Introduction
South East Water is one of 21 regulated water supply companies in England and Wales, serving 2.1 million people living in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.
The company supplies 565 million litres of drinking water daily and maintains a distribution network of 14,000 kilometres of water mains.
The Challenge
To help drive funding from regulators, South East Water aimed to boost its Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) score. How could it deliver rapid and effective services to ensure customer satisfaction?
Dhiraj Sood, Operations System Manager at South East Water, explains:
“South East Water is responsible for a network that includes more than 14,000 kilometres of water mains, which means that robust asset management capabilities are essential to maximize the availability of our assets. For many years, we have relied upon our IBM Maximo solution to help us efficiently manage our asset data, and co-ordinate planned and unplanned maintenance work.
“In the past, our contractors working in the field would document the work they were carrying out on paper forms, which were then manually re-keyed into the IBM Maximo solution. This meant that there was often a delay of two working days between work being completed and the information being entered into the system.
“The challenge with this way of working was that our contact centre was unable to gain an accurate view of when work was scheduled to take place, and by when it was likely to be completed. This made it difficult both for us to manage operational incidents and resolve customer enquires effectively on the first call and threatened to reduce satisfaction. To solve the challenge, we looked for a way to empower our operational managers and customer services team to manage work and deliver up-to-the-minute information to our customers. The ability to monitor and control key jobs using accurate data is vital to meet our regulatory targets”.
The Solution
South East Water realized that mobile workforce management capabilities would deliver the visibility it needed to support more responsive customer services.
Dhiraj Sood recalls, “Our aim was to increase the information we had available, about when our contractors were attending a site, the work they performed, and the likely date the work would be completed. We knew the fastest way to capture the information was by entering it directly into the IBM Maximo solution. For that reason, we wanted to develop a mobile app that could run on our contractors’ smartphones—enabling them to key in real-time updates on site.”
To capture and manage information on its contractors’ work schedules, South East Water decided to enhance its existing solution with IBM Maximo Asset Management Scheduler software. And to provide a platform-agnostic development environment for its new mobile app, the company selected IBM MobileFirst Foundation.
To prepare its IBM Maximo environment for the new mobile capabilities, South East Water worked with IBM Premier Business Partner Cohesive (Vetasi) to upgrade to the latest version of IBM Maximo Asset Management.
Dhiraj Sood comments: “We consider Cohesive (Vetasi) a trusted partner, and we have relied on their expertise around IBM Maximo solutions for many years. Cohesive (Vetasi) doesn’t just possess the technical know-how—they truly understand the way our business works. For that reason, we were confident that their team would be the optimal choice to achieve a fast, seamless upgrade—and that’s exactly what Cohesive (Vetasi) delivered.”
With the upgrade completed, South East Water developed a new mobile app, fully integrated with its IBM Maximo solutions. Today, South East Water has rolled out its mobile app to more than 80 engineering teams, delivering near-real-time data to its customer contact centre, technical call centre and cost-controlling teams.
Dhiraj Sood adds, “When we first implemented IBM Mobile Foundation, we had it rigorously pen tested—and we are very satisfied with the security of the solution. Making changes to our apps is straightforward—we simply push the latest release directly to our contractors’ devices.” South East Water realized that mobile workforce management capabilities would deliver the visibility it needed to support more responsive customer services.
Proactive Services Boost Satisfaction
By enabling its contractors to enter information directly into IBM Maximo, South East Water can get information to its customer service teams—and therefore to its customers—faster than ever.
“Today, our contractors’ mobile updates out in the field flow through into IBM Maximo within just 10 minutes—orders of magnitude faster than before,” says Dhiraj Sood. “Better still, we have vastly increased the richness of the data we capture—for example, by enabling our contractors to take pictures of their completed work. As a result, our works planning team can quickly validate that the work has been performed properly.”
He continues: “Crucially, the improved visibility means that we can keep our customers informed about the progress of works every step of the way. We can now resolve more customer issues on their first call into our contact centre and reach out to our customers with updates proactively. Keeping customers informed is a valuable way to increase their satisfaction—and we have already seen a marked increase in satisfaction in the two SIM surveys performed since our new solution went live.”
The mobile solution is also delivering benefits to South East Water’s contractors, who are embracing the new way of working.
Dhiraj Sood comments: “Today, we use images in IBM Maximo to perform essential quality assurance checks far faster than before. As a result, we can pay contractor invoices faster, boosting their satisfaction and improving their cash flow.”
Access to on-site images makes it easier for South East Water’s health and safety team to ensure that its contractors comply with regulatory requirements. For example, the team can verify that contractors are using the correct equipment on site, and that works are being performed safely. And with up-to-the-minute information on the precise location of ongoing works, the health and safety team can perform on-site audits easily if required.
“We are receiving positive feedback across the board—from contractors in the field to the senior leadership team at our head office,” says Dhiraj Sood. “We have only been using our app for five months, but people are already telling us that they couldn’t live without the near-real-time information they have now.”
He concludes: “Customer satisfaction is a key contributor to our overall SIM score, and thanks in large part to our IBM solution we have already climbed significantly in the SIM survey league. By continuing to develop our mobile app, we will strengthen our ability to deliver more effective, proactive services that delight our customers.”
Client Benefits
- 99 per cent faster access to maintenance and repair reports
- Boosts customer satisfaction scores
- Drives future funding via the Service Incentive Mechanism
