Published on the 22/07/2025 | Written by Heather Wright

Datascape’s new game…

Selwyn District Council’s newly launched water utility, Selwyn Water, has partnered with Datacom on a preconfigured Datascape ERP-based platform to manage water services.

Selwyn District Council became the first council in the country to launch its new water services entity earlier this month.

“The digital platform was identified early on as a critical element to set up the organisation and allow it to achieve the efficiencies it has committed too.”

Datacom’s Water Asset Intelligence platform is a ‘ready-to-go’ preconfigured platform to support councils establishing a council-controlled organisation (CCO) as part of the government’s Local Water Done Well water reforms to address infrastructure challenges. It replaced the Three Waters plans, restoring council ownership and control but with central government oversight.

It is built on Datacom’s cloud-based Datascape ERP platform used by more than 75 percent of New Zealand councils for a range of functions including website, CRM, self service portals for citizens, bookings, fieldwork and financials.

The company announced the offering late last year, going to market for a council partner to work with on the final stages of design to ensure WAI was developed ‘in a way that meets councils’ unique requirements’.

Local Water Done Well requires councils to develop a water services delivery plan by September, showing they can deliver water services that meet regulatory requirements, support growth and urban development and are financially sustainable. The Water Services Delivery Plan requires each council to provide a long-term assessment of their water infrastructure, how much they need to invest, and how they plan to finance and deliver it through their preferred service delivery model.

Selwyn District Council’s Water Services Delivery Plan has already been accepted and approved, in another first for the organisation.

Datacom says the WAI platform will allow councils adopting the CCO model to bring together data management, IoT water metering, water network monitoring and water billing and support public consultation.

The platform spans all aspects of the management of water services along with operational and stakeholder-facing functions of a CCO, including asset, CX and customer, staff and contractor management, geospatial management and finance. Corporate operations and security management, record and knowledge management, ICT services and public-facing web and mobile interfaces, including billing portals are also included, Datacom says.

Peter Nelson, Datacom director for SaaS products including Datascape, says the WAI platform provides clarity around water services and asset management, ensuring full compliance with government policy and reporting requirements.

Alex Cabrera, Selwyn District Council project director for the Local Water Done Well initiative, says investing in future infrastructure and leveraging the WAI platform is enabling the organisation to build the resilience and efficiency the network needs.

“Our vision is to transition from a traditional council provider service to one more aligned with a utilities type organisation,” Cabrera says.

He says the digital platform was identified ‘very early on’ as a critical element that was needed to set up the organisation and allow it to achieve the efficiencies it has committed too.

“We knew we didn’t have all the answers, therefore we needed a platform and a partner who would help us to shape that future. That’s what we have achieved to date.”

He says the Datacom team ‘integrated’ well with Selwyn’s project team, helping identifying solutions for challenges.

“We knew by going first we wouldn’t have all the answers, hence having people around us that can listen and help us solve these problems was quite critical,” he says.

Setup was completed in just five-and-a-half months.

“If nothing else, the long term investment on the infrastructure will provide a much more manageable financial situation for both the CCO and the community,”  Cabrera says.

In announcing Selwyn District as the first council to launch a water services entity, local government minister Simon Watts noted he will be watching closely on how Selwyn Water managed the projected price increases for consumers during the initial years of their plan and expects the Commerce Commission will closely monitor to ensure delivery of forecast levels of capital investment justify the price.

“It is also my expectation that Selwyn Water will keep a close eye on its charges for new infrastructure to ensure that growth pays for growth,” Watts says.