Holland Board of Public Works

Becky Lehman

Challenges in technology to meet needs of the utility sector

There are two big challenges for us today, one is security and the other is mobility. It is difficult to know the best way to cost effectively mitigate the security risks when the threats are changing every day. On the side of mobility it is difficult to keep up with the requests for having mobile devices to perform functions in the field. We want to make sure they function well and are secure as well. I will be looking for security solutions for mobile devices.

The areas in the utility industry where solutions do not yet exist or not up to the mark, and which if existed, would've made job easier

Things that I think about all the time are increasing efficiency and integration. It seems like we should be able to do more with less, but getting ahead of the curve is challenging. We are “too busy” to improve processes. My thinking is that there is a way to do both, but I haven’t found it yet. We are exploring options and want to find a good fit for all applications. Getting all the data in one place, reporting on the data and making business sense out of it is what I would like to accomplish in the future.

Technology trends impacting utilities

The expansion of using mobile devices.

Business Intelligence