UXC wins $22.5 million QLD water contract

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 04 July 2006 17:33

IT Industry - Deals

Australian technology services company UXC Limited (ASX:UXC), through its wholly owned business unit Fieldforce Services, has been awarded a contract worth at least $22.5 million to provide water conservation services in Queensland.

The contract by Local Government Infrastructure Services for the Queensland Home WaterWise Service for South East Queensland will see Fieldforce provide water conservation services to some 150,000 households over a contract period of two years, with a further one year option.

UXC Executive Chairman Geoff Lord commented that “Water conservation and other environmental services represent an area of great focus and potential for substantial growth in the Utility Services Division of UXC.  Environmental Services is already making a significant positive impact on our results, and this contract will continue our growth into FY07.”

“This contract win, along with our previous success with Sydney Water, helps to confirm our market leading capabilities in this area.  Fieldforce continue to develop further environmental offerings around solar heating and other technologies, and we are excited about our additional opportunities in these areas,” he said.

“We are also pleased to be integrally involved in water conservation and energy saving programs that are of increasing economic importance to Australia, both state by state and nationally,” said Lord.

Mr Craig Bathie, General Manager of Fieldforce, said “The Joint Venture was able to rely upon our strong track record and previous experience in delivering these or similar services to some 400,000 homes for various utilities and agencies in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and South Australia over the last 6 years.”

“In addition, our data management capability complements this offering in that we have developed a paperless system for capturing field data and transferring it from the field and back again, enabling the local governments to benefit from real-time access of the data in monitoring the progress of the work,” said Bathie.

The contracted services involve conducting water audits and installing water saving devices for some 150,000 households in South East Queensland over the initial two year term. The contract includes the operation and management of the call centre, as well as project management of the program in order to satisfy consumer demand and schedule the provision of services to residents.  The timing of the delivery of services is contingent upon the take up rate of the Queensland Home WaterWise Service.