Thinking, thinking

Thinking Windows has finally announced the go-live of their water-billing product Aquarate at Western Water, in Victoria.  The tender occurred in mid-2009, so that seems an awfully long time for a water billing implementation.  However, if I'm not mistaken Western Water is now the biggest site (in customer numbers) that Aquarate has, which ought to resolve those niggling doubts the competition has been promoting about Aquarate's ability to scale, and trhe company's ability to support its product.  Good luck to them.

A liitle ignorance

Astonishingly it seems that understanding and communicating the water reforms agreed by Australian governments almost twenty years ago hasn't percolated down to at least one CEO of a water authority that is the direct result of those reforms.  The Council of Australian Governments agreed, in the 1990s, that Australian consumers should know the full cost of collecting and delivering water to their taps.  They would know because they would be paying that price for their water.  One corollary of that reform was the local government councils who could subsidise water prices through their land rates while they also functioned as the water provider, would have their water business taken away

That reform has only now been put in place in Tasmania and SE Queensland.  The latter's water prices must reflect the cost of the infrastructure that successive governments put in place to "drought-proof" Brisbane and the sourrounding townships including the Gold Coast.  But a cone of ignorance seems to have descended over all the participants, with one Gold Coast City councillor (the city is a shareholder in one of the three new water utilities) questioning if the Board of the utility "knew what it was doing" and, so far as one can tell from the newspaper reports, the CEO of Allconnex Water failing to educate councillors in the full context of price increases

Branding government monopolies

Lithgow City Council, whose habit of demanding businesses in its area supply them with information they’ve already provided, has now decided to spend ratepayers’ money on something they already know.  The Lithgow Mercury reports that community comment is being sought on a concept for a new ‘brand’ which will positively promote the Lithgow Local Government Area, the Lithgow City Council, economic development and tourism.

“It is very important to recognise that a ‘brand’ is not just about a logo, it is about how we look, what we say and what we do,” Mayor Neville Castle said.  “It’s about how we are perceived and recognised by locals, visitors, potential workers and investors.  “The Council resolved to review its current branding, and this was followed by resolutions to upgrade town entrance signs, and to promote Lithgow to attract investors and visitors.”