Echo Managed Services’ recent roundtable workshop brought together 11 UK water utilities to focus on how to deal with the rising consumer debt problem.

The event included a discussion of the findings of Echo’s research and White Paper “How prepared are water companies for the impact of the debt problem beyond PR’09?”. The White Paper, which examines the four key areas of best practise in revenue management and collections; technology, processes, customer data and people, concludes that whilst the industry manages much of its collection and revenue management extremely effectively, there is no room for complacency if we are to meet the challenges beyond PR09.

The workshop identified several key issues and important questions. For instance, the fact there is not a consensus across the industry about what customer data can be collected, according the Data Protection legislation, has impeded progress toward an industry model for best practice revenue management. Alongside discussion of data compliance issues the workshop also addressed questions about what data it is useful to collect; and in what way different organisations are putting certain elements to constructive use.

The day provided an excellent opportunity for debate and sharing of best practise across the industry. In addition, guest presenters from outside the water industry were on hand to offer a wider perspective.

Both the White Paper and attendance at future roundtable workshops are free for UK water companies. To register your interest, please click here.

For more information, contact Robert Stait, Head of Marketing and Communications, on 0845 12 12 122 or by email

Echo Managed Services, Green Lane, Walsall, WS2 7PD

Annual billing is a hugely significant time of year for the water industry with around 50% of customers receiving their bills at the same time. It represents an opportunity for water companies to generate income and cash-flow early in the reporting year. The shear volume of bills and subsequent contacts which are handled also account for a large proportion of water companies’ performance against regulatory targets; especially on key measures such as DG6 and DG7.

Of crucial importance in the annual bill process is the accuracy of the bills. Reports from EnergyWatch and surveys by the likes of MoneySupermarket.com have highlighted the extent of the issue in the gas and electricity sectors and the damage that inaccurate bills can do to household budgets and customer relationships.

It’s no different for the water industry. In a time of increasing affordability issues for customers and greater regulatory scrutiny for water companies, accurate bills are a top priority. Getting customer charges right ensures that complaints are minimised and vulnerable customers are not faced with unnecessary difficulties.

Given the specialist nature of the services which it provides, these challenges always provide an opportunity for Echo Managed Services to excel. This year Echo again issued accurate bills for its water company clients, handled expertly the subsequent contacts and commenced collection activities effectively and efficiently; all in all a straightforward story of reliability and dependability. Look under the surface though, and some remarkable achievements are uncovered.

Echo’s RapidXtra billing and customer care system delivered a successful cycle of 2008 bill processes for all its water customers, as it does year after year. However, this year also saw RapidXtra improve on its already impressive track record of reliable, quick and accurate billing runs. The system, used by seven of the UK’s water companies set new records in turnaround time for the billing process; even with four companies completing the process over the same weekend!

This year was on average around 15% quicker, saving as much as 1.5 hours for the larger customers and reducing the entire process down to around 30 minutes for the smaller companies. The team at Echo can be extremely proud of RapidXtra’s performance; made all the more remarkable given the critical and highly sensitive function for which system is responsible. Aside from the direct benefits of this performance, keeping downtime to an absolute minimum is also of crucial importance for operational and ‘field’ related work. The sooner these requirements can be handled the earlier that jobs and problems will get fixed.

Mike Butt, Systems Administration Manager for Wessex Water, commented that “RapidXtra ran our annual billing cycle successfully again, in record time and without any problems. We’ve come to rely on this level of performance and we’re delighted that such an important part of our infrastructure is so consistent and accurate, and yet also continues to deliver performance improvements.”

The annual billing success comes on the back of another successful year in which important customers, such as Wessex Water, Bristol Water and Hartlepool Water, have all increased their investment and commitment to the product and its ongoing development roadmap. RapidXtra’s highlights over the last twelve months have also included each of its water customers standardising on RapidXtra OA; the enhanced web based platform which delivers greater accessibility, increased flexibility and faster response times.

Andy Mack, Head of Software Development for Echo, remarked that “Historically, reliability and accuracy have been the acknowledged strengths of the product. In recent years though RapidXtra has become as much appreciated for its speed, innovative functionality and its integration compatibility; being just as effective within so many different environments and systems.”

It may be no more than paying water customers expect but, for Echo’s client’s, annual billing 2008 has been a success. One of the first major hurdles in the year has been cleared with customer reputation and relations in tact; Echo’s clients are now ready to face whatever other challenges the year ahead may present.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:
For more information, please contact Robert Stait on 07816 323804 or at robertstait@echo-ms.com

Echo Managed Services
Echo provides customer process management services for UK and Ireland regulated organisations. A wholly owned subsidiary of South Staffordshire Plc, it has around 450 employees across service centres in Northern Ireland and the Midlands. Echo’s customer process management services encompass multi-channel contact management, revenue management, billing software and consultancy services.

Echo provides services for the following UK water companies:

• Severn Trent Water
• South West Water
• Northern Ireland Water
• Wessex Water 
• Bristol Water 
• South Staffordshire Water
• Hartlepool Water

Walsall based, Echo Managed Services employees beat all expectations and raised £4,350 for charity during 2007.

It all began back in February with the British Heart Foundation’s Valentine Appeal when staff employed a ‘Secret Cupid’ to deliver their Valentine a message and raised £196. This was just the start of a hugely successful year as the staff’s call for more regular, scheduled charity days saw a range of organisations being supported through a managed charity programme.

Echo Managing Director, Phil Newland, said “Throughout the year we have seen colleagues dress down, bake cakes, buy coffee, hold raffles and complete quizzes, all in the name of a huge variety of good causes…..one of the team in Exeter has even set a Guinness World record for the number of hash browns eaten in 15 minutes.”

The causes Echo has supported include Macmillan Cancer Support, Children in Need, WaterAid and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

The team are not resting on their laurels and are already aiming to beat the 2007 record. Fundraising for 2008 has already kicked off with staff bringing in their unwanted Christmas gifts for a bring and buy sale with the proceeds going to WaterAid.

The Echo Managed Services team raised their mugs and joined in the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillan Cancer Support on Friday 28 September, raising a fantastic £1,333 for the charity. 

Walsall based Echo had each of its three UK sites participate in the event and, in addition to the coffee morning, staff were invited to take part in various fundraising fun and games throughout the day. Echo managing director Phil Newland said ‘Each of our sites had a great day and everyone really enjoyed themselves. It is great that by simply enjoying a cup of coffee and catching up with colleagues we can make a difference for this fantastic charity’.
 
Every cup of coffee drunk in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support at events like Echo’s across the UK on Friday 28 September has helped raise money that will go towards providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support to people living with cancer.

Ciarán Devane, Macmillan Cancer Support Chief Executive, said; ‘I’d like to say a massive thank you to the team at Echo for joining the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillan Cancer Support.  Cancer affects us all and simply having a cup of coffee is a great way to help Macmillan be there for more people with cancer.’

-ends-

Note to editors
For more information regarding Echo Managed Services, please contact Kate Booth on 0845 12 12 122 or at katebooth@echo-ms.com

16th August, 2007

With just 45,000 customers Hartlepool Water, as part of Anglian Water Services Ltd, is one of the UK’s smaller water companies. Despite its size, Hartlepool must still adhere to the same regulated standards and measures as those for all UK water companies, some of whom are amongst the biggest organisations in the UK and over 100 times the size of Hartlepool. This poses some unique management challenges. In essence, Hartlepool has much the same system requirements as any water company because it performs the same public service functions. However, it has a fraction of the resources and budget at its disposal.

Hartlepool needed to find innovative ways of using technology to deliver and maintain an excellent water service in a manner which is affordable, reliable and predictable. Working with Echo Managed Services, the UK water industry specialist in customer process management, Hartlepool has switched its core RapidXtra customer information system (CIS) from an onsite installed application to an upgraded, hosted and fully managed service.

Kevin Ensell, Water Operations Manager for Hartlepool Water, commented “We’ve delivered a step change in system performance by working with Echo and moving to a hosted solution. Activities like annual billing, which may previously have taken us 36 hours to complete, we can do in less than a tenth of the time; month end cash reporting used to take anything up to four and a half hours and we now do it in around four minutes.”

The fully managed, hosted solution enables Hartlepool to invest in its core technology through predictable instalments. Things like upgrades, server maintenance and data management, which would have previously required committing to periodic internal investments, are now all part of the service. In this way Hartlepool is getting faster, more affordable and more reliable software with guaranteed availability and support.

Kevin Ensell explains the benefit of the different financial model “The hosting solution provided by Echo has enabled Hartlepool to focus key internal resources on other areas of our service provision. In addition to a major improvement in performance, we can now also see predictable and manageable costs, enabling us to plan and allocate our technology budget better.”

Having purchased its billing system in 1998, fundamentally Hartlepool was happy with its RapidXtra water CIS. As a scalable system designed specifically for UK water companies, the capability and functionality of RapidXtra is perfectly suited to Hartlepool’s needs. However, nine years on, a move to an innovative hosted solution has reduced risk and released the savings, performance improvements and resilience that Hartlepool now needs.

As one of the most critical elements in Hartlepool’s IT infrastructure, it was essential that the billing and customer care systems be safeguarded in any change to IT architecture. Working with Echo’s billing specialists ensured that Hartlepool’s transition to a hosted RapidXtra solution not only delivered reduced risk and measurable cost, time and resource savings, but also that the whole thing happened without a moment’s disruption to service.

For more information, contact Robert Stait, Head of Marketing and Communications, on 0845 12 12 122 or by email

Echo Managed Services, Green Lane, Walsall, WS2 7PD

UK, West Midlands. 12th July, 2007

Echo is pleased to announce that Nigel Lloyd will be joining the company as Finance and Commercial Director. Nigel brings substantial board level experience gained in technology and telecoms companies. His background in Finance and Commercial Director roles includes a track record of achievements in business planning, expansion planning, contract negotiation and financial control.

Phil Newland, Managing Director, explains the appointment “We are delighted that, in Nigel, we have somebody who will help build on the changes and the progress Echo has made in recent years. I believe that in Nigel we have the right successor and somebody that shares with the rest of the board a clear, positive vision for the company.”

After more than six years of service, outgoing Director Paul Bird is handing over the reins of ‘Finance and Commercial’ responsibility. In the meantime, Nigel and Paul will work together for a period to ensure that continuity is maintained.

For more information, contact Robert Stait, Head of Marketing and Communications, on 0845 12 12 122 or by email

Echo Managed Services, Green Lane, Walsall, WS2 7PD

UK, West Midlands. 12th July, 2007

Echo Managed Services announces the launch of its new company website. The timing of the launch coincides with a period of increasing recruitment requirements for the Walsall based company, who are specialists in customer contact management and billing systems for the UK water industry.

Phil Newland, Managing Director, explains “Echo is a very different company today to that of three or four years ago. The market focus, customers and strategy that we have now represent the culmination of over a decade's evolution and development. More recently, Echo has responded to significant growth by transforming the business structure and strategy. This has included strengthening the management team with new appointments and a major ongoing recruitment drive over the past few months for positions across the business.”

The changes and rapid growth at Echo in recent years meant the old website was becoming out of step with the evolution of the business. Robert Stait, Head of Marketing for Echo, commented “The new website is a huge improvement and now accurately portrays to our potential new recruits a strong company brand, positions our strategy clearly and describes our vision as it is today.”

For vacancies at any of Echo’s software development and customer contact management sites, please visit:

http://www.echomanagedservices.com/careers/vacancies.aspx

18th June, 2007

Echo Managed Services has enhanced its customer information system, RapidXtra, with a significant investment in .net web self-service technology. The software enhancement is part of Echo’s ongoing commitment to find new ways to improve the customer experience for its water company clients. The web developments offer more choice for water customers, providing greater convenience, improved response times and delivering more capabilities to online interaction.

The addition of extra capabilities at the web front-end completes RapidXtra’s suite of end-to-end billing functionality. The enhancements will enable customers to view real-time account information and to complete, online, simple activities such as: viewing account history; accessing previous bill images; seeing how meter readings impact on bill amounts; or, reporting faults.

Phil Newland, Managing Director of Echo, explains the significance “Echo has for some time been at the forefront of web billing technology. Our RapidXtra system already enables web interfaces and online transactions for our clients, but these enhancements extend our service capability to the interface itself, delivering real-time, two-way account communication for the customer.”

“One of the advantages of our unique position, as a company providing both water customer services and water customer information systems, is that we can call on our own direct experience of delivering first class front-end services, as we develop our RapidXtra software product. As a result, we have a privileged insight into how best to improve on the web services delivered to water customers. This means we can make sure we’re always maximising the availability of choice and increasing the speed and accuracy of interactions.”

Customer experience expectations have changed radically in recent years... Find out more.

14th February, 2007

A Walsall business made Valentine’s Day a date to remember for heart patients by giving the gift of time to support the British Heart Foundation’s Valentine Appeal.

Staff at Echo Managed Services in Walsall employed a ‘Secret Cupid’ to deliver their Valentine a message.

Each message cost £1 and was attached to a helium balloon. Staff also wrote their very own love note to be in with a chance to win a prize.

Echo operations director Nigel Baker said: “We decided to support the Valentine Appeal after staff selected the BHF in one of our regular polls to nominate which charities we support.”

Jackie Skeel, Valentine Appeal Manager at BHF added: “Thanks to Echo Managed Services, the BHF will be able to care for even more heart patients and their families, whether in their homes or on the telephone.”

More information on the appeal is available at bhf.org.uk/valentine or by calling 0870 1265 295.

For more information Robert Stait, Head of Marketing and Communications, on 0845 12 12 122 or by email

Echo Managed Services, Green Lane, Walsall, WS2 7PD

Echo Appoints New Managing Director.

Phil Newland has been appointed Managing Director of Echo Managed Services. As a result of a strategic review, outgoing MD John Catling has decided the time is right to step aside and pursue other personal interests. John will be working with Phil over the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

Echo's strategic review is a natural result of the progress and growth that it has produced over the last 18 months. A number of major contract wins, together with an encouraging number of major utility and government opportunities, mean that Echo is strengthening its foothold and capabilities in areas of proven success.

The Department for Regional Development Northern Ireland (DRD) has selected a Xansa-led consortium as the preferred bidder for provision of the new Department for Regional Development (DRD) Water Service customer billing and contacts system. Xansa's consortium includes Echo Managed Services and AMT-Sybex Ltd.

It is intended that the contract will be awarded to the consortium before the end of 2005, subject to completion of contractual agreements and other government purchasing approvals.

Following award of the contract, the successful bidder will become the private sector partner working with DRD Water Service on provision of "best in class" customer billing and relations management services over the next seven years. The contract sets performance targets which will ensure industry leading standards of service, fast local response to customer enquiries and continuous improvement in standards of service provided.

The implementation period will commence in January 2006 with full operation planned by April 2007. A new Customer Relations Centre for Water Service will be opened in April 2007, creating over 180 additional new jobs in the Belfast area.

In addition to replacing current non-domestic billing and customer enquiry systems, the new service will also be capable of delivering domestic bills under the proposed new charging arrangements to be introduced by Northern Ireland Water Limited when the Government owned Company is established in April 2007.

Product development and enhancement is key to RapidXtras’ continuing success – and the role out of RapidXtra Open Architecture is further proof of its commitment to supplying the utility sector with the best software around.

The new RapidXtra Open Architecture application has been developed to create an easy and ‘Open’ method of enquiring and updating RapidXtra. Specifically the new functionality will enable a comprehensive self-service strategy through such channels as the Internet or IVR.

RapidXtra Open Architecture enables a large number of business functions including:

• Meter reading maintenance

• Customer account enquires

• Customer change of address

• Payments

• Customer account maintenance

Product Development Director Phil Hutton said: “At Rapid we are continually improving our product offering and with RapidXtra Open Architecture we offer improved functionality and flexibility.”

Echo Managed Services’ Nigel Baker, was named Outsourcing Professional of The Year by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) at the annual awards ceremony held in central London.

Nigel, director of utility services for Echo, was recognised in particular for his work with South West Water at the award ceremony designed to celebrate and reward best practice in outsourcing.

Echo provides billing, contact centre and debt management solutions for South West Water, one of the UK’s largest water companies. Nigel was commended by the judges following the implementation of numerous operational improvements and organisational changes, resulting in direct and tangible benefits for the client

A panel of outsourcing experts evaluated entries based on a range of factors, looking for a person that delivered not only customer focused results, but that was seen to be pushing the industry to deliver high quality.

“We are thrilled with Nigel’s success” said John Catling, managing director, Echo Managed Services. “It is particularly pleasing that this award cited quality of service and operational excellence as winning criteria."

Rapid Systems Limited has today announced the award of a contract to supply a major new billing and customer contact software system to South West Water. Rapid Systems Limited is a member of South Staffordshire Group, the Midlands-based supplier of support services to industry, commerce and utilities.

South West Water, which bills 800,000 customers in Cornwall and Devon, has selected Rapid as part of a £multi-million development after an appraisal of their future customer software requirements and the products on offer in the market.

A major strength of the Rapid system is its focus on customer as well as property-based information. This, along with its operator-friendly Windows environment, makes it ideal for companies looking for an efficient and cost-effective system which will add significantly to their customer management capabilities.

Phil Jenner, South West Water's Business Development Manager, said "We were looking for a system which would help us to meet increased customer and regulatory expectations in a more efficient way. Having looked at the available options we concluded that Rapid was a clear winner. We were particularly impressed at the high degree of compatibility between our functional requirements and the software's capabilities".

Hal Bailey, Commercial Director of Rapid Systems, said "We are obviously very pleased that South West Water have recognised the high functional fit which Rapid provides to their operation. Rapid's development has been driven by the requirements of business processes and this is no more evident than in the look, feel and ease of use of the product. We expect a continuing high demand for cost-effective billing and customer care solutions throughout the water industry as regulation continues to place demands on water companies to drive costs down while at the same time maintaining customer service levels".