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BEST INNOVATIVE UTILITY ANALYTICS TEAM

This award recognizes teams that have set and achieved the highest standards of excellence in utility analytics for problem solving in innovative ways and takes the time to instill that culture in their employees. Nominees must demonstrate how their organization best leverages its analytics staff, practices and approaches, and technology to drive innovation to accomplish strategic business objectives. They must be able to show how well new approaches and/or technology are defined and executed or improved to create innovative solutions/uses cases or innovative approaches to problems.

Judging is based on the following elements: 

  • Clear vision, mission, and strategy for the analytics team, and alignment with the business’ goals and strategy, plus a thoughtful and strategic philosophy around analytics
  • Examples of NEW approaches and technology executions and/or IMPROVEMENTS to practices and technology that lead to one of the following innovation solutions/use cases:
    • A favorable outcome, like a high return on investment (ROI), improved efficiency/reliability/sustainability, increased safety, reduction in risk, etc.
    • A new/innovative approach to an old or common problem
  • Evidence of a strategic methodology for measuring and communicating a successful analytics program to employees, management, and other key stakeholders within the utility
  • Evidence of effective coaching, training, and ongoing development of staff for integration of an innovative analytics initiative within the organization
  • High employee engagement and satisfaction, and representation of teamwork
  • Evidence of a strategic approach to managing cost reduction, reliability, and customer engagement using analytics
  • Before-and-after evidence of the business impact of the organization’s innovative analytics initiative 

NOMINATION QUESTIONS:

1. Organization Description

  • Company Information
    • Company or organization name
    • Department or utility analytics organization name
    • Mailing address, city, state/province, country
    • Contact(s): if there is more than one contact for this application, please provide the following information for each contact.
      • Name
      • Title
      • Phone Number
      • Email address
      • Role in your organization
  • Company Overview
    • Describe the scope of the organization
      • Utility Service Type(s) (Electric, Gas, Water, etc.)
      • Utility Type (Government owned, IOU, member-owned)
      • Size of Utility by Number of Employees
      • Number of Utility Customers
      • Number of Meters
      • Geographic region(s) served
      • Any other pertinent information about your organization that you feel is relevant to describing your scope
    • An overview of your organization, including: (max 1000 words)
      • Your organization’s vision, mission, business goals, and strategy.
      • Your utility analytics team’s vision, mission, goals, and strategy.
      • Describe how your team’s vision, mission, goals, and strategy align with the overall business’ goals and strategy.
      • Describe your team’s philosophy around analytics.
    • An introduction to your team and organizational structure
    • A legal and/or marketing-approved boilerplate about your organization
    • A high-resolution company logo (EPS format preferred)

2. People, Practices/Approaches, Technology, Communication, and Customer Engagement/Experience (Remember to provide specific examples and evidence when describing the items in your answers for the below sub-sections!)

  • Describe your approaches and technology, and how they are executed and/or improved, to develop innovative solutions/use cases that resulted in one of the following (max 1000 words):
    • A favorable outcome, like high return on investment (ROI), improved efficiency/reliability/sustainability, increased safety, reduction in risk, etc.
    • A new and innovative approach to an old or common problem
  • Describe your methodology for measuring and communicating a successful analytics program to employees, management, and other key stakeholders. Explain the approach, the measurement, the scoring, and the reporting. Include a reference to the metrics that are a component of the program. (max 1000 words)
  • Describe how your organization effectively coaches, trains, and/or provides ongoing development of staff for a successful integration of an analytics initiative within the utility. Describe how you promote and measure employee engagement and share evidence of success. How is teamwork encouraged? How does management show support for your team and its performance? Provide metrics to support your examples. (max 1000 words)
  • How is the measurement of cost reduction, reliability, and customer engagement and/or experience using analytics reported on and communicated to the rest of the organization and to the customers (e.g., via marketing, sales, direct communication, etc.? (max 1000 words)
  • Are you able to provide before-and-after evidence of the business impact of the organization’s analytics initiative(s)? If yes, please describe and share at least one example of the before-and-after evidence. (max 1000 words)
  • Supporting Documentation: Upload any documentation (metrics, testimonials, etc.) that you feel would support this nomination. If you have more than one file to upload, please zip the files and upload them into the nomination form. (Not required)

3. Virtual Tour – Only required by finalists. Once you have been notified that you are a finalist, someone from the UAI staff will reach out to coordinate the submission of this video.

  • Submit a 30-second video taking the judges on a quick tour of your organization. Quickly help the judges learn about your organization/team and how you are using analytics in innovative ways. This video will also be used to introduce you as a finalist at the UAI Utility Analytics Week conference if your team is selected as a finalist.
  • If your files exceed 25MB, use the secure file transfer service of your choice and send your file to Info@UtilityAnalytics.com with the award name and company name in the subject line.

By submitting these materials, you grant UAI permission to reproduce selected screen shots and text from the application as part of the award ceremony during UAI’s Utility Analytics Week conference.

DOWNLOAD NOMINATION DETAILS