Small change, gigantic impact: how Vitens frees up 600 hours of administrative work every week

For the customer it’s simple: turn on the tap, and drinking water flows. But to make that possible 24/7 for 2.8 million connections and 6 million users, a massive operation runs behind the scenes. One unclear input field in the annual meter-reading check? That immediately results in thousands of phone calls and support tickets.

At this scale, nothing is small. Cor van Dijk, Project and Program Manager at drinking water company Vitens, knows this better than anyone. His mission is clear: make processes more human and drastically more efficient. His yardstick is uncompromising: “Every euro we invest in IT must deliver three euros in value to the business. Otherwise, you might as well keep doing it by hand.”

Together with Iquality, Vitens took on the challenge: how do you digitalize at Champions League level without losing the human touch or control over costs?

The challenge: scale is revenue (or a cost driver)

With 100,000 to 150,000 requests per week, the law of large numbers works against you if processes aren’t tightly run. “If our website goes down, the phone lines at our customer service office in Arnhem light up instantly,” Cor illustrates the urgency. The biggest bottleneck? The annual meter readings. Many customers didn’t submit them, entered them incorrectly, or had them rejected by the system due to illogical ranges. The result: more than 5,000 tickets per week that had to be checked manually.

The strategy: logic first, code second

Instead of automating blindly, Vitens and Iquality opted for a pragmatic, evidence-based approach.

1.Words before software
Sometimes the solution isn’t in technology, but in language. “Internally, we used terms like ‘inhuizen’ and ‘uithuizen.’ Many customers didn’t understand them,” says Cor. “That’s why we now also offer other terms that are familiar to customers, such as ‘Moving’ and ‘Registering.’ By giving customers multiple recognizable options, they can choose the correct path right away.”

2.Lowering barriers with AI
You can’t change customer behavior through force, only through ease. Especially in large cities, meter submissions were lagging. The solution? Make it frictionless. Iquality developed a feature where customers simply take a photo of their meter. AI reads the reading, the system processes the data, and the photo serves as proof.

The role of Iquality

Vitens wasn’t looking for a partner that blindly “you ask, we deliver.” Cor: “I wouldn’t say you necessarily know a lot about drinking water, but you do understand very well what it means to run a customer environment at this scale.” What characterizes the collaboration is constructive pushback. Iquality acts as the guardian of reality. “They are people with both feet on the ground,” says Cor.

The result: demonstrably less work

By continuously measuring and adjusting in short cycles, the results speak for themselves:

• 500 to 650 hours saved per week: the number of tickets requiring manual checks dropped from over 5,000 to 3,500 per week. At 20 minutes per ticket, that’s a huge structural saving.
• More reliable data: nearly 40% of all meter readings now come in via photo analysis. Fewer typing errors, less debate.
• Cities catching up: the ‘gap’ between urban and rural areas is shrinking; with the lowered barrier, city dwellers now submit their readings much more often.
• Less estimated consumption: because more people provide their data, Vitens needs to estimate usage 1.2% less frequently. This tightens accounting and simplifies audits.

The future: no IT straitjacket

For Vitens, this isn’t a finished project, but an ongoing process. Cor: “We want to avoid the organization getting stuck in an ‘IT straitjacket,’ where you lose agility because every change takes a year.” Whether it’s logging in via SMS for added security or activating tablet cameras, Vitens sets the course, and Iquality ensures the technology supports it—as long as it delivers value.