Water industry wades into e-commerce

An online marketplace launched this week aims to slash procurement costs for the water industry.

Aquadia is hoping to make a splash in the $200bn (£127bn) worldwide water industry by attracting buyers, suppliers and contractors to its trading and information platform, www.aquadia.com.

Backed by Thames Water and Ondeo, two of the three largest providers of water and wastewater services worldwide, Aquadia said both suppliers and buyers would benefit by transferring procurement and purchasing operations online and by using the platform to manage internal and external projects.

Rather than build its own technology infrastructure the company has technology partners to build best-of-breed applications.

They include Procuri to supply its auction platform, Accenture to manage the flow of information through the portal, Eutilia for e-transactions expertise and BuildOnline to provide ProjectsOnline, a software tool for accessing up-to-date information on a project.

Aquadia chief executive Frederic Colomina told vnunet.com: "The auction tool will reduce cycles of sales and improve contract management so both buyers and suppliers gain."

Thames Water has carried out two electronic auctions using Aquadia's auction toolset and is using collaboration tools on a £20m upgrade to Little Marlow Sewage Water Treatment Works.

Nick Sumption, procurement director at Thames Water, said in a statement: "Aquadia's integrated service offering will enable us to build on our existing e-procurement cabability and will substantially improve supply chain efficiency."

Colomina said that that Thames Water would not get preferential treatment as a backer because "there is strict management of the relationship between shareholders and customers."

See also:

Business attitude to online auctions matures

Good way to start e-procurement, say industry watchers  10 Apr 2003

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