Case study

A US water and sewerage professional organization

Increasing efficiency in management and operations

 PA developed a series of industry-standard handbooks, a Web site, and two workshop programs to help publicly owned and operated water and wastewater utilities improve their competitiveness. The handbooks focused on issues of privatisation, competition, and business services. The Web site provides best-practice case histories and guidance to help utilities improve their core operations and business services, including customer service, IT, purchasing, engineering, facilities management, asset management, human resources, and accounting. PA also created and delivered 19 regional and utility-specific workshops, training more than 1,500 water and wastewater professionals on transforming their organisations into world-class utilities through quality management and teamwork, improved work practices, financial re-engineering, and technology applications. Public utilities that have adopted this competitiveness approach have reduced their operating costs by 25-40% over a 3-5 year period and reinvested savings into employee training, new capital plant, enhanced customer services, and lower rates.