Interesting article. I used to market such a CIS system to utilities, and indeed we considered them to be the most conservative of all. Nevertheless, their needs are <i>very</i> similar to those of energy utilities, but we found out how much they like to hear that water is different...<p>Despite the points made in the article, I still believe they are a bit too conservative, despite the nature of their product. I think it's mainly the fact that privatisation has hardly happened in the water sector, and the fact that many of them are still run like government bureaucracies. Just interact with the customer service of a water utility monopolist vs that of an energy supplier in a free market. A huge difference!<p>But it would have been interesting to try the approach he notes... Thanks for sharing!