Thames Water has put four data management contracts worth a combined £10,120,000 out to tender, spanning master data management and asset data capture.
The contracts come after regulator Ofwat singled out the utility, which serves 15 million customers across London and Thames Valley, for poor data practices.
The long term contract will be for a “nearshore/offshore team responsible for managing the day-to-day operations by utilising a Business Process Outsourcing model.”
Expressions of interest need to be in by January 22.
What’s the Thames Water Job?
The contract is being broken into four lots.
Lot 1 comprises master data management, including “validation of data, preparation and load into SAP as part of the data change lifecycle” of the utility’s assets.
Lot 2 is for reporting services: e.g. production of various operational performance data reports, including daily asset management services reports
Lot 3 encompasses GIS (Geographic Information System) updates: for example translation and audit of network affiliated GIS updates.
Lot 4 spans asset data capture including GETMaps (gas, electricity and telecoms maps): maintenance of CAD drawings and getting other site data to corporate systems.
Thames Water: Under Pressure to Improve
Thames Water, like other water utilities, is a licensed monopoly with price caps set by regulator Ofwat over five-year periods.
Fifteen months ago it was one of four monopolies (the other three were Bristol Water, Dee Valley Water and Southern Water) singled out for poor data management practices and told to improve dramatically ahead of the next price review period of 2020-25.
The winning supplier(s) needs to provide a “service team that are suitably trained, qualified, skilled and experienced to deliver the services and to maintain a high quality of asset and work master data in SAP” the contract notice says.
They also need to “provide scalability and flexibility for growth, reduction and significant technology change” Thames Water said.
The contract is for an initial three years, extendable to eight.
Thames Water supplies on average 2.7 billion litres of drinking water each day and as a yearly turnover of approximately £2 billion.
See also: IT in the Super Sewer
