Movar Reply delivered a high-energy Data Analytics Hackathon for South East Water as part of its ongoing work supporting the organisation’s Digital PMO transformation.
Proposed and led by Movar Reply, the one-day event was designed to bring fresh thinking, rapid experimentation and cross-team collaboration into the heart of the programme. Nearly 50 participants from across South East Water and key suppliers came together for an intensive day of data-driven problem-solving.
Designed to deliver results quickly, the hackathon enabled teams to move from ideas to tested concepts within a single day. This focused and time-constrained approach significantly accelerated progress compared to traditional development timelines.
The day was structured around four key objectives:
- Innovation: exploring novel solutions and approaches not currently being used to tackle these challenges
- Acceleration of solutions: rapidly prototyping and testing ideas within a single day
- Collaboration: bringing together colleagues from 12 different departments and key suppliers to enable a rich exchange of ideas and expertise
- Skill development: exposing attendees to new techniques and approaches to support ongoing development across the organisation
The hackathon has already begun to deliver tangible outcomes. The winning challenge, focused on drought intelligence, has been presented to South East Water’s Executive Team, with the IT department now scoping the effort required for short-term implementation. This work will support both current and future drought planning.
More broadly, the solutions explored have the potential to drive meaningful improvements across the organisation. Enhancements in leakage detection could help identify and resolve issues more efficiently, while improved project scheduling could lead to more effective delivery and reduced costs. Strengthened drought intelligence will support better forecasting and long-term planning.
By focusing on these challenges and leveraging the power of data, South East Water is taking practical steps to improve service delivery while lowering operational risk. Ultimately, this contributes to a better service for customers and helps manage the long-term cost of water provision.
Hackathon Winners
The event also highlighted the value of cross-functional collaboration, with attendees representing a wide range of disciplines including asset management, engineering, customer services, IT, water resources and finance. Bringing these perspectives together created an environment where ideas could be challenged, refined and developed at pace.
Through initiatives like this, Movar Reply continues to support organisations in harnessing data, collaboration and innovation to solve complex operational challenges and deliver measurable outcomes.
If you’re interested in how Movar Reply can help your organisation unlock the value of data, accelerate innovation and deliver measurable operational improvements, get in touch.
