25 Aug 2015
3 MIN READ

Gentrack Prepares for Open Water Market Testing and Go Live

Gentrack’s recent contract win with a large UK water utility confirms its commitment to delivering class leading contestable market capabilities within its Velocity Billing and CRM solution, to support the UK’s new Open Water market.

With Open Water shadow market testing to commence in September 2016 and market opening in April 2017, the window for preparing water utility billing anddavidb2 CRM systems and business processes is rapidly closing.  In partnership with several water utilities in the UK, Gentrack is drawing on its experience in contestable utility markets to ensure its systems and its customers are well prepared. Gentrack’s Vice President David Brown heads a team of software Developers and Business Analysts in London leading the charge on Open Water preparations.

“This is obviously a very challenging time for water utilities, but if we can help them to meet the new requirements head on, the rewards for being well prepared will be significant.  From Gentrack’s perspective, the first hurdle has been ensuring that we maintain a clear picture of the requirements as covered in the latest documentation from Open Water.  This is really the foundation for engaging with our water utility customers to establish an effective strategy for separation of the non-household water business, and establishment of an effective wholesale business platform.”

“Gentrack has operated within competitive and reformed energy and water markets for 25 years,” continued Brown, “with the opening of retail markets in New Zealand and Australia in the 1990s. These markets have provided a strong foundation for developing our software to support utilities engaging with and competing for residential and non-household customers. In partnership with our customers, we have been able to build and gradually enhance a world beating billing and customer management system that treats the customer as a person rather than just a site. This is essential in any competitive utilities market.”

In addition to having the customer facing systems in place to support market contestability, a key requirement will be implementing and maintaining market facing processes and interfaces to support compliance requirements for market participants.

“This is the area of Open Water that will provide the most significant challenges for water utilities in the UK, and is an area that we are well versed in providing solutions for. The most common requirement will be the processes and integration required to support automated handling of customer switching requests and other market interactions. The only thing that is certain about these new market requirements is that they are extensive and continuous change and process optimisation post market launch will be common. Building flexibility into a utility’s market integration processes and its data exchange mechanisms to ensure these market processes are effective is absolutely essential.”

END

About Gentrack

Gentrack is an industry leader and specialist in software for energy utilities, water companies and airports, with a strong history of working in competitive and reformed utilities markets to develop, implement and support its ‘best of breed’ software solutions.

The company was established in 1989 in Auckland New Zealand amid the deregulation of the energy utilities sector, and currently employs over 200 staff across four international offices in London, Auckland, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Gentrack is comprised of two leading software products – Gentrack Velocity and Airport 20/20. Gentrack Velocity is a specialist billing and CRM product designed for utilities in competitive and regulated markets.  Airport 20/20 is a comprehensive Airport Operational System engineered to optimise an airport’s operations through intelligent collaborative decision making, streamlining airport information flows and transforming the passenger experience.

Gentrack’s flagship software for utilities in the UK is used by water and energy utilities including OVO Energy, Bournemouth Water, LoCO2 Energy, Flow Energy and Veolia Ireland. It’s 20/20 software is used in some of the most innovative airports in the world including London City, Dublin International, Bristol, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Southampton and Robin Hood airports.

Gentrack Contacts in the UK
7th Floor
Evergreen House North
Grafton Place
London
NW1 2DX

David Brown, Gentrack VP Europe
Tel: 0207 554 8707
gentrack.com
Email: [email protected]

Explore our portfolio

Leading utilities looking to transform their business need technologies and partners they can trust

View our
open roles

Help us shape the future of smart utilities