BARTHAUER acquires pilot customer for cooperation in Serbia

In Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the public operating companies in the water sector only have comprehensive and complete, digital information about the existing network infrastructure for the management of their supply and disposal networks in the very rarest of cases. This causes false estimates in the course of planning and implementing projects and measures, and inevitably leads to results that are not cost-effective. BARTHAUER obtained the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in August of 2015 under the develoPPP.de program with the project "Management System for the Operation of Water Supply and Disposal Systems". With develoPPP.de, the BMZ supports companies in the implementation of innovative projects that have a perceptible and lasting benefit for the local population in developing countries and emerging markets.

For its public-private partnership (PPP) project, BARTHAUER set the goal of convincing the local water operations in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to implement its network information system BaSYS. Using BaSYS is an important step towards meeting European standards and improving the efficiency of the water operations. This will have a very positive impact on the implementation of internationally subsidised major projects in the region's water and wastewater sector. The project is being implemented in three phases in cooperation with the local partner organisation TCC Danubius. Local partners for distribution and to provide customer service are being identified in addition.

BARTHAUER successfully implemented the first phase of its PPP project by participating in the RENEXPO WATER MANAGEMENT convention in Belgrade (Serbia) from 6 to 8 June 2016. "RENEXPO was the perfect opportunity for us to intensify existing contacts with local, municipal operating companies and service partners, and to acquire pilot customers," says Andreas Koch, Project Manager for the PPP project at BARTHAUER. "We not only introduced our PPP project in compact presentations but also our company and the functionality of our software. This allowed us to discuss the subject matter of possible cooperation directly on site with interested partners." Andreas Koch draws a positive conclusion for the event: "We acquired our first pilot customer, the city of Subotica in northern Serbia. Other cities in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro are showing significant interest in cooperating with BARTHAUER in the PPP project. Three local institutions have also agreed to cooperate by providing services in the areas of training, support and coordination. Participating in the convention significantly boosted awareness of our company in the Balkan states. We are confident that we will be able to realise additional pilot partnerships by building on the discussions we had."

Further steps for the successful implementation of the PPP project have already been defined. Andreas Koch: "In July the future local service partners will complete the first of several train-the-trainer sessions in Braunschweig (Germany). These sessions form the basis for training the local pilot customers, and for providing technical and functional support for the software in the region going forward.

BARTHAUER is promoting regionally adapted capacity development in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina with its PPP project. Andreas Koch explains: "We define this as analysing the existing processes, adapting them according to the requirements and, based on that, determining, planning and gradually implementing the required IT resources through the direct transfer of know-how on site. The goal is to optimise and strengthen the management of the regional network infrastructure with best practice solutions through the adaptation and implementation of technical sets of standards based on European norms, facilitating further development."

Media Contact:
Barthauer Software GmbH
Jenny Krüger
Pillaustraße 1a
38126 Braunschweig
Germany

Phone: +49 30 33 60 43 18
Fax: +49 531 23 533 99

Mail: [email protected]
Web: www.barthauer.de

IMAGES: Andreas Koch - Head of the develoPPP.de-project at BARTHAUER and RENEXPO WATER MANAGEMENT - In small workshops Anis Saad (BARTHAUER) presented the operation of the network information system BaSYS. - Copyright: Barthauer Software GmbH