The continued rollout of digital capability across retail and service providers means that today’s water utility consumers expect a user experience similar to online shopping or banking. Digitally connected customers want to be able to do things a certain way: easily, quickly, and remotely.
Across the utilities sector, energy suppliers have moved quickly to embrace new technologies that improve the customer experience, but water providers, some more than others, remain significantly out of sync with that transition.
There can be a multitude of reasons behind a business not choosing to prioritize digitalization and improvements to customer experience — from lack of available funding to fear of how change will be received. Technological advancements have left many legacy systems in the dust, but utilities can use this opportunity to invest in a digital future.
To adapt to the needs of today’s customers, water utilities must enable their customers to shape their relationships with utilities and they must embrace digital transformation in order to grow and to improve the customer experience.
Implementing a completely new billing solution can seem like a daunting task and a significant financial commitment — but it is an invaluable investment that can solve critical customer pain points while improving operational efficiencies and achieving business goals.
With proper planning and a strong implementation team in place, utilities can achieve significant benefits from modern enterprise technology.
Coliban Water, an Australian water utility that delivers drinking water, sewerage, trade waste, and recycled water services to around 160,000 people and close to 7,000 businesses in north-central Victoria, was looking to upgrade to an intelligent billing and customer information system.
“Our billing solution was reaching the end of its lifecycle,” says Damian Wells, managing director at Coliban Water. “A 20-plus year old system was at risk of obsolescence and worse, it wasn’t helping us meet the contemporary needs of our customers.”
“We want Coliban Water to be easy to deal with,” Wells continues. “Combining Aptumo — a water sector-specific billing solution — with the variety of cloud-based business tools and apps available on the Salesforce platform gives us the power to make that happen.”
Aptumo is a software as a service billing platform company. It’s part of SSPlc, an integrated services partner for the United Kingdom’s water industry. The group provides infrastructure and asset management, leak detection, health and safety, and hygiene services. The platform was developed by a team at Echo Managed Services, also part of SSPlc, which provides customer relationship services for two regulated water companies: South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water, which have a combined customer base of more than 1.6 million people.
The platform delivers pre-built water processes, which are data-driven and can automate personalized customer interactions. Aptumo is built on the Salesforce platform, which means that water utilities can implement apps and tools available through the Salesforce App Exchange into their own customer service provision to help shape the customer journey.
Deploying the Platform
Coliban Water’s goal was to reimagine their current user experience, to eliminate friction, and to create a barrier-free experience for their customers. After searching the billing solutions market, Coliban selected Aptumo’s platform and began a rapid cycle of designing, building, and deploying.
Since it is built on the Salesforce platform, Aptumo offers out-of-the-box functionality. The billing system provides enhanced data security, decreased manual work for staff to integrate with other in-house systems, reduced time to resolve enquiries, and customizable dashboard reporting. It also allows the in-house design of bill formats and customer messaging on water bills.
After just a few months, Coliban Water successfully transitioned its old billing and customer support software to Aptumo to benefit its customers. Now, Coliban’s new billing platform enables greater risk management, heightened resilience, and an improved customer experience. WW
