ENWIN/WUC Team Wins Water’s Next Award for Projects and Technology Early Adoption

Earns Finalist Recognition in Company of the Year Category

June 10, 2021

Windsor, ON: ENWIN is the proud recipient of the Water’s Next Award for Early Adoption in Technology and Innovation at the Water Canada Summit today.

At a time when utilities are striving to maintain low costs for the customer, ENWIN is focused on maintaining high service standards at reduced cost.

Applying that focus to the back-flow testing process, a team of ENWIN employees led by Water Project Review Officer Bruce Ogg created a unique and innovative, real-time, map-based solution that would support accurate back-flow testing data entry, improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Utilizing ESRI GIS Mapping and other software technologies that already existed within the organization – the ENWIN team partnered with ESRI Canada to create ENWIN’s Map-Based Backflow Preventor Tracking System – a unique new application that simplifies a previously time-consuming and error-fraught process, providing accuracy and cost savings without capital investment.

Within a few clicks, employees and external users can enter all necessary data, eliminating manual input errors, shortening the record creation process and producing accurate, easy-to-download reports for internal monitoring of the system.

Reporting accuracy is estimated at 100%; cost savings related to labour and data verification time are estimated at $50,000 annually; and data entry time has been reduced by up to 90%, as reported by external users.

Side-benefits include stronger relationships between ENWIN and external users, and improved job satisfaction amongst employees through process streamlining and assurance of accuracy.

The Beta version of this novel application has been presented to the National Water & Wastewater Benchmarking Initiative, and it is anticipated that other Ontario utilities will adopt this program for use in their backflow testing operations.

Bruce Ogg thanked his fellow employees, Alex Wachna and Marc Ethier, recognizing that it takes a strong team to improve systems and processes. “This truly was a team effort,” he acknowledged. “Thanks also to our leadership team, who make it possible for us to take risks, learn and achieve.”

“We are proud of our employees who go above and beyond every day to create new technology and new ways to improve service and lower costs,” added Garry Rossi, VP Water Operations. 

ENWIN/WUC was also recognized as a finalist in the Company of the Year category.

“We thank Water Canada for honoring our work at today’s awards ceremony,” said ENWIN CEO Helga Reidel. “We are delighted to receive both the award and the finalist recognition. My heartfelt congratulations to our hard-working and talented Water Team.”