Water Competition – The Challenges for Core Systems

Competition in the UK water market is facing major change. The emerging market, for Inset Appointments and for the future of the Water Supply Licensing regime, is presenting exciting opportunities for both water companies and the suppliers and partners to the industry.

 

Even before the Government takes any decisions on the Cave Review’s findings, due to be published next Spring, this is already a competitive water market. Many of the larger utilities are already engaged in the water competition market in some way; Scottish and Southern, Veolia Water, United Utilities and Severn Trent all have a competitive vehicle. Other utilities are already testing propositions in Scotland, or have plans to do so, and infrastructure providers and large developers are increasingly competing for contracts that were previously guaranteed business for incumbent water companies.

 

In the coming years, the parameters of the competitive market will only broaden. The further liberalisation of the retail conditions in particular will present new commercial challenges for water companies, who will be working hard to find the efficiencies required to succeed.

 

As a major service provider and software vendor to the industry, Echo Managed Services is adapting and preparing now for the new requirements of the industry. It sees pro-active change as necessary to stay at the forefront of the market; and play a part among the organisations that can support effective competition in the UK water market.

 

Balancing Cost Efficiency and Effective Service

The move towards retail competition will place Billing and customer service operations in the spotlight like never before. Systems will need to accommodate more requirements and deliver a broader range of capabilities; and in new and customisable formats.

 

Echo is currently incorporating and strengthening its capabilities in several different areas. It’s a significant list of development priorities, all of which Echo sees as playing a role in successful participation in a competitive water market. For example they include: smart metering, new and more complex tariff structures, further enhancements to CRM and self-service capabilities, managing customer switching, multi-utility billing, consolidated bills, expanding SaaS capabilities, key account management and shared-customer-service models.

 

Whilst these new requirements will play a part in successful participation in a competitive market, core systems will nevertheless still need to meet some fundamental conditions. Cost efficiency, reliability and proven performance remain the basic prerequisites of the systems responsible for delivering water bills and customer service; both for new entrants in the UK water market and those existing water companies who are looking to move onto new systems to address new market requirements. What’s more, even before the bills have been issued, the challenges of implementing the systems must first be overcome; a hurdle at which utilities have repeatedly fallen in recent years.

 

In considering systems for the competitive market it will be essential for water companies, and new entrants in particular, to strike a fine balance; between keeping operating costs to a minimum whilst also ensuring that customers are happy and the regulator remains supportive. Costly mistakes therefore, must be avoided; investment in systems must be ‘right first time’ and must enable efficiency rather than impede it.

 

Proven, Scalable and Innovative

In the water industry, Echo’s RapidXtra billing and customer information system has a formidable track record of smooth implementations, on time and to budget, and of reliable and accurate billing cycles. It also has a growing base of smaller, hosted clients which enjoy the same dependability and access to robust functionality as the bigger clients.

 

Andy Mack, Head of Software Development for Echo, describes the success factors for RapidXtra “Historically, reliability and accuracy have been the acknowledged strengths of the product. In recent years though, RapidXtra has become as much appreciated for its innovative functionality and its integration compatibility; being just as effective within so many different environments and systems. It’s now an essential part of our strategy to deliver this flexibility and innovation in a competitive water market.”

 

With seven water companies currently using the system, Echo’s investment in R&D is supported by the input and collaboration from within its customer case. This means improvements can be delivered quicker and RapidXtra’s customers can react and take advantage of market changes faster. The crucial advantage of RapidXtra is in the way in which new water specific functionality is developed and subsequently the efficiencies it enables.

 

Andy Mack explains “We’re working with our clients to make sure we’re in a position to take advantage of competition. Some of the opportunities are already here and some may be years down the track, but we need to make sure we’re ready. If we’re adding value in this area, then we will make a major challenge much easier for our clients to overcome and to turn to their advantage.”

 

 

 

Robert Stait

Head of Marketing and Communications, Echo Managed Services

For more information, please visit www.echo-ms.com