Working alongside colleagues in Poland, professionals from the UK’s water consultancy business will perform an assessment to benchmark the business processes of water and sewage utility company Aquanet for compliance with Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 55, the international asset management standard. Services provided will include a benchmarking review of Aquanet’s existing performance and business processes, the development of best practice options and an action plan for implementation of leading edge asset management practices by Aquanet.

Benchmarking using PAS55 and AMPAM assessment

The benchmarking review will use a specialist tool developed in house by Grontmij using their experience of PAS55 and OFWAT’s AMPAM assessment. The project, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, will see a team of experts from the UK, currently identified as the Grontmij centre of excellence for the provision of asset management and strategic consulting services, delivering skills and knowledge to Europe for the first time.

Jason Jones, Grontmij’s UK and Ireland operations director heading up water consultancy and water environment, said: “The combined expertise and knowledge of the UK and Poland arms of Grontmij’s business meant that we were the only consultancy sufficiently equipped to deliver the necessary services and implement best practice for the customer.

Best practice

“PAS 55 is a joint measure of Asset Management and British Standards Institute publication defining international best practice in asset management and is used by major utility companies across the UK and mainland Europe. Our UK team has considerable experience in providing services of this kind, and so we’ve worked alongside our colleagues in Poland to ensure the seamless transfer of skills, technologies and resources to benefit their client. Just as our customers in Britain can benefit from the cutting edge expertise of Grontmij’s 8,000 staff worldwide, our overseas colleagues can also utilise our home-grown skills.”

Aquanet is one of Poland’s largest water and sewage utility companies, serving more than one million people in Poznan and its surrounding areas.

Unrivalled expertise

Andrez Kazirod, Aquanet’s infrastructure development department director, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Grontmij on this project. The consultancy’s unrivalled skills from across Europe separate it from competitors and we are pleased to have use of the UK’s advanced skills in water asset management, alongside our existing long-term relationships with the engineers in Poland.”