Northumbrian Water Group Delivers Critical Asset Management Transformation
Providing essential water and wastewater services to over 2.7 million people across the North East of England, means asset management is critical.
The Challenge
NWG had already established Maximo as a critical platform for managing assets across its infrastructure network. As the organization advanced its digital transformation strategy, it sought to adopt the Maximo Application Suite to support expanded functionality and future innovation.
The transition had to be delivered within a tightly constrained timeframe while ensuring continuity for systems supporting field teams and critical infrastructure services. The program also had a firm deadline tied to the end of NWG’s existing service arrangements, meaning the transition had to be completed before the current environment was retired.
As a regulated organization, NWG was required to conduct a formal tender process. While several vendors initially responded to the RFP, only a small number were able to meet the requirements once the timeline and delivery expectations became clear. Cohesive was ultimately selected based on our technical expertise, delivery capability, and overall proposal.
The program was critical to the organization, as the asset management system underpinned core operations. Senior leaders, including the CIO and business directors, stayed closely involved through ongoing governance and oversight through the delivery period.
Our Solution
Cohesive partnered with NWG to deliver the transition with a structured implementation model focused on collaboration, transparency, and rigorous validation.
Readiness Assessment and Architecture Design
The program began with a series of discovery and technical sessions to understand NWG’s operational requirements and how MAS could best support them. Cohesive conducted a MAS readiness assessment that included system health checks, log analysis, and functional assessments.
These activities helped define the application and infrastructure architectures, information security framework, and connectivity requirements for the new MAS environment ensuring the environment was fully prepared for implementation.
Data Migration Using the Cohesive Data Utility
To support a seamless transition, the teams used the Cohesive Data Utility (CDU) tool to synchronize and validate data between the existing system and the new MAS environment. Rather than relying on a single migration event, the project team conducted three validation cycles before go-live—in November, January, and again on the night of go-live.
These cycles allowed teams to compare data across environments, identify discrepancies, and resolve issues ahead of the final cutover, ensuring data integrity and building confidence across the business before the final transition.
Licensing, Hosting, and Training
Cohesive also supported NWG in optimizing its Maximo licensing by conducting a license check and providing recommendations for upgrading license entitlements to Application Points. The MAS platform is hosted and managed through Cohesive Cloud, allowing NWG teams to focus on operational priorities while Cohesive manages the service environment.
To support adoption of the new platform, Cohesive implemented a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach, combining on-site mentoring with ‘just-in-time, just-enough-information’ learning sessions to help NWG teams quickly build capability in MAS Manage.
One-Team Delivery
The program was delivered under NWG’s ‘One Team’ ethos, integrating specialists from both organizations through shared project boards, regular stand-ups, and collaborative problem-solving. This ensured alignment across technical and business teams while maintaining strong execution discipline throughout the six-month delivery window.
Strong Governance and Executive Engagement
Given the program’s criticality, strong executive governance was ensured throughout. Monthly project boards brought together business leadership, IT stakeholders, and the CIO to review progress and maintain alignment across the organization. This level of oversight ensured that challenges were addressed quickly and that the program maintained momentum across the delivery timeline.
The Results
The structured delivery approach, combined with the integrated one-team model, ensured a smooth transition from the existing system to MAS.
The transition was completed successfully within the six-month timeline, enabling NWG to modernize its asset management platform while maintaining uninterrupted operations for critical water infrastructure services.
Key outcomes included:
- Successful migration to Maximo Application Suite 9.0.3
- Implementation delivered within the six-month timeline
- 100% service availability and 100% SLA compliance
- Only one P1 incident was recorded in the first nine months of operation
The platform’s stability following deployment reflects the effectiveness of the collaborative delivery model and the extensive validation conducted before go-live.
Future Roadmap: An Ongoing Partnership
Following the MAS implementation, NWG and Cohesive continue to collaborate through an ongoing support and improvement program. The teams meet regularly to review system performance, coordinate development requests, and monitor platform metrics through weekly technical sessions and monthly service reviews.
Building on this foundation, NWG and Cohesive are also working together to deploy a proof of concept (POC) for the MAS Health module. This represents the next step in advancing NWG’s asset management maturity and leveraging MAS 9 capabilities to support evolving business needs.
