AmCoBi Featured in WaterWorld Magazine – Poor Man’s Fixed Network
No longer able to afford the payments on their beautiful $700,000 Colorado mountain home, a couple packed up their belongings, discontinued the electric and gas service, and left the neighborhood after the bank foreclosed. Shortly after, a cold front lasting several days hit the community. Freezing temperatures were followed by seasonal highs and then more cold weather.
This graph shows usage data for a single account that was flagged as having a leak. The leak went uncorrected for several days.
8 Steps for Evaluating Customer Portal Solutions for Water Utilities
A Quality Model for Evaluating Customer Portal Solutions
A municipal water utility providing services to 5,500 endpoints had just finished upgrading meters and installing a wireless meter reading network. The choice to implement a fixed base meter reading system–commonly referred to as an AMI or Advanced Metering Infrastructure system–would virtually eliminate drive-by and manual reads, and allow the utility to collect daily usage data, remotely.
At nearly $1.4 million, the price tag had been a tough sell to the city council. But council members had agreed to the project knowing the utility would reap improvements in operational efficiency, and create long-term cost savings. They were also sold on the leak detection capabilities of the new system.
AquaHawk Featured in Water Efficiency Magazine – Eight Practices for Implementing a Water Utility Customer Portal
AmCoBi recently contributed an article to Water Efficiency Magazine describing eight best practices for water utilities implementing a customer portal solution. These practices include: planning your portal project, presenting actionable information…not just data, communicating proactively, and more.
AmCoBi Launches Intelligent Water Conservation Solution to Help California Utilities Meet Mandated Water Use Reductions
Two New Additions to AquaHawk Alerting Encourage Customers to Conserve Water
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 30, 2015 – California water utilities without AMI or "smart meter" systems can now offer customers new ways to help reduce water use, thanks to two enhancements to the AquaHawk Alerting™ Web-based portal.
"AquaHawk Alerting is the only solution available that empowers utilities with first- and second- generation metering equipment to provide some 'smart meter' capabilities to their clients," announced Bobby Lee, AmCoBi President. "Governor Brown mandated reductions from 8 to 36% for major California water suppliers. Utilities must encourage all their customers to save."
While smart meter networks offer rapid leak detection, notification, and projected usage, 80% of water utilities still use manual, handheld, or mobile "drive-by" Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) systems that collect reads every 30 days. Customers don't know how much water they're using until they receive a bill. This makes it easier for them to exceed reduction limits and face fines or penalties.
Article - How to Make a Business Case for Investing in a Utility Customer Portal
9 Ideas for Utility Billing and Customer Service Managers
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How to Make Business Case for Investing in a Utility Customer Portal (PDF) |
Introduction
Public trust in your utility happens when the service community believes that its interests are aligned with the interests of your organization. In order to earn and reinforce this trust, utilities have to continually demonstrate that serving customers is a commitment woven in to everything they do.
The level of responsibility demanded of utilities is much higher than with other organizations. This is because service providers have essentially been granted a monopoly to operate. Customers expect clean, healthy drinking water and reliable waste water management, delivered on an uninterrupted basis. They also expect a variety of other services.