Last year, I stood before our user community and made a commitment: KloudConnect would no longer be vendor-led. The focus, direction, governance, and shared knowledge that strengthen every organization in our network belong to our customers. KloudGin’s role is to set the table, create the conditions, and listen.

On April 13th in Tampa, our community attended and actively demonstrated the impact of putting customers at the center of KloudConnect, fulfilling our commitment to their voices.

There’s a moment early in every KloudConnect that reveals what kind of day it will be. This year, it happened during the Strategic Enhancement Discussion. Our Customer Steering Committee had selected and ranked their top ten items before the event. Within minutes, customers discussed priorities, tested ideas against their operational realities, and challenged assumptions. The session’s output went directly to product management. That’s the community I’ve always hoped for, where customers aren’t an audience but architects.

Utility leaders, field operations professionals, and technology practitioners from our network came together during this year’s event. What struck me most was how our customers showed up prepared, engaged, generous with knowledge, and honest about ongoing challenges. That openness is rare in enterprise software, and is what now defines this community.

Customers in the Driver’s Seat

We began the day with our Customer Advisory Board, followed by a roadmap overview from Kimberly Herrala, Director of Industry Solutions. Pushkala Venkateswaran, VP of Product Development, introduced a new AssetIQ (AIQ) feature that enables customers to design their own forms. Administrators and operations teams can now create custom layouts, link them to KloudGin surveys, and integrate them into workflows without coding or waiting for integration. This reflects a core principle: those who use our software daily should help shape it.

This flexibility is possible because KloudGin was purpose-built for the complexities of utility work. Our system manages asset and construction data, sensor readings, field notes, photos, and inspection records in one platform. Unlike legacy systems, we were built specifically for this.

During the AIQ session, a customer asked if using AI means data or prompts are shared with public AI models. The answer is no: our customer environments and data remain private. We have prioritized privacy from day one, because artificial intelligence should never compromise it, and our customers should not have to choose between the two.

Our AI solutions impact every area of utility operations. For dispatchers and schedulers, KloudGin reduces workloads by up to 70 percent. For field crews, supervisors, and inspectors, we capture critical knowledge that is often undocumented. For asset managers and capital project planners, we bridge gaps between systems that previously required workarounds. For planners, inventory managers, GIS analysts, and contractors, we develop tools tailored to their workflows.

Live feedback from our users is a key reason KloudConnect is so valuable. Direct collaboration with the customers ready to implement these capabilities allows us to move quickly and focus on what matters most. This is also why we remain the only platform to natively integrate EAM, FSM, and CWM for modern utilities.

A key advantage of the KloudGin platform is that all customers run on the same codebase and receive automatic upgrades. There are no forced migrations, version lock-in, or costly re-implementations to stay current. In an industry where upgrades are often dreaded, we provide an operational backbone that supports future growth, not one that hinders it.

This principle guided the Strategic Enhancement Discussion and the debut of our new Enhancement Voting process at KloudConnect. Traditionally, enterprise software customers submit requests and wait for a response. Enhancement Voting changes this by allowing customers to directly influence KloudGin’s roadmap and product direction. This ensures our development aligns with their operational needs, maximizes technology investments, and reduces future customization costs. Seeing customers participate in real time alongside our product team was one of the day’s most energizing moments.

“KloudGin is so adaptable to what our needs are. We have a unique way of doing business: we ask, we get. The answer is never no; it’s always ‘let’s see what we can do.’ In six years, we’ve grown and changed our platform, and KloudGin helped us do that every step of the way.”
Vincent Leone, Process Manager, Operations Support, Veolia Water

Customers Teaching Customers

The afternoon opened to the broader user group. These sessions generate the most lasting value, with customers speaking directly to each other about the work. This is where KloudConnect delivers what no vendor-led event can: immediate, actionable value from utility leaders. These leaders have all implemented proven strategies to boost efficiency, streamline workflows, and lower operational costs.

The City of Pasadena opened with a look at their journey replacing 38 legacy systems with a single, unified KloudGin platform for Enterprise Asset Management and Construction Work Management, which now serves both their water and electric operations.

“We’re bringing in a platform that’s fully integrated with our other systems, one that’s going to allow us to be ready for challenges we don’t even know about yet. The utility industry is changing rapidly, and you can’t solve those problems blind.”
Jeremy Marquette, Assistant General Manager, Customer Service & Technology, City of Pasadena

Louisville Water Company then shared how they embedded KloudGin into one of the most operationally demanding scenarios any utility faces: responding to leak emergency orders in extreme weather. 

DTE closed the session with a look at how they modernized their gas leak survey process, one of their most critical field safety operations. The compliance and safety stakes don’t leave much room for error. The discussion sparked during the roundtable was among the most animated of the day.

“KloudGin started as a supporting character and ended up stealing the show. We were so impressed with the team, the product, and the way it worked that ever since, we’ve been trying to figure out: what else can we get KloudGin to do for us?”
Emily O’Mara, Business Systems Analyst, Louisville Water

A core theme ran through all three sessions: customers are often unaware of each other’s activities. Gas utilities in the Midwest face challenges similar to water utilities on the West Coast. Without a forum like this, their journeys never intersect. But when they do, utility leaders are able to establish connections that lead to long-term knowledge exchange, collaborative problem-solving, and partnerships. Practitioners speaking directly with one another creates the most durable community value.

A Community-Led Conversation

Two themes kept surfacing throughout the day: what it takes to get the most from a KloudGin partnership and how we can deepen the value we deliver to every customer. Insights came from every corner of the room. They didn’t sound like customer feedback, but the voice of a community taking ownership of its direction.

That’s the promise I made last year, delivered in real time. When customers lead, the result isn’t just a better product. It’s a stronger community, where every member is equipped to make strategic and operational decisions, safeguard their organization’s future, and strengthen their  technology investments.

A Platform Evolving with Its Users

The focus on innovation and evolving needs continued as we showcased KloudGin’s expanding AIQ agent family, one of the day’s most discussed segments. AIQ Apollo provides administrators and power users with plain-language UI configuration and prompt-driven workflow automation. AIQ Atlas is built as a field agent for the mobile workforce, enabling voice-driven work order completion, instant access to technical documentation, real-time hands-free assistance, and location intelligence in the field. Together, they represent a major shift, as KloudGin moves from a system of record to a system of action, with intelligence embedded into customer workflows every day.

This was followed with the Dispatch Center 3.0 and Assisted Scheduling enhancements. For teams managing large crews in complex territories, these updates address critical pain points directly.

Recognizing Our 2026 Innovation Award Recipients

The day closed with the KloudConnect Customer Innovation Awards and Roundtable. We recognized five organizations raising the bar for our entire community: the City of Tempe, El Paso Electric, DTE Energy, Puget Sound Energy, and ENSTAR Natural Gas. Each deserves celebration for maximizing their investment, creatively solving operational problems, and generously sharing what they’ve learned. Congratulations to all.

What Comes Next

KloudConnect 2026 stood out for valuable conversations and knowledge sharing. Every attendee was dedicated to continuous improvement. Last year, I said our role at KloudGin is to set the table. This year in Tampa, it’s clear our community is now leading and shaping the future.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll be planning KloudConnect 2027 with you all. Next year’s event will reflect our community’s continued growth and ambitions, and I’m excited about what’s ahead.

If you weren’t with us in Tampa this year, start making plans for KloudConnect 2027. We will be asking for your vote on preferred location and timing to help us ensure that you and your teams are able to be active parts of the KloudConnect community. The organizations that join gain the collective expertise of the network, a stronger return on their technology investment, and a direct hand in shaping what comes next — for their business, their peers, and the industry we all serve.