Expert view: Collaborate to innovate: why the client-supplier partnership is key to industry advances

It’s a universal truth that our lives are now intertwined with technology, and much has been written on how best to utilise the latest gadgets, apps and advances to enhance what we do for our customers.

With ever increasing targets to improve the customer experience, performance efficiency, and our environmental impact on the communities we live in, the utilities sector is in prime position to drive innovation and create significant improvements in these critical areas.

A fundamental part of this drive comes from collaboration. At Amey, we are proud that the clients we work with have been willing to step up and enable new ideas and technology to deliver smarter, more effective utility services.

An appetite for innovation

For example, Scottish Water and our Amey Black&Veatch team have facilitated the introduction of a groundbreaking carbon-fibre pipe-wrapping technique that will generate major cost savings.

It’s also vital that transformative solutions are not at the expense of sustainability. We recently introduced FieldViewer on to our Severn Trent contract, which allows us to remotely collect data and photographs across multiple sites simultaneously, cutting fuel spend by 27 per cent and reducing CO2 emissions by 75 tonnes – equivalent to seven times the carbon footprint of an average person.

These are just two of our many examples where fostering a collaborative relationship between the client and supply-chain partners has resulted in outcomes that put the customers and environment at the heart of what we do, and effect real change in the quality of service delivery.

The industry response to Amey’s own “2020 Challenge” – to leave no streetwork excavations uncovered overnight by 2020 – has shown us the appetite there is in our sector to have the space and support to bring forward new ideas, and address common issues in the way we work.

Showcasing the best

Working together in this way is key to pulling the utilities market past its unfair reputation of being “stuck in the mud”, not willing to innovate and move forward. It will help us to attract the next generation – one that has grown up fluent in the use of modern technology and IT – to our industry.

It’s why at Amey we’ve made it a priority to keep nurturing innovation, through our own internal “Springboard” innovation platform and by partnering with clients and supply chain to embed the latest advances in what we do.

Collaboration helps us better shine a spotlight on the advances we know are already happening and showcase best practice that, in turn, helps us demonstrate to customers how utility suppliers and their contractors are investing in improving quality and efficiency to ultimately create a better service.

Visit: amey.co.uk/a-better-future