Scottish Water partners with Accenture to modernise core of Scotland’s water infrastructure
Scottish Water has tapped global consultancy Accenture to support the management and reinvention of its digital services. The firm will now work closely with Scottish Water’s ecosystem partners, and its enterprise data platform to deliver improved services to customers nationwide.
Scottish Water is a publicly-owned utility responsible for delivering water supply and wastewater services to about 2.6 million households and 150,000 business properties, supporting a population of more than 5 million people across Scotland. As Scottish Water attempts to adapt to demographic shifts, infrastructural challenges, and the demands climate change places on water management, it is undergoing a major technology modernisation campaign.
Working in close collaboration with Scottish Water’s ecosystem partners, Accenture will now serve as a key part of these changes. Managing core business systems, business-critical applications, and its enterprise data platform, the firm will draw on its industry technology expertise, and help Scottish Water to identify opportunities to apply AI to enhance its digital foundation.
“Working with Accenture is an important step in our digital journey, strengthening the technology foundations that support every part of our business” said Chris Toop, Scottish Water’s director of digital and innovation. “Together, we’ll deliver more resilient, secure and efficient digital services that enable us to better serve our customers, support our colleagues and meet the challenges of the future.”
Through this programme Accenture will help Scottish Water reduce disruption and improve service continuity; enable faster, better-informed decisions, enhancing access to data and analytics across areas such as operations, customer service and asset planning; and support lower-carbon, more sustainable operations using digital tools, data and green software practices to help reduce operational carbon and improve transparency. Overall, this will aim to enable the utility to better anticipate risk, optimise asset performance and strengthen the long-term resilience of the essential services communities across Scotland rely on.
“Water providers are under increasing pressure to deliver reliable and sustainable services, while managing ageing infrastructure, climate disruption and growing operational complexity,” said Gordon McKirdy, utilities lead for Accenture UK and Ireland. “Scottish Water has already laid important foundations through its digital strategy, and this collaboration builds on that – applying technology not just to improve how systems run, but to help safeguard services that communities across Scotland depend on every day. With our Glasgow-based team at the heart of this work, we’re proud to support local talent, innovation and long-term capability in Scotland.”
While Scottish Water is publicly owned, this is not the first time it has sought out private sector assistance for its services. It previously also hosted a digital partnership with Capgemini and Atos, aiming to deliver modernised technology solutions to Scotland’s water supply and waste water management.
