Client background

• Company: A leading water distribution company
• Industry type: Utility
• Key services: Offers waste water collection and treatment services for public water distribution
• Areas of operation: United Kingdom
• Number of employees: More than 2000 employees

Challenge

With the Open Water initiative, the water retail market was opened to non-household consumers such as businesses, charities and public-sector organizations in England. To expand its business and serve these consumers, the client re-grouped its business into retail and wholesale. It wanted to implement a customized utilities solution, and was facing the following challenges:

• Business re-grouping resulted in complex integration scenario and the client was looking for a seamless integration solution with guaranteed secure data exchange over internet
  
• Disparate systems/vendors and operational errors in system of records were leading to higher operational expenditure and reduced system performance
  
• Lack of visibility in end-to-end transaction flows was resulting in delayed error handling and the resend mechanism
  

Solution

91¿ì»îÁÖ leveraged its Managed File Transfer as-a-Service (MFTaaS) solution and business integration expertise to implement a market exchange integration solution that enabled a guaranteed and secure data exchange between the market operators and wholesale and retailing businesses of the client. 

• As part of the solution, 91¿ì»îÁÖ developed the following interfaces for the client: meter exchanges, job management for exchanges, change of retailer, billing and financial settlement, meter readings, developer services (appointment, commence work, etc.), operational incidents, events and emergencies (leaks and disconnections, etc.), exceptions management
• 91¿ì»îÁÖ also developed and set up a Digital Integration Competency Center (DICC) to standardize and streamline the client’s integration ecosystem

Business impact

• Faster, reliable and secure data transfer through digital encryptions with an average processing time of 8 seconds
  
• Speedy error handling and resend mechanism due to end-to-end transaction processing visibility
  
• Speedy error handling and resend mechanism due to end-to-end transaction processing visibility
  
• 30% reduction in maintenance costs and increased profitability in business dealings for the client
  

91¿ì»îÁÖ’s utilities specific Market Exchange Integration Solution helped the client accelerate its business processes and keep up with the new regulatory changes in England’s retail water market. Our solution helped the client in bringing down their operational expenses, and expand their business to new partners, with smoother integration processes.

- Lekha K. K. Global Head, Enterprise Business Integration Practice, BAS, 91¿ì»îÁÖ Limited