Brabant Water delivers refreshing improvements with Dynamics 365

Trouble on tap

Utilities in the Netherlands are partly privatized and partly government controlled. For this reason, they receive more scrutiny than utilities in other countries and citizens can be outspoken when service is perceived as not being up to par. In addition to building, installing, and maintaining physical infrastructure, Brabant Water is responsible for establishing service for new customers, relocating service of existing customers, reading meters, recording payments, processing bill collections, and managing customer communications and contacts. On a monthly basis, this looks like:

• 15,500 service relocations
• 91,500 meter readings
• 26,000 partial payment refunds
• 1,000,000 direct debits
• 170,000 outgoing emails
• 22,000 care center calls
• 2,000 incoming emails
• 800 social media posts and replies

Until recently, the utility operated on a highly customized, on-premises Oracle solution that was nearing the end of its useful life. The company’s primary focus was on its water network needs. With less emphasis on customers, the Brabant Water customer experience lacked modern, self-service account management options. With changing consumer expectations and feedback from employees about inefficient workflow processes, leadership made the decision to adopt a modern, cloud-based solution to transform front- and back-office operations.

Brabant Water was determined to put customers at the center of everything it does. A modern system was key to offering more customer convenience. Leadership realized it was time to move the company’s operations to the cloud and bring all its data together into one system. In addition to a major digital transformation, the team decided to redesign processes to align more closely with industry standards and refocus operations to be customer centered. As a utility responsible for providing essential water services to so many customers, the team felt the company also needed to do a better job of communicating with the community it serves.

The team had the full support of Microsoft FastTrack and Ferranti Computer Systems, a technology partner with knowledge and experience specific to utility companies like Brabant Water. Together, starting in 2019, they set out to improve several key pain points.

Foremost was addressing the billing and invoicing schedules. Every month, the company read more than 90,000 water meters, sent out thousands of invoices, and processed nearly 1 million debit charges. Post–meter-reading invoices often took four weeks or more to send out. Employees' workload and customer inquiries increased significantly at month-end and in the days after charges were processed, straining both workforce morale and customer service capacity. Other downstream activities like residential service updates and fund collection followed the same inefficient pattern.

The company needed a way to distribute billing, collections, and meter reading tasks throughout the month to reduce stress on the accounts receivable and customer care teams and minimize peaks in workloads and system demand. The team recognized how insufficient visibility into the status of property ownership and rentals, along with a lack of accurate billing accountability for landlords, was negatively affecting revenues. They also realized that customer care inquiries could be reduced with an improved online customer portal.

Partnering for success

The plan was to replace the company’s highly customized Oracle system, which had become challenging to update and integrate with other software and cloud-based solutions. Because its 800 employees were already familiar with Microsoft applications, Brabant Water went all-in with MECOMS 365 from Ferranti Computer Systems NV. The MECOMS 365 platform provides the power and flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics 365, tailored to the specific needs of an energy and utility company.

Thanks to a true partnership of the Microsoft FastTrack, Ferranti, and Brabant teams, the company implemented MECOMS 365, Dynamics 365 Finance and Customer Service, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Azure solutions. This included virtual entities, dual-write, Power Automate flows, a Power App to manage customer visits, and more. Together, they solved a high-volume billing challenge, made the product work better for Brabant Water, and helped Microsoft improve as well.

“Their proactive approach involved frequent meetings to swiftly address challenges as a unified force. This collaborative phase proved to be invaluable, emphasizing the importance of the initial groundwork that fostered mutual understanding and trust,” says Tom van Haute, COO, Ferranti Computer Systems.

Acting together

The first step was the configuration of MECOMS 365 and Dynamics 365. Migrating two years of historical billing, payment, meter, and customer data and integration with ancillary apps followed. Next, the team began rolling out key processes and training employees.

From the beginning, the team established a three-week scrum schedule of Dynamics 365 updates and MECOMS 365 releases. This rigorous methodology was selected to build confidence in the process and the new technology as well as to stay current with the latest software updates and features. It required a mindset shift, but everyone is now on board and accustomed to the routine.

Getting in the flow

With a large implementation project, organizations often take the opportunity to reassess their processes, streamline and optimize operations, and adapt to the native flow of the new application. Brabant Water followed this approach. With reduced customization came new views and insights. Leadership always has data at their fingertips. The team also has new capabilities to continue developing more efficient processes.

“We embraced the opportunity for growth by upgrading to Dynamics 365 and MECOMS 365 to meet our evolving customer strategy. From the initial introduction to Brabant Water, to meter readings, answering questions, managing invoicing, and simplifying payments, we remained committed to delivering exceptional customer service—and our new software solution is supporting this success,” says Karlijn van der Heijden, Customer Director, Brabant Water.

First and foremost, billing is now metered to 6,000 invoices per day. Monthly debits happen over five days, creating a steady, manageable workflow for employees and ensuring customers receive their annual bill in days, not weeks. The volume of customer inquiries into call centers and through email and social media is more consistent throughout the month. The company can now, step-by-step, shift customer billing to the same rhythm as other utilities. In the future, Brabant Water aims to enable new customers to choose their monthly debit date. With this alignment to utility norms, customer experience is predictable and generates fewer inquiries, and training new employees has become easier.

With a modern application platform to build on, many backlogged projects are getting attention and new methods are making an impact. After one year in production, Brabant Water is benefiting from new capabilities across billing, collections, and customer experience:

Billing and collections

• More than 1 million direct debit text messages are sent each month.
• Better insights into residence occupancy data offer more accurate and timely billing. Customers are now prorated for partial months when they move in or leave a residence.
• Complex Dutch and Belgian taxation rules now flow easily into MECOMS 365.
• Thanks to Power Apps, field employees have mobile account look-up that maps the fastest route to customer locations for in-person visits. A real-time payment processing feature in the app facilitates 90 percent bill collection.

Customer experience

• The bank verification process during account setup and accounting of charges are much improved.
• New customers now receive a confirmation letter with an introduction to the customer portal and support options.
• The customer service team has more time to focus on outreach and improving satisfaction.

Priming the pipeline

With customers now at the center of everything it does, Brabant Water has a few projects in mind for the near future:

• Customer satisfaction surveys and social engagement campaigns.
• Omni-channel customer service to include integrated voice, chat, and chatbots.
• Archiving historical data to reduce costs while maintaining performance.

Tom van Haute, COO of Ferranti Computer Systems, highlights the successful launch and the collaborative efforts of the dedicated teams from Brabant Water, Microsoft, and Ferranti as the “solid foundation [that] continues to be instrumental in shaping our ongoing partnership, as we work seamlessly together towards further development and progress.”

“As customer expectations change alongside societal developments, our commitment to technological growth and adaptation ensures that we consistently deliver exceptional service to our valued customers,” says Karlijn van der Heijden, Customer Director, Brabant Water.

While delivering clean, pure water to the millions of people in North Brabant is its mandate, Brabant Water also delivers convenience, consistency, and care to every household and business in its municipality. Its transformation has just begun, and Microsoft will be there, together with Ferranti Computer Systems, to support each new phase of modernization on the company’s roadmap.