Enhancing Project and Asset Information Management for Thames Water’s Capital Investment Programmes

Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and wastewater services company, serving over 14 million customers across London and the Thames Valley. The company works with a large number of external contractors to deliver its capital investment works, which involves significant volumes of information including contract documents, design files, and general correspondence pertaining to some 1500 live projects. Thames Water has been a customer of GroupBC since 2005 when they identified the need for better information management to support the delivery of their capital programme. The BC Enterprise solution, known in-house as TWEXnet, has evolved into a fully integrated programme and information management solution, including tendering, delivery process and assurance, document and drawing management and most recently, a visual geospatial representation capability.

Thames Water, the UK’s largest water and wastewater services company, faced significant challenges in managing information for the delivery of their capital projects. Prior to the implementation of TWEXnet, information management was not well controlled. Delivery partners were based within Thames Water offices and information was shared via email, CDs, and shared drives. However, after a change in the business model in 2005, the partners were based back in their own offices and the use of multiple systems to share information proved to be neither productive nor secure. Thames Water works with a large number of external contractors to deliver its capital investment works, which involves significant volumes of information including contract documents, design files, and general correspondence pertaining to some 1500 live projects. Each party is responsible for keeping related documentation and activities up to date, essential to the decision-making processes involved in a project. The staff churn that occurs on all construction projects means that having a controlled central repository for information is absolutely essential to ensure efficient delivery and contractual and legal compliance.

Thames Water procured TWEXnet, a project extranet that evolved into a Common Data Environment (CDE) to manage data related to built assets. The platform stores and manages project documents, drawings, and information, including workflow functionality to enable issuing for information, checking, review, or approval. Information is now available from a secure central location, with all the basic document management functionality such as version control, access rights, and audit trails as well as BC’s advanced functionality including saved searches, reporting capability, drag and drop multiple files and folders, and task dashboards. Thames Water worked with GroupBC to develop an integrated process management and quality assurance module to give a visual traffic light view of project requirements and compliance. They also implemented the BIM viewing module, which enables them to view drawings and 3D models and associated asset information without the need for the native software. More recently, they have implemented the GeoLink module which provides a visual representation on an Ordnance Survey map interface of their project locations together with over twenty switchable layers of environmental and heritage information.

• The implementation of TWEXnet has brought about significant operational improvements for Thames Water. The platform has provided a secure central location for all project-related information, ensuring efficient delivery and contractual and legal compliance. The integrated process management and quality assurance module has brought clarity to project requirements and compliance, improving project management and decision-making processes. The BIM viewing module has enabled the viewing of drawings and 3D models and associated asset information without the need for the native software, simplifying the process and saving resources. The GeoLink module has provided a visual representation of project locations along with environmental and heritage information, aiding in project planning and risk management. The Publication function has made Health and Safety information readily available to construction staff, enhancing safety measures. Overall, the implementation of TWEXnet has significantly improved information management, project delivery, and compliance across Thames Water’s capital investment programme.

• Thames Water is now able to trust the information as they can check the current status of documentation, and also its provenance.
• The ability to run environmental and heritage checks on projects to see if there are any threats or issues saves an enormous amount of time.
• Project team members now have clarity of expectation and progress of milestones and key deliverables.