Let’s begin from scratch, who is OverIT?
OverIT is a leading Field Service Management (FSM) software solutions provider with over 20 years of expertise, solving complex use cases in enterprise businesses globally. We serve more than 300 clients worldwide, primarily in linear asset-intensive industries such as Utilities, Telecommunications, Oil & Gas, and Transportation. Every day, over 200,000 field technicians rely on our solutions to manage mission-critical operations, powered by advanced geospatial and field collaboration capabilities. Moreover, we are recognised by premier global advisory and consulting organisations as a leading FSM software vendor.
Our goal today is clear: to be the trusted digital partner for mission-critical operations in linear asset industries.
Why is digitalisation so crucial for Europe’s power infrastructure? Isn’t electricity distribution digitalised enough?
Is digitalisation a real urgency for the sector?
Digitalisation isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s fundamental to navigating the energy transition.
First, with the increased penetration of variable renewables like wind and solar, we’re shifting from a centralised model to a decentralised and intermittent one. This shift disrupts the traditional logic of “generation follows load.” This means that increasingly, real-time balancing and demand-side flexibility are essential, and that’s only possible with digital tools.
Second, energy no longer flows in one direction. With distributed generation, storage, and EVs, we need orchestration systems that can manage energy moving in multiple directions. That requires real-time visibility and intelligent automation, which digitalisation enables.
Third, building smart infrastructure is critical. Digitalisation integrates IT (Information Technology), OT (Operational Technology) and consumer technologies, creating a more resilient and adaptable grid. This is especially important for emerging business models like congestion management and transactive energy.
There’s also the workforce angle. With $21.4 trillion in grid investment expected by 2050, the sector must double asset deployment, at a time when skilled labour is increasingly scarce. Digitalisation is how we bridge that gap, optimising productivity without relying solely on headcount.
And let’s not forget the growing backlog of renewable projects waiting for grid connection.
Finally, extreme weather events are putting more pressure on grid reliability. Digital platforms like ADMS (Advanced Distribution Management System), OMS (Order Management System), and mobile workforce systems are essential for faster outage response and maintaining reliability KPIs like SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) and SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index).
What is the true cost of digitalisation?
The true cost isn’t just about money; it’s about how digital investments are structured and accounted for.
SaaS is treated as OpEx, which impacts on EBITDA. But utilities, many of which are private equity-owned or publicly traded, increasingly seek to capitalise digital investments under CapEx to protect financial performance. This is related to three main aspects:
- First, EBITDA maximisation, capitalising costs improves EBITDA, which matters for investors and lenders.
- Second, IFRS compliance, following the 2021 IFRIC Agenda Decision, only specific customisation/configuration costs of SaaS can be capitalised. Utilities must structure contracts accordingly.
- Finally, control and ownership, utilities want control over their systems, not just to license but to integrate, customise, and evolve solutions over time.
So, the cost of digitalisation is not just what you spend, but how you spend it, who controls the system, and whether it aligns with financial strategy and regulatory constraints.
How to ensure a smooth digital transformation in power infrastructure?
A smooth digital transformation in power infrastructure comes down to software solutions that offer three key factors:
- First, broad integration is critical. Solutions must easily connect with diverse systems, from legacy ERP to GIS to SCADA, via open APIs and flexible data models.
- The next key capability is flexibility and extensibility. Platforms should be composable and future-proof. As grid needs evolve, utilities must be able to add functionality without major overhauls.
- Finally, in the case of existing infrastructure, composable architecture allows it to work alongside legacy systems. Full system replacements are expensive and risky. A successful transformation builds on what’s already working through orchestration and interoperability, not disruption.
Where do you see the most potential for digitalisation of electricity distribution?
Digitalisation presents a significant opportunity for transformation in electricity distribution, particularly in two key areas.
Firstly, real-time operational visibility. As more DERs (Distributed Energy Resources) and prosumers connect to the grid, real-time insight is essential. It enables congestion management, energy arbitrage, and faster fault response.
Secondly, infrastructure build-out. Utilities face labour shortages just as they need to double their construction output. Digital tools like automated planning, mobile workforce systems, and digital twins can drastically improve project speed and reduce errors.
Both areas are under-leveraged and offer massive potential.
Which are the biggest challenges for grid operators in digitalising?
Where are the major hurdles for the digital transformation: financing, regulation or other?
One of the biggest challenges grid operators face in their digital transformation is navigating fragmented, rigid, and often siloed enterprise systems.
Many enterprise software vendors focus narrowly on their own process areas, such as Enterprise Asset Management, without fully considering how service requests and data flow across multiple departments. This creates integration issues when processes originate outside their domain, limiting end-to-end visibility and collaboration.
Adding new functionality is another significant hurdle. Utilities often have highly specific operational and regulatory requirements, yet influencing vendor roadmaps is difficult. When external system integrators step in to fill the gap, their custom extensions are costly and hard to maintain, especially when core systems update. This lack of flexibility hinders adaptation to new regulations or evolving business needs.
Finally, the “all or nothing” nature of many traditional implementations is a major barrier. Platforms often require full system replacement, which increases risk, cost, and training overhead. Once deployed, these systems can become static, locking organisations into capabilities that are difficult to update over time.
In short, the primary hurdles are not just financing or regulation, but the structural limitations of legacy enterprise architectures and the lack of adaptable, modular digital solutions.
How does OverIT contribute to removing these hurdles?
OverIT offers a best-of-breed FSM solution purpose-built for utilities, with decades of experience in energy and infrastructure operations. It is designed for collaboration, offering a comprehensive, unified view that integrates service requests from multiple sources.
We provide flexible and extensible platforms, adaptable and built for fast innovation, enabling rapid updates to meet the specific, evolving needs of utilities.
Moreover, our platform is designed to seamlessly integrate with legacy systems, enabling utilities to preserve and maximise their IT investments. This reduces implementation costs and time while ensuring smooth operation without the need for a complete overhaul of the infrastructure.
Finally, instead of limiting the focus to specific areas of service, OverIT takes a holistic approach, integrating service requests from multiple sources and providing a complete view of operations.
Any views on innovative technologies such as smart transformers, dynamic line rating and digital twins?
At OverIT, when we think about product innovation, we start with the real-world, highly vertical use cases that our customers in utilities deal with every day, especially under pressure, during emergencies, or when managing complex infrastructure across vast territories.
For us, innovation isn’t just about adding new technologies for the sake of it, it’s about making mission-critical operations easier, faster, and safer. That’s where we see the future of cutting-edge technologies play a critical role. Take construction sites for example: we built our FSM, GIS and field collaboration capabilities to work together so that even just using a smartphone on-site, vision AI can automatically assess progress and update project status in real time, removing guesswork from cost tracking and scheduling.
Vegetation management is another area being redefined. In the past, utilities would try to manage vegetation using outdated asset systems where each tree was recorded individually. Today, we use geospatial intelligence and aggregated data to model vegetation zones, growth patterns, and risk areas. That enables predictive maintenance planning and better resource allocation before vegetation becomes a threat.
Emergency response and mutual aid are also being transformed. During major events like wildfires or storms, utilities need to onboard thousands of technicians, often from outside organisations, within hours. We help them do that with field-ready tools, automated briefings, and integrated scheduling that ensure continuity and safety from the first minute.
We are already supporting many customers on this journey. An example is EVN NÖ Netz, a leading international, publicly listed energy and environmental services company based in Lower Austria. We worked with EVN to modernise their grid operations through field service software solutions that bring together predictive maintenance, digital workflows, and scheduling, resulting in better operational efficiency and visibility across their extensive network infrastructure.
In short, we view these technologies not as standalone innovations but as enablers, supporting our customers to manage mission-critical operations in linear assets, meet regulatory requirements, prevent outages, and keep vital infrastructure always running.
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