Wessex Water Case Study

Many companies pride themselves on the quality and comprehensiveness of their customer communications, however few have realised that an informed and knowledgeable workforce is a vital component in the success of this activity. Wessex Water is one such company. Its Connectvision multimedia messaging based service ‘SourceTV’ is equipping employees with the means to play their full role in engaging with customers.

Wessex Water is the regional water and sewage treatment business serving an area of the southwest of England, covering 10,000 square kilometres including Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, most of Wiltshire, parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire. It manages the treatment and supply of drinking water to 1.2 million people and provides sewerage services to about 2.5 million.

With its headquarters in Bath, six regional offices and mobile teams of engineers, Wessex Water communicates with employees in a variety of ways: e-mail, Intranet, briefings and newsletters. “While these are effective in their way, they don’t do justice to the breadth and vibrancy of Wessex Water’s services to the public. Our 2,500 employees are knowledgeable about their own area of the business but less informed about other parts. In the belief that each employee is in effect an ambassador for Wessex Water, we wanted a new way of communicating that cut through the ‘noise’ of everyday internal comms to excite and better communicate how Wessex Water and its employees are making a difference to the water services we provide to customers in our region,” said the new media manager, Wessex Water.

Connectvision is the multimedia messaging software behind Wessex Water’s ‘SourceTV’. It is used to deliver content to large LCD screens at its headquarters and regional offices, distributing corporate, national and local news as well as information on company service and PR initiatives to staff throughout the working day. The screens are located at entrance, breakout and coffee areas where employees will see the screens several times a day. It also allows mobile engineers, who don’t have access to a computer, to catch up with the latest company news when visiting regional offices.

The content is a mix of flash, video, still images, text, PowerPoint and RSS feeds with the screen split into several areas. The largest area carries the main broadcast content lasting around 30 minutes which is updated weekly; this includes video reports, company news and job vacancies. The narrower right hand column is used for ‘Did you know?’ facts about Wessex Water and the bottom of the screen features a ‘ticker tape’ RSS feed which is updated daily and includes RSS feeds showing local news and travel information.

“We find the Connectvision scheduling facility gives us the framework for our content planning but we always make last minute changes to the schedule when we need to,” he said. Each screen shows live TV news on the hour. This alternates between SKY News and BBC News, after which the screen content reverts back to the Wessex Water multiscreen content.

Zoning is an important aspect of SourceTV. At the Yeovil office, where regular meetings are held, the reception area’s screen shows the weekly meeting schedule in the ‘Did you know?’ area. Whilst, the main reception area screen at the company’s headquarters was used recently during a WaterAid reception to show how Wessex Water is involved in this initiative.

He has recognised the importance of involving colleagues in SourceTV. As a result he now has a number of correspondents across the business who regularly supply material. Industry events such as the Water Industry’s annual IWEX shows, ‘Tap and Drill’ competition featuring Wessex Water engineers have also been shown.

This tightly edited material is put together by his team in a dedicated video editing suite. “We wanted to show the SourceTV as a high quality, well produced internal communication channel that from day one set a high standard for production quality and content. By involving other people we’ve been able to draw on a broad range of material that reflects the breadth of Wessex Water’s business and shows our staff in the best possible light. Interestingly, other departments within Wessex Water have seen the quality of SourceTV production and invited us to assist them. We are now producing training videos and a DVD on how to complete waste transfer notes,” he continued.

A further SourceTV screen is being integrated into the Wessex Water Operations Centre videowall to keep control room staff informed. There are also plans to include another SourceTV screen in the company’s incident room where it can be used as a training aid during Emergency response exercises, using specifically zoned content.

He added, “We’ve had some extremely positive feedback from a wide range of employees about SourceTV. The quality and range of content, combined with the flexibility of zoning and scheduling gives us a powerful platform for internal communications and brand development that so far we’ve only just begun to explore.”