A resident of Alley Bridge, Clarendon, catches water from a damaged National Water Commission pipeline in this October 2005 Gleaner photo. The water agency is in the process of building a new computerised billing system and databank to better track its customers and their needs."The growth rate is affected by our success at prosecuting and regularising illegal connections" -File

The National Water Commission (NWC) is investing just under $390 million in a new computerised system that will more efficiently track its customers, including water usage patterns and billings.

The new customer information system (CIS) will replace another accounting system that has served the commission since 1992.

"At the time, we were the first to implement such a system," said spokesman for the state-owned water agency, Charles Buchanan.

"But the technology has grown leaps and bounds since then, and despite patches, the existing system can't meet expanded needs," he told Sunday Business.

Monopoly builder

The NWC has some 450,000 customer on its accounts - residential and corporate - but, as the monopoly builder of water systems and supplier of the commodity, it sees growth of 10,000 to 20,000 customers per year.

For the first time this year, its 'billing' revenues are expected to top $10 billion, but this figure represents a slowing of its income. Its estimated $10.12 billion of income is just $529 million or just 5.5 per cent more than the $9.6 billion it took in last year. Revenue growth that year was more than 12 per cent.

Overall income, inclusive of fees, interest income and other revenues, is estimated at $10.9 billion (2006: $10.3 billion).

Buchanan said the precise customer growth is largely dependent on the number of new and expanded water systems commissioned in a year, at which point the increase in business shifts to the top end of the spectrum.

But it is also dependent on how efficient the water agency's Revenue Protection Division is at detecting and correcting fraudulent connections.

"The growth rate is also affected by our success at prosecuting and regularising illegal connections," said Buchanan, head of corporate communications.

This year, the commission is spending more than $2.3 billion on developments spanning Kingston and the north coast - systems that are already under construction - suggesting that its customer base will climb.

The old billing system, said the spokesman, is capable of handling the current 450,000 customer accounts, but with "increasing difficulty." It takes time to mine customer information from the system, whereas the new one to be built is to be faster, more user friendly, and with less possibility of errors.

Processing of disconnections

"It will facilitate a look at the history of the client, the processing of disconnections, and have ability of system to interrogate accounts - taking the history, usage pattern into account - with greater ease," said Buchanan.

"The current system does the same, but with a significant time element."

The commission has already developed the terms of reference for the CIS - guided by its management information system and other specialists - and will next move to the contracting process.

The Jamaica Public Bodies 2007-08 report produced by the Ministry of Finance, refers to the project as a $387.29 million investment, but this figure may change depending on the final bids to build the system.

The commission is, separately, also to acquire new meters and new vehicles for its maintenance crews, but the estimated costs were not disclosed.

lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com