Severn Trent has awarded a contract for back office process outsourcing activities worth an estimated £3 million.

The utility, together with sister company Hafren Dyfrdwy Cyfyngedig, has appointed Capita Customer Management Ltd to provide back office processing activities related to billing, credit management and metering management.

The current activity levels are circa 2 000 000 transactions per annum. Under the contract, Capita will provide a range of services, including:

• Post routing —incoming scanned documents are allocated into correct work-streams
• Billing enquiries — including customers’ moving house, payment plans, financial adjustments
• Credit management — including insolvency, county court claims, vulnerable customers 
• Metering — including new account creation, meter installations, meter exchanges

The companies had sought a vendor with in-depth experience of process automation and familiarity with the operation of web chat services and social media management.

Severn Trent said the contract requirements would evolve in line with technology, notably Robotic Process Automation and the use of web-chat services.

Capita were one of four companies in the bidding for the three year AMP7 contract, which has four further 1 year extension options.