Talgentra secures deal with Power and Water Corp

By ADAM GIFFORD

Talgentra has beaten cross-town rival Peace Software and Australia's Hansen to supply its Gentrack utility billing software to Power and Water Corporation in the Northern Territory.

The Ponsonby developer will supply the software for billing electricity, water, waste water and other water-related services for about 150,000 business and domestic customers in Darwin, Alice Springs and other settlements in the territory. It is also considering expanding into gas sales.

Gentrack division general manager James Docking said the selection process was particularly drawn out because of the A$61 million ($68.7 million) failed implementation of a Severn Trent customer information system at Sydney Water.

Power and Water managing director Kim Wood said his company wanted to avoid the extensive customisation which was a major factor in the Sydney Water failure.

Docking said Gentrack was replacing a legacy system which cost more than $3 million a year to maintain.

The system will run on an Oracle database. The company also wanted to be able to offer more flexible billing options and customer self-service over the internet, so it could fend off expected retail competition.

Gentrack can handle multiple tariff structures, and new products and services can be processed through the one billing engine, rather than requiring a separate database.

A Gentrack team is already in Darwin working on the project, which is due to go live in the middle of next year.

Gentrack

Power and Water