Customer service at the centre

INFORMATION is power and at TasWater a program is under way to collect and manage the immense amount of data within the business to improve efficiency and provide a better service to our customers.

Data is collected across all divisions, from treatment plant water output records, sewage processing, maintenance records, water main bursts or blocked sewers down to the financial details of what it all costs — even the 300,000 laboratory tests undertaken.

TasWater’s Senior Engineer for Treatment Asset Performance, Mark Rippon, is working on ways to identify where all this information is, link it to a central warehouse and make it accessible

“We have lots of data and that data has a great value to us in terms of optimising the operation of the business to deliver customer outcomes. We need to treat data like an asset so that we can manage and use it wisely,” Mark said.

Even when data is shared, because it is often presented in different ways it can still cause confusion.

“What we are trying to do is standardise how the data is presented so everyone sees the same thing and is talking the same language,” Mark said.

He said that improving the visualisation of data was enabling TasWater to optimise maintenance costs and improve customer service.

“Data visualisation can give a better understanding of how to invest and respond to risk, all of which has a fiscal impact upon the business,” Mark said.

The process can also lead to better information for the community.

Mark’s work is recognised nationally and he will present a paper on data visualisation at next week’s OzWater18 conference in Brisbane.