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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 either
    • innovative solution(s)/use case(s) and resulted in a favorable outcome, like a high return on investment (ROI), improved efficiency/reliability/sustainability, increased safety, reduction in risk, etc., or 
    • 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. Describe your company, its vision, mission, business goals and strategy. (max 500 words)

2. Describe how your team’s vision, mission, goals and strategy align with the overall business’ goals and strategy and describe your team’s philosophy around analytics. (max 1000 words)

3. Describe your approaches and technology and how they are executed, and/or improved, to either 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

4. 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. (max 1,000 words)

5. 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? (max 1000 words)

6. 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)

7. Are you able to provide before-and-after evidence of the business impact of the organization’s analytics initiative(s)? If yes, please describe. (max 1,000 words)

8. Supporting Documentation: Upload any documentation (metrics, testimonials, etc.) that you feel would support this nomination. (not required)

DOWNLOAD NOMINATION DETAILS