Why Hunter Water Executive Manager, Digital Jenny Francis changed her mind about IT

This was despite Jenny having an aptitude for technology. She helped set up her family’s business using a Macintosh Plus computer that her “trailblazing” mother had purchased.  

“I was doing a science degree, and they had this brand-new course called ‘computer science.’ I [thought], ‘that’s more of what I’ve been doing at home; problem solving using tech. So, I signed up but found out quickly that it was very theoretical. I wanted more of the problem-solving stuff, so I dropped out”, she says. 

The following year, Jenny picked up a Psychology Neuroscience major during the days of MS-DOS, WordPerfect and green screen displays. 

“Using a Mac Plus, I could [produce] better assignments quicker. I used to go to the university help desk, and I’d solve all of the Macintosh problem tickets they had in the queue. I always used to say half-jokingly, ‘when I finish, you’ll have to give me a job.’ And they did.” 

In the 1990s, Jenny held IT program management roles at the financial firm Lazard, as well as London Electricity, National Grid Company and Compel PLC before returning to Newcastle, NSW and landing an IT management role at Port Waratah Coal Services. 

Since then, Jenny has remained in Newcastle, working in numerous senior tech roles at the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Logistics Team, Pacific National, Asciano and Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator, before joining Hunter Water in 2019. 

Francis’ human-centred approach to problem solving has become a common thread throughout her career, as it has for many of her female colleagues. 

“Perhaps young women see [IT] as a technical thing, [they’ve] got to be programmers or working on a rack of computers. We probably need to do a better job; I probably need to do a better job of showcasing my journey.” 

Francis’ digital team at Hunter Water is a 50% split between women and men.  

“It’s fantastic and diverse group. You need all types of roles, including the dry technical ones. You need people to do that. It’s probably [an industry] marketing problem. The capability clearly is there [but] how do we capture the interest?” she says. 

No water competition, digital co-operation

Jenny is currently Executive Manager, Digital at Hunter Water, a utility that provides water services to 500,000 people in the Lower Hunter region of NSW. She is a member of the organisation’s executive team and is accountable for digital strategy, enterprise architecture, cyber, data and AI governance and delivering tech transformation programs. 

Jenny points out that organisations in the water industry “do not compete with each other” and, through the Water Services Association of Australia, providers collaborate on key problems facing the sector. 

“These businesses, maybe 10 to 15 years ago, were all facing technology debt; systems that were a couple of decades old”, she says. 

When Jenny stepped into the role at Hunter Water, she inherited the tail end of a billing system modernisation project. Supported by a MD with digital aspirations, she built a strategy to better serve consumers through digital channels. 

Under this program, systems supporting field and asset operations have been modernised. 

“People fixing pipes out in the field were using a system that was implemented when the Nokia 9110 [pocket laptop device] came out over 20 years ago. We’re now embedding a modern system on a [worker’s] phone that provides job [information], helps us optimise the way we plan the work, capture data, perform reporting and, importantly, better look after our customers. That has been a very significant journey”, she says. 

A second program involved creating a GIS ‘virtual factory’, which went live last year. This geographic information system maps thousands of kilometres of pipes, helping the organisation gain a more granular view of plumbing across its network. 

Jenny says she is currently focused on modernising the organisation’s data and AI capabilities, supported by the Databricks and Snowflake data platforms. 

“It is important for us to know exactly where our data is and to manage cyber security [issues]. We’re a critical infrastructure business so the cyber uplift is massive.” 

AI helping reduce leakage

On the AI front, Jenny says Hunter Water has delivered strong value from several “fantastic pilots” using traditional AI tools to reduce water leakage across its network of pipes. 

Engineers and data scientists within the organisation’s operations team place sensors in pipes to detect leaks. Data gathered from these sensors is analysed using machine learning algorithms, helping teams identify leakage patterns so issues can be addressed before a full pipe burst occurs. 

This saves the organisation both time and money by enabling earlier intervention and keeping the network running effectively. 

“Like government, we’re in the trust business; [consumers] don’t get to choose their water provider…so it’s absolutely incumbent on us to really respect and understand we’re a monopoly. We need to be as efficient as possible because…all of this infrastructure operation and build is recovered through customer bills.”