- Energy Cloud
- Digital Transformation
- Technology Innovation
- IoT
Capitalizing on Digital Transformation Delivers Economic and Social Benefit
Digital transformation has become the tagline for innovation—a standard description for the ways the expanding realm of data and analytics opens the door to new business models and technology partnerships. It’s all about the fact that nearly every device we encounter can now have a stream of data attached that can be analyzed to drive new interactions in any environment. Digital transformation is a horizontal phenomenon, but the game-changing market disruption will emerge where technology and service providers capitalize on these data streams at the intersection of historically distinct industries. Services created at the intersection of energy and telecom, or healthcare and transportation, as examples, will create new revenue, customer satisfaction, and even sustainability improvements.
One-Directional Infrastructure Is Phasing Out
Guidehouse Research has been refining the vision of digital transformation in the energy sector with work on the Energy Cloud. As this future unfolds, the definitions and relationships between supply and demand blur, and the one-directional infrastructure for electricity that has defined the contemporary economy is being replaced with a fluid and dynamic network of digitally enhanced traditional assets and new resources. These resources can be characterized as platforms for transaction, such as building-to-grid, transportation-to-grid, and the neural grid. In any one of these platforms, customers can benefit from new services created out of the data streams attached to their assets.
Companies Are Already Working Together to Offer Dynamic Solutions to Consumers
This is all very conceptual, so let’s look at a real-world example. Hitch Health and Lyft have announced a partnership with Hennepin Health in Minneapolis to help patients make it to their appointments on time with an automated ride hail. Hitch’s technology connects to Hennepin Health’s electronic records system to identify the patience that may benefit from no-cost rides. According to the press release, a one-year pilot has demonstrated a 297% ROI from the increases in clinic revenue and reduction in no-show rates. This three-way partnership is a great example of the financial and social impacts of capitalizing on digital transformation at the intersection of industries. Lyft’s rideshare drivers gain a customer base, which supports public health. Hitch Health’s technology gains traction with key customers to grow revenue. Hennepin Health improves its bottom line.
Digital transformation is a pathway for new businesses, expanded revenue streams, and technology development, but also an opportunity to use technology for social benefits. There is an opportunity to dovetail corporate commitments to the triple bottom line of social, environmental, and financial success—an opportunity to see an expanded upside of market disruption.