PRESS RELEASE: AAC Utility Partners – Helping utilities see clearly in the “Cloud”

NavigateOne™ for Cloud – expanding our signature methodology to include Cloud business models for utilities.

November 6, 2017
Washington, DC

AAC Utility Partners, a consulting company exclusively focused on utilities’ mission critical systems transformation, stands at the forefront of new technologies impacting the industry it serves. In today’s climate, the use of Cloud technology is a reality that comes with unique considerations for utilities.

Always committed to protecting the best interest of our clients, AAC believes a foundational approach of identifying “the facts” about Cloud offerings is crucial for utilities. For many executives in the industry, “Cloud” remains an unfamiliar concept not only from a technology standpoint, but also from the perspective of how the adoption of cloud services affects the administrative, operational, and financial aspects of their organization. At AAC, we know that “Cloud” technologies are evolving and the adoption of “Cloud” for mission critical systems is a reality.

What’s important from AAC’s perspective is to be an objective partner with utilities to help executives and decision-makers understand the differences in Cloud versus other deployment choices in order to make prudent decisions. AAC purposely built its business to be solely focused in this area as we observed industry professionals depending on the vendor community to inform them of options without the benefit of an advocate. For AAC, it is a noble undertaking to be the bridge between the software and system integrator industry and those who are ultimately accountable for making critical and costly software decisions. This raises the awareness that utilities benefit greatly from having the unbiased expertise of an industry consultant. AAC’s guidance helps ensure its clients will experience a process that is driven by their goals, objectives, and specific requirements that are unique to their standards of efficient and effective operations.

AAC continues to keep up with ever changing technology advances and has been seeing the evolution of ‘Cloud’ for some time. In order to stay ahead of the market, AAC is continuously updating its signature methodology, NavigateOne™. As such, AAC can successfully lead our clients to thoroughly evaluate Cloud solutions with a holistic view for their applications. Our proprietary methodology, NavigateOne™, is rooted in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), and provides a set of tools, templates, processes and software developed specifically for utilities mission critical systems evaluation and implementation projects. With the recent attention to “the Cloud” that now affects every transformation project, AAC is excited to talk about the expansion of its methodology that includes Cloud-specific service offerings.

Today is bit of a formal announcement, but AAC clients have already been realizing the benefits of NavigateOne for Cloud. According to DC Water’s CIO, Tom Kuczynski, “There are multiple options available now…AAC was instrumental is assisting us with selecting the right solution and vendor, as well as negotiating a comprehensive statement of work that was fair but also protected DC Water’s interests.” Utilizing its NavigateOne™ methodology, AAC led DC Water through their vendor selection process and negotiated the NavigateOne Statement of Work and Service Level Agreements. The NavigateOne Statement of Work serves as the roadmap enabling its project consultants to lead DC Water through an aggressive implementation schedule for the successful implementation of a cloud-based solution.

Working with Nashville Electric Service (NES), AAC led NES through an ERP selection project which included CIS, MDMS, WMS, EAM and a financials solution that will be Cloud deployed. AAC is currently assisting in the negotiations of the NavigateOne Statement of Work with the systems integrator.

To lead AAC’s clients in the software and technology decision process, NavigateOne for Cloud addresses the many decision points that must be considered when transforming utilities mission critical systems. For example, NavigateOne for Cloud considers the following:

  • Business models to help utilities compare the total cost of ownership of Cloud versus on-premise
  • End-to-end evaluation process for evaluating Cloud providers
  • Service level models for on-going operations
  • Requirements models for utility vertical applications as well as full ERP
  • Cloud strategy development for phased adoption
  • Change management approaches to support Cloud deployment
  • Proprietary tools and experienced consultants to strategically plan the approach to utilizing Cloud

AAC Managing Partner, Steve Wenke, who leads the strategic assessment practice of AAC put it this way, “Cloud business models are particularly “disruptive” for utilities, but decision-makers know that disruption (i.e., “change”) may be necessary for progress and growth. Thoroughness in the assessment and selection process is so important in transitioning to Cloud services, and incorporating what Cloud brings to the industry into our methodology was a natural enhancement to our service of providing comprehensive consulting to our clients.”

This is why AAC is excited to support “Cloud for Utilities”. We recognize that a focused discussion around Cloud that brings together the insight of all the industry players is a necessary and beneficial forum to ensure all voices can share a platform that promotes unified success.

ABOUT AAC

AAC Utility Partners, LLC provides consulting services exclusively to utilities for the transformation of mission critical systems. AAC is a vendor-independent consulting firm providing services for CIS and other mission critical systems. AAC assists clients in the areas of Strategy, Selection, Cloud Adoption and Project Implementation Leadership Services (utility-side only). AAC is the leading independent Cloud consulting firm focused on utility industry specific applications and business process services.

Through its foundational methodology – NavigateOne™ – AAC pioneered a proprietary set of processes, tools, templates, and software completely scalable and customizable to the unique needs of utilities software initiatives. Learn more at: www.teamaac.com