Northern Ireland Water Service, an Agency within the Department for Regional Development Northern Ireland (DRD) has awarded the contract for the provision of its new customer billing and contacts system to the Xansa-led Crystal Alliance.

The contract, valued at £70 million over seven years, sees Xansa as the prime contractor in a strategic alliance of best-of-breed partners with Echo Managed Services and AMT-SYBEX Ltd.

The Xansa-led Crystal Alliance will work with NI Water Service to deliver front to back office customer billing and relationship management services to over 760,000 customers. Xansa's IT and process expertise combined with the specialist capabilities of the consortium partners will deliver industry-leading standards of service, fast local response to customer enquiries and continuous improvement in standards of service provided.

Xansa will be responsible for the client relationship with NI Water Service and will manage the overall service from implementation to operational delivery and will also provide back office billing processes. Under a subcontract Echo Managed Services will be responsible for customer billing and debt collection and manage the customer contact centre, AMT-SYBEX Ltd will provide the mobile work management solution.

Starting immediately, the Crystal Alliance will implement an advanced customer billing and collections system followed by a new Customer Relations Centre in April 2007. Constituting a completely new service for NI Water Service this will involve the creation of 180 jobs in the Belfast area. In addition to replacing current non-domestic billing and customer enquiry systems, the service will also be capable of delivering domestic bills under the proposed charging arrangements to be introduced by Northern Ireland Water Limited when this Government owned Company is established in April 2007. This facility and the cost saving made through the outsourcing of the service will provide a crucial source of revenue for infrastructure investment in Northern Ireland.

Commenting on the announcement Katharine Bryan, Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Water Service said:

"The Xansa-led consortium has a wealth of experience in the utilities marketplace. Xansa's technology and experience will directly benefit our customers, through a faster response to call outs and a seven day a week personalised customer service which will greatly enhance our capabilities and the service we deliver to our customers. The new customer management service will also provide a key element of the Government strategy for water reform in Northern Ireland. It will support the new domestic charges which will provide a reliable source of revenue to sustain the major infrastructure investment in Northern Ireland. The cost savings made by outsourcing this part of our business will be re-invested in upgrading the water infrastructure in Northern Ireland to the benefit of all our customers."

Commenting on the announcement Alistair Cox, Chief Executive, Xansa said:

"I am delighted that Xansa and our consortium partners have been selected to supply the customer management services which are such a critical element within the Government's Water Reform strategy. Xansa has over 15 years of experience in the utilities marketplace developing services aimed at helping utility companies to manage their businesses more efficiently. This contract, the largest we have signed in the utilities arena, is a great endorsement of our strengths in integrating IT and business process outsourcing and in our capacity to manage and lead the consortium. It also extends our capabilities in spanning back office operations with front office activities through our alliance partners Echo and AMT-SYBEX, and takes Xansa into a new geographical location in Northern Ireland."

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