WET News

Thinking smart A s AMP7 approaches, water companies are under grow- i n g p r e s s u r e t o l o o k beyond the traditional reliance on building new assets. While facing new challenges on several fronts, not least climate change and population growth, they must also step up to the requirements laid down by Ofwat on customer ser- vice, affordable bills, innovation and resilience. To do so demands creative solutions, and the water compa- nies are increasingly looking to contractors to supply the answers. Costain is working to ensure it is well-placed to provide them. Having switched emphasis to become a 'smart infrastructure solutions company', Costain is seeking to help steer the industry towards a more efficient future, and its water sector director, Max- ine Mayhew, says greater innova- tion is the only way to deliver what is required. "Our purpose at Costain is all about improving people's lives • Costain water sector director Maxine Mayhew discusses the company's shift towards smart infrastructure solutions and the importance of investing in staff By Robin Hackett through deploying technology- based engineering solutions," Mayhew says. "Our water ambition is very much aligned to that – working with our customers to help create the future of water. "There are three major chal- lenges facing the industry and they're around capacity, resilience and customer service, but that comes at a time when there's a demand for decreasing cost, so as we work with our customers to meet these challenges through outcome-based contracts, you get a real opportunity to innovate and integrate technology. "Incremental change won't bring the improvements that are needed across capacity, resilience and customer service. What we need is a real step change in the s o l u t i o n s t o d r i v e t h e outcomes." Understanding and optimising assets becomes increasingly important, with data set to play a big part in water companies' thinking in AMP7. "One key part of driving inno- vation and better outcomes is about utilising the assets that already exist in a better way," she says. "To do that you need to understand that asset and be able to use that data to optimise how it works, what it delivers, and when it needs an intervention to improve it or maintain it." Mayhew expresses pride in the speed with which Costain has increased its use of technology in solution design development and delivery automation as well as intelligent asset optimisation, but she stresses that construction r e m a i n s a v i t a l p a r t o f t h e business. "The key is about thinking how we can best deliver the outcome, because that's what our customers need – an outcome," she says. "Sometimes you can deliver that outcome by making existing assets work more efficiently, sometimes you can do it by using the data analytics to optimise assets intel- ligently, and sometimes you will need to repair or build a new asset. "We're trying to make sure we have an end-to-end, integrated set of solutions. Construction - or complex delivery - is still core to what we do, but what we're seeing is it can be increasingly a smaller p a r t o f t h e o ve r a l l s o lu t i o n development." The new approach is clearly working. Financial results for the year ending 31 December 2017 showed revenue at £1.73 billion, up from £1.66 billion in 2016, and underlying operating profit has been increasing year-on-year, ris- ing by 18 per cent to £48.7 million for 2017. "I think ultimately good per- formance follows if you deliver what your customers want," May- hew says. "We've been transform- ing the business over the last few years to make sure we continue to drive what our customers want and that we continue to deliver excellent results, and that's reflected in our financial results." Mayhew has strong personal insight into what Costain's water company customers want, having spent two decades in a variety of roles across the industry. She took on her current role last summer after six years as group commer- cial director at Northumbrian, and had previously worked for United Utilities and S cottish Water Solutions. "I hope that allows me to rec- o g n i s e t h e t h i n g s t h a t a r e 10 WET NEWS JULY 2018 | wwtonline.co.uk INTERVIEW "Construction - or complex delivery - is still core to what we do, but what we're seeing is it can be increasingly a smaller part of the overall solution development" Maxine Mayhew, Costain

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