Utility regulation expected to increase

Public Power's recent article by Jeannine Anderson on the "triple whammy" utilities face from pricing volatility, regulation, and a tough economy included a number of insights from Standard & Poor's director Jeffrey Panger.  Panger commented that regardless of this year's presidential election outcome, additional regulation is expected. This jives with the anecdotal feedback we hear from utility clients, who are preparing for that future with better financial tools and analytics that put the data required by management and regulators within far easier reach. Managing important business processes and records outside of SAP—for example in dozens of Excel spreadsheets across disparate departments—is simply not sustainable with the anticipated increase in scrutiny.