Riverina Water revamps its ERP

Riverina Water has revamped its asset management, finance and billing portals as part of a $4.5 million digital transformation, leading to boosted productivity and a better customer experience.

The water utility services more than 77,000 people across 15,000 square kilometres in the East Wagga Wagga region in New South Wales.

Riverina Water CEO, Andrew Crakanthorp, told Digital Nation when he stepped into the role, the organisation was using a Civica Authority system that was reaching its end of life.

“It was hosted onsite and was in its 12th edition. The asset system we ran didn't talk to the finance system [and] didn't talk to our water billing system.

“We created a digital transformation strategy to … bring the organisation into the 21st century,” Crakanthorp said.

The strategy identified that Riverina Water needed to undertake an ERP project, resulting in a “fully integrated ERP platform, where assets talked to the general ledger”.

The utility selected Infor CloudSuite Public Sector, which staff interact with on laptops and iPads.

“It was about having a fully integrated system, which was cloud-based and we didn't have to host on-site,” Crakanthorp said.

Due to the pandemic, transformation work took three years, however Crakanthorp said despite “interruptions” its efforts led to the introduction of three modules: customer billing, assets and finance.

Since the introduction of the modules, with customer billing the last one implemented roughly a year ago, Crakanthorp said that staff have embraced the system.

The customer portal has just completed a soft launch around six weeks ago, enabling the community to access their accounts, which Crakanthorp said is a “world first” for a water utility.

He said the system also uses AI to analyse water consumption by account holders, which has made it easier to identify higher than normal use and "pick up the phone and have a chat to the customer."

Customer service staff can “work more closely with customers who are experiencing financial stress and entering into payment plans," Crakanthorp said.

This led to a reduction in outstanding debts “because our customer service staff can have face-to-face phone conversations with customers and who feel more supported.”

Other results include a 19-hour-a-week reduction in processing property transfers, down from 10 working days.  

“A real estate agent will tell us the house is being sold. That generates a work order that goes straight to the iPad of the water meter readers in their ute. They'll go and read the meter that day."

Next moves

Riverina Water recently swapped out its geospatial information software MapInfo for Esri. 

Crakanthorp said the utility will now look at AI capabilities, particularly around chatbots via Infor.

“I'm excited about AI and the potential of introducing a chatbot into our platform," he said.

“Other councils and water utilities are doing that and certain generations enjoy doing that. That's certainly something we'll look at probably in the next six to 12 months.”

He also wants to use data "to do some predictive forecasting around asset maintenance” to help better understand the frequency of water main breakages.

“We want to set up preventative maintenance programs that allow us to replace the pipe before it breaks. A lot of our network is 80 years old and it’s starting to fail.

“Predictive maintenance is important because it ensures continuity of supply for our customers."