The TTA sits alongside Thames Water’s existing eight2O and Infrastructure alliances. It has been set up to boost water and wastewater services for 15 million customers across London and the Thames Valley. The contract value covering all members of the alliance is estimated at £380 million over the remaining AMP6 period to 2020.
Welcoming the alliance, Thames Water chief executive Martin Baggs said: “This is a world first and there are some fantastic names joining our family to create a really powerful vehicle to take Thames Water forward. It’s also the last piece in a jigsaw that includes our other alliances, eight2O and the Infrastructure Alliance.”
Thames Water chief information officer Neil Clark, who is also the chief executive of the TTA, added: “This new alliance allows us to create a unique way of working with our fellow alliance members to really elevate how we use technology to drive our business forward. We’re combining their skills and expertise with our own technology team’s great knowledge and experience of our business to maximise our investment in technology.”
The alliance members were selected following an intense procurement process, and will formally come into operation in October following a period of transition. Each of the members will bring their own skills, knowledge, capabilities and innovative thinking to the alliance which, combined with Thames Water’s own experience in a single team, is set to create a totally new way of working and delivering technology services and projects.
As well as the TTA providing all the IT services for the business, it will also enable Thames Water to get the best from the latest technologies, including giving customers a greater choice of digital channels to connect with and using new technologies to help operations teams in the field.
This project is probably a first in terms of the integration of IT with OT (operational technology) under the same leadership to help drive integration between operational systems and business systems, derive better insight and action from data and to exploit the Internet of Things.