18th June 2020
Water can often seem like the “Cinderella” of the utility markets. Organisations often fail to pay the same time and attention to their procurement and usage as they commit to addressing energy supply and optimisation.
But with most organisations needing to look afresh at controlling costs and many parts of the county facing a water deficit in the coming decades; isn’t it time to think again?
It’s easy to take this most precious of resources for granted, even though it can have a business critical impact when water supply is disrupted. Equally, effectively managing its usage consumption can have a positive impact in burnishing environmental sustainability credentials.
Our clients tell us that water procurement and the subsequent payment process, also create a disproportionate amount of administrative burden. Many organisations are burdened with paper invoices at infrequent or irregular intervals. This creates a challenge in checking bill accuracy and timely processing. The knock on consequence is a higher proportion of disconnection notices and actual disconnections than for other utilities.
In short water procurement and invoicing creates more hassle, is less easy to validate and runs a greater risk of a business critical impact when it goes wrong.
What we hear is that customers need a route to competitive procurement that turns off the flow of paper invoices, billing errors and disconnection notices. Creating greater efficiency in the system would remove a distracting administrative burden and leave the organisation better able to focus on their core purpose and priorities. Making the whole process more seamless and efficient would also give the peace of mind that someone else’s error won’t impact on the supply of a core business utility.
Inenco, has worked with trusted suppliers to develop a new and innovative model that takes the hassle away and provide assurance and insight enabled by accurate data. We will deploy our usual robust approach to effective procurement to provide access to optimised service line agreements with leading suppliers, via a robustly impartial and objective tendering process.
The focus is on using the right suppliers to minimise overall water related opex spend. The provision of electronic billing of all your water consumption, every month, will enable timely and accurate bill validation that has often been a major issue for water procurement. We’ve also ensured that we are working with trusted suppliers to turn the tap off the flow of disconnection notices.
However, our approach to water procurement and bill validation also unlocks a new rich seam of data. This enables our solutions engineers to readily identify consumption inconsistencies and work with our supply partners to propose and implement steps to reduce water usage; underpinned by robust site surveys and audits. We can then also focus on undertaking tariff analysis and check the accuracy of your effluent assessment and surface water charges.
So, in quick time, we can help to ensure price accuracy, reduce consumption, minimise overall cost and burnish your environmental sustainability credentials. Our focus is on delivering added value insight combined with an approach that is straightforward and hassle free.
To speak to one of our experts about Inenco’s water services contact us.