Notes & signals from the network.
Field notes from the engineers moving utilities onto the Utility Network — plus the industry shifts, standards, and trends shaping where utility GIS is heading.
Which Utility Network data model should you start with?
One of the most common questions we hear from electric utilities is: "Which data model should we start with?" The short answer is that it matters far less than you think. The Utility Network is a platform, the Foundation and partner packages are just configurations on top of it — and whichever you pick, you'll reshape it anyway. Here's how to choose the starting line without mistaking it for the finish.
Utility Network migrations are taking too long
Esri's materials suggest a 3–6 month Utility Network migration. In reality most utilities take 12–18 months, and the established partners are spending years per project. It may sound like a hot take, but it's really a simple math problem — and the math says something has to change. Here's the throughput gap, the complexity trap that created it, and the lens that gets you live in months instead of years.