Echo Logo
Echo Logo

Echo to deliver specialist customer service and new software to Northern Ireland Water

From the Knowledge Centre

Echo has won a new contract to deliver contact management, billing, and collection management services for Northern Ireland Water. The contract will run for up to 10 years – initially seven with the option for NIW to extend for a further three – and was awarded following a competitive procurement process.

Echo has worked with Northern Ireland Water (NIW) for the last 17 years and will be delivering a high-quality, two-part solution including both service and software with the implementation of its innovative CRM and billing software, Aptumo.

The state-of-the-art technology, already used by water companies in both England and Australia, has been developed by Echo’s experienced water market team. Alongside the service delivery expertise of Echo’s Northern Ireland-based team of customer service professionals, Aptumo will support NIW’s core values by delivering exceptional customer service, using comprehensive data to enhance the customer experience, and agile technology to future proof its customer service activities.

Native to the Salesforce platform, the Aptumo CRM and billing solution will provide sector leading security and resilience - and will allow rich customer engagement to be delivered by the Echo and NIW teams from any location or device. Being highly configurable, Aptumo enables change to be delivered in-house by the customer service teams which can significantly reduce the ongoing cost to own.

To make it as easy as possible for customers to engage with NIW, Echo’s ongoing customer listening and feedback strategy will support continual innovation in the customer experience. It puts the customer at the heart of everything they do and aims to make the relationship between customer and water company as individual as possible. Its omnichannel customer entry capability gives customers a choice in how they want to contact the water supplier, along with the freedom to move between channels and the confidence that a full communication history will always be available.

The solution will give the contact centre team a holistic 3600 view of customer interactions, enables greater automation within workflows, and recommends ‘next best actions’ driven by Salesforce-powered AI, Einstein. They will also have access to a personalised dashboard which displays a workload overview, items due a response, and upcoming events, all to help them better serve NIW’s customers.

“We are excited to be working in partnership with Echo to realise a step change in NI Water’s future customer service delivery. This is an extraordinary opportunity for us all to help shape our new solution and work together to deliver a world class service for our customers.”

Stephanie McCullagh, director of customer & operations at Northern Ireland Water

“Echo has a long-standing and collaborative relationship with Northern Ireland Water, so we’re delighted to be the chosen partner for the new contract and to have the opportunity to continue working together. We’re looking forward to the months ahead as we start out on this new journey to implement Aptumo and further transform service for Northern Ireland Water’s customers.”

Monica Mackintosh, managing director, Echo Managed Services

Over the next 12 months, NIW will be working in close collaboration with Echo, process owners, and key stakeholders to help deliver the new platform by Q3 2024.

Share this article

More in the Knowledge centre

More News

News

Echo Managed Services to Attend VicWater 2024 Annual Conference

Echo Managed Services is delighted to announce its participation in the upcoming VicWater 2024 Annual Conference, scheduled to take place…

Read
News

Aptumo agrees partnership with USP to support stateside expansion of its water billing software

We’re pleased to announce that Aptumo, our next-generation customer and billing solution for water utility providers has secured a strategic…

Read
News

Echo Managed Services strengthens its service with a new head of billing and collections

We are delighted to have appointed Lee Hugill to this important role to help our water sector clients.

Read
News

One in six delayed payment of a water bill due to lack of understanding

Unclear communications and a lack of understanding of water bills are causing almost one in six (14%) bill payers to…

Read

More Cross Service

Blog

Mentoring to support talent and succession planning

This month is National Mentoring Month and our group head of marketing and communication caught up with Echo's lead HR…

10 January 2024 by Hannah Cook

Read
News

Echo team helps South Staffordshire Plc raise £9,000 for local food banks this winter

Almost £3,000 has been raised by the Group’s employees and the donation has been tripled to £9,000 by the business,…

Read
News

Affordability remains the top priority for the next generation of bill payers

Whilst Gen Z has a widely documented interest in the environment, when it comes to water and sewerage services, our…

Read
Research & Resources

Generation Z: A new wave of water customers

Read our latest UK consumer research report focused on Generation Z, the new wave of water customers, and their attitudes…

Read

Choose how you want to get in touch with us

Pick up the phone and call us...

0845 12 12 122

Call

...or simply email us for a quick response.

ask@echo-ms.com

Send email