Water company United Utilities has implemented data governance software to manage its 8bn pound estate.
Christopher Evans,enterprise information manager at United Utilities,said the company sought a tool to process multiple and complex data sets.United Utilities eventually chose Trillium Software to improve data quality and de-duplicate multiple records of the same data.
United Utilities has around 8bn pound in physical infrastructure,so realised it needed better analytics tools to oversee the estate,Evans said.
"The key benefits are that we get answers to questions we hadn't asked and it has meant we've avoided making assumptions about data as it highlights any gaps for us,"Evans said.
"For example it's found issues around pumps not being consistent with the amount of power they consume,such as having a massive capability but small consumption."
United Utilities has started using the software to manage any mismatches between the records of its three million customer records in the North West.
Currently,United Utilities has multiple systems for contacting customers via phone,with a different picture of the customer in each system.
"We are trying to reconcile the different views of the customer,which is the biggest challenge,"Evans said.
The information will act as a basis for a large migration project in the pipeline.
"We are using this product as the basis of the migration,so we can fix data before we transfer it,"Evans said.
United Utilities is in the process of creating a data warehouse,to provide an accurate and complete picture of its customers and assets.
Evans said he was confident the company would soon recover the cost of the licence.The contract itself does not have an end date,he said.
