The water industry is facing a level of change not seen since the privatisation of the sector over 20 years ago. Water shortages, environmental factors (e.g. climate change), potential competition, changing ownership structures and the impacts of recession are just some of the significant challenges faced by water companies today. This is on top of the existing ‘business as usual’ challenges the industry continues to face to deliver efficiency, renew infrastructure, meet customer service levels and deliver shareholder returns.

The sector has a track record of meeting the challenges it faces and is looking for increasingly more assured and innovative ways of meeting this new set of demands.   For example, digital communication technologies are enhancing the control of assets and are changing how field workforces can be managed. The whole area of customer service is being changed; new approaches to tariffs, improved IT systems for billing and customer management, potential competition, and improved metering technologies will provide the potential for a water company manages its customers.  Companies will continue to drive efficiency and meet the needs of environmental and climate change legislation through outsourcing of non core functions, improved approaches to capital delivery and utilising more environmentally acceptable vehicles and energy.

Baringa is using its experience across the whole of the utilities sector to help water companies develop and deliver responses to the challenges it faces. Through our work with energy & utilities clients and DECC on smart metering as an example we can help a water company understand the full impact of improved metering technologies and how it will change their business.

We can also draw on our experience in customer services, operations, IT and support functions to provide services in the following areas to water companies:

• IT strategy and IT programme delivery
• Business process definition, design and methodology
• Management of interactions with regulators, including quality assurance of business plan submissions
• Operating model design, delivery and leadership
• Smart metering discovery workshops, trials and technology roadmap development
• Metering strategy and options analysis
• Customer service transformation (IT, processes, channels, call centres, call to fix, bill to cash)
• Onset of competition and the potential impacts and opportunities for the business
• Delivering operational efficiency and field productivity improvement