On December 29, 2014, Entergy permanently shut down the reactor at its 604.3 MW Vermont Yankee nuclear generating plant located in Vernon, Vermont. Though the facility was licensed to operate until 2032, it was closed for economic reasons, specifically “… sustained low natural gas prices and wholesale energy prices caused by a transformational shift in supply due to the impacts of shale gas.”
Stuart Pearman, partner and energy practice leader at ScottMadden, recently presented, “Energy Industry Update – A Strategic Overview,” at the Platts Utility Supply Chain Management event.
In November 2014, the Minnesota Department of Commerce released an engineering study that concludes Minnesota can reliably integrate renewable energy to meet 40% of annual retail sales by 2028. This scenario would require $373 million in transmission investments beyond current transmission expansion and upgrade plans.
On October 21, 2014, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released the eighth edition of the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. The report provides an annual benchmark of the progress of state energy efficiency policies and programs. The report estimates total energy efficiency budgets were $7.7 billion in 2013; this figure includes $6.3 billion for electricity efficiency programs and $1.4 billion for natural gas program budgets.
ScottMadden recently conducted a flash survey to gather opinions on shared services and global business services (GBS) models. Survey results reveal that shared services leaders are turning to global process ownership to drive process efficiencies and standardization across shared services organizations, but not at a dramatic rate.
Effectively managing supplier performance means managing the entire relationship. Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is an organized approach to establishing and managing the company-to-company interactions with suppliers and focuses on maximizing the long-term value that can be derived from key supplier relationships. SRM is critical in ensuring a contract’s value is realized after the award. Though managing suppliers to established contracts is essential, the potential value of effective SRM is greater.
More than 50% of multi-national companies have evolved the scope and scale of their shared services organizations with a more robust delivery model—Global Business Services (GBS). This model focuses on delivering services across the entire enterprise, expanding process scope beyond transactional activities, providing support across multiple functions, and reporting to one senior executive.
There is a great deal of hype about distributed generation disrupting the traditional utility business model, but what will really happen? Is this an evolution or a revolution in the utility business? This presentation explores what utilities should do now strategically, in the regulatory space, and in public policy advocacy.
In 2014, ScottMadden was quoted in GenerationHub’s article “Consultant: Utilities should avoid ‘victim mentality’ and lead on DG.” To access the full article, please see below or visit here.
Field HR often represents a big opportunity to reduce hr administrative tasks. Recognizing and acting on this opportunity is key to operating a successful HR organization. On average, about 40% of HR time is spent on low, value-added activities, such as performing routine transactions and general administrative support. Compared to a leading practice HR shared services model, a typical pre-shared services organization tends to spend significantly more time performing transactional work activities (40% vs. 15%-20%) and significantly less time on advisement activities (32% vs. 50%-60%) than organizations with shared services.
In 2014, ScottMadden and APQC conducted the third cycle of their Human Resources Shared Services (HRSS) benchmarking study to examine trends in delivery models, governance structure, staffing levels, performance, and the use of technologies as part of a shared services model. In our analysis, we focused on understanding the characteristics of HRSS organizations that clearly excel when ranked according to three dimensions of service center productivity:
Maturity matters! Organizations with mature shared services models that have continued to innovate and improve create greater value. In ScottMadden’s Human Resources Shared Services (HRSS) benchmarking study conducted with APQC, a majority of participants have been operating for three or more years.
Sussex Economic Advisors is now part of ScottMadden. We invite you to learn more about our expanded firm. Please use the Contact Us form to request additional information.
