SES Water awards contracts for new billing CRM system and digital platform

09/04/19

SES Water has awarded multimillion-pound contracts to Echo Managed Services to implement its Aptumo billing system and to Mando Group Ltd to improve its digital experience, create new online customer journeys and enable self-serve.

The contracts will see SES Water transform its digital customer offering over the next 18 months as part of its Customer Experience Transformation programme which is a key commitment in their Business Plan for 2020 to 2025 and a fundamental element of improving the service provided in line with customers’ expectations.

SES Water will become the first UK water company to bring in the Aptumo billing software which is built on the global Salesforce system, enabling billing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on one platform. The new digital platform built by Mando using the Sitecore digital experience solution will result in a brand new responsive website linked to the billing system which will facilitate seamless online customer transactions.

Head of Retail Services Dan Lamb explains: “We want the most satisfied customers in the country so over the last year we have made fundamental changes to ensure we are putting them at the heart of how we operate. This has included restructuring the customer contact centre and further developing our employees and the significant investment we are now making in our digital offering is the next step in our transformation journey. We are excited to get started with two experienced partners who will help us translate our vision into industry-leading systems that will really benefit our customers and help further streamline and modernise our processes.”

Monica Mackintosh, Managing Director at Echo Managed Services said: “Placing customers at the heart of service is a crucial focus for the water industry, with digital transformation increasingly playing a key role in delivering the convenient ‘any time, any channel’ service that customers now expect. It’s therefore positive to see SES Water choosing to invest in innovative software to further enable service offering improvements, and we look forward to working alongside them to make this a success story. SES Water’s decision to implement Aptumo is testament to both the functional richness and dynamic nature of our solution and follows Australia-based Coliban Water’s decision to implement our software last year.”

Ian Finch, CEO from Mando Group Ltd said: “Water companies face a challenging five years; there’s increasing pressure to drive customer experience and to improve the way people in vulnerable circumstances are treated. We look forward to working with SES Water to simplify those challenges and support their wider goals around cost reduction, channel shift and addressing the core PR19 themes of customer service, resilience, affordability, and innovation.”

The Customer Experience Transformation Programme started in January 2018 and the dedicated improvement activity is ensuring the Company is heading in the right direction with complaint levels at a three-year low and unwanted contact down by 20% year-on-year. Latest results show customer satisfaction at 90% and the Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) Q3 scores put SES Water in 13^th position overall – four places higher than the previous quarter.

In its Business Plan for 2020 to 2025 SES Water has committed to be in the upper quartile in the industry league table for C-MeX as well as resolving 85% of all customer enquiries at the first point of contact. The new digital platforms will also enable the Company to meet its other stretching performance commitments including doubling the number of customers in receipt of its social tariff and significantly increasing the number of vulnerable customers on its Priority Services Register.

SES Water’s new website is expected to launch later this year, swiftly followed by the billing system in early 2020.