Joining us from Affinity Water are Dean Garvey-North, Chief Information Officer and Faye England, Head of Transformation. To begin, Dean explains the importance of having a specific vision when developing a transformation strategy.
“We see the word transformation everywhere,” says Dean. “However, what makes Affinity Water stand out is that we have a very clear strategy around what we want to transform into. For us, it’s not just about the digitalisation of our assets, but how we become data-driven to improve our customer experience, enable our field teams to reduce leaks and reduce interruptions to supply. We do this by aligning to four goals with the technology and transformation team: simplify the lives of customers, enhance colleague experiences, deliver innovative digital and technology solutions, and continually improve.
“At our core, we are essentially a large asset organisation, with the majority of our team being field based – so our focus is on keeping them connected, driving operational efficiencies through their work and ultimately looking to continually improve our customer service.”
Here, Faye jumps in to elaborate on the transformation journey at Affinity Water to lead the way.
“We have three focus areas for transformation as we look ahead,” says Faye. “First, we are revolutionising our customer experience by reshaping our key customer touchpoints for a seamless, intuitive experience that prioritises their needs and preferences. It will be simple for our customers to self-serve and our app will provide a new channel for our customers to engage with us. Our focus is also on using emerging technologies as an opportunity to make the lives of our colleagues easier, while simultaneously delivering great service to our customers in the process.
“Second, much of our transformation activity is focused around unlocking the potential of data. Currently, we’re on a journey to roll out smart meters, and it’s our job to realise the full potential of the data we collect. We will proactively support our customers to save water offering them personalised usage information and alert them when we think there could be a leak. In the background, we will use the data to make sure we’re running our networks effectively – optimising performance, reducing inefficiencies and making smarter decisions.
“Our third big focus area is based on our people. We can’t be successful without our people – we’ve strived to create a high-performing culture with a clear purpose and values, and ultimately our people will help us deliver on our vision.”
To lead the way on its transformation journey, Affinity Water is taking a fresh perspective on its data.
“We’ve already started leveraging our data in many ways,” explains Dean. “By using GenAI, we’ve been able to have fewer leaks, and our use of AWS’ Redshift alongside their SageMaker AI has empowered our data scientists to ask more questions.
“AWS has been a big partner of ours over the past few years, and leveraging their data stack has shown us the power of the information and insights that we have. With that, we’re able to use tools such as Qlik, a visualisation tool that really brings that data to life. We have some smart assets, and bringing it together with tools like this gives us some very useful insights. We are currently developing Gen AI overlays for our dashboards to enable our teams to ask questions of the data presented for further insight.”
These new data insights have been instrumental in shaping the future of the company, Faye adds.
“Building on what Dean has said here, I’m very passionate about the power of data-driven transformation,” says Faye. “It’s easy to go after the newest, shiniest thing but being data-driven is far more effective. Within Dean’s wider team, he’s built a Performance and Data Insight team, which will be our vehicle for funnelling change.
“For example, pulling together data to really understand a customer’s key pain points is instrumental in understanding where we need to target change and drive new efficiencies. From there, we can translate those insights into change initiatives and really build on this foundation.”
However, Dean emphasises that none of these transformation initiatives would be possible without the company’s network of partners – particularly Amazon Web Services (AWS) and technology service provider Cognizant.
“Partners are really important to us,” says Dean. “In the past 12 months or so, we’ve really bonded with AWS as a key partner: we are 95% cloud based utilising AWS’ cloud capabilities and services. We’ve worked closely with them on a lot of our data and AI projects, and they’ve been instrumental in helping us drive down technology costs. Using AWS’ cloud capabilities, Affinity Water is ensuring faster response times and better leak detection through AI, keeping water flowing seamlessly for customers.
“Another key partner for us is Cognizant, who is our chosen partner to work alongside us on the digitalisation of our customer experience. We’re working very closely with them, looking at how we serve and interact with our customers in new ways. We are reimagining how customers interact with their water services, ensuring every touchpoint is simple, intuitive and effective.
“We’ve taken a very fresh approach, and Cognizant are on the same page as us in terms of customer interaction. A customer isn’t interacting with us because they want to but because they need to – usually because they need something from us in terms of billing or moving house.
“With those factors in mind, Cognizant is helping us develop a new app designed to make it as easy as possible for our customers to interact with us and for us to interact with our customers. Having their foresight and ability to understand our vision has been a great help for us.”
Here, Faye celebrates how the relationships Affinity Water has built up have provided the company with a wide pool of resources when developing new innovations.
“We collaborate closely with our partners, working together with them to deliver value for our customers,” says Faye. “We are a water company, and our expertise is in supplying safe and drinkable water. Our partners really do help us bring in ideas they’ve seen elsewhere, helping us realise the benefits of effective customer engagement techniques and operational strategies. By bringing that insight, they can really help us push forward and transform.”
Looking ahead, the company is exploring how new technologies can further its sustainability initiatives and better provide to its customers. From reducing inefficiencies in water networks to embracing green technologies, Affinity Water is ensuring that every drop counts – for today’s customers and tomorrow’s planet.
“We’re driven by providing our customers with high-quality drinking water in a very challenging environment, and we want to make sure that we can continually do that in a sustainable way,” says Dean. “We’re very focused on doing the right thing for the environment, for our customers and for the industry. Technology is playing a huge part in that, in terms of how we can drive efficiencies to provide greater quality drinking water consistently to our customers.
“We’re really looking to transform the industry, looking at how water is delivered globally to customers and how customers interact with their water companies. We strongly believe that we are leading the charge in terms of this, and we hope to continue to do so as we look to the future.”
To learn more about how Affinity Water is shaping the future of water supply and how you can get involved in conserving this precious resource, visit Affinity Water’s website for more insights into their journey.
ADDED VALUE
Memberships and recognition
“I’m a British Computer Society member, as well as a Gartner member,” says Dean. “I’ve contributed significantly to Gartner, and I’m incredibly lucky to be a governing body member for Gartner UK and Ireland. I was also very privileged this year to receive the World CIO 200 LEGEND award and UK CIO 100 awards.”
Dean recommends…
“I always recommend Inc’s Productivity Tip of the Day, which is absolutely brilliant and only five minutes long. I’d also recommend the podcast a16z, which focuses on technology leadership and transformation – it’s a great listen while hitting the treadmill. Finally, I’d recommend Data Science for Business, which is a textbook used in the Harvard MBA programme.”
Connect with Dean on LinkedIn.
Keeping things balanced
“As a full-time working mum with an 18 month-old son, I have a thousand tabs open in my brain – from remembering to buy more nappies to working out how to shape our transformation strategy,” says Faye. “It keeps me busy, but each week I’m strict on making sure I get two 45-minute slots of ‘me’ time for a short run.”
Faye recommends..
“I’m fascinated by people and what drives behaviours,” says Faye. “Currently, I’m reading Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson, and I recently watched Brené Brown’s Empathy vs Sympathy, which explains how empathy is what truly creates human connection. When leading change and transformation, empathy is critical to success.”
Connect with Faye on LinkedIn.
Newsletter Sign Up
