-time-parking-related investments because of their high potential to
reduce congestion, decrease fuel consumption and increase local merchant business. In addition to
the technological challenges, companies also need to realize the importance of addressing
business-related aspects, such as the need to develop business models among multiple
organizations (for example, the parking garage owner, parking application provider, navigation
service provider and automaker).
Business Impact: Real-time parking can lead to new revenue sources and optimized resource
management for cities, solution providers and end users (for example, drivers and fleet operators).
Since parking searches contribute to at least a third of all traffic congestion in downtown, the
hidden cost of air pollution, productivity losses based on time wasted, as well as fuel savings and
road safety will be a big benefit. Vision Zero as a traffic safety management vision also includes
smart parking and different road design options that include new design for parking bays and
autonomous car options. Since parking enforcement is mostly done via parking attendants, there
will be a new form of automation in the enforcement through license plate recognition, mobile
applications for payment as well as crowdsourced parking fee assessment. While those methods
may temporarily reduce the revenue based on fines, it will also, in the midterm, improve the user
satisfaction of pedestrians and drivers, offsetting those losses with potential higher real estate
prices, increased frequency of pedestrians using streets and therefore improving the revenue
potential for retail and hospitality. Climate change and air quality measures also will benefit from
smart parking.
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: 5% to 20% of target audience
Maturity: Adolescent
Page 17 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Sample Vendors: Google; Here Technologies; IBM; Parking Panda; Parkopedia; ParkWhiz;
Streetline
Recommended Reading: “Innovation Insight: Smart City Aligns Technology Innovation to Citizen
Expectations”
“Market Trends: CSPs in Smart City Projects, Worldwide, 2016”
“Industry Vision: Digitalizing Engagements Evolve the Automotive Industry Toward Mobility”
Connected Home
Analysis by: Fernando Elizalde
Definition: A connected home is networked to enable the interconnection and interoperability of
multiple devices, services and apps, ranging from communications and entertainment to healthcare,
security and home automation. These services and apps are delivered over numerous interlinked
and integrated devices, sensors, tools and platforms. Contextual, real-time smart experiences are
provided at the local or cloud level, enabling individuals and other connected services in the
household to control and monitor the home remotely, as well as within it.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The connected home is a concept that overarches
several technologies, devices, applications, services and industries. As such, it is defined in this
technology profile to provide a framework for the Hype Cycle of the same name.
The concept has evolved has evolved to include, without being exhaustive:
■
Media entertainment
■
Home security
■
Monitoring and automation
■
Energy management products and services
■
Health and fitness
■
Education
Solutions have become less expensive, largely because of:
■
The commoditization of components and the enablement of cloud integration, bringing down
costs to technology providers
■
The maturity of access technologies (such as broadband, Wi-Fi and 4G)
■
The standardization of radio technologies, including low-energy networking standards (such as
Bluetooth low energy [LE], ZigBee and Z-Wave), allowing for low-cost wireless connectivity in
any device in the home
■
The simplification of user interfaces
Page 18 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
The connected home is evolving into the rendering of increasingly intelligent systems, which, by
using smart learning algorithms and predictive analytics, deliver smart home experiences. Although
adoption differs by regions and countries within regions, in the last 18 months the introduction of
voice as interface has accelerated adoption. This is resulting in a rapid progress along the Hype
Cycle. However, market fragmentation and dynamism in the market somewhat hinder faster
consumer adoption. Among other things, consumers may be wary of spending on solutions that
may soon become obsolete or whose value is not well-communicated by the vendors.
User Advice: The market is seeing a fast migration from closed and semiopen to open ecosystems
and “certified” ecosystems through cloud integration and open API adoption. Open ecosystems are
shaping up around Amazon’s Echo and Alexa voice services, the Works with Nest program, Google
Home and Apple’s HomeKit. In view of these developments:
■
Develop partnership strategies to build your existing expertise in devices, services and
customer relationships. Provide a unified user experience and compelling integrated connectedhome solutions across products, brands and platforms.
■
Partner with software providers for a unified platform. Base your solutions on standardized
protocols and home gateways to speed up market adoption.
■
Open up APIs and make products work with market-leading connected home ecosystems in
order to take advantage of the network effect that will happen.
■
If you are a single solution vendor, don’t lose focus on your own brand recognition while
partnering with home ecosystems.
■
Offer ease of use and reasonable hardware costs, differentiating the quality of experience on the
services you have on offer by providing efficient support.
■
Provide real value and disruptive solutions to the consumer, rather than a novelty or just
aesthetics.
■
Go beyond the programmable home and plan adding intelligence by using machine-learning
capabilities that create and shape a “learning” home that will deliver the intelligent home.
Business Impact: Connected-home solutions affect a wide spectrum of manufacturers (of white
goods, entertainment electronics and home automation, security, and fitness and health products),
as well as providers of network infrastructure and services, ranging from energy utilities and
surveillance to healthcare, insurance, communications and digital entertainment.
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: 5% to 20% of target audience
Maturity: Adolescent
Sample Vendors: ADT; Amazon; Apple; AT&T; Belkin; Deutsche Telekom; Google; Insteon;
Samsung Electronics; Vivint
Page 19 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Recommended Reading: “Market Trends: The Connected Home, 2017”
“Cool Vendors in the Connected Home, 2017”
“Survey Analysis: Connected Home Solutions Remain in the Early Adopter Stage”
“Survey Analysis: Connected Home Solution Opportunities — Home Owners Versus Renters”
“Innovation Insight for Connected Homes for P&C Insurance”
“Google Home — What the Launch Means for Connected Home Providers”
Internet of Things
Analysis by: Alfonso Velosa; Nathan Nuttall; Mark Hung
Definition: The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of dedicated physical objects that contain
embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the
external environment. IoT comprises an ecosystem that includes endpoints, communication
protocols, applications, data and analytics. IoT is a core building block for digital business and
digital business platforms.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Enterprises vary widely in their IoT adoption, ranging
from users who are not familiar or do not use IoT (the most common situation) to sophisticated
organizations that are transforming their business models with IoT (a minority of companies). Use
cases range from incremental benefits (for example, asset optimization) to transformative benefits
(for example, product as a service). The more developed use cases are typically found in industrial
markets, where IoT ROI is more easily calculated from high-value assets.
Better and less expensive technologies, the proliferating number of vendors, a growing
understanding of diverse IoT value propositions, and the ease of experimentation are factors that
have had a positive impact in accelerating IoT’s adoption. Conversely, immature IoT solutions,
security concerns, end-to-end integration challenges and unclear business ROI have impeded its
adoption. While we see no slowdown in the hype, we have moved the profile’s position to starting
to descend from the peak into the trough, as enterprises face increasing challenges implementing
IoT solutions that deliver value.
User Advice: Since IoT projects touch so many roles in the organization, these stakeholders will
need to respond to IoT opportunities in different ways. Use the following points to guide your
actions:
■
Start small, experiment and look to other industries and ecosystem partners for ideas.
■
Build business cases with ROI extending across core business processes.
■
Engage your customers in the solution development. Use prototypes to help explore
opportunities.
Page 20 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
■
Ensure the architecture teams are ready to incorporate IoT across the IT and operational
technology portfolio. Increase your capabilities to leverage big data cost-effectively.
■
Plan to invest in skills and technology to support IoT platform and IoT software and data
integration, analytics, and managed security solutions.
■
Select your technology and service providers based on both their technology stack, and also
their ecosystem of partners.
■
Ensure the end-to-end compliance of your IoT solution to relevant legislative and verticalspecific standardization bodies for global scalability and business model design.
■
Establish a roadmap to address business processes and culture change in alignment with IoT
implementations to ensure successful outcomes.
■
Determine whether your IoT solution introduces new data ethics issues — for example, who has
the rights to IoT data, what form of right-to-repair issues you’ll support, and so forth.
Business Impact: IoT has business transformation and evolutionary impact for most enterprises.
IoT projects will impact most enterprises’ competitive position, product development strategies and
internal operations. Connected things will help drive revenue, lower costs, and improve enterprise
processes and asset utilization in one, or a mix, of these usage scenarios:
■
Improve operations: Better productivity; increased efficiency, logistics and coordination
■
Optimize assets: Asset utilization, health monitoring, reliability, predictive maintenance and
asset performance management
■
Enhance services: Remote monitoring, proactive maintenance and better warranties
■
Generate revenue: Improved products, usage-based pricing and monetizing IoT data
■
Increase engagement: Improved experiences of consumers, citizens and others in order to
improve loyalty and increase customer lifetime value
■
Improve well-being: Wellness, longevity and care delivery for a better quality of life
■
Provide security: Protection of physical assets as well as safety of people to reduce risk
■
Conserve resources: Energy efficiency and pollution reduction
Benefit Rating: Transformational
Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Accenture; GE; Hitachi; HPE; IBM; Microsoft; Qualcomm; Siemens; Vodafone;
Wipro
Recommended Reading: “Use the IoT Platform Reference Model to Plan Your IoT Business
Solutions”
Page 21 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
“Survey Analysis: 2016 Internet of Things Backbone Survey”
“Essential Competencies for Deploying Enterprise IoT”
“Maturity Model for the Internet of Things”
“Internet of Things Primer for 2017”
Smart City Framework
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Definition: A smart city framework is launched by city or local governments and regional
jurisdictions to develop a life cycle approach of urban governance to improve its citizens’ life,
stimulate its economy, and protect its environment. In the essence, it creates a virtual or physical
platform of engagement between government entities, citizen groups, entrepreneurs and
businesses to create an efficient and user ambient quality of life.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The speed of smart city adoption will require city
stakeholders, including local government, citizen organizations and businesses, to build a vision
and governance toward a design, implementation and operations roadmap and to measure those
for accountability. The smart city framework determines the data exchange and information required
to build user ambient services and experiences. In this sense government needs to drive more usecase-focused service delivery through a host of interactive means of open data portals, visualization
and application interfaces as well as unified user IDs. User-driven experiences by information
analysis and data mining that are creating the city and, therefore, citizen-specific (residential and
business) context.
Business analytics will evaluate the data quality, integrity and privacy, and the data’s reference to
citizen and city operations’ use cases and applications. It will generate the perspective on which
objectives are meaningful and how to measure those objectives. With the proliferation of smart
machines and the Internet of Things architecture, smart cities will need to implement intelligentmachine-learning capabilities to enable the extraction of valuable information. Smart city
governance will drive all the projects that will contribute to the smart and integrated city and urban
environments. This is why the time to plateau is a long-term one, as there will be distinguished
pathways on how to reach a governance maturity level and scalability.
User Advice: For city CIOs and IT leadership it is critical to operate and manage the city perception
of residential and business citizens by linking the citizens’ personalized context of, for instance,
safety, air quality and standard of living, to metrics on pollution through commuter traffic, highway
congestion and fossil fuel plants. Therefore, local public-sector IT leaders should not only focus on
the measurements of smart city infrastructure performance (such as traffic velocity, revenue per
parking vehicle and cost savings through mobile applications), but also focus on determining the
citizen satisfaction quotient and providing a satisfactory communications and feedback cycle to the
citizens. It is also critical to understand that CIOs may choose to share their insights and data
orchestration with other cities or regional partners, in order to create a synchronized network of best
practices for cities avoiding the duplication of infrastructure, IoT platforms or data analytics.
Page 22 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Create a technology inventory that will support the set of objectives, as well as the information and
data exchange requirements for the city, as well as the private public initiatives. Include data and
information models from the British Standards Institute (BSI), International Telecommunication
Union (ITU)-T, ISO 37120, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14031:2013 or
Hypercat to build metrics and benchmarks that can be compared and technology that is
standardized for the delivery of those methodologies for all business models.
Business leaders should harness the opportunity of the data that will be made available to optimize
their business model. This could lead, for example, to financial or insurance sectors establishing risk
factors to help assess premiums for property insurance and traffic accidents. It could also help in
analyzing user behavior data gathered through different sensors. In addition, business leaders
should also develop new business ecosystems in cities by creating a more-interactive and adaptive
value chain that is driven by real-time or near-real-time information enriched by location, social
content and the infrastructure data. In many emerging countries, local government leaders are
working closely together to develop industrial zones or new greenfield cities, creating an innovation
hub for the deployment of new technologies as well as data environments.
Business Impact: The digital business impact can be transformational for city leadership and both
residential and enterprise citizen groups. The residential and business citizens also collect and
socialize information that can complement or — in some cases — be even more valuable than
information collected through infrastructure owned and managed by the city government or other
enterprises involved in city service delivery and operations. The blending of smart data will add to
the privacy and safety discussions in specific use cases, all the way up to local government.
Technology approaches, such as cloud and big data management, will challenge the perception of
security in storage and management of data, so a data vault and trust factors must be conveyed
through active communication. The business impact of a smart city framework is driven by the
ability to automate and deliver better service experiences, as well as by how well citizens feel
recognized in their desire to innovate their city and how safe their data will be. Open data portals
and data marketplaces will provide a transformational access to urban context that will be used to
drive more use case and user-specific ambient services, including demographic changes, digital
skill as well as knowledge exchange and sustainability-related ambience.
Benefit Rating: Transformational
Market Penetration: 5% to 20% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Accenture; Arup; Cisco; Fujitsu; Hitachi; IBM; Microsoft; SAP; Schneider Electric;
Siemens
Recommended Reading: “Innovation Insight: Smart City Aligns Technology Innovation and Citizen
Inclusion”
“Industry Vision: The Local Government Data Marketplace Will Be an Engine of Community
Innovation”
Page 23 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Smart Transportation
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan; Nathan Nuttall
Definition: Smart transportation is a framework describing the movement of people and assets by
modes including vehicles, planes, trains, ships, and bikes. Transportation becomes smart as it locks
into and leverages an information and process enriched environment in order to move passengers
or assets as efficiently as possible. This involves intelligent, real-time, context-aware data exchange
and service offerings between conveyances, operators, passengers, assets, routes, timing, and
traffic patterns for both consumer and industrial applications.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Smart transportation is a demand-based mobility
concept that optimizes modes of transportation in the most efficient, sustainable and autonomous
ways possible. While smart transportation covers all types of transport regardless of geography
(e.g., seaports, airports, train infrastructure and roadways), much of the focus of smart
transportation is in the context of smart cities initiatives. Smart cities illustrate compelling
transportation benefits by leveraging contextual information about residents, businesses, and
mobility needs mapped against real-time data like time of day, number of vehicles and travelers,
pricing of road traffic per time of day and user, and environmental impacts (e.g., pollution, noise,
productivity, perceptions of environmental quality). New transportation models including electric
vehicles (EVs), ride/car sharing, and tax-incentivized fleets and car pools are becoming more
prevalent. Smart transportation is located post the Peak of Inflated Expectations and is accelerating
as EVs and smart city initiatives become more widely adopted.
User Advice: CIOs in public transport and traffic agencies need to support an operations platform
for many different suboperations of public transport and traffic management to enable control and
management processes. Those processes hinge on the ability to monitor efficiently assets like
roads, parking bays, rail and roadway signals and congestion scenarios in real time, and enable
process changes based on predictive analytics.
CIOs in the public sector must execute on the new mobility service expectations of citizens and
build customer service and application engagement platforms that optimize the experiences of
multiple constituents (e.g., a commuter, a logistics firm, a car-sharing operator). They need to
service the overall goal of journey mapping individual use cases across roadways, rail lines, foot and
bike traffic and signaling infrastructure. They must offer real-time transportation options and journey
recommendations given the current state of congestion, user context and location-based events.
CIOs of industrial organizations including logistics and supply chain, fleet management, as well as
logistics centers close to urban environments such as airports, industrial parks and harbors should
evaluate the productivity gains leading to improved fuel efficiency, route/schedule optimization,
lower CO2 emissions and reduction of fleet maintenance.
CIOs will have to discuss the issue of data ownership and privacy when smart transportation and
traffic management will tap into the resource data from vehicles and their onboard systems. While
those datasets are critical to creating more contextualized service offerings, they can also be
misaligned to infringe on privacy or data protection.
Page 24 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Business Impact: Smart transportation impacts numerous market segments, from smart city
initiatives to industrial verticals like mining & natural resources to core transportation (e.g., cars,
trucks, heavy equipment, trains, plane, ships) markets. With new technologies such as connected x,
virtual reality and shared economies, we will see usage models changing. Smart transportation will
broadly impact efficiency and effectiveness, mobility options, economic development, safety,
security, population urbanization, proximity of people’s homes to work, and climate change
initiatives. Improvements in public transportation will reduce the number of registered private
vehicles, as users move to public options. However, as the number of parked cars goes down, so
would city revenue from parking. As more autonomous vehicles come online, city revenue from
traffic citations will drop. This could be offset by productivity gains from city assets and cost savings
from reduced infrastructure wear and tear, but cities and organizations must carefully consider these
implications.
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: 5% to 20% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: CVIC Software Engineering; Fujitsu; Hitachi; IBM; Reply; Siemens Mobility;
Streetline; Tecsidel; Worldsensing
Recommended Reading: “Innovation Insight: Smart City Aligns Technology Innovation to Citizen
Expectation”
Sliding Into the Trough
Water Management
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Definition: Water management describes a solution approach that uses information, Internet of
Things (IoT), analytics and operational technologies, and applications to holistically monitor, analyze
and manage water quantity and quality, as well as water events throughout the hydrological cycle.
Water management solutions include water sourcing and rainfall forecasting, groundwater
monitoring, water analysis for water supply, water treatment plants, and wastewater treatment
facilities.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Water management requires a differentiated set of
technology and service skills to cater effectively for:
■
The different usage patterns in distribution for residential and commercial customers
■
Water pollution and recycling
■
Natural disasters (such as flooding or drought)
Page 25 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
These skill sets include reporting and management tools for infrastructure and sensors, database
and information aggregation, as well as assessment tools. System integration to connect physical
infrastructure, including water meters and remote water sensors in dams and levees, is key to
acquiring comprehensive datasets in real time for analysis and forecast. In addition, many
deployments require consulting to develop processes and management blueprints.
The overall topic of water management is still in the emerging phase of grid discussion, and with
priorities being shifted by regional or national basis, the topic has captured the attention of industry
players due to government initiatives, as well as the pricing development of water — once meters
are installed that monitor true consumption. The hype of water management on the quality and cost
issue has passed the peak, while the emergency response around water crisis in drought or flooding
relative to shifts in weather patterns has still captured businesses from a risk perspective. Overall,
water management is closing down on the Hype Cycle globally. However, in regions such as the
Middle East, India and Southeast Asia as well as China, distribution and availability of water
represent a macroeconomic issue that remains close to the peak. In fact, in terms of the challenges
related to orchestrate around stakeholders, the management principles of water pricing and cost
modelling, and water management is still very close to the position as in 2016.
User Advice: Users (industries) and suppliers (municipalities) need to evaluate the implementation
of data management and analytics for their water infrastructure and water quality, particularly when
they must report or comply with increasing wastewater regulations, while improving efficiency and
reducing waste disposal costs. Especially in the emerging scenarios of smart city planning, the
build-out of smart grid and meter data management, together with water management data
analytics, can provide a real-time view of natural or managed hydrological resource consumption.
Intelligent water meters on the consumers’ premises enable water suppliers and municipalities to
monitor consumption and create incentives for more efficient water usage, as well as identify
potential customer service problems due to poor water pressure or quality. Remember to implement
security standards into the water management process, the physical infrastructure and the privacy
policy on consumer data. For municipal water utilities or sewage plants, water management
dashboards will assist in providing real-time data on water quality. In addition, sensor-based water
management systems can detect water leakages in dams and pipes, especially projection flooding
or contamination situations for heavy rainfalls or during monsoon season. In the broader context of
water management, IT professionals in utility or municipal context need to include the opportunity to
develop an adaptive and flexible water management strategy based on intelligent information
received and analyzed from environmental sensor and satellite networks, smart water meters, and
deep computing and analytics engines.
Business Impact: Consolidating previously fragmented data points and tools to manage and
control water issues, from supply to reuse and recycling, is providing water suppliers and
municipalities with the ability to reduce costs. It also improves the interface between asset tools for
pumping stations, meters and monitors, as well as improving customer service with fewer water
supply failures and better water quality. From a data analytics perspective, it is key to understand
the different proprietary datasets in operational technology (OT) to gain insights into grid
architecture and water quality. Partnerships with IT and water operations have to be built to connect
the different data and information sources for a consistent analytics framework. As data will be the
driving source for business models, it will be important to build financial models with asset
Page 26 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
management and new service models, especially in smart ecosystems — including cities.
Leveraging geospatial and hydrological models will assist with the right workforce allocation, but
also with water rationing and quality control. It also supports the scenario planning for communities
that need to manage competing interest groups or disaster preparedness (including coastal
fortifications and floodwater diversion systems).
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: ABB; Adasa; Atos; Ecology Examination; GE; IBM; Kisters; Schneider Electric;
Seams
Recommended Reading: “Forecast Overview: Industrial Electronics and Semiconductors,
Worldwide, 2017 Update”
“Market Trends: CSPs in Smart City Projects, Worldwide, 2016”
Car-Sharing Services
Analysis by: Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Definition: Car-sharing services are an advanced version of car rental services, where people rent
cars for short periods of time (for example, hourly). Through a web or mobile portal, the service
requestor can locate an available vehicle in real time and check statistics on it. The organization
renting the vehicles is typically a commercial business or automotive OEM, but could also consist of
a cooperative, public agency or a peer-to-peer car-sharing service in addition to brokerage
platforms.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Automotive companies and startups continue to enter
this space or quickly expand their offerings in response to consumer interest, as alternatives to
traditional vehicle ownership or transportation needs. Automakers, in particular, view car-sharing
services as a way to hedge their bets in an increasingly metropolitan world and with changing
consumer interests. The expanding growth of mobile and wireless technologies, as well as
smartphone and in-vehicle technologies, is enabling a technology infrastructure that simplifies the
booking, renting and processing for car-sharing offerings.
Renting vehicles for a short time is attractive to customers who make only occasional use of a
vehicle, extending the last mile from the point of public transportation hub, or have needs for
specific vehicle types. Car-sharing services are typically offered in larger cities and metropolitan
areas, but are increasingly also looking for “moments of mobility needs” when consumers travel, for
example. Adoption in cities varies based on the user identification with vehicles and status of
owning versus sharing assets; expect different user adoption in Europe versus Middle East and
Africa. Adoption also increases with the reputation of choice of vehicles, e.g., DriveNow with Mini
Coopers and BMW electric cars. Technology is used to enable users to access a vehicle (for
Page 27 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
example, unlocking the door via a phone), billing and location-based services, including finding an
available vehicle online, reserving it via a phone and tracking it during the drive to define the dropoff point for the next user.
Increased rollouts by companies continue to be built into customer experience services, as
witnessed through smart city applications, and also mobility solution providers that offer ride
sharing or car sharing. As a consequence, some market consolidation is expected.
User Advice: CIOs should consider car-sharing services as one element in offering new mobility
solutions to consumers and businesses that go beyond traditional car ownership. Explore
partnership opportunities with existing rental car companies, insurance providers and technology
companies to define, manage and market car-sharing programs. Evaluate potential advertisingsupported pricing schemes in return for lower usage fees.
Especially from a talent management perspective, new mobility concepts, including car sharing, are
driving the environmental and social agility concerns of the new millennial workforce. Car sharing
and ride sharing are community-driven commuting approaches and represent not only convenience,
but also a life style, especially in the smart city concept. Plan to provide tools and applications that
support this user behavior and explore together with fleet and logistics management how to
connect vehicles with the driver for the management of the car-sharing environment, including
liability and insurance concerns.
Orchestration of car-sharing and ride-sharing meet-up requires location-based, geospatial and
personal data alignment. Ensure that the data environment is well protected and that identity
management is consistently exercised.
Government CIOs need to understand the ecosystem environment that mobility and car sharing will
play in, especially when car OEMs like BMW Group or Honda Motors are building their own
automotive platforms with a service view, not a vehicle dimension. Therefore, data exchange will be
generated around the different value aspects generated from location, driving behavior and driver
profile. Communication of user experience in smart city is critical not just from a mobility experience
standpoint, but also in the ability to have mobility options for shared access.
Business Impact: Car-sharing services can offer new revenue sources to automotive companies,
especially in metropolitan areas and for consumer segments that don’t want to spend a large
amount of their assets on automobiles. It also triggers a transformation from owning vehicles to
sharing the experience of mobility. That means that car-related services will be crowdsourced,
pushing the life cycle of vehicle ownership experience from the OEM to the service industry. Data
for car-sharing and ride-sharing environments will become very valuable to different constituents,
starting from insurance to urban management to real estate construction for new parking lots and
electric vehicle charging bays. Cities will be using car-sharing data, especially as vehicles will
become autonomous or connected and interact in real time with urban infrastructure. Business
models will change for cities and service providers when autonomous vehicles in car-sharing modes
actually drive elderly or users with disability, as well as children in a concierge setting.
Benefit Rating: High
Page 28 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Market Penetration: 20% to 50% of target audience
Maturity: Adolescent
Sample Vendors: car2go; DriveNow; Getaround; Local Motion; Lyft; Sixt; Turo; Uber; Zipcar
Recommended Reading: “Industry Vision: Digitalizing Engagements Evolve the Automotive
Industry Toward Mobility”
“How to Incorporate a Smart City Perspective Into the Autonomous Driving Journey”
Home Energy Management
Analysis by: Kathie M Hackler
Definition: Home energy management (HEM) uses automation to optimize residential energy
consumption and production using interconnected energy management devices. Components
include in-home displays, smart thermostats, home-area networks (HANs) for connecting
components and user interface components. HEM can connect to utility systems via home internet
connections, stand-alone gateways or smart meter consumer gateways.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Industries with more experience delivering technology
to consumers than utilities are now driving market evolution, including communications service
providers delivering HEM as a feature in smart home offerings (with home security, fire safety and
other features), and major players like Google, Apple and Amazon too have each launched
competing connected home solutions. As smaller players exit the market, the HEM market is
consolidating through selective acquisitions of more promising vendors, including by a few utilities
seeking differentiation in contestable markets such as British Gas, which acquired AlertMe.
Several energy retailers in competitive markets now offer HEM in limited configurations to
differentiate services.
User Advice: As HEM goes more mainstream, utility CIOs and IT leaders should:
■
Focus on interoperability with market-leading devices to enable energy efficiency and demandresponse programs. Key standards include Smart Energy Profile 2 (SEP 2) and Open Automated
Demand Response (OpenADR).
■
Focus on back-end systems and avoid or limit direct investments in consumer technology.
Instead, extend utility back-end systems via APIs to become a part of major consumer vendors’
ecosystems.
■
Prepare utility systems to support HEM, including providing access to their consumption data
via web portals and popular consumer devices such as smartphones and tablets. A “bring your
own smart thermostat program” to support communications with smart thermostats is a
strategy to consider to capture demand response.
Page 29 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Utilities aggressively pursuing residential demand response should consider HEM as enabling
technology. Energy retailers in contestable energy markets, such as EMEA or Australia/New
Zealand, should also consider HEM as a means to differentiate their offerings.
Business Impact: HEM solutions are relevant for demand-side management functions including
energy efficiency and demand-response programs. Various demand-response pilot projects have
identified favorable incremental peak reduction contributions from programmable communicating
thermostats connected to utility systems. Results from in-home display trials for demand response
and energy efficiency are mixed. HEM can also help differentiate competitive energy retailers.
Benefit Rating: Moderate
Market Penetration: 5% to 20% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Aclara; Comcast; Control4; Cuculus; EcoFactor; Google; Honeywell; Itron; Onzo
Recommended Reading: “Market Trends: The Connected Home, 2017”
“Cool Vendors in the Connected Home, 2017”
“Competitive Landscape: Connected Home Ecosystems, 2016”
“The Connected Home Is Transforming Into a Programmable Platform”
“Top 10 Trends Shaping the 2017 Utility Industry on the Road to Digital Business”
Consumer Energy Storage
Analysis by: Zarko Sumic
Definition: Consumer energy storage (as opposed to provider energy storage) is a consumerdeployed energy storage technology, originally aimed at providing “ride-through” for momentary
outages, as well as extended protection during longer outages. Currently, on-site storage is used in
combination with on-site renewable resources to mitigate inherent intermittency, and to increase the
value of rooftop solar- and wind-generated electricity, enabling prosumers to maximize economic
benefits when exchanging energy with the grid.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The need to integrate consumer-owned renewable
generation into delivery networks, and the need to increase customer ride-through resilience during
major power disturbances, will promote energy storage technologies that increase reliability and
empower consumers. In addition, entry of the consumer technology vendors and EV car battery
manufacturer creates economies of scale, and makes on-site storage technology more available
and affordable with positive impact on technology adoption.
The price for on-site battery is a critical gating factor for technology adoption, combined with stable
long-term regulatory models, that will allow investment recovery for consumers through guaranteed
rates and credits. Adoption of the electric vehicle can offer additional means of consumer energy
Page 30 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
storage. However, the slow pace of vehicle-to-grid development and costly battery deterioration
through frequent charging and discharging makes it an unattractive option for owners at this point.
The significant movement (hype) has been seen following the Tesla Gigafactory announcement and
its consumer storage offering, Powerwall, which stated a 30% reduction in price based on
economies of scale and use of same battery technology for its automobile and related solar
business. The aggressive marketing to offer consumer storage batteries (assembled and packaged
differently) to address capacity shortage in some market such as South Australia has increased
technology visibility and demand, and contributed to its aggressive movement toward the Trough of
Disillusionment.
User Advice: More participatory consumer engagement models and energy technology
consumerization in the energy utility sector have presented new opportunities to apply a variety of
storage devices for consumer energy management, particularly in the fields of renewable energy
and distributed generation. Utility company CIOs should evaluate the effect of wider deployment of
residential energy storage technology as part of the energy technology consumerization trend.
Consumer deployment of on-site energy storage and the introduction of that storage into utility
networks are analogous to IT consumerization in the past decade — that is, the introduction of
consumer-owned technology into corporate IT networks and applications. Utility CIOs should
leverage lessons learned from IT consumerization to ease the disruptive effects of energy
technology consumerization, as well as foster the inclusion of consumer-owned energy technology
into energy markets.
Business Impact: Consumer implementation of on-site energy storage enables consumers to
participate more actively in energy markets — particularly when combined with on-site renewable
sources to optimize energy efficiency. Used jointly with on-site generation, consumer energy storage
is a key component of distributed energy resources, which transforms the utility delivery
infrastructure from a centrally controlled radial network to a locally controlled geodesic network.
As a critical technology that enables active consumer participation in energy markets, residential
energy storage will affect the retail and distribution domains of the energy value chain. It will also
affect operational technologies in the distribution domain, as well as legacy IT applications in the
revenue management and commodity management areas.
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: NEC; NGK; Sandia National Laboratories; Tesla; Tripp Lite
Recommended Reading: “Top 10 Trends Shaping the 2017 Utility Industry on the Road to Digital
Business”
“Business Moment: Home Energy Management and Electric Vehicles Rescue the Power Grid”
Page 31 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
“Energy Technology Consumerization: The Quest for Lean and Green”
“Innovation Insight: Smart Grid Drives Innovation in the Utility Sector”
Emissions Position Management
Analysis by: Nicole Foust
Definition: Emissions position management solutions for greenhouse gases (GHGs) are used to
track emissions, manage any related emissions certificates and record associated trades. Basic
emissions-monitoring solutions map the volume and type of fuel used in generation units, as well as
factors associated with the unit’s operation, to assess the emissions. More complete solutions
provide reports for verification purposes and can factor in market prices for emissions to provide a
financial perspective.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Many generators with fossil fuel assets track
emissions and manage United Nations-approved emissions certificate inventories using
spreadsheet-based solutions. Some enterprises use environmental, health and safety (EH&S)
solutions for emissions position management. Where a cap-and-trade market for GHGs exists, the
use of energy trading and risk management (ETRM) platforms to manage certificate inventories and
record-related trades continues to grow. GHGs include carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide
and particulates. Stack-monitoring solutions can be used to assist in managing emissions position
data.
The uptake of EH&S; governance, risk and compliance; and ETRM solutions for emissions position
management and reporting is growing among energy companies and utilities. Emissions and
environmental concerns remain high on their lists of priorities and risks. This is also true of other
sectors, thereby driving investment in emissions management and sustainability solutions. This
interest has helped improve the functional coverage, but emissions management is still a
developing market, as are the national and regional policies in these areas.
User Advice: Utility CIOs should examine EH&S solutions to determine whether GHG monitoring
functionality is available and can be applied to fossil-fuel-generation operations. Most ETRM
vendors now offer certificate inventory management capabilities, as well as explore the possibilities
of migrating certificate management and trading to any ETRM platform. This may enable enterprises
to consolidate emissions position management and trading activities onto a single platform. Ensure
that the accountability for the production and control of emissions-related information is
documented and understood.
Business Impact: The primary affected area is the supply domain, with impacts on environmental
compliance and ETRM functions. Because these documents can involve multiple inputs from
separate business functions, there is the risk of user error. Given such risk, CIOs and IT leaders
should be active in monitoring the process of emissions report production.
Benefit Rating: Moderate
Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience
Page 32 of 51
Gartner, Inc. | G00314631
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
This research note is restricted to the personal use of creaseyw@ecu.edu.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Allegro Development; Environmental Systems Corp.; FIS (SunGard); IHS Markit;
Locus Technologies; OpenLink; Triple Point Technology; Verisae
Recommended Reading: “The Survivalist Scenario for Utilities Requires CIOs to Extend and
Enhance Core Systems”
“European Union Emission Trading Scheme: Survey of End-User Systems”
“Carbon Dioxide Value Chain: Start With the Stakeholders”
IT/OT Integration
Analysis by: Kristian Steenstrup
Definition: IT/OT integration is the process of reaching an end state sought by asset-intensive
digital business where, instead of separate IT and OT environments, they are interwoven so that
data may pass from one to the other with an integrated process and information flow.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Few organizations have a mature, systemic approach
to IT/OT integration. For most, there may be touchpoints and interfaces, but IT and OT have
traditionally been managed by separate groups with different approaches to technology and
different vendors in use. Integration can be initiated by IT departments; however, business units will
seek integration when faced with challenges such as dealing with cybersecurity, rising support
costs, safety concerns, disaster recovery or software administration.
User Advice: Evaluate the IT/OT integration potential, challenges and benefits in your specific
industry. Achieve consensus across groups and with senior management, and create an alignment
activity first. Then, progressively add a more integrated approach to technology, regardless of
whether it is IT or OT. This integration should extend at least to data exchange and platform
maintenance, with particular attention paid to communications, cybersecurity and enterprise
architecture. …
Purchase answer to see full
attachment