AquaBill, the AquaRate Sundry Debtor module, has gone live at Wannon Water. AquaRate release 10.10 was installed over the weekend and AquaBill was included in the package. The Revenue Department is looking forward to the new facilities to produce Sundry Debtor accounts. At the forefront is the automation surrounding Information Statement production.

Combining automatic Sundry charges, predefined Notes, and coupled with the Open Spatial Plot engine, the effort involved with Information Statement processing has been dramatically reduced. Sundry Debtor invoices will now enjoy all the Payment options available with regular Water Account.
 

Wannon Water went live with the Focus product this morning. The AquaTact CRM is used to gather information regarding the caller and classify the Issues, before being sent to the Focus system for dispatch and resolution. Once the process in the field completes the Customer Support staff can view the outcome back in the AquaTact screens.

The integration between the two products has allowed recorded Customer information to seamlessly flow through to trucks in the field and Job statistics to flow back.
 

Thinking Windows continues to produce mobility software for water companies. The latest product “AquAte” is designed to audit commercial properties in the field for the use of fire services and any connected backflow devices. The program has been designed to run on Windows tablets and has been successfully deployed on a Dell tablet. Other vendors' equipment is being qualified as they become available. AquAte is able to download and upload survey results in the field via a 3G connection through a secure web service. 

Goulburn Valley Water has “Gone Live” with the Thinking Windows CRM package AquaTact. Jason Dagger has reported that the Customer and Services staff are live on the system recording all contacts from customers within the system. After two days of operation Jason reports that it is exceeding his expectations. The Goulburn Valley project team are to be congratulated on a very positive outcome.

 

Wannon Water hosted the latest AquaRate User Group at the end of July. The venue was popular and this User Group meeting turned out to be the largest one ever held. All AquaRate customers attended with the exception of Busselton in WA. The Thinking Windows staff demonstrated features found in the upcoming releases of modules interspersed with customer sessions covering a broad range of topics. Towards the end of the sessions prototype demonstrations were given on the upcoming iPhone App together with the rich AquaWeb application. The schedules for new releases were announced and this financial year will see all major components improved and upgraded. The main interest focused on the expansion of “Customer Self Help” facilities. Wannon Water were able to showcase their new premise and the new technology found throughout the building.

 

Replacing billing systems is a complex task which can give the best IT Manager significant cause for concern. Thinking Windows’ absolute commitment and professional approach to replacing Western Water’s old system has resulted in a virtually seamless transition to AquaRate. The job included significant data conversion and integrations to both internal business systems and external agency and contractor systems. The project was delivered on time and to budget. Most importantly, Thinking Windows staff worked closely with Western Water staff to deliver a product fully tailored to our current and projected future business needs. Our staff could not be more pleased with the outcome.

Peter Donlon
General Manager, Customer and Community Relations
Western Water
 

At 7am on Tuesday the 1st of March the revenue department signed onto AquaRate for the first time in the live environment. The conversion from the existing system had progressed successfully throughout the preceding week and a fully integrated AquaRate system was delivered on time. Meter reading commenced the same day and completed rounds were being received by mid-day. All aspects of the system were available for use including integration to the CRM and GIS systems.

The staff at Western Water are to be congratulated for without their dedication we could not have completed such an effort in the time allotted.

All of the staff at Thinking Windows are looking forward to working with our latest customer.
 

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