In August, we brought together Stream’s Advisory Group 2 (Technical) which comprises subject matter experts from 16 water companies and other industry stakeholders. Co-chaired by Icebreaker One and Pennon Group, this group advises and supports the project partners as they commence work on Stream’s Implementation Phase.

Date: 18 August 2025 10:00-11:30 BST

Location: online

Co-Chairs: Lucy Chambers (IB1); Dilani Pararajasingam (Pennon Group)

Secretariat: IB1

Meeting Aims 

  1. What’s the next best step to take within the analytics space? 
  2. Understanding the challenges and pain points within the Stream platform 

Summary:

  • Outcomes:
    • It was noted that:
      • The session focused on analytics, with the aim of identifying next steps and user needs.
      • Operations and technology workstreams are progressing, though minor blockers remain (e.g., Teams accounts for IB1).
      • No immediate support is required, but risks were raised for awareness.
  • Definition of analytics
    • It was discussed that:
      • Analytics should support understanding of user engagement, platform usability, and dataset value.
      • Analytics requirements differ by user group (e.g., Product Team vs water company members and their Boards), necessitating tailored approaches.
      • Developing analytics as a product backlog using user stories would aid iteration.
    • It was noted that:
      • Two core categories exist: platform experience analytics and data consumption analytics.
  • Sector examples:
    • It was noted that:
      • Members seek better tools to assess data usage trends and engagement over time.
      • User account systems could improve attribution but may conflict with open access principles.
      • Reservoir dataset engagement provided a strong narrative, aligning with public search trends.
      • A member company’s NSOH API received over 5 million queries, with estimates suggesting polling activity by 50–100 organisations at 5–15 minute intervals. While precise use cases are unknown, this indicates sustained external interest and engagement with the data.
      • Tracking the impact of social media activity, such as LinkedIn posts promoting datasets, could help assess whether such communications drive greater user engagement with data.
    • It was discussed that:
      • Current analytics are insufficiently granular and fragmented across sources.
      • Tools like Google Analytics provide partial solutions without requiring logins.
      • Incorporating prompts during the user journey, asking users to indicate the purpose of their data download or map use, could improve understanding of dataset value and inform analytics.
      • Real usage insight helps validate our platform’s impact and guide future dataset priorities.