Ensuring that consumers continue to receive a reliable water supply and that their waste water is efficiently conveyed to sewage treatment plants, irrespective of population and tourism increases and other seasonally adjusted demands, requires a very large and complex infrastructure. Yet in today’s world where the competitive edge depends on the ability of a utility to provide the right service on time, the correct use of IT applications becomes crucial for efficient service delivery.
Geographic Information System-based applications contribute to the improvement of the service provided by the Water Services Corporation. Adopting this spatial strategy has enabled WSC employees to improve decision-making, reduce risks and optimise operations by exploiting data location. GIS was put at the centre of its operations to manage, control and plan internal projects. The system has enabled the corporation to build up very comprehensive geo-referenced points of every single water meter, valve, tap, pipe, and other data all over Malta and Gozo. The same applies to the drainage system in terms of sewer main slope angle, elevation data and other data.
The corporation’s assets extend up to and sometimes even beyond the country’s shore line. All are digitally connected to communication devices and data is collated to a centralised hub. This means that digital information floods in every hour – this can overwhelm rather than help operations if not handled correctly.
The strategic information directorate identified this challenge and embarked on a strategy to determine how WSC could exploit this data in conjunction with location data to improve decision-making, reduce risks and optimise operations. Innovative solutions based on a GIS integration platform to represent this rich but overwhelming data were implemented.
The information is intelligently selected and processed to depict trends and key performance indicators that assist both operators and strategists to decide on the best way forward. What was hitherto overwhelming information was strategically transformed into knowledge to give meaning and show trends which assist both the day-to-day running as well as long-term planning.
With real-time data building up continuous trends, it has also become easier to close the loop when it comes to decision-making. Simplified and more meaningful data allows for feedback to check the worth of decisions made. Results emanating from strategic changes can be viewed in real time, thus allowing strategists to evaluate tactical changes and accept or rectify accordingly to ensure original goals are met.
The information is intelligently selected and processed to depict trends and key performance indicators
This highly innovative GIS integration platform was designed, developed and implemented by WSC’s Strategic Information Directorate software engineering arm, using the latest technologies and concepts. These strategic solutions form the backbone of the corporation’s operations.
This GIS integration platform has also been put to use within the corporation’s customer care department. Incoming reports are geo-referenced directly on maps complete with accurate search facilities. Reported issues are entered through a GIS application which serves as a front end to SAP and are then automatically communicated to the officer-in-charge of works according to locality. Within each region a similar GIS based application displays the notifications’ exact locations together with map printouts if necessary. Once the job is done the regional officer can then close the work order and enter the resources used to carry out the works.
Searching for streets and locations especially when reports are coming in over the phone, is now much simpler and visually verifiable. Switching between orthographic and street maps and overlaying other data like the exact location of meters and water and waste water networks enables WSC’s call centre personnel to confirm a reported location to the people in the field. Using this solution, the CRM agents have the possibility to monitor the WSC’s fleet location in real time.
The application is user friendly and provides an immediate pictorial representation of service notifications. This becomes crucial when a fault is reported to customer care by multiple persons.
The notifications capability provides another source of information which can be used for analysis and to take further actions. The enhanced data helps in reducing issues that consumers might have. GIS has transformed data to knowledge.
This GIS and CRM solution fully integrates four systems: fleet management, CRM, ERP and GIS and has already received positive reviews from other parties outside of the corporation.
That WSC plays a vital role in our country’s future social and economic development is beyond doubt. But WSC is now moving forward and is fast becoming an internationally recognised expert in data creation and interpretation in the water and waste water fields.