SUCCESS STORY

Veolia

COMPANY:
Veolia

INDUSTRY:
Energy & Utilities

HEADQUARTERS:
Boston, MA

Veolia North America is a leading global water treatment technology and asset operator with operations across all 50 states, plus Canada. The company provides drinking water, wastewater and waste collection service to nearly 7 million people daily, and treats 560 million gallons of water and 460 million gallons of wastewater each day.

In 2016, Veolia began a digital transformation initiative to support their ambition to preserve and restore the planet’s natural capital: water, soil and air. Their strategy is based on a multi-pronged approach, with a focus on moving from an analog to a digital utility. This required multiple investments in many areas, including one of the largest water-sponsored smart meter data networks in the U.S., covering over 1,000 square miles.

The Challenge

As with many utility operators, Veolia is facing increasing customer expectations to respond quickly when issues arise, which requires adept management of their assets and field workforce. This covers the whole spectrum of asset operation activities, including preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, and outage management.

These demands, along with the challenge to digitally transform its municipal distribution operations, led the company on a search for a central hub to consolidate multiple workflows and initiatives onto a single cloud-accessible platform. Requirements included management of both linear and vertical assets with a single scheduling engine for asset maintenance, resource management, and customer service and support.

The Solution

Following an extensive bid process that included more than 30 vendors, the cross-functional Veolia selection committee selected KloudGin to deliver the cloud-based EAM platform for its Environmental Services group in 2019. KloudGin provides an industry-centric approach through its Machine Learning-based asset management cloud platform, which enables Veolia to quickly respond, run and operate requests. Access to real-time information provides a more predictable and cost-effective operational view of the distribution network, service interruptions, and crew remediation work activities. The implementation of KloudGin Asset and Field Service Management within the Environmental Services Division was live within 20 weeks. In parallel, both the Advanced Solutions and Utility businesses of Veolia North America selected and began implementing KloudGin for their operations as well.

Several technology partners and integrators worked together with KloudGin on the Utility division implementation, including engineering consulting firm Black & Veatch, and GIS company Esri. KloudGin’s strong partners, allied with its internal utilities expertise, were instrumental in executing one of the fastest deployments of mission-critical technology in Veolia’s history. Their deep industry experience expedited integration, reducing typical months long deployment cycles down to a matter of weeks. KloudGin’s tight integration with Esri’s GIS mapping system allowed the solution to sync linear assets, provide real-time GIS map access across mobile devices, and deliver bi-directional read/write adapters.

To empower its field service, Veolia put tablets in the hands of all the field crews, whether it was for meter services, or asset and work management platforms. After the initial tablet training, Veolia added the KloudGin mobile app – the field crews were amazed at the ease of usability, and instant access to information. For example, KloudGin’s worker-first mobile solution took a complex water distribution flushing process, and turned it into a simple intuitive and easy-to-use app for Veolia crews. Since the initial implementation, Veolia has successfully rolled out several additional projects, all requiring minimal support from KloudGin. The Utility Division has now gone live at three sites, with plans to expand to the remaining 40+ sites over the next three years.

“KloudGin was able to deliver the integration and functionality to solve the challenge. In my 30 years’ experience with utilities, I’ve been looking for a single solution that combines asset management and worker and customer service management – and found it with KloudGin.”

- Michael Salas

Former SVP, Chief Information & Digital Officer | Veolia North America

SOLUTION SUMMARY