Strategy & planning

Big picture thinking about the future of water in your area

Keep your focus on what you need now, and in the future.

Good strategy balances the big picture with operational and financial realities. Our approach bridges the gap between your future needs and what is happening now.

We understand the global environment and the operational detail so that we can support you to future-proof your infrastructure. We are skilled at working with uncertainty and developing adaptive solutions. We get to know you, your community and your challenges to help you develop the right outcomes.

This shared understanding is critical to good strategy.

Do you have an adaptive and ‘no-regrets’ approach to your upgrades?

You have a problem to solve now, but you also need to make sure the solution is suitable for the future. We pride ourselves on thinking beyond the minimum viable brief, so you understand exactly what you need now, and in the future.

Our masterplanning approach helps you develop and prioritise upgrades to improve resilience and system performance. We are skilled at helping you identify and progress key 'no-regrets’ investments to ensure they are efficient and future-proof. We have a network of specialised subcontracting partners that we can use to support our delivery of multi-disciplinary projects (e.g., electrical, civil, mechanical, and environmental).

Is your organisation aligned on infrastructure priorities?

We are experienced at working across your organisation, from the board and executive through to operations to ensure you’re aligned on infrastructure priorities. We’ll work with you and your regulators to manage your portfolio of critical infrastructure and optimise future asset investments.

Do you know your critical assets and system vulnerabilities?

Our expertise in water, wastewater, and recycled water allows us to identify your critical operating components and potential failure modes and assess the impact of each failure. We work with you to recommend controls for items with the highest risks to enable targeted resilience investments and more reliable operations.

Efficient management is vital to supporting your community today, and for your future development plans.

  • Your community don’t just have safe drinking needs: water is a key enabler for economic growth, commerce and industry.
  • Sewerage services are essential for both environmental and public health.
  • Recycling provides an opportunity to close the loop on the water cycle

You need to ensure the long and short term water and sewage treatment needs of your region are met in environmentally, socially and commercially sustainable ways. We support you to develop actions and initiatives that balance:

  • The efficient and safe use of the water resources you manage
  • The needs and aspirations of your community,
  • Your strategic objectives and levels of service, and
  • Affordability.

As skilled workshop facilitators, our skills, tools and methodologies create a space that brings diverse viewpoints to the table.

You’ll get access to our process engineering and management expertise, to get a complete understanding of your environment. We’ll conduct benchmarking and find the optimum solution for your needs.

Walk away with effective and implementable strategic plans that encompass policy, operations, planning and delivery.

With multiple stakeholders things can quickly go off track. Our team combines engineering expertise with strong engagement skills to deliver and communicate your technical projects. We can,

  • Create space for and consider different views - including community, environment and heritage - to meet a single goal
  • Bring technical and operational knowledge to bigger picture discussions
  • Deliver expert, engaged facilitation, using tools such as the bow-tie method, digital and in person techniques including mindmapping and 5 why’s analysis

Meet unknown futures with confidence, by testing the resilience of your assets and community to change.

Let us work with you on plans that,

  • Ensure your systems will be resilient in the face of change or disruption
  • Consider the impact of factors including power outages, increased storm activity, or other variations in weather
  • Identify weaknesses in your systems, or opportunities to move forward in a more resilient way
  • Leverage the circular economy - turning waste streams into valuable inputs across an entire system

Do you really understand how your utility and its asset are performing? Benchmarking can help you turn data into intelligence, and reveal opportunities for business improvement and development.

  • Get an overall view of your performance and progress
  • Consider how changes to structures, staffing, operational procedures and governance can improve performance
  • Get advice from an outside perspective, with experience in operations, regulation, policy development and more

Understand how we work

Each of our projects is an example of how we use our on-the-ground experience to inform the strategy, and then apply that strategy in practice. Read about some of our favourite projects.

Step back to step forward

Good strategy balances the big picture with day-to-day operational realities.

Future-proof your policies and facilities with the help of a business that understands the global environment, as well as the operational detail. Get the balance right for a more resilient system.

E        info@atomconsulting.com.au

P        02 9488 7742

A        401, 71-73 Archer St, Chatswood NSW 2067

© Atom Consulting 2020