Why it’s important to choose technology partners/providers who really understand your business

"Digital transformation is emerging as a key focus for water executives in Australia," says Matt Bowd, General Manager at Aptumo Australia Pty Ltd, "but the savvy ones realise that it’s about more than just finding new ways to do the same things more efficiently. It's about unlocking new value opportunities by transforming how they operate and how they engage with their customers.”

Developed by Echo Managed Services, the leading customer service provider to the UK’s water sector for over 20 years, Aptumo is a customer-centric, cloud-based billing and CIS solution that enables a more personalised approach to customer engagement. It’s native to the Salesforce platform which ensures water utilities are working with an evergreen product thanks to regular software updates, and world-class data security.

Matt continues “Offering a smooth digital experience is a great start, but being able to analyse customer signals to trigger personalised service improvements will help to put service levels on a par with the online experience offered by other providers. For water utilities, billing can be the extent of communication with many customers, so they really need to understand their customers to ensure they can maximise that engagement.”

As water becomes an even more precious resource, water utilities recognise that they play a key role in encouraging Australians to conserve water and use it wisely. When it comes to tackling environmental challenges, water utilities have, traditionally, been more customer and community-focused than other utility providers. Most Australian water utilities already recognise that billing isn’t just for revenue generation, it’s also a powerful comms tool that can be used to convey key messages about things like usage and conservation efforts.

“Many water utilities are still operating legacy CIS systems which can hinder efforts to provide the level of service that customers expect,” Bowd says “and by taking a generic billing system that was probably designed for a different sector they could find themselves spending a lot of time and money customising that system to suit their needs. This can increase total cost of ownership, and compromise user experience and the ability to serve customers.”

Adopting a configurable solution like Aptumo that’s been designed by water sector experts specifically for water utilities allows them to handle more system change requests in-house. Obviously, this reduces dependence on vendor support, but an established and trusted vendor should always be available to advise and guide when needed. This flexibility gives the water utility greater control over how they develop and use the system to suit their customers' needs in the long term, and the reassurance that help is available when necessary. 

"Based on decades of water sector experience, Aptumo believes that customers should be able to engage with their water utility and manage their account as easily as they do with any other service provider" Bowd says. "That means water utilities need to put the customer at the heart of everything they do." 

A configurable billing solution should be the cornerstone of digital transformation efforts, not just a means to bring disparate data and systems together. A more flexible approach to billing – like how often bills are issued, enabling customers to set their own payments date, and offering a variety of ways to pay – shows a true understanding of today’s customer needs. Taking a more granular approach to billing also presents customers with more manageable bills while helping water utilities manage cash flow.

But billing isn’t, and shouldn’t be, the only focus of customer engagement for water utilities. Improvements can be made along the whole customer journey, from streamlining sign up processes to improving faults handling, and each step is important as water utilities look to improve key service outcomes as part of the Essential Service Commission's water price review.

As Australian water utilities embrace digital transformation amid long-term efforts to secure the nation's water supply, the billing platform should be seen as more than just an IT system; it’s a powerful business capability and valuable customer touchpoint. Water utilities have an increasing amount of data at their fingertips so their efforts to engage with customers shouldn’t be hampered by disjointed systems which prevent them from having a 360-degree view of the customer.

“The billing process water utilities use isn’t unique” Bowd says. "A supplier who understands the challenges you face every day and a billing system that helps you give your customers the choices they want is more than just a backend IT system, it’s the future of customer experience."