We Have Too Many Products
in Energy & Utilities Services

The short answer

Proliferation costs are real, mostly invisible, and land on the regulated utility asset projects that were paying for everything. The version of this question that applies to utility contractors is not the generic one. Margin improvement requires shifting revenue to automation and controls but that reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless utilization exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents — so an answer that ignores 18.0 will be confidently wrong. The analysis has to start from 71.4 and 23 rather than from revenue.

Service lines accumulate because each addition is individually justifiable and nothing is ever removed. The cost is not in any one of them; it is in the complexity they collectively impose — craft utilisation, outage windows, backlog management, project write-downs, and forecasting error.

That cost is borne disproportionately by the profitable core, because that is where the capacity being fragmented lives. Shifting revenue toward automation and controls reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless craft utilisation exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents. Which is why rationalisation often increases total profit even when the removed lines were nominally contributing.

The analysis worth doing ranks lines by contribution against the constraint they consume, then asks which of the tail exists for a reason — a strategic customer relationship with the utility procurement officer, a channel requirement — and which exists because nobody has looked.

How to tell this is actually your problem

These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.

✓ A minority of master service agreements accounts for most of the 248.6 million dollars revenue from regulated utility asset projects
✓ Nothing has been removed from the backlog in several years
✓ Project write-downs and outage window conflicts are rising faster than craft utilisation

The move that usually makes it worse. Cutting the tail by revenue rank alone, which removes lines that were cheap to carry and keeps ones that quietly consume the outage window and craft utilisation.

Who this is for — and who it is not

It is for you if you run or finance a utility contractor and a minority of lines produces the large majority of revenue. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.

It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.

Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.

What this looks like when the analysis is actually run

Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on a utility contractor. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.

The subject is Verrick Energy Services, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — 248.6 million dollars revenue from regulated utility asset projects.

This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.

What the engine does with this question

This question routes to Matrix Strategy, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For utility contractors it works through 18.0, 71.4, 23 and 6.6, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.

You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.

Questions people ask about this

How do I decide what to discontinue?

Contribution per unit of the binding constraint, then a check on strategic dependencies. Revenue rank alone gets this wrong in both directions.

Will customers leave if I discontinue products?

Some will, and the analysis should price that before the decision rather than after. Usually the revenue at risk is smaller than the complexity cost being removed, but it should be a finding rather than an assumption.

How much complexity cost is normal?

It is rarely tracked, which is why it grows. A workable proxy is the trend in operating cost per unit of volume; when that rises while volume rises, complexity is the usual explanation.

Is this different in energy & utilities services than in other industries?

Materially, yes. Margin improvement requires shifting revenue to automation and controls but that reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless utilization exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are 18.0, 71.4, 23, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.

What data do I need before this analysis is worth running for a utility contractor?

Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on 18.0 and 71.4. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.

When is Percision the wrong tool?

Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.

Does Percision replace a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, or AI implementation team?

Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.