Utility installs programme management software

Water firm will use system to meet regulatory and quality commitments

Water firm United Utilities has installed project management software to help comply with regulatory requirements.

The company is using the programme and investment management system (Pims) from vendor Primavera to adhere to regulator Ofwat’s five-year Asset Management Plan, and to a series of commitments on drinking water quality made by all UK water providers.

Glyn Hughes, programme manager at United Utilities, says the system has also replaced a 10-year-old mainframe system that was becoming unsupportable.

‘In the past, programme management was done for us by third parties,’ he said.

‘We had a strategic need to bring that in-house at a programme level, allowing us to bring the programme management and the investment information together.’

The system will also support United Utilities’ ambitious growth plans, which include management of capital programmes carried out for other companies, as well as covering its own work.

The system coincides with the company having to reform its business to meet the priorities set by Ofwat, says Hughes.

‘That made the implementation challenging, to say the least,’ he said.

‘The main difficulty with the IT was the migration of historical data from the existing system and inputting live data into the new system, while maintaining
a continuous cycle.’

One of the biggest advantages of using Pims has been the provision of a single source for controlling spending, which typically is irregular data.

Hughes says this functionality has helped United Utilities to improve the quality of information.

‘The new system is much less forgiving of the quality of data input, which is an excellent thing. You are not allowed to do certain things, because the system will catch you out,’ he said.

‘We have a large programme and a lot of people. They don’t intentionally want to fiddle the system, but using Pims you get inbuilt governance, rather than something you have to consciously impose.’