AWWA IMTECH57882

This presentation describes the findings of an American Water Works Research Foundation (AwwaRF) project titled "Creating Effective IT Solutions." The focus of the project was to identify and document leading information technology (IT) practices being used in public and private water utilities. The project involved a collaborative effort by nearly 20 organizations, including public and private water utilities, and out-of-industry benchmarking partners. The purpose of the benchmarking project was to identify and document the industry-leading best practices for delivery of high-value IT services so utility IT managers could answer the questions, "how effectively am I delivering and managing my information technology?" The presentation describes the project approach and key project findings. It provides valuable insight into what's behind leading IT organizations and practices. The information can be used to guide utility IT professionals in benchmarking against industry peers, and implementing leading practices in their organization. The project approach involved initial participation of 13 water utilities across North America. Additional "outside partner utilities" were added during the course of the data collection phase of the project. The objective was to take a comprehensive view of IT solutions, including impacts by organization and work practices, and through conducting a consortium benchmarking process, identify effective practices in each of seven broad IT focus areas. These practices were further explored and validated through a survey process involving all participants, resulting in case studies of leading organizations based on the survey results. Includes figures.