Navigant Research Names 9 Providers as Leading Vendors of Advanced DMS

A New Leaderboard Report from Navigant Research examines the strategy and execution of nine providers of advanced distribution management systems (ADMSs), with GE, Open Systems International, Schneider Electric SE, Oracle, and Siemens AG ranked as the leading market players.

The competitive landscape for ADMSs is unique given the extensive requirements and growing list of modules captured under the ADMS umbrella. This has led to a smaller, more refined pool of vendors, including traditional, large OEMs, as well as smaller, nimbler vendors making inroads around managed services, and cooperative and public utility targeting.

“Each of these companies stands out from the competition because of exceptional technology development and portfolios, strong partner relationships, sustainable business models, and significant market traction,” says Michael Kelly, senior research analyst with Navigant Research.

According to the report, many vendors and utilities consider ADMSs to be a combination of SCADA, distribution management systems, and outage management systems. This integrated architecture has grown in recent years to include energy management system and distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) modules, though this is not universal across vendors. This growth is a natural technological extension of ADMSs. The boundary between networks is blurring, and future network operators require access to both transmission and distribution applications.

The report, Navigant Research Leaderboard: ADMS Vendors, ranks ADMS vendors on strategy and execution. Threshold scores determine each vendor’s categorization (Leader, Contender, Challenger, and Follower). This report evaluates nine ADMS companies. These providers are rated on the following criteria: vision; go-to-market strategy; partners; technology; geographic reach; sales, marketing, and distribution; product performance; product portfolio and integration; pricing; and staying power. Using Navigant Research’s proprietary Leaderboard methodology, vendors are profiled, rated, and ranked with the goal of providing an objective assessment of their relative strengths and weaknesses in the global ADMS market. An executive summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.