Aptumo makes life easier for water utilities and their customers

Aptumo is proud to be a major sponsor of the VicWater Conference 2022. Part of Echo Managed Services, a long term, trusted partner of over a third of water utilities in the UK, Aptumo is a specialist billing platform that delivers much more than just accurate bills.

Aptumo was developed by the water industry, for the water industry, the team behind Aptumo has decades of water sector expertise and a deep domain understanding of the issues faced by water utilities every day.

We understand that a “one-size-fits-all” approach just doesn’t work: to be truly worthy of the investment, a billing platform must be flexible and future-proof. Being native to the Salesforce platform means that Aptumo ticks these boxes and many more.

Where does Aptumo fit in the Australian water sector?

The Information Statement

An information statement is an important part of buying or selling a property. Using data such as average water consumption, it calculates what the current owner will owe on the property settlement date and should also highlight any easements on the property and the location of underground pipework.

It’s an essential part of moving house, so if a water utility can make the moving house process easier for their customer, they’re more likely to come away satisfied with their interactions.

Real time and customisable

Because Aptumo is customer rather than property centric, customer service agents have real-time information at their fingertips which allows them to action a request for an information statement quickly and easily. Aptumo makes it easier for a property conveyancer as they can choose to make the request online.

Because Aptumo is highly customisable there is no such thing as a standard information statement; each water utility can choose the type of information it wants to provide based on the preferences of its customers and any region-specific requirements. For example, it can:

• Forecast a bill on the settlement date based on estimates
• Wait until closer to that date and carry out a meter read
• Choose to include a plan of the property, or details of other assets such as water meters
• Be used to clarify metering arrangements where multiple properties share a meter. The statement can provide full details of how many and which properties it shares a meter with and how consumption is divided among those properties.

Data is drawn directly from the comprehensive transaction history of the customer’s own profile. As the new owner/tenant of a property will become liable for any outstanding costs upon settlement, providing as much detail as possible at this point sets the relationship with the new bill payer off on the right footing. They will be fully informed about which services are provided to the property and the costs associated with those services.

Once the statement is ready, it can be returned to the property conveyancer electronically if that is the route they have chosen.

Tony Kelly is a non-executive director at Aptumo and part of the team based here in Australia. Tony is a familiar face around the Australian water industry and is excited by the capabilities of Aptumo. Tony says:

“Customer expectations have been changing for some time and water regulators are championing those expectations by calling for higher levels of customer satisfaction within the industry, so a customer-centric billing solution can help enormously. Aptumo has been built from the ground up to meet the unique challenges that water utilities face today, as well as those they will encounter in the future”.

Aptumo and digital strategy

Aptumo is cloud based and can grow to accommodate the ever-expanding expectations of customers. Being native to the Salesforce platform also means it is built on modern digital technologies that can easily be integrated with the utility’s own digital strategy.

Being part of Salesforce also future-proofs your investment. Salesforce invests millions of dollars each year in acquisitions and research and development projects to make a comprehensive customer relationship toolkit available to their clients. The Salesforce App Exchange offers over 2,500 apps, including Aptumo, which help businesses of any size, anywhere in the world, drive improvements in the quality of service they offer to their customers.

Tony explains “Making the information statement process easier is just the tip of the iceberg. With Aptumo there is so much to talk about; even as a standalone billing system, without the rich functionality offered by its connection with Salesforce, Aptumo can help water utilities navigate their way towards a more fulfilling future. The system provides a real-time 360⁰ view of customer engagements which means that every interaction is accurate and valuable.”

Look out for more updates over the coming months about how Aptumo can help water utilities to engage effectively with customers who are dealing with a variety of issues including hardship or domestic violence.

This sponsored content was brought to you by Aptumo