Innovation for the energy industry
NM Group joined Trimble Energy in May 2017. We have been working closely with Trimble to bring aboard new capabilities and improve our service offering to our customers. This has resulted in some exciting new initiatives for delivering value to our utility customers. Market Manager, Otto Pulkkinen, describes his experience with Trimble Energy; discussing upcoming innovations and their significance for the power sector.
For those who don’t know, what does Trimble Energy do for the electricity utilities sector?
“Trimble energy develop and deliver a suite of software applications and a data platform that is used by electric utilities to maintain information on their utility network. It’s a very useful for our customers as it does various important things; like projecting costs, maintenance planning, execution on the network, and doing various technical calculations.”
How many clients do you have?
“We work with around 300 utility clients globally. Tens of millions of end customers are served by these utilities.”
Where does Trimble Energy work?
“We’re very active in Finland and Nordic countries and the Baltics. We have lots of customers in Germany and a growing business in the UK and US. We also have some development initiatives in Asia, so watch this space!”
What other sectors does Trimble Energy work with?
“We have customers in gas distribution and transmission, especially in the US. “
“We are supporting utilities in something that is fundamental to society”
Tell us a bit about your role at Trimble Energy?
“My title is Market Manager for Strategic Marketing. I’m involved in strategic initiatives with the purpose of seeking growth for the business. Working very closely with customers on new product creation and fully understanding their requirements. We actively seek areas where our competencies and software assets can be used to add value in different areas for current and new customers.”
What do you like most about your role?
“Helping to drive business growth is a very concrete and motivating challenge. I believe businesses need to grow to stay healthy.
What is the most interesting project you have worked on at Trimble Energy?
“I was the product manager for the new mobile platform Utility To Go™. It was very exciting because we were building something new from the ground up. We were able to provide real value to the customer in a fairly short time. We worked closely with key customers and were able to deliver something that solves important problems for utilities. This, in turn, represents significant business value for us."
What’s the best thing about working for Trimble Energy?
“The main aspect has to be the purpose. I truly feel we are involved in something significant by supporting utilities in something that is fundamental to society. Ensuring the distribution of energy. I think that is a very worthy goal. The bigger purpose of what we all do to keep the power on is for the good of society.”
What do you think the next major innovation in the power sector might be?
“There are several different areas that are in different phases of making a real impact. Part of the business is still being digitized. We are still making a huge impact to parts of the workflows that have been paper-based until recently. Like bringing mobile applications to these areas. Looking to the future, exciting technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality will bring a whole other level of technical capabilities into the game. Mixed reality is going to be a big one.”