The manner in which the nuclear power industry trains and prepares the next generation of workers is vital to its revival and longevity.

The nuclear power industry is facing significant employee turnover, which may be exacerbated by the need to staff new nuclear units. To maintain a highly skilled workforce to safely operate U.S. nuclear plants, the industry must find ways to expedite training and qualification, enhance knowledge transfer to the next generation of workers, and develop leadership talent to achieve excellent organizational effectiveness.

ClickSoftware is the leading provider of mobile workforce management and service optimization solutions that create business value for service operations through higher levels of productivity, customer satisfaction and cost effectiveness. Combining educational, implementation and support services with best practices and its industry leading solutions, ClickSoftware drives service decision making across all levels of the organization.

The workforce and consumers are both critical for information-enabled energy.

I have to admit it. Despite all the exciting new technologies out there, I am finding myself to be a people person when it comes to building smarter grids and more intelligent utilities. Granted, technology is rapidly developing and the utility industry is finding itself in the middle of more and more automation. However, people - from linemen to consumers - will remain critical components for delivering information-enabled energy.

Often viewed as a soft skill, change management can make or break a project.

Many times organizations are reluctant to engage change management programs, plans and teams. More often, change management programs are launched too late in the project process, are only moderately funded or are absorbed within the team as part-time responsibilities - all of which we've seen happen time and again in the utility industry.

Strategies for addressing aging assets, workforce and IT systems in the utilities industry.

A "perfect storm" of daunting proportions is bearing down on utility companies: assets are aging; the workforce is aging; and legacy information technology (IT) systems are becoming an impediment to efficiency improvements. This article suggests a three-pronged strategy to meet the challenges posed by this triple threat. By implementing best practices in the areas of business process management (BPM), system consolidation and IT service management (ITSM), utilities can operate more efficiently and profitably while addressing their aging infrastructure and staff.

As its workforce dwindles, the high-performance utilities industry will see new opportunities arise from strategic technology and creative thinking.

Conventional thinking has it that the utility industry's aging workforce represents a critical problem demanding a call to arms. But is an aging workforce really just a human resources dilemma? Or can it be viewed more broadly as a window through which utilities can examine ways to foster positive change for the future of their organizations? When viewed in this light, the exit of a large cohort of skilled workers may represent the most significant opportunity a utility will ever confront - one that could fundamentally alter the way it does business and upgrades financial performance.

A valuable tool for ensuring support and adoption of major technology change.

When a utility undergoes a major transformation - such as adopting new technologies like advanced metering - the costs and time involved require that the changes are accepted and adopted by each of the three major stakeholder groups: regulators, customers and the utility's own employees. A technology demonstration center serves as an important tool for promoting acceptance and adoption of new technologies by displaying tangible examples and demonstrating the future customer experience.

Panasonic presents a tool for helping enterprises determine mobile devices with the best TCO and ROI.

Mobile computing capabilities have been proven to drive business value by providing traveling executives, field workers and customer service personnel with real-time access to customer data. Better and more timely access to information shortens response times, improves accuracy and makes the workforce more productive.

ClickSoftware is the leading provider of mobile workforce management and service optimization solutions that create business value for service operations through higher levels of productivity, customer satisfaction and cost effectiveness. Combining educational, implementation and support services with best practices and its industry leading solutions, ClickSoftware drives service decision making across all levels of the organization.