Rethinking the power of data
Data is widely recognised as one of the most valuable resources for business growth and operations. In this day and age, do you know any industries that fail to collect and use data? The water industry is no exception, and many water companies have access to a large amount of good quality insights. The problem is, they’re not always seizing the opportunity to maximise this data to the best of its abilities.
Although the sector feels that it is competing to hit Ofwat’s targets, what if the opposite were true? What if collaboration, data sharing and open data platforms could lead to businesses hitting targets across the board, more efficient infrastructure monitoring, better customer service and cost saving? This would ultimately help cement water as a trailblazing industry in innovative technologies, and this idea already has Ofwat’s backing – in 2021 they established a £200 million innovation fund to do just that.
In this blog, we break down how data sharing is possible in the water industry, and how you can use this to your advantage.
Open data: More than just a buzzword? Data is essential for making informed business and budgeting decisions and gaining insight over your operations, but it can do a whole lot more. Open data is a way of making data freely available through an accessible universal system. It can help foster new partnerships and collaborations between water companies, so you can work together to hit sustainability goals, plan for the future and manage infrastructure.
There is also a huge opportunity for the water industry to use open data to offer their customers a better experience, which is a key Ofwat ODI and a friction point for many businesses. It’s not just about using efficient data collection to better understand your customers, but also to help make their lives easier. Weishaupt, a leading heating and solar equipment manufacturer, combined improved data collection with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and access-anywhere cloud solutions to create a dedicated portal for their customers. The portal not only allowed Weishaupt to predict and prepare for service calls in advance, but also gave their customers access to their heating systems from anywhere in the world. Data and modern system technology transformed their customer relations and gave them an opportunity to expand customer-facing products in the future. There is no reason why a water company can’t create similar, intelligent system technology to help address PR complaints and hit Ofwat’s customer service targets. By sharing data amongst fellow water companies, businesses will be in a strong position to build a more comprehensive, resilient, and agile data infrastructure – which in turn means that they’ll have better insight into their operations and customer usage. There is scope to take data sharing further than the water industry too – an open data platform would allow smooth collaboration with other relevant industries, such as energy, to help support wider goals like the UK’s transition to net zero and help keep customer bills down.
Can shared data help you predict what’s next? In trying to meet and exceed Ofwat’s targets, water companies are searching for solutions to the same problems. Even Ofwat recognises this and is encouraging businesses to work together to find efficient, industry-wide solutions. Through its partnership with the Open Data Institute, Ofwat is working to understand the benefits of open data and how it can help the water industry to overcome challenges in sustainability, customer satisfaction and cost savings.
