Thames Water selects Qualco to upgrade customer accounts

By Vriti Gothi

Thames Water Utilities Limited has partnered with Qualco Group’s UK subsidiary to modernise customer account management and improve affordability support for its 16 million customers across London and the Thames Valley.

The agreement forms part of Thames Water’s broader transformation program aimed at improving customer engagement, operational resilience, and financial sustainability amid rising affordability pressures and heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Under the partnership, the utility will deploy Qualco’s data-driven Collections and Recoveries (QCR) platform alongside its ExtraCollect capability to enhance account decisioning and oversight of third-party account management. Delivered as a hosted, plug-and-play solution, the system will integrate with Thames Water’s billing environment, replacing legacy tools with real-time prioritisation, automated workflows, and predictive analytics to assess treatment effectiveness and support continuous performance optimisation.

Systems integration support will be provided by Atos to ensure alignment with the utility’s SAP-based enterprise architecture.

The deployment is intended to help Thames Water identify financially vulnerable customers earlier, optimise social tariff strategies, and demonstrate compliance with evolving regulatory requirements while improving operational efficiency. Qualco’s ExtraCollect platform currently supports 22 clients and manages more than £10 billion in portfolios across the UK credit sector.

“This initiative forms part of our wider program to improve how we support customers, particularly those facing affordability challenges,” said Nina White, Director of Income at Thames Water. “By investing in modern, integrated technology, we are strengthening fairness, transparency, and efficiency across our operations.”

Spyros Retzekas, Deputy CEO at Qualco Group, said the partnership combines technology and operational expertise to address a complex customer environment, while Christian Jacob, Managing Director at Qualco UK, added that the program will enable more consistent, data-driven customer engagement in a highly regulated setting.

The partnership reflects a growing trend among utilities and regulated service providers to adopt FinTech-style analytics, automation, and decisioning platforms to manage customer debt, improve vulnerability identification and meet stricter consumer protection standards. As cost-of-living pressures increase across the UK, technology-led affordability management is becoming a strategic priority, with organisations seeking to balance revenue protection with fair treatment and regulatory compliance.