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RD 24/00

TO THE REGULATORY DIRECTORS OF ALL

WATER AND SEWERAGE COMPANIES AND

WATER ONLY COMPANIES

30 November 2000

Dear Regulatory Director

REVIEW OF THE JUNE RETURN INFORMATION CAPTURE SYSTEM (ICS) AND THE ELECTRONIC REPORTING REQUIREMENTS MANUAL (ERRM)

On the 3 November 2000 Ofwat issued RD 22/00 to water companies, Reporters, Auditors and subscribers regarding future development of the June Return ICS and the ERRM. We acknowledge the tight timescales for reply and thank you for the prompt return of both the proforma and your comments.

The letter recommended the issue of the 2001 ICS as an MS Access 97 with VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) application. The recommendation highlighted a number of key benefits including: a reduction in loading time; improvements in performance whilst inputting data, printing, validating, saving and exiting; and networking for multiple users.

We asked for your views on "…whether the transition to MS Access 97 is practicable or not for your company.".

Of the 21 respondents (17 water companies, 2 reporters and 1 other) only 2 expressed concern at the transition to an MS Access 97 based product, however one of these respondents was happy with the proposal as a medium term solution.

RD 22/00 explained that this transition would not be made without the support of the majority of companies. Quite clearly Ofwat has the support of a majority of companies in implementing this recommendation. Therefore, the June Return 2001 Information Capture System will be an MS Access 97 with VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) application.

A number of respondents who although agreed with the recommendation did raise technical issues which are clarified below:

• Users of the ICS will not incur any extra costs in obtaining any new or additional MS Access 97 software licences, as Ofwat will provide companies with a run-time version of MS Access 97.
• As part of the set-up facilities the option to install the June Return 2001 ICS independent of the run-time version of MS Access 97 will be made available. This will ensure that users who already have MS Access 97 installed on their PC will be able to use the ICS without incurring any possible conflicts.

We will provide the facility to import from and export data to MS Excel in a structured and controlled environment within the ICS.

To help companies make the transition to an MS Access 97 based system we will endeavour to provide companies with an early demonstration version of the ICS in February 2001. This demonstration version will help companies understand how an MS Access 97 based system will look and feel and give them increased time in integrating their own internal systems with the new ICS. It will not be a full issue version and will only contain sample tables, data and functions. We will inform you closer to the time the exact date of issue.

I would like to thank you once again for your timely response to RD 22/00 and co-operation on this matter.

Yours sincerely

ROGER DUNSHEA
Director of Operations