In a move designed to sell a new concept in metering and AMR, utility provider Schlumberger announced new directions for its Schlumberger RMS division, Convergent Group and Siebel Systems.
Executives for the three companies made the announcement during the DistribuTECH 2001 conference and exhibition, which took place Feb. 5-7 in San Diego. Specific details were lacking, but Schlumberger RMS President Brad Kitterman said plans are in the formative stages and the market would learn more in the coming months.
The announcement follows Convergent Group’s December merger with Schlumberger. The two companies plan to integrate real-time meter information from the Schlumberger fixed network solutions, along with advanced applications offerings and IT infrastructure network design, implementation and management solutions from Schlumberger, into Convergent Group’s Model Office.
Convergent Group also will add enhanced functionality to its Model Office as a result of its newly announced consulting partner status with Siebel Systems.
Kitterman said the group of companies wants to usher in a new era in the industry in which consumers would become energy managers, utilities would capitalize on the full value of their energy information and the industry would thrive in efficient markets.
“We not only have a vision of where we want to go, but we have some very specific technology and capabilities already today that get us part of the way there,” Kitterman said. “We still have some work to do to fill out the matrix of capabilities and technologies, but we’re certainly working on that.”
Rather than sell a specific product or service, the companies want to provide integrated systems based on the needs of the utility served. A big part of the new strategy is providing real-time data on an Internet-based platform, Kitterman said.
Greg Courniotes, Convergent Group’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said his company’s ability to work with Siebel and Schlumberger would be crucial in providing all the pieces to the puzzle for utilities.
“It’s not business as usual. It can’t be business as usual, because business is not moving in a traditional sense in the utility industry today,” Courniotes said. “So what we’re going to do is take real-time data and move it entirely through that value chain of either discrete utilities … or through a community of utilities in disaggregation (those that have outsourced services) so that we can connect consumer demand with power generation.”
As a result of its new alliance with Siebel Systems, the Siebel eEnergy application software will be integrated into the Model Office, enabling Convergent Group’s Digital Utility customers to create a single, comprehensive customer information knowledge base that is fully integrated with information from energy delivery and CIS operations, as well as with the real-time energy market information from Schlumberger solutions.
