Dee Valley Water has just signed a 3 year deal with digdat® to supply it with the digdat® Utilities service created specifically for companies responsible for the management of infrastructure and assets.

digdat® Utilities is It is a web-based asset data service. Giving 24/7 access, it shows the location and details of underground assets such as water, drainage and sewerage, electricity, telecommunications and energy (oil and gas) across the whole of Great Britain.

Benefits the service will provide to to Dee Valley Water and its customers include:

improved customer service by helping to keep supply interruptions from accidental third party strikes to the water network to a minimum;

improved street works health and safety by preventing personal harm from accidental hits to network strikes;

ensuring that Dee Valley Water meets its legal obligation to provide easy access to accurate asset information and locations to anybody who needs it, such as Local Authorities, other utility companies, developers, contractors and the general public.

With one of the lowest levels of leakage in the industry and its customers receiving amongst the lowest bills in England and Wales, Dee Valley Water attributes their performance to their introduction of innovative working methods and techniques to better understand and manage its risks.

Ian Plenderleith, Chief Executive of Dee Valley Water commented:

“The digdat® Utilities service will help us to deliver a better customer experience to everyone we provide a service to. From those people who need to know information on our assets because they want to excavate or carry out work safely without fear of damaging our assets or themselves; to our water consumers, both domestic and business, because it contributes towards our objective of providing a reliable supply and good customer service.”

“We decided to launch the service in conjunction with the launch of our new corporate website, making the service directly accessible through the business section of our website. This makes it easy and convenient for people to find and access the service in one place alongside other information about our business. This is another example of continuously putting our customers first and trying to make life simpler for them.”

The benefits the new service will provide include:

A fully managed service based on a web solution and deliver free on-line access to approved statutory users (Local Authorities, Government bodies, utility companies and their agents)

24/7 access to the most up to date asset data for customers

Adherence to statutory obligations for map provision

Good reporting techniques and contract management which could indicate areas considered for planning which may assist DVW in predicting future growth

Projects and Developer Services Manager, Josh Williams added:

“During recent and ongoing consultations for web based improvements for Developer Services it came to light that a web based managed service may be a feasible option to the existing system benefiting customers as the web based information is easily and quickly accessed. This is positive progression on our part to provide our customers with a better service to that currently offered and reflects comments recently made by the Regulator, that water companies should provide services to their developer customers and Self-Lay Organisations that are user friendly, transparent and easy to access.