Partnering with Capgemini, Welsh Water implements the SAP C/4HANA service cloud platform to better understand its customers and respond to queries more rapidly as part of a general effort to become a more proactive organisation.
Changing regulations presents a challenge
Providing water and wastewater services to over 3,000,000 people is a complex and monumental undertaking, especially considering the potential impact it has on UK customers. However, Welsh Water, part of the Glas Cymru company, has built its identity based on a history of overcoming logistical challenges and making sure its clients have reliable access to one of their most essential needs. As part of its continuous pursuit of superior customer support, the company reviewed its existing customer relationship management (CRM) system.
After acknowledging that it had an opportunity to improve its understanding of its customer needs by updating its CRM platform, Welsh Water launched a product selection process. Taking into account its ongoing transformation initiatives and its goal of generating a 360-degree view of its customers, the business decided that it needed a cloud-based platform based on SAP technology. This led Welsh Water to select SAP Cloud for Customer (C4C) as its solution. In order to gain access to the substantial technical expertise needed to smoothly implement such an impactful platform, Welsh Water decided to partner with Capgemini in order to manage the project.
Delivering a cloud solution
Because the project delivery was required to be within Open Water’s framework of rules and policies, Capgemini and Welsh Water agreed upon a waterfall method in order to execute the transformation while also ensuring compliance. To launch this process, Capgemini hosted a series of workshops with users and stakeholders to gather a full understanding of the projects’ requirements and expectations. By doing so, the team entered the design phase with enough detail to develop multiple blueprints, which then formed the basis of the future build and deployment of the solution.
As Capgemini and Welsh Water began to develop the solution based on feedback acquired through workshops, they agreed to a series of show-and-tell sessions that ensured a constant knowledge transfer between the organisations. In addition to helping encourage buy-in from a variety of stakeholders, this also accelerated the rate at which Welsh Water became comfortable with the new technology and prepared for different ways of working.
More effectively supporting customers
With the Cloud for Customer solution, Welsh Water rapidly evolved the way in which its customers are supported. The new platform has introduced widespread efficiency throughout the company’s call centers, ensuring that when customers call in, representatives answer much more quickly and the interactions typically require less time to reach a satisfactory conclusion. Meanwhile, new team members have faced reduced onboarding times due to the increased simplicity offered by the solution. This enhanced support ability combined with a 360-degree view of the customer that is created by the cloud based platform have enabled Welsh Water to become a proactive company.
Welsh Water has risen to the challenge and empowered its customer management teams to provide better, more personal support to their customers. Based on the substantial success of the SAP C/4HANA implementation, Welsh Water and Capgemini plan to continue their relationship into the future. As part of the next step, the partners plan to expand the SAP –
C/4HANA platform and integrate it into Welsh Water’s core systems. Together, these organisations will ensure the continuation of reliable water and wastewater services for thousands of customers within the UK.
