Organizational Transformation
The staff of Hometown Connections is in high demand for expertise in utility management best practices. Hometown Connections’ consulting services focus on organizational transformation. Team members work with a wide variety of public utilities of all sizes, independently governed and city council-governed systems, joint action agencies, and state associations. They are subject matter experts, helping organizations identify strengths, vulnerabilities, and solutions to improve processes, productivity, and overall performance.
Through facilitation, workshops, and consulting, Hometown Connections promotes excellence in strategy, execution, identifying and managing risks, policy management, process re-design, compliance, customer care, and leadership & employee development. Hometown presents recommendations and promotes results that help community-owned utilities develop a transformation strategy for impactful organization change.
Board Governance
Hometown Connections has worked closely with governing officials and staff from scores of municipal utilities across the United States to strengthen these organizations and the value they bring to their local communities. The Hometown Connections management consulting team has extensive experience facilitating initiatives for achieving excellence in utility governance, as well as in strategic planning, customer service, talent management, and performance improvement.
Cybersecurity Management
To meet our industry’s need for cybersecurity solutions that are comprehensive and cost effective, Hometown Connections is offering the Cybersecurity Management Program for public power electric, gas, water, and wastewater utilities and other city departments. Hometown Connections is helping public power organizations across the United States evaluate their cybersecurity requirements, develop plans for cyber risk management, and deploy effective cybersecurity defenses that include ongoing monitoring, remediation, training, and maintenance.
Hometown Connections is continuing its marketing alliance with AESI-US, Inc. and Marsh-Wortham Power Gen Insurance which provide a broad range of cybersecurity services as part of the Cybersecurity Management Program.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure
Part of the Hometown Smart Cities Advantage initiative, the AMI solution from Hometown Connections provides municipal utilities with industry-leading flexibility and access to a variety of wholesale-priced electric and water meters, network equipment, and applications. A fully-managed and hosted service designed for community-owned utilities, the Hometown Connections AMI solution provides the IT staff and vendor package to support every aspect of the AMI system. This includes negotiation, design, deployment, and operation with no hidden costs. Hometown helps from the start and stays on board throughout the life of the system.
The pioneering framework of Hometown’s AMI solution provides a holistic approach, leveraging extensive public utility experience and partnerships with expert service providers (e.g. Itron, IPKeys Power Partners) focused on delivering lower hardware costs, reducing management complexity, lowering long-term risk, improving operational and system efficiencies, and factoring in future upgrades and costs.