A day in the life

We want to show you what our team gets up to on a day-to-day basis and how we help you manage and monitor your water usage.

Our first job profile is written by Ian Coldwell who works in our metering department.

A bit about me...

What does your day to day job involve?

Our business services department provides products and services to business customers not just in the Yorkshire but also nationally. I am primarily involved in the provision of our flow monitoring service to a wide spectrum of business customers.

There is increasing emphasis in business on energy efficiency and water conservation. Flow monitoring allows our customers to have visibility of when and how much water is going through their meter. This web-based service allows customers to interrogate their own water use and address issues before they become real problems.

It's my job to work with our customers, their account managers and metering colleagues to meet the needs of customers, highlight any potential issues, suggest solutions, prepare questions, manage the process and execute delivery.

Typically my day involves preparing and writing reports for business customers taking a retrospective look at the previous month's flow activity to help any anomalies and areas of concern.

I receive a report on a daily basis which highlights any customer sites that have failed to transmit data or abnormal data, meaning there may be an issue. It's my job to ascertain what the problem is and work with our customers to resolve it.

I'm glad to say I have the unusual but very satisfying task of being able to manage and deliver projects. I could be sat behind a desk, generating a contract one minute and the next, wellie deep in sludge in a meter chamber installing flow monitoring for a new customer. There is something very rewarding about owning the process from start to finish (paperwork to dirty hands) and seeing the fruits of your labour.

We also provide customers who don't wish to take up the full flow monitoring package with a pulse unit only option. This means we provide an interface from the meter that the customer to use the data on their own pre-approved logging equipment or Building Management System (BMS). To get a copy of our policy please call us on 08456 789 789

What types of business customers do you work with?

Anyone who wants to have a greater visibility over their water usage!

We work with a wide range of customers who are keen to monitor and better manage their water consumption including multinational supermarket giants, local authorities, emergency services, government organisations, banks, schools, leisure facilities, ferry ports and the retail sector.

Recently a significant volume of business has emerged from 'new builds' of educational establishments, office buildings and regeneration sites. We are getting increasing interest from energy management companies who wish to incorporate water into Display Energy Certificates (DECs) and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). These measures, designed to tackle the energy efficiency of buildings, took effect on October 1st 2008.

How many people are in your team?

In my immediate team there is myself and my manager Amarjit Bura. However we are just part of a much larger department enabling us to draw on the vast experience and knowledge of all our colleagues.

What is your biggest achievement whilst working at Yorkshire Water?

I would have to say the most satisfying achievement was a project that I managed and delivered in mid 2008. We had previously undertaken a nationwide scheme to project manage flow monitoring in all ASDA stores across England, Wales and Scotland. ASDA were impressed with how the scheme was managed and as we had now developed the capability to install flow monitors as well as project manage the projects they asked us to deliver flow monitoring to 12 stores in Northern Ireland.

I liaised with Northern Ireland Water to get as much information as possible and with a blessing to work on their assets, I set off for the ferry on a Sunday afternoon to embark on a week long solo mission to deliver the project.

After a long week, a lot of hard work and many miles the job was complete. I could hardly believe how smoothly it had gone. I had prepared for as many eventualities as possible which had paid dividends. It was a huge success, a brilliant experience and extremely rewarding

What do you do in your spare time?

I'm a football fan, my team being Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Despite many broken bones and other injuries and against my better judgement I'm currently thinking about taking up playing 5-a-side again

I'm a film, music and technology geek but much of my spare time is unfortunately dominated by DIY at the moment.