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Results of an Oracle Utilities survey released this morning show that electric utilities in Canada and the US are only in the early stages of putting smart meter data good use. But they could be doing a better job of using the data they are collecting. The survey was of 151 utility executives in Canada and the United States. The study, Utility Transformations - Big Data, Bigger Opportunities: Plans and Preparedness for the Data Deluge, shows that utilities on both sides of the 49th Parallel are collecting significantly more interval data from smart meters. The frequency at which they are gathering smart meter data is 180 times more than in the past - every four hours compared to once a month. And the vast majority of them are collecting information such as outage and voltage data. Linda Jackman, group VP of industry strategy for Oracle Utilities, tells Canadian Green Tech in an interview that despite the improvement on the data collection front, utilities aren't using the data as effective as they could be. She was surprised to find utilities collecting certain types of data, but then not using that data to inform business decisions. According to the results, 78% of utilities surveyed are collecting outage data with 59% of them using, meaning nearly 20% aren't correlating outage data with customer communications as an example. For voltage data, the levels are 73% and 57%, respectively. "In outage and voltage data, the fact that everybody is not collecting that data, I think is surprising. You've rolled out a smart meter and you're not collecting outage data when it has the ability to talk to you around outage data? Why am I not collecting it? But then only 60% of them are using it once they have collected it, I think is also surprising," says Jackman. "So what we're seeing is that utilities are still in this very early stage and very formative stage of collecting the data but actually don't know what [they're] going to do with

David Dorf, senior director of technology strategy for Oracle Retail, says the phrase "big data" first began to gain "buzz" status around five years ago. "It has come to represent the exponential growth of data and the complexity of analyzing it," he says. He starts with what has become the generic definition for big data - volume, variety and velocity. "Retailers have always dealt with big data in the sense that they handle thousands of [products], hundreds of stores and a steady stream of transactions," he says. "What's new is the variety of data. Some of it is highly formatted transactional data, but increasingly it's coming from sources such as a Twitter stream where there is natural language that's hard to understand using systems. The other thing that has changed is the velocity. Data is coming at us at a much faster pace."

David Dorf, senior director of technology strategy for Oracle Retail, says the phrase "big data" first began to gain "buzz" status around five years ago. "It has come to represent the exponential growth of data and the complexity of analyzing it," he says. He starts with what has become the generic definition for big data - volume, variety and velocity. "Retailers have always dealt with big data in the sense that they handle thousands of [products], hundreds of stores and a steady stream of transactions," he says. "What's new is the variety of data. Some of it is highly formatted transactional data, but increasingly it's coming from sources such as a Twitter stream where there is natural language that's hard to understand using systems. The other thing that has changed is the velocity. Data is coming at us at a much faster pace."

The November 15 edition of Campus Technology includes the following second installment of a two-part series highlighting big data and examines how pioneering schools are mining big data in hopes of improving student learning and performance.  The article highlights multiple schools, including Oracle customer Arizona State University (ASU) which considers itself to be at the forefront of student data analytics.  The article notes that ASU was among the first universities in the country to build a data warehouse and maintains big data and Hadoop working groups.  The article includes comment by John Rome, deputy chief information officer (CIO) and business intelligence (BI) strategist, ASU, who notes that when ASU looks at outsourcing, they consider core versus context.  He also notes that ASU has already outsourced its email as well as the hosting of its ERP and LMS systems. He also notes that the university knows there are big opportunities in big data, and ASU fully intends to exploit them.

The September/October edition of Electric Light & Power includes the following article the current state of smart meter data management amongst U.S. utilities. The article includes the results of Oracle Utilities' recent "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" report, noting that out of the 151 North American utilities executives surveyed, respondents rated themselves a 6.7 out of 10 on "readiness to manage big data." The article also notes that the same Oracle study found that the two largest amounts of data being extracted are power outage and voltage.

The September edition of IEEE Smart Grid includes the following bylined article by Oracle Utilities' Brad Williams highlighting the benefits of leveraging information architecture for data mining and analytics for increased grid investment value.

The September edition of IEEE Smart Grid includes the following bylined article by Oracle Utilities' Brad Williams highlighting the benefits of leveraging information architecture for data mining and analytics for increased grid investment value. The article also discusses the results from Oracle's recent "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" study which gauged perceptions regarding the business impact of "big data" amongst utilities with smart meter programs in place. The article includes the positive findings from the survey - including a five year improvement plan - but notes that there is still room for significant improvements in effective data management. The article includes a comment from Oracle Utilities' Rodger Smith, noting that utilities will benefit from establishing enterprise information strategies, and from investing in the systems and people needed to make better business decisions.

The November 1 edition of Campus Technology includes the following first installment of a two-part series highlighting big data and its potential for improving student learning and success.  The article notes that in higher education, big data may be seen in two distinct contexts: 1) as a product of research institutions that are charged with gathering, managing, and curating a wide range of structured and unstructured data; and 2) as a resource for predictive analytics.  The article includes comment based off a conversation with Cole Clark, global vice president of education and research industry, Oracle, who notes that  higher education is really being pushed hard to improve student outcomes and demonstrate that the money spent on higher education is producing the kinds of outcomes everyone wants to see.  He also notes that the pressure has pushed schools to look at ways to pull meaningful data out of their SISs, LMSs, and, increasingly, social media. 

Hot Applications For SaaS In Retail Dorf agrees that the agility of data access and analysis afforded by the cloud is fueling its adoption. Leveraging SaaS-based analytics tools, he says, allows retail tech shops to move away from mundane IT tasks and refocus their efforts on real retail work. "SaaS lightens the load on IT by removing the burdens associated with backups, audits, upgrades, and security management. Business insight afforded by SaaS-based analytics tools affords retailers a really good understanding of the data they already have," says Dorf. "As we add more analytics capabilities via the cloud, we can grant that access more quickly via automatic upgrades, which dramatically reduces the retailer's time to value." Because these tools are offered in a pay-only- for-what-you-use style fashioned after the utilities model, retailers can strategically and incrementally build on their data analytics initiatives at their own pace. "Retailers have been sitting on a lot of Big Data for a long time. SaaS-based analytics applies 'Big Science' to that Big Data, allowing merchants to finally extract value from it," says Dorf.

Article highlighting Silver Spring Networks' launch of its cloud service, SilverLink, to help share smart grid data. The article notes that the kind of tight operational integration that Silver Spring does with meter data management software partners, such as Oracle, is several levels of complexity higher than the data presentment it's doing via SilverLink. The article also mentions Oracle Utilities' "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" survey, noting that a significant number of utilities that have deployed smart meters aren't putting their data to use for business processes and decision-making.

The December 10 edition of eCampus News includes the following article exploring the definition of big data analytics from some of the industry's most prominent voices. Of note, the article states that Oracle's definition of big data is, "the derivation of value from traditional relational database-driven business decision making, augmented with new sources of unstructured data."

The Aug. 17 edition of NTS Smart Grid Blog & News includes the following article highlighting the results of Oracle Utilities' "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" report. The article notes that utilities, like most other industries, struggle to effectively manage data.

The Sept. 29 edition of Campus Technology includes the following article highlighting the University of Florida's next donation that will be used to purchase a big data machine. The article notes that data will come from multiple sources, including Oracle.

The Sept. 29 edition of Campus Technology includes the following article highlighting the University of Florida's next donation that will be used to purchase a big data machine. The article notes that data will come from multiple sources, including Oracle.

The Aug. 13 edition of Electric Light & Power includes the following article highlighting the results of Oracle Utilities', "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities: Plans and Preparedness for the Data Deluge" research study. The article includes comments from Oracle Utilities' Rodger Smith noting that the report indicates that the majority of utility executives are working to enhance their ability to glean real intelligence from smart grid data to ultimately create new opportunities to improve service reliability and deliver useful information to customers. The article also includes comments from Oracle Utilities' Brad Williams, who notes that the survey results show that there are opportunities for business improvement in utility operations.

Article highlighting an approach PowerWatch is taking to India's power grid peak use and blackout problems, which involves smart air conditioners that can send real-time power usage data from smart metering back to a utility and use the data for analytics and planning. The article notes that according to Oracle's recent "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" report, very few utilities are taking advantage of the influx of smart grid data.

The Sept. 30 edition of ZDNet includes the following article highlighting Oracle's software updates and mobile strategy. The article notes that Oracle has education as a key bullet point on the long-term roadmap for ERP Cloud with key functionalities targeting the higher education sector to support grants management and project-based funding. The article also notes that a new cloud-based student information system, Oracle Student Cloud, is under development. This article also appears in ATB Media: .

The Sept. 30 edition of ZDNet includes the following article highlighting Oracle's software updates and mobile strategy. The article notes that Oracle has education as a key bullet point on the long-term roadmap for ERP Cloud with key functionalities targeting the higher education sector to support grants management and project-based funding. The article also notes that a new cloud-based student information system, Oracle Student Cloud, is under development. This article also appears in ATB Media: .

It was telling from the first big keynote, that Oracle remains serious about retail. Walgreens, P&G and Dunnhumby were all on stage talking about their use of big data and the cloud in retail.

It was telling from the first big keynote, that Oracle remains serious about retail. Walgreens, P&G and Dunnhumby were all on stage talking about their use of big data and the cloud in retail.

Press Release: Oracle's "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" Report: Smart Grids Increase Utilities' Data Collection 180x

The July/August edition of Electricity Today Magazine includes the following article highlighting how utilities can handle information to better serve customers. The article includes results from the Oracle Utilities' "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" report which examined how utilities use information generated by smart grid deployments to drive organizational efficiency, increase reliability and strengthen customer relationships. The article addresses how access to new data will change the way utilities drive their businesses and how predictive analytics could spur operational change.

The Aug. 15 edition of GreenTechMedia includes the following article discussing the future of the smart grid. The article highlights smart grid expert Andres Carvallo's presentation from The Soft Grid 2012 conference, and notes his comments regarding utilities' adoption of cloud computing and the utility "big data" challenge. The article mentions that Austin Energy is working on with Oracle on an IT-based project. The article also includes a comment from Oracle Utilities' Linda Jackman noting that utilities have their own reasons to keep as much of their IT work in-house as possible, but investor-owned utilities in particular are under pressure to spend on IT capital expenses, which they can recover in rate cases, rather than on operational expenses like cloud services that do not offer such guaranteed payback.

"Big data is not big news in retail but we are having to solve problems around the velocity and the variety of data," said Webster. "How do we bring in social interactions and marketing interactions together, to give you a more unified view of the entire customer engagement. We are a mobile world, with 6 billion mobile subscribers."

(Scroll to article just below ULTA feature:) Attendees at the annual Oracle event were treated to a number of presentations by retail executives, from companies including: Nordstrom, The Gap, John Lewis, adidas, Academy Sports, Chico's, Lilly Pulitzer and more. Recurring themes for sessions centered around omnichannel strategies and improving the customer experience with comprehensive technology solutions. During keynote sessions, Oracle executives talked about the importance of delivering Commerce Anywhere capabilities to retailers. Mike Webster, SVP and GM, Oracle Retail, noted: "You don't have a big data problem, you have a small insight problem…Big Science is the answer." Jill Puleri, Oracle's new SVP and GM, Global Retail Business Unit, discussed ways retailers are using mobile differently to address five elements of disruption: mobility, data breaches, same-day delivery, wearables and weather.