The ground-breaking Ready to Read initiative has been honoured as a winner of the esteemed 2024 MOSL Market Improvement Fund. The extraordinary collaboration between leading data specialists Sagacity and Forward-thinking Clear Business Water yielded this revolutionary project, guaranteed to positively transform the non-household water retail market across England.
As the institution steering the non-household water retail market, MOSL has constituted the Market Improvement Fund to spur the development and implementation of inventive ventures that will align with a focus on delivering customer service excellence, value creation, and heightened water efficiency for the betterment of the market and its customers.
The Ready to Read scheme promises to capitalise on the potency of Artificial Intelligence (AI) natural language processing techniques and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities to refine unstructured data submitted by Meter Read Services. The outcomes of this process are actionable metrics that will direct non-household water suppliers to identify, prioritize, and rectify any meter read and accessibility issues. This initiative tackles a pervasive issue in the industry – standardising the reasons why business water meters are inaccessible by field teams and efficiently solving any meter-related problems.
The project's primary objective is to reduce customer complaints and bill shock, augmenting the overall customer experience and facilitating a more seamless billing and payment process. This will be achieved by delivering precise metrics and statistics dependent on factors such as meter location, accessibility, read dates, and values. This ensures accurate readings and correct tariffs and charges, besides identifying and fixing, relocating, or replacing meters if need be.
Aside from customers, trading parties will also reap the benefits by gaining the ability to categorise customer addresses for meter-related activities or campaigns. These could range from smart meter installations, meter relocations, recertifications, site surveys to diligent maintenance. Ready to Read will aid trading parties to optimize their unused in-house data to elevate their performance, minimising expensive call out and field visit costs that remain unresolved.
James Boswell, Head of Commercial Utilities at Clear Business Water, encapsulated the spirit of the project, saying, "We see this as an incredibly exciting opportunity to work with Sagacity on behalf of the business water industry. By identifying opportunities to create data efficiencies through the combined use of innovation and our expertise, we look to bring impactful benefits to all."
Equally enthusiastic about the ambitious project, Anita Dougall, CEO of Sagacity, shared, "We are delighted to have been awarded funding from MOSL's Market Improvement Fund. Together with Clear Business Water, we wanted to make a step change and power the market from where it is today to an improved future to make a difference. We've seen the positive impacts of AI and Machine Learning across other clients and projects in the Water and Energy sectors, so are keen to start working with meter read data to turn it into actionable insight. Ready to Read phase one kicks off a significant project, but one that we know will benefit both the trading parties and their end customers, a win-win for everyone."