Analyst Profile

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Rick Nicholson

Vice President of Research

Rick Nicholson, with more than twenty five years of experience in IT and other emerging technologies in the energy industry, leads IDC Energy Insights.

In this role, Mr. Nicholson has global responsibility for IDC Energy Insights’ research-based advisory and consulting offerings, which provide full coverage of information, communications and emerging energy technologies across both the utilities and oil & gas segments. Mr. Nicholson's experience has given him a thorough understanding of market dynamics, business strategies and processes, and technology solutions. He is a recognized and highly respected expert in the alignment of business and technology strategies and the successful deployment of technology to enable smart grids and other game-changing initiatives.

Mr. Nicholson blogs regularly in the IDC Energy Insights Community (http://idc-insights-community.com/energy) and tweets (@rlnicholson2) about business and IT issues relevant to the new energy economy.

Mr. Nicholson has worked with clients in North America, Europe and Asia. His previous experience includes positions with research, consulting, and technology firms where he was responsible for sales, marketing, and delivery activities across various markets including utilities, communications, public sector, and earth resources.

Mr. Nicholson has been a contributing writer to a variety of energy industry publications including Public Utilities Fortnightly, Intelligent Utility and Electric Light & Power. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences, has been interviewed on national television news programs and is frequently quoted in the mainstream media. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Research Authored by Rick Nicholson

IT Impacts from the BP Oil Spill
Rick Nicholson, Catherine Madden, Jill Feblowitz
Jul 2010 - Doc # EI224330      Perspective
This IDC Energy Insights Perspective discusses the IT impacts from the BP oil spill. With the BP oil spill successfully capped, at least temporarily, and the completion of a relief well in sight, it's time to look forward and assess the ...
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Creating a Recipe for Success: Trilliant's $106 Million Burrito
Marcus Torchia, Rick Nicholson
Jul 2010 - Doc # lcUS22430510      IDC Link
 Last week, California-based smart grid communications vendorTrilliant announced that it raised $106 million in its latest round of investment funding. Investments came from two investment firms and two utility industry giants. The investme ...
Insights on Utilities: EMEA Edition — July 2010
Roberta Bigliani, Gaia Gallotti, Rick Nicholson
Jul 2010 - Doc # EIOS55S      Perspective
Welcome to this issue of Insights on utilities, EMEA edition. We periodically distribute this document to share analysis of and opinions on key trends in the utilities industry. Please forward this newsletter to your colleagues or others ...
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Smart Grid Investment Perspective: January–May 2010
Rick Nicholson, Marcus Torchia, Sam Jaffe
Jun 2010 - Doc # EI223857      Perspective
This IDC Energy Insights Perspective presents an analysis of publicly announced investments in smart grid technologies for the January–May 2010 period in the North American market. It focuses exclusively on smart grid technology and thus ...
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Solar Investment Perspective: January–May 2010
Rick Nicholson, Sam Jaffe, Jay Holman
Jun 2010 - Doc # EI223627      Perspective
This IDC Energy Insights Perspective presents an analysis of publicly announced investments in solar technologies for the period January–May 2010 in the North American market. It focuses exclusively on solar technology and thus ...
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ABB Acquires Ventyx — Convergence Between OT and IT Just Got Closer
Jill Feblowitz, Rick Nicholson, Marcus Torchia
May 2010 - Doc # lcUS22333210      IDC Link
The utility industry has been talking about the fact that lines are blurring between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) for the last few years and especially since the smart grid has taken off. Now ABB is accelerati ...
Best Practices: CIOs Move from 2009 Spending Limits to 2010 Projects
Jill Feblowitz, Rick Nicholson, Marcus Torchia
Apr 2010 - Doc # EI222869      Best Practices
This IDC Energy Insights report provides findings from three surveys recently conducted by IDC Energy Insights and IDC Vertical Group that provide insight on utility information and communications technology (ICT) spending and ...
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Smart Cities: Proving Ground for the Intelligent Economy
Rick Nicholson
Mar 2010 - Doc # DR2010_GS4_RN      Event Proceeding
The following was presented at the IDC Directions conferences in Boston and Santa Clara in March 2010.:
North American Intelligent Grid Landscape — Vendors to Watch
Marcus Torchia, Jill Feblowitz, Rick Nicholson
Feb 2010 - Doc # EI221941      Perspective
In this Perspective, IDC Energy Insights sets out a suggested framework for understanding the intelligent grid landscape and provides a list of vendors for each category of the framework. "You can't tell the players without a s ...
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Worldwide Oil and Gas Industry 2010 Top 10 Predictions
Rick Nicholson, Jill Feblowitz, Catherine Madden
Jan 2010 - Doc # EI221738      Top 10 Predictions
This IDC Energy Insights' report presents the top 10 predictions for the worldwide oil and gas industry in 2010. For the oil and gas industry, the economic recession of 2009 certainly challenged the primary objective of extract ...
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More Research authored by Rick Nicholson