Northumbrian Water Limited
For Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL), long-term asset planning is everything. The critical service it supplies to more than 4.7 million people depends on its water and wastewater assets being in top condition.
Those assets – whether generators, monitoring systems, pumps or valves – have a long lifespan. Some are expected to last for more than 100 years.
Like other water utilities the NWL team is embracing new technologies to help it in its mission – for predictive maintenance, asset health monitoring and for providing the “right” data for daily decision making by its highly-focused operations and maintenance teams.
For three years it successfully adopted IBM Maximo – the market leading asset management platform.
Now, in partnership with Cohesive, NWL has stepped-up its asset management another notch by implementing the Maximo Application Suite, 9.0.3 (MAS) – the ‘supercharged’ new version of Maximo.
MAS is a single, integrated, asset management platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), and analytics to optimize performance and reduce operational downtime across the asset lifecycle.
No pipe dream
Despite a tight deadline and a hard ‘cut over’ date, the upgrade project was completed on time and in scope.
It was managed also with zero interruptions to ‘business as usual’ operations thanks to the use of Cohesive’s proprietary Cohesive Data Utility (CDU) tool. Optimized for MAS, the CDU eliminates downtime risks by continuously synchronizing data across environments—ensuring accurate, consistent information is always ready for cutover.
As part of the transition, NWL has migrated to Cohesive’s cloud service.
Ahmed Eqab, at Northumbrian Water Group, said the speed and effectiveness with which the upgrade had been carried out, “defied the odds.” The factors which had contributed to the success, he said, were “relentless collaboration, meticulous planning and unshakeable focus.”
He added: “Whether it was late-night testing, troubleshooting, or ensuring a smooth transition, every effort counted….Mission accomplished!”
NWL added that the project would be used as the template for its future technology programmes.
AMP8 and beyond
At NWL MAS is one component of a comprehensive asset management strategy which includes asset health dashboards, structured, rigorous processes and a team of experienced and strategic professionals.
Together, these are enabling it to be a modern, productive and reliable service provider and prepare it for the challenges which will be part of the five-year Asset Management Period (AMP) 8.
NWL, which includes Northumbrian Water and Essex and Suffolk Water, understands that implementing MAS is far more than an IT project. “It wasn’t just about technology – it is about enabling better efficiency, scalability, and innovation for our organization,” explains Ahmed.
Cohesive
Asset-intensive organizations around the globe are selecting Cohesive to help them move to MAS ahead of IBM’s removal of support for Maximo 7.6. in September 2025.
Cohesive is a certified IBM Platinum Business Partner. It has delivered more than 700 transformational enterprise asset management (EAM) programs to large, complex industrial organizations across industries, including Energy, Utilities, Transportation, Mining, and Manufacturing. All share a common goal of a commitment to operational excellence and sustainable and resilient assets.
If you’d like us to help you with your MAS mission – please contact [email protected].