Digitising meter reading and billing for a water board

What is shaping water

Water research covers households, utilities, purifier brands and development programmes. Access, quality, reliability and trust in the source decide how people use and pay for water.

• Many households combine several water sources
• Trust in water quality drives purifier adoption
• Utilities are judged on reliability and billing

A city water supply board, working in Karnataka. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A city water supply board

Sector

Water

Team engaged

IT & Development

Services

Mobile app development, Web application development, API development & integration

Meter readings were recorded on paper and typed into the billing system, leading to errors, disputes and delayed bills. Readers also missed premises regularly, leading to estimated bills that customers disputed.

• Deliver on the brief: digitising meter reading and billing for a water board.
• Design around the real needs of meter readers.
• Design around the real needs of connections.
• Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
• Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.

The work focused on 150 meter readers and 2,00,000 connections.

• meter readers150
• connections2,00,000

Audiences we typically reach in water

HouseholdsUtility customersPurifier buyers and ownersCommunity water committeesWASH programme beneficiaries

Coverage: Karnataka. Market: India.

• India

An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Field process mapping
3. 3Meter reading app
4. 4Billing integration
5. 5Insight

We built a mobile app for meter readers with photo capture of each meter, GPS tagging and offline operation, integrated with the billing system, and a dashboard for supervisors. Meter readers tested early versions on their routes, and the app was simplified after they found some steps slowed them down. The app also flagged unusual readings, such as sudden drops that might indicate meter tampering or leaks, for supervisor review.

Mobile app developmentWeb application developmentAPI development & integration

meter readers

150

connections

2,00,000

• Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.

• Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.

• Peer code review on every change
• Automated and manual testing
• User-acceptance testing with the client
• Release checklist and rollback plan

• Usage and performance monitoring after launch
• Defect and support-ticket trends
• Process time before and after

• Billing disputes fell because customers could see meter photos, bills went out faster and supervisors could track reading coverage daily.

Photo evidence resolved disputes before they started.

• Build on the core insight: photo evidence resolved disputes before they started.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: billing disputes fell because customers could see meter photos, bills went out faster and supervisors could track reading coverage daily.

• Revenue collection improved as accurate bills reduced disputes and delays.

• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Deployed solution with documentation and handover
• Support and maintenance plan

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: did a WASH programme change behaviour?