A post by Sophie Sherriff
Open Data Manager
Open data is data that anyone can access, use, and share.
Ofwat has commented that the use of open data could transform water and wastewater service delivery including stimulating innovation.
We recently published our open data strategy, which outlines how we will cultivate our experience in open data to achieve greater maturity.
Our experience
Open data is not new to Wessex Water. This year marks five years of sharing business challenges and data on the Wessex Water Marketplace platform, opening it up to the competitive market to put forward ideas.
We have seen the value of opening our data as well as gaining vital experience of the potential challenges. We have broadened releases to include data not associated with challenges too.
We have found good governance to be the real key to success…. as dull as that may sound! We have established repeatable and defined processes for making data available with clear lines of responsibility.
Our commitments
We’re passionate about building on our good foundations to further our own open data maturity and positively influence the evolution of open data across the water sector.
Our open data strategy sets out our specific commitments for advancing open data maturity during 2024:
- Engaging and supporting our data community to bring us closer to our customers
- making our data easy to find, download, use and connect with us about
- Strengthening our data processes to ensure a consistent approach
- appropriately managing data publication risks, while maximising opportunities to address challenges within the business and beyond
- Leadership and collaboration – treating our data as a valuable asset
- continuing to work with Stream and industry partners to advance open data maturity
- integrating open data into our day-to-day culture
- Restoring trust through open data
- releasing new datasets and further Marketplace challenges
Driving innovation
We’ve seen major benefits in the supply chain. Sharing openly allows supply chain companies to better understand the realities of operational data, allowing them to develop their products and potentially identify innovations to solve our business challenges. An example of this is the development of the StormHarvester product, that was accelerated through their participation in one of our Marketplace challenges. The benefits of the product are now being seen both at Wessex Water and across the wider water industry, predicting and preventing sewerage network issues before they even happen.
Similarly open data provides academia with a rich dataset from which to explore practical applications of theoretical models, as well as giving our customers and other interested parties the opportunity to discover what we do.
Last but not least, open data increases trust and transparency with our customers and regulators.
Publishing our open data strategy is just the start. Embedding a different mindset and delivering continual improvements will require ongoing commitment, but we are very much up for the challenge. We cannot wait to see how far open data can impact us, our data users, the water sector and beyond. We’ll keep you posted!