JWIL Implements New Technology to Overcome Water Woes

The Challenge

Jindal Water Infrastructure Ltd (JWIL) is a holistic water management company providing end-to-end solutions for projects in drinking water, irrigation, wastewater and industrial effluent treatment sectors. Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the government agency responsible for supply of potable water to most of the National Capital Territory region of Delhi, has entrusted JWIL with the responsibility of managing a significant portion of Delhi’s water supply.

While managing and monitoring the water supply in the contractual areas in Delhi, JWIL initially faced critical challenges in managing customer interactions and complaints related to the water distribution, network rehabilitation, water availability and scheduled supply. The absence of clear communication channels left customers frustrated and unable to effectively raise issues, resulting in significant delays in resolution. Additionally, the organisation grappled with the complexities of maintaining an ageing infrastructure, including pipelines, boosting stations, and reservoirs.

“JWIL was under pressure to enhance operational efficiency while ensuring customer satisfaction. Addressing these issues was crucial for improving service quality and fostering trust within the community,” says Prasenjit Mukherjee, CIO & CDO, JWIL.

To address these challenges, JWIL implemented a comprehensive strategy that leveraged both customer-facing and water infrastructure-supporting technologies. To improve customer services, JWIL introduced a new CRM, a customer mobile application and a new contact centre approach. To boost the reliability of manageability of the water infrastructure, JWIL introduced revolutionary preventative asset management technologies.

Empowering Customers

With an eye on enhancing customer experience, Mukherjee implemented a multi-faceted approach that included various touchpoints and self-help models. At the core of this strategy was a smart call centre integrated with a customer relationship management (CRM) module. This system featured real-time dashboards accessible on both Android and iOS platforms, enabling JWIL’s agents to efficiently manage customer inquiries and complaints. The CRM system is hosted on-premises with a disaster recovery site located in a different state, ensuring business continuity and data security.  

“A key aspect of our CRM is its integration with the computerised maintenance management system (CMMS). Any breakdown or maintenance issue is directly reflected in the call centre portal through the CRM module. This seamless flow of information ensures that customer concerns are promptly addressed and resolved,” says Mukherjee.

To further empower customers, he developed other channels such as a dedicated website and a mobile application that eliminated the need for them to visit the office. Through this app, developed for house service connection, customers can request service connections at their doorsteps.

“In our smart call centre, we operate with a remarkably small team of just seven to eight agents available 24 X 7 to serve approximately 300,000 consumers. This streamlined approach, due to our automated system, contrasts with typical call centres, which often employ a much larger workforce,” says Mukherjee.

The automated system efficiently manages incoming calls. If an agent is already engaged in another call, the system ensures that the customer’s issue is still addressed promptly. Alerts and notifications are sent directly to the field team, allowing them to respond quickly and effectively. This automation not only enhances response times but also ensures that customer concerns are addressed without delay. In addition to the contact centre, consumers get an update on their complaints through messages and by logging onto the website.

IBRS believes the initial focus on contact centre innovation was on internal efficiency gains; now the emerging differentiator is to deliver the most satisfying experience to the customer to the point of anticipating potential issues and reaching out to them when issues arise before they make contact themselves. Organisations need to take advantage of better analytics to turn data into more useful feedback for their staff, such as dashboards with statistics that give real-time updates to the agent as well as to their team leader on the wider customer experience.

IBRS recommends that IT leaders identify new tools and services or upgrades to mitigate any contact centre weaknesses in areas lacking measurement or abilities. They must update the strategic plans and roadmaps to incorporate the technologies and approaches to better make use of existing or developing technologies. IT leaders should also seek professional assistance from independent companies that can perform tasks such as health checking, reviewing existing processes and improving workplace conditions.

 Mukherjee says, “From about 100,000 customers, the number of registered consumers in the network increased to approximately 300,000 within a year, indicating enhanced customer trust and engagement. Complaint resolution times were significantly reduced, with customers able to easily log issues through multiple channels and receive timely updates. The integration of systems allowed for faster identification and resolution of issues, leading to improved customer satisfaction.”

Facilitating Preventive Maintenance

The equipment, including the pumps and motors, is outdated and prone to failure, making it difficult to monitor and maintain effectively.

“The systems were entirely manual, preventing the integration of IoT devices or any form of automation for remote monitoring. Attempting to service or adjust the pumps while they are operational poses a risk of further damage or disruption. As a result, the infrastructure was vulnerable to unexpected breakdowns, with no reliable way to predict when a failure might occur,” says Mukherjee.

Addressing these issues required proactive planning and investment to modernise the systems and mitigate the risk of equipment failure.

The CMMS, hosted on Azure, was implemented to monitor assets, digitise asset management, and link procurement processes through SAP. This system facilitated preventive maintenance schedules and mobile-based field operations.

Geographic information system (GIS) was implemented to map the network and assets. It was integrated with the CRM to map the entire water distribution network, providing a comprehensive view of the infrastructure, and consumers were tagged to the infrastructure. In the CMMS, each station and pump was linked to specific spare parts, and all assets were meticulously mapped within the application. 

“We introduced QR codes for each asset, allowing for quick identification and troubleshooting. When a pump operator encounters an issue, they can simply use the mobile application to scan the QR code associated with the problematic pump. This action instantly provides detailed information about the pump’s status, enabling rapid response and resolution,” Mukherjee says, adding, “As a result, our turnaround time for addressing issues has significantly improved, leading to a notable decrease of about 65 per cent in complaints”.

To mitigate the growth of unmanaged or poorly tracked assets that add to the threat landscape, IBRS advocates enterprises have complete, real-time visibility and control over all IT assets to fully understand their security posture and implement protective measures to prevent undetected breaches, data loss, and compliance violations.

IBRS’s ‘Asset Management Maturity Model’, 2019, is a method of assessing the key elements of asset management maturity, which IT leaders can leverage. The elements include process workflow, process integration, roles and responsibilities, tools/technology and metrics. At each level it will be important to understand the changes to implement.