Southern Water provides water and wastewater services across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, delivering a continuous pipeline of capital projects. With dozens of active schemes at any one time and a range of stakeholders involved, managing programme data had become increasingly complex.
The challenge
When Otoni (formerly Asset Handling) first partnered with Southern Water in 2012, project data was stored across more than 1,000 folders. Reporting was heavily reliant on Excel spreadsheets and interconnected macros, making it difficult to produce accurate insights or maintain a consistent view of progress and performance across the portfolio.
Southern Water needed a single, structured system to streamline data entry, improve project governance, and enable real-time visibility across programmes and teams.
The solution
We deployed a programme performance platform capable of bringing together multiple data streams into a unified reporting and planning environment. Key inputs included:
- Financials (VOWD and forecasts) imported from SAP
- Schedule, location and metadata drawn from Primavera P6
- Monthly narrative updates and risk registers, entered directly into the platform
Projects were grouped within an Enterprise Project Structure (EPS), allowing drill-downs from the full portfolio to department level and individual projects. At every level, the system enabled tracking of:
- Risk registers
- Project commentary
- Schedule milestones
- Financial status
Implementation was phased to ensure a smooth transition from legacy systems. Our team worked closely with Southern Water to map and migrate data, tailoring the platform to suit regulatory, commercial and operational needs.
Results and impact
Southern Water gained a centralised, easy-to-use programme management solution that delivers:
- Reduced reliance on offline spreadsheets and manual reporting
- Consistent, accessible data across all levels of the organisation
- Drill-down capability from strategic portfolio view to individual project performance
- Pre-built reports for key stakeholder and regulator needs
- Improved visibility of timing, risks, costs, and deliverables
- A single source of truth for commentary, accountability, and key dates
By moving to a unified, data-driven platform, Southern Water strengthened programme governance and laid the foundations for more efficient delivery across their capital works.