Water supply enterprises race to digital transformation

Staff of Hai Duong Rural Water and Sanitation Joint Stock Company supervise operations via computer software.

Recently, clean water enterprises in Hai Duong have promoted digital transformation, applying modern technology in production and business.

Improve management and operation efficiency

As one of the largest clean water production and trading enterprises in the province, in recent years, Hai Duong Clean Water Trading Joint Stock Company has promoted digital transformation, gradually automating production, business, operation management and customer service. For customer care services, the company has converted from paper invoices to electronic invoices, applied information technology, and used smartphones to record customers' water output. In 2021, the company has linked up with banks, Viettel, and VNPAY (e-wallet) to collect water bills online without using cash. In 2021, the unit won third prize in the 12th Hai Duong Provincial Technical Innovation Contest (2020-2021) for the solution of applying 4.0 technology in customer management, output and recording water bills. To date, the company's online water bill collection rate has reached more than 47%.

In production network management, Hai Duong Clean Water Trading Joint Stock Company operates water supply network management software for flow and pressure, and at the same time builds applications for use on smartphones, monitoring water quality online on the water supply network of some factories. The company has been cooperating with Korea to test the project of installing smart meters for customers in Thanh Ha district, Chi Linh city...

Hai Duong Rural Water and Sanitation Joint Stock Company has 26 water plants, including 14 production plants and 12 booster pumping stations. The company is supplying clean water directly to about 100,000 customers and wholesale water to nearly 1,000 customers in 4 communes in the province. The water supply output is from 45,000 - 55,000 m3/day and night.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Lich, Head of Technical and Quality Management Department of Hai Duong Clean Water and Rural Sanitation Joint Stock Company, said that recently the company has installed the Citywork system to apply information technology in clean water production and supply activities. Installed a continuous, automatic water quality monitoring system and 70 remote online monitoring points to monitor water pressure in pipelines. The company also installed a system to manage overall flow, pressure and water quality at a number of factories.

Some privately managed clean water enterprises such as Nam Son Construction and Trading Joint Stock Company and Thanh Son Clean Water LLC have also installed online water pressure monitoring equipment on the pipeline system, promoted water metering via smartphones and initially applied cashless water payment...

Currently, recording and calculating water usage of customers at Hai Duong Rural Water and Sanitation Joint Stock Company is done on smartphones.

Reduce water loss

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, Deputy General Director of Hai Duong Clean Water Trading Joint Stock Company, digital transformation applications have brought practical results, contributing to improving the capacity and efficiency of management, production and business operations. Customer care and service activities are faster, more accurate and more convenient. Thanks to the application of information technology, digital transformation has contributed to arranging and using labor more reasonably and effectively. According to preliminary calculations, currently the application of information technology and digital transformation in operations helps reduce costs for businesses by 10 - 12%, in the coming time it is expected to be about 25%.

“The company is building a digital transformation roadmap and continues to cooperate with many units to accelerate digital transformation. In the coming time, the unit will continue to build a digital transformation program applying information technology to internal management, electronic offices, electronic contracts, GIS maps to manage water supply networks, assets…”, Mr. Son said.

Mr. Dao Van Manh, Deputy Director of Hai Duong Clean Water and Rural Sanitation Joint Stock Company also affirmed: “Thanks to the application of technology in production and operation, the enterprise has reduced management and supervision personnel, assets are managed more regularly and closely, and incidents are promptly detected and handled. Thanks to that, the water loss rate has also decreased significantly. In 2022, the clean water loss rate of the entire company was 18.6%, down 1.4% compared to 2021. The company is striving to reduce this rate to below 17% this year.”

The innovation and improvement of production processes and digital transformation in operations by clean water production and trading enterprises is an inevitable direction to enhance competitive advantages and attract customers.

PHAN ANH