In the past few years, extreme weather events, such as last summer’s heat waves, have hindered UK utility providers’ ability to deliver key water management services.
In 2022, the UK experienced its driest summer in 50 years, with drought measures still active in Devon and Cornwall, pushing The National Drought Group to take urgent action. The group recently announced new measures and guidelines for water companies to “start planning now to manage potentially significant impacts next year”.
Here, Raffaele Malvaso, Nintex Senior Enterprise Account Executive, provides some priority areas water utility providers can leverage technology in 2023 to avoid potentially significant water supply and environmental impacts this year.
Overcoming legacy systems
To become more agile and cut response time to critical issues, water companies need to embrace data as a strategic asset.
However, legacy systems and manual data extraction processes are major obstacles to efficiency. Manual processes continue to be an issue with many organisations. A Forrester’s 2022 DPA survey showed that almost a third of organisations still have many or most of their processes running with dependencies on paper.
Leveraging cloud-based IT infrastructure enables field data to be automatically pulled through into systems of record. This can cut data collection time by up to 50%, allowing engineers to derive insights quickly and make smarter decisions.
Water and wastewater facilities are tasked with securing one of the biggest priorities related to public health. Many facilities face significant challenges such as an ageing infrastructure with disparate, obsolete systems, a limited workforce, limited budgets, and growing demands. Utility firms can use technology to address many of these challenges.
Making the most of human capital
The most important asset to any water utility provider is its people. That is why the most forward-looking companies invest in artificial intelligence and automation to support their workforce, particularly field workers, and to modernise workflows and internal processes.
Additionally, the shortage of experienced talent continues to hinder the ability of water providers. Between 2019 and 2021 the water treatment sector lost 21% of its headcount.
Employing automation for laborious and repetitive manual tasks will free up time for valuable human resources to better focus on more critical and strategic thinking. Additionally, promoting purposeful work and adopting new technologies are beneficial to attracting talent.
Introducing process management and automation, including robotic process automation, will enable utility providers with the ability to map out their existing processes and create new efficient pathways that will create organisation-wide efficiency.
Risk and compliance management
A change of direction for utility regulation across Europe and North America will see companies held to higher standards when it comes to water and waste management as well as their impact on the environment.
Minimising compliance risk is a challenge water utility firms can navigate by becoming more agile and adaptable. For example, tracking and monitoring the condition of chemical tanks is necessary to prevent potential leaks of toxic chemicals into the environment. However, if these processes rely on manual data collection, it takes longer to make that data ready for analysis which can cause delays in identifying and addressing potential safety issues.
Optimised processes not only reduce compliance risk but help water utility companies adapt quickly to future regulatory requirements as the necessary routines and tasks are set up and automated.
Conclusion
Digital workforce management solutions are revolutionising how utility companies organise and execute fieldwork. To achieve high-quality, sustainable results as they move toward full digitisation, managers should identify a strategy and IT solution that best fits their organisation.
Failure to act urgently is a risk no utility firm can afford – for their balance sheet, customers and the environment.
