Brazilian Federal Utility Caesb Sees Revenue Boost Using Teradata Database Analytic Solution

DALLAS, Oct. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- PARTNERS User Group Conference -- Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the leading analytic data platforms, applications and services company, announced today that Caesb, Brazil's Federal District Water Utility, is experiencing  excellent results from the deployment and use of its Teradata Appliance for complex data management and tactical business analysis – helping drive a six percent increase in annual revenue.

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Caesb implemented the Teradata system to bring more detailed business visibility and deeper data-driven intelligence and insight to its measurement system, increasing the number of effective connections while also reducing incidents of fraud.  The Teradata data analysis appliance was implemented by Maxtera, regional reseller.

Caesb, managing a network of 600,000 water meters (99.9 percent of households and commercial buildings) and 80.34 percent of the sanitation network in the Federal District (the broadest in Brazil), needed to improve meter management at the individual level.  An in-house analytics team tested and compared its results with other government branches, and then recommended that Caesb choose Teradata for the expanded database metrics project.

The state service provider has a database that gathers information from all customers, including water consumption, bill control, real state records, revenues and demand on the water meter system. However, until October 2012, when the project started, all management was sheet-based. Maxtera then put together a special team to build a deep and actionable profile portfolio of customers and detailed usage to drive more economic intelligence and operational efficiency.

Each water meter has an average lifetime of five years and if the device is defective or tampered with, the measured consumption will read inaccurately low. Often this is the result of fraud. Obviously, this issue was an important issue for Caesb.

"We are referring to a mechanical component that uses a clock device to record data; it has a lifetime and a right moment to be replaced. If the water meter starts misreading, some consumers may take advantage of this. As the total volume of water produced by the company is the reference to readjust the fare, consumers whose water meters are perfect also pay. This is not fair, and we are working hard using database analysis to understand it, manage it and avoid it," said Valtrudes Franco, an executive at Caesb.

The use of database analytics for pattern detection and other techniques was successful, and impressed Caesb analysts. They made 40,000 replacements from October 2012, to June 2013 -- a figure higher than the same period last year.

Another important improvement from the use of database analytics was the reduction of "ghost bills." This refers to the practice of some consumers whose water services were cut due to overdue payment, who then go to the bank and schedule the payment of the debt to restore the service. The service is restored immediately, but then those consumers default on their bills, again tripping up the system. Analytics were used to analyze questionable patterns and validate meter use data in detail – so that Caesb analysts could identify suspected fraud instances and take effective action to curb the negative practices and save money. The intersection of data made ​​it possible to reduce this kind of fraud by 8.6 percent, as the system now more quickly identifies a real failure to pay.

These data-driven changes led to increasing business income, resulting in 6 percent revenue growth for the year. Thus Caesb gained the funds needed to invest more appropriately in new meters, resources, laboratory equipment and team expansions.

The first phase of the project is being finalized in September 2013 and the goal is to include other Caesb departments, unifying areas that once worked alone. The next to adopt Teradata solutions will be the Caesb Planning Department, where all company data converge. "The point is to consolidate all data in one department that manages information – and route reports to the governing board so the right decisions can be made and the best actions taken – using integrated data from across the entire company," said Franco. Valtrudes is scheduled to speak on this topic in detail at the upcoming Teradata PARTNERS Users Group Conference, October 20-24 in Dallas, Texas.

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