case study

Building Automation Into Business-Critical Processes for a FTSE100 Water & Waste Company

After a billing and CRM transformation, a FTSE100 water and waste company lost critical automation and saw operational backlogs build across key processes. Finabeo identified 30+ high-reward agentic AI opportunities and began rebuilding automation around affordability, leakage and customer service quality.

Industry

Utilities – Water & Wastewater Management

Client Overview

The client is a FTSE100 water and waste company serving millions of UK households. Following a large-scale replacement of their billing and CRM systems, they lost many of the automations and integrations that had been developed over years inside their complex technology landscape. Operational backlogs began to build across key process areas, driving customer-impacting issues, greater reliance on third-party offshore support, and a higher cost-to-serve than the new system was supposed to deliver.

Case Study Overview

Finabeo ran a series of discovery sessions with the client's operational leadership teams to identify candidates for agentic AI across their post-transformation estate. We identified 30+ high-reward opportunities and are now implementing a portfolio of agentic workflows that restore lost automation, speed up decisions, and improve accuracy for customer-facing processes.

the problem

Problem Statement

A major billing and CRM transformation stripped out years of bespoke automation and integration. Backlogs built across business-critical processes, cost-to-serve increased, and customer-impacting issues emerged faster than manual support could resolve them.

outcome

Results We Delivered

An overview of the outcomes we delivered

The engagement is restoring operational capacity lost during the core systems transformation, lowering cost-to-serve on the new platform, and giving team managers back the time they need to build high-performing customer service teams through better-evidenced coaching and quality assurance.

approach

Our Approach

An overview of the approach we took to deliver the results

We ran structured discovery across operational teams to build a prioritised backlog of 30+ agentic AI candidates, scored by value, feasibility, and time to deliver. We then began implementation on the highest-impact workflows — affordability, leakage, and CS call quality — using an approach that fits inside the client's existing technology and governance footprint.

application

What We Did

The specifics over what we performed and how we delivered the results

Affordability automation

Automates parts of the affordability assessment for low-income customers so applications for financial support are managed more quickly and accurately.

Leakage calculation workflow

Designs the process and builds the workflow to collect the data needed to run leakage calculations aligned with the new systems.

CS call quality automation

Trains an AI to analyse customer service agents' calls, delivering feedback and quality audits that would otherwise consume enormous amounts of team manager time.

Rapid opportunity discovery

Discovery sessions with operational leadership surface the highest-reward automation candidates quickly, using a consistent framework for opportunity sizing.

Regulated-process governance

Every workflow is designed with governance and auditability from the start, reflecting the regulated nature of water retail.

Human-in-the-loop design

Agents handle routine, repeatable decisions while humans retain oversight of exceptions and higher-risk cases.