Reimagining Field Operations for Water Utilities: The Synergy of Human Intellect and New-Age Technology

The journey of water does not end at the tap; it begins at the source and returns to treatment facilities after use. This ‘source-to-tap’ and ‘sink-to-source’ lifecycle runs across networks of pipelines, treatment plants, pumping stations, and monitoring systems that utilities must manage every day. But maintaining stability across this system, especially under growing operational pressure, is becoming increasingly difficult.

The scale of this challenge is quite evident. Globally, 324 billion cubic meters of water are lost every year due to leaks¹. In the UK alone, 1 trillion liters leak annually². Additionally, serious pollution incidents have surged by 60%³, and average service disruptions have increased to 15–20 minutes per event⁴. These figures point to a system that is under dire strain.

So, what’s driving this pressure? The issue is structural. Managing this lifecycle requires operating vast pipeline networks stretching up to 20,000 kilometers and thousands of physical assets, many of them aging and increasingly exposed to risks, including:

• Natural forces: Floods, droughts, and storms damage infrastructure and disrupt supply
• Geological shifts: Soil movement and corrosive conditions accelerate pipeline wear
• Biological interference: Tree roots and burrowing animals compromise stability
• Human factors: Construction, encroachments, and poor hygiene practices lead to failures
• Aging infrastructure: Legacy systems and deteriorating assets strain operations

These vulnerabilities ripple through the entire lifecycle. Inefficiencies grow, costs increase, the environment is harmed, and the effects are felt across service delivery, employees (EX), and customers (CX).

The Case for Transformation

For uninterrupted service, field operations have long been recognised as the backbone of service delivery and field engineers acted as a first line of defence to these threats. However, they have been plagued by manual effort, reactive maintenance, increased workload, and limited visibility.

A typical day in field operations still begins with static work orders and outdated information. By the time an engineer arrives at the site, conditions may already have escalated. A burst pipe might occur, flooding the area, while the customer anxiously waiting for clarity. The engineer struggles to contact the control centre, hours pass, and frustration builds on both sides.

This is not an isolated incident. Across water utilities, ageing infrastructure, climate extremes, retirement of experienced personnel and workforce shortages made such scenarios increasingly common. Traditional methods can no longer keep pace – they slow emergency response, increase repeat visits, and leave employees overwhelmed with multitasking.

For customers, this often results in prolonged outages, unclear timelines, and a growing sense of being unheard. At the same time, employees experience mounting frustration and stress, leaving both sides feeling overlooked and dissatisfied.

As this cycle intensifies, the pressure mounts. Regulatory demands, climate change, and rising customer expectations are amplifying the need for agility and precision.

The TechM Approach to Modernising Field Operations

Tech Mahindra works with utilities to blend conventional wisdom with modern innovation to create a seamless, human-centred experience and rethink how field operations are planned, executed, and managed.

In practice, this approach centers on:

• Smarter planning and execution, using automation to simplify scheduling, routing, inventory use, and work order management
• Earlier visibility into failures, through sensor data and analytics that support proactive maintenance and better resource decisions
• Stronger on-site support for field teams, with mobile access to asset history, procedures, and remote expert input, even in low-connectivity environments
• Centralized operational oversight, giving control teams real-time visibility into crew activity, progress, and coordination
• Improved asset insight, using spatial data, remote monitoring and digital models to support inspection, vegetation management, and network planning

Our solutions cover the entire ‘source-to-tap’ and ‘sink-to-source’ lifecycle, breaks down silos and enable intuitive, mobile-first, context-aware operations with real-time synchronizing data across enterprise systems.

Intelligence with Purpose

The future of water utilities depends on a seamless blend of human expertise and intelligent technology. By shifting from reactive firefighting to proactive resilience, organisations can overcome operational challenges and meet customer demands on time. Tech Mahindra supports this shift through integrated digital enablement by embedding automation, predictive insights, and connected workflows to deliver smarter, faster, and more empathetic services while ensuring that transformation is practical and impactful. Through intuitive, agile, adaptive, and human-centric systems, we ensure water reaches every tap reliably and sustainably and is managed intelligently for generations to come.