Sydney Water Corporation, a government-owned corporation in New South Wales, has been providing over 5 million citizens with drinking water and wastewater management to the Greater Sydney region. As they continue to address the need for potable water, the corporation also underwent a transformation that changed how they do business and manage customers’ needs.
In 2017, WaterSource published an article detailing how Sydney Water started its digital transformation to streamline its operations and improve its customers’ experiences. During this time, they were in the process of implementing a new customer relationship management (CRM and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution with Wipro Ltd.
They reported that the system would be based on the SAP suite, SAP S/4 HANA. The said system was expected to help standardise and integrate digital management systems.
By 2019, Wipro Ltd. announced that it has successfully helped Sydney Water in adopting SAP’s S/4 HANA to help simplify its internal operations.
At that time, George Hunt, the General Manager for Customer Strategy and Regulation, expressed Sydney Water’s strong commitment to being customer-centric and worked to delight customers by delivering innovative and progressive solutions. He shared that the corporation services 5 million citizens across the Great Sydney region, and with this number of customers, Sydney Water Corporation aims to deliver world-class service to its customers.
To make this possible, they had to change their standard billing process maintained since the 1980s to a modernised method to optimise workflows and to provide customer bills that are easier to understand.
They have replaced the outdated system with a modern and flexible billing platform with SAP using SAP S/4 HANA and SAP CRM.
Kathy Hourigan, the Head of Customer Services for Sydney Water, said that the relationships built, both in the business and digital areas, can build relationships with partners, digital friends, business relationships that will help with the next stage of the SAP journey.
Sridhar Pydipati, the Program Director for Customer Experience Program (CxP) Sydney Water, said:
“The feedback from the users has been terrific. They are excited that they are using a solution which is the latest and greatest.”
He added that customers were happy about the convenience and trouble-free process that does not require browsing through o9multiple screens and don’t have to pass work to the back-to-back office.
