R&R Software’s digital solutions meet the efficiency challenges of water utility providers

The National Water Utility Conference was held at the end of September – the largest event in the Hungarian water utility sector – brought hundreds of participants to Eger.

R&R Software participated as a member of the MaVíz water industry department on the two-day event and attended a number of professional presentations. R&R Software as a leading Hungarian member in the research and development activities, has been offering digitalization solutions to the sector for almost 20 years, takes the sector’s priorities into account and pays special attention to the development of corresponding digital solutions.

The domestic water utility service provider market is also characterized by drastically rising costs, increasingly scarce resources available for development, and a growing shortage of specialists, as stated at the Conference. The key to a sustainable water utility service is digital solutions that reduce losses and significantly increase the efficiency of public utility operations. Digitalized processes help make business, consumer relations, and technical management more efficient, and support operational and service oversight. By digitalizing the operation, the human capacity required for operation and the time spent on processing and recording can be reduced, thus increasing efficiency.

According to market analysis and research companies (e.g. Accenture, Black & Veatch), by 2025, “data driven” will define the market for utility developments in the world, including water utilities. These developments can move the current mostly reactive operation towards proactive operation and are able to significantly increase the sustainability and operational efficiency of public utility service providers.

R&R Software’s digital developments also offer innovative opportunities in the fields of economic management and technical management.

Corporate and business management

R&R Software’s FusionR Utility solution provides industry-specific enterprise management, customer relationship management, mass invoicing, revenue insurance and receivables management services to water utilities in an integrated IT system.

Corporate mobility: supporting field work

R&R Software’s FusionR Utility Mobile application supports meter reading on smartphones and tablets. Compared to previously used, high-cost industrial PDAs, FusionR Utility Mobile software significantly implements meter reading with a better user experience, convenient data entry, data value selection, text input, photography, GPS coordinate recording, remote synchronization, and additional client- and server-side features. using lower priced mobile devices running the Android operating system.

The functions of the FusionR Utility Mobile application can also be extended to support the further field work of utility companies, such as: meter exchange, worksheet management, inventory.

Online customer service

R&R Software FusionR CSC (Customer Self-Care) is an add-on function to R&R Software’s FusionR Utility customer service and billing system. FusionR CSC aims to provide superior customer service to customers of utilities – e.g. view and settle bills, report meter readings – access and use them with the help of a computer, smartphone or tablet.

FusionR CSC is a state-of-the-art, user-friendly service available in an integrated web interface and mobile application, which increases user satisfaction and willingness to e-administration, thus significantly reducing customer service costs for utility companies through digital data provision, application and administration.

E-invoice

The FusionR Utility system provides the users of water utility service providers with a modern billing option by generating and electronically transmitting public utility electronic invoices.

The FusionR Utility system forwards the generated e-invoice to the users electronically (by e-mail) directly from the system with a time stamp and a certificate in the form of a digital signature. The electronic invoices generated in this way are also available to online customer service. The electronic invoice image can be viewed in the FusionR system afterwards, without a time limit, at no extra charge.

An additional advantage of the FusionR Utility electronic invoice is that significant savings can be achieved compared to the cost of e-invoices produced by external printing houses and external e-invoice providers, so the investment pays off in a short period of time.

Smart Utility (IoT, monitoring, loss reduction)

R&R Software’s Smart Utility solution package is based on the processing and analysis of data collected from the data sources and measurement points of the business and technical areas of water utility service providers, and also provides decision support services.

The R&R Software Smart Utility solution package allows to:

1. Optimizing the performance of the infrastructure components providing the service: minimizing unplanned maintenance, losses, pollution.

2. Real-time monitoring and “business intelligence”: to increase operational efficiency by monitoring sensors, meters, and the data collected.

3. Use of “smart infrastructure” practices: Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can be used to analyse consumer needs, optimize production and distribution.

4. Loss reduction: detection of deficiencies due to technical faults, irregular or unauthorized connections.

5. Laying the foundations for the modernization of the distribution network: a more accurate knowledge of consumption habits and operation allows e.g. efficient use of alternative energy sources.