Water District Is Postured for the Future With Technology
A Claremont Water District's IT Services Results
If something happens to the technology that the Three Valleys Municipal Water District relies on to deliver clean drinking water to its customers, Kirk Howie is going to hear about it. He’s the Chief Administrative Officer, overseeing the sales and distribution of this most basic requirement of daily life to over half a million people, in a service area of about 133 square miles.
In his two decades with the district, Kirk has seen a lot of changes, including the evolution of the digital systems on which they now rely. Technology is at the core of everything they do from the water treatment process itself to operations in the business and engineering offices.
Unreliable IT Threatened Their Ability to Deliver
Customers of the district expect an adequate, consistent, high quality supply of water. When Kirk noticed that issues with their computer systems might compromise on their ability to deliver, he looked for help.
“We were having a lot of issues with programs freezing, not responding efficiently, and slow internet,” said Kirk. “We knew that we needed a little more; a little more service, a little more help, a little more of a consistent response to address those issues in a timely fashion.”
Break up With IT Vendor Was Difficult but Necessary
Despite all the problems he saw, it wasn’t easy to make a change. Kirk said that they liked the people at their current IT company. It was evident, however, that the district had outgrown them. Stretched too thin, the result was that support was inconsistent; response time dragged out for days; there was no regular phone support. The vendor was failing to meet all their needs and the district couldn’t fill in the gaps internally.
Accent Computer Solutions Met All of Their Criteria
When he started to look at their options for IT support, Kirk did his due diligence and talked with several different companies. A partner district suggested that they look at Accent Computer Solutions. After a rigorous evaluation, Accent clearly emerged as their first choice.
“We wanted to have an IT company that was very diverse and was cutting edge with technology,” said Kirk. “We also wanted to have a firm that would be able to address the upcoming needs that we felt we had with upgrading some of our programs, our servers, and the systems that we have in place.”
Business Impacts From Day One With Ongoing Results
Accent made an impact on their business from day one with the start of the onboarding process. In getting into the guts of their IT environment, the Accent team assessed and documented the district’s network and systems, uncovering areas of immediate need, and making a plan to move forward.
Three Valleys has come to depend on Accent not only for reliable IT support and expertise, but to help them stay current with the changes in their industry. The IT guidance they get from Accent helps them to look to the future, finding avenues for improvement, and posturing them for success.
District Won’t Fall Behind as Technology Evolves
“Since working with Accent, we’ve seen a large variety of results. We know we’re not going to fall behind,” said Kirk. “We feel that the team has our genuine care and interests in mind, and that’s something we greatly admire and appreciate.”
You can bet that there are 500,000 other people who appreciate it, too.
“We know we're not going to fall behind. We know Accent has our best interests in mind and they provide the top level of customer service that we desire.”
Kirk Howie, Chief Administrative Officer Three Valleys Municipal Water District
Three Valleys is a wholesale water agency that provides water to distributors in 13 member agencies. The District is one of the 26 water agencies that make up the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
