Peter Dane

8 May 2014

Sustainable benchmarking for improved

water services in the Danube-region

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Outline

• The benchmarking rationale

• About EBC

• Concept for sustainable benchmarking in the region

• To conclude

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The Benchmarking Rationale – what is it?

IWA’s Specialist Group on Benchmarking:

• “benchmarking is a tool for performance improvement

through systematic search and adaptation of leading

practices”

• 2 consecutive steps:

performance assessment

performance improvement UTILITY

FUNCTION

PROCESS

TASK

LEVELOF

DETAIL

Performance ASSESSMENT

Performance IMPROVEMENT

BENCHMARKING

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The Benchmarking Rationale – what is it? (2)

• not a single action!

management tool for

continuous improvement

preferably embedded in

yearly business planning cycle

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The Benchmarking Rationale – does it work?

Dutch case of benchmarking water supply for 15 years

• 26% cost reduction (corrected for inflation)

• while still improving the service level and maintaining

investment levels Quality index

Investment level

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About EBC

European Benchmarking Co-operation (EBC):

• not-for-profit benchmarking initiative for water- & wastewater

utilities, established by associations from DK, FIN, NL, N, S

• as of May 2014 EBC Foundation, governed by a Board

(DANVA, DWP, EUREAU, Norsk Vann, Vewin) and an

Advisory Board (stakeholders)

• mission: to facilitate (European) water utilities in their

continuous efforts to improve performance and transparency

• annual exercises for water- & wastewater services since

2007

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• large peer network

over 100 different utilities from Europe and beyond

About EBC (2)

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About EBC (3)

• supported by EUREAU and IWA

• selected as EIP Water Action Group by the EC

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EBC’s benchmarking programme

Characteristics

• focus: performance assessment ánd performance

improvement by learning from each other (network)

• assessment based on IWA’s PI-system

• 3 benchmarking levels:

basic

standard

advanced

Drinking water Wastewater

Context information

Service quality

Sustainability

Finance & efficiency

Context information

Water quality

Reliability

Service quality

Sustainability

Finance & efficiency

Context information

Reliability

Sustainability

Finance & efficiency

Context information

Service quality

Finance & efficiency

Context information

Water quality

Reliability

Service quality

Sustainability

Finance & efficiency

Context information

Reliability

Sustainability

Finance & efficiency

Advanced

Standard

Basic

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EBC’s benchmarking programme (2)

Broad view on performance

• context information

• key performance areas

water quality

reliability

service quality

sustainability

finance & efficiency

Context information

Water quality

Reliability

Service

quality

Sustaina-

bility

Finance &

efficiency

Context information

Water quality

Reliability

Service

quality

Sustaina-

bility

Finance &

efficiency

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EBC’s benchmarking programme (3)

Seven consecutive steps

Project

preparation

Data

collection

Data

analysis &

-validation

Reporting

Bench-

marking

workshop

Public

report

Evaluation

& closure

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EBC’s benchmarking programme (4)

Project preparation

• defining objectives, composing team, preparing

documents, methodology, tools, planning…

• recruiting participants (invitations, registration)

• orientation & training (kick-off)

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EBC’s benchmarking programme (5)

Data collection, analysis & validation

• good data quality: essential for confidence in results!

• how to arrange this?

clear definitions

confidence grading

data analysis & validation

results workshop

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EBC’s benchmarking programme - key deliverables

Individual company reports

• to check data & identify performance gaps

• “dashboard” presentation of results and detailed

comparisons

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EBC’s benchmarking programme - key deliverables (2)

Annual benchmarking workshop

• essential part of the benchmarking exercise

• moving from assessment- to improvement stage

• discussing (draft) results (data check, understanding PI’s)

• exchanging best practices (presentations by peer utilities)

• networking

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EBC’s benchmarking programme - key deliverables (3)

Public reporting

• shows (anonymous) key results,

good practice snapshots &

participants experiences

• for stakeholder communication &

encouraging utilities to participate

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• national/regional benchmarking hub concept

Concept for sustainable benchmarking in the region

EBC Found.

W. EUR

AL

SRB

UA

...

RO

BG

...

GR

IBNET

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National/regional benchmarking hub concept

• focus on improving water- & wastewater utilities/services

• “ownership” of benchmarking with national water

associations

• joint effort of national water associations + EBC

Concept for sustainable benchmarking (2)

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Task distribution

Concept for sustainable benchmarking (3)

Benchmarking activities EBC hub utility

Collective methodology x

hub training x

quality assurance x

ICT platform x

translations x

utility training x

recruitment x

helpdesk x x

data collection x

data analysis & verification x

reporting x

best practise workshop x

task groups for follow-up actions x x

Individual PIP x

improvement actions x

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• capacity building at the associations ánd the utilities

EBC provides methodology, training, ICT-platform,

network exchanges

as much as possible, local project execution

• all benchmarking hubs share the same methodology, with

room for local customisation

• opportunity to exchange results / good practices between

different benchmarking networks

• data submission to IBNET/DANUBIS

Concept for sustainable benchmarking (4)

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Planning

Q2 2013 - DWP launch event

investigation of country priorities regarding DWP-pillars

Q3 2013 - DWP workshop 26&27 September 2013

Q4 2013 - agreement with associations on (4) hubs

Q1 2014 - agreement on financing activities; contracting partners

Q2 2014 - 12&13 May 2014 training for bm hub coordinators,

preparing first pilot exercise, recruitment of pilot participants,

orientation/training of pilot participants, data collection

Q3 2014 - data validation & -analysis, draft reporting

Q4 2014 - bm workshop, final reporting, data to IBNET, evaluation

Q1 2015 - closing down pilot 1, preparing second pilot exercise,

recruitment of utilities, etc.

Q3 2015 - closure of pilot 2

Concept for sustainable benchmarking (5)

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• no time to waste!

sense of urgency: political discussions on improving

public services & modernising the water sector

starting-up a programme takes time

just begin and improve on the way!

• benefits for the region of proposed hub-concept:

local ownership of benchmarking

capacity building at association- & utility level

opportunity to standardise benchmarking & connect to

a large European peer network

To conclude