Annual Report 2015 | Page 24

Annual Report 2015 Echo works closely with its customers in all areas of its core services, demonstrating a total commitment to quality customer experiences. Echo Managed Services (Echo) is a specialist outsourced provider of complex multi-channel customer contact services, comprehensive debt management solutions and the developer of the market leading water billing and customer information system, RapidXtra. Echo’s key focus is to help its customers deliver a high quality endto-end customer journey. Combining best practice specialist services and solutions with highly skilled and knowledgeable people, our three core services help our customers to improve their billing, debt recovery and customer contact processes to enhance their customers’ experience, build loyalty and enhance profitability. 22 2014/15 was a year of growth for Echo with some significant contract wins, strategically important contract renewals and an array of ongoing implementations. Over achieving against both profit and cash targets, Echo also launched a new corporate website and created a vision, mission statement and a set of values that outline the company’s core purpose, ethos and culture, which will underpin the business strategy moving forward. Market leading customer billing Echo’s billing and customer information system, RapidXtra, continues to hold a market leading position within the UK water sector. With nine client implementations already delivered, RapidXtra’s single largest client, Dŵr Cymru (Welsh Water), serving approximately 1.5 million homes and businesses, went live successfully with the system in 2015. The expansion of non-household retail competition in 2017 is a significant priority for UK water companies. Acknowledging this, we have been heavily engaged with water companies on the potential for RapidXtra to service their commercial customer retail system requirements. This engagement, combined with the significant investment made in product development, has already resulted in contracts being secured for Anglian Water Business and Severn Trent Services. These successes should provide the foundation for RapidXtra to be the water billing system of choice within the new ‘competition’ based market.