One of Hera Group's key water service objectives is to strive for customer satisfaction by guaranteeing perfect water quality in addition to all the technical services necessary to ensure continuity of supply.

The strategic lines the HERA Group pursues in the field of water services are:

Customer satisfaction: pursued by supplying:
drinking water in adequate amounts for the needs of each customer, unexceptionable in terms of quality, provided continuously;
high-level technical services that ensure promptness and quality of estimation, design and execution of the works, effectiveness of emergency services for emergencies and failures;
high-level administrative services that ensure promptness and quality in customer relations (call centres and branches, case handling, billing and invoicing)

The elements guaranteeing the service and safeguarding the customers are set out in the Service Charters, which

• constitute the Group's formal declaration of commitment to its customers and, as such, are supplementary elements of the supply contracts as well as regulations that govern the general terms of the supply of the Integrated Water Service;
• single out the fundamental principles the Group must abide by in managing the Integrated Water Service;
• single out standards of service quality that the Group undertakes to observe in conducting its activities and form the tool for checking customer satisfaction.

Territorial extension of Integrated Water Service management: in those territories where the Group companies have customarily operated, HERA offers itself to complete SII management by being entrusted by the ATOs with the white water sewage services that are still managed on a time and material basis by most municipalities.

Raise and make homogeneous the level of service by extending the best practices: HERA intends to put to interest and publicise its experience and wealth of knowledge gained from its lengthy, positive management of water services in vast and well-structured areas, from both the territorial and infrastructural equipment viewpoints. In this stage, the Group is busy analysing and promoting some best management practices - both in terms of technical and economical results - with the aim of raising the standards of service that already today stand at the highest national levels with regard to HERA's managements.

Increase the safety of water procurement: By continuing to keep its design and proposal-making tradition alive, HERA still offers competent institutional operators its experience and professional capabilities for planning, scheduling, designing and building water infrastructures necessary for ensuring safety in procuring drinking water and the widespread presence of hygienic-sanitary structures (sewer systems and treatment plants) in territorial areas marked by the highest indexes of national development. Its formulation of strategic projects is still the same as in the past: intergenerational works able to guarantee high technical and economic performance in observance of the natural environment.

Reduction of resource consumption: HERA directs its investments toward technological solutions able to ensure lower consumption of water, energy and reagents. Falling within this context are both plant automation and remote control projects able to optimise their production cycles and the adoption of technologies and materials that boast high performance and long lifetimes.

Improvement of the waste water properties: Although it has been entrusted with a plant system having various critical issues (high degree of fragmentation, obsolescence, a meagre technological level -especially for small treatment plants), HERA's managements stand out owing to their overall observance of the quality limits provided for by current legislations for waste water returned to the environment. In many cases HERA guarantees levels of treatment that are even higher in order to protect receiving waters.

Reduction of the site impacts: HERA has developed considerable experience in using "no dig" technologies for the static and hydraulic refurbishment of waterway and sewage networks. In many cases, these technologies make it possible to perform restoration works having extremely modest site impacts by minimising occupied areas, response times, the emission of dust and noise, and inconveniences for road conditions. One Group company has specific technologies and experience that allows it to offer itself on the entire domestic market.

Development of these strategies is helped by the Group's organisation based on:

• common structures that carry out the general functions (central managements) and those of functional policy and coordination (divisions);
• Territorial Operating Structure (TOSs) that instead carry out all of the operational services (water, energy and waste) in specific territorial areas.

This type of organisation permits:

• having unique and shared organisational and service level policies so that know-how can be shared and the best practices can be promoted;
• having efficient operational structures attentive to local territorial requirements.

Page updated 22 August 2011