The verdict in three sentences
A water network operator serving business parks and residential estates around Dublin should budget 60,000 to 140,000 EUR for a public website with a live outage map, tariffs and service requests, plus 40,000 to 90,000 EUR for a customer portal with bills and account history. The return does not come from design but from a 15 to 30 % drop in inbound calls, achieved only if outage information is published in real time and loads fast on any phone, including on congested mobile networks during an incident. Target pages under 500 KB, WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility and a launch in 4 to 6 months.
What customers actually look for
During a burst main or planned works, the contact centre gets three types of calls: when will supply be restored at my address, how much do I owe, and how do I request a connection or make a complaint. A useful site answers those three questions before any corporate page.
| Feature | What it replaces | Share of calls affected (estimate) | Indicative 2026 cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outage map by Eircode area and estate | Calls asking when water is back | 35 to 50 % | 20,000 to 45,000 EUR |
| Tariffs and bill estimator | Pricing questions | 5 to 10 % | 5,000 to 12,000 EUR |
| Service requests: connection, change of tenancy, closure | Emails and paper forms | 10 to 15 % | 8,000 to 18,000 EUR |
| Geolocated leak reporting | Non-urgent emergency calls | 5 to 10 % | 8,000 to 20,000 EUR |
| Customer portal: bills, history, balance | Calls asking what is owed | 20 to 25 % | 40,000 to 90,000 EUR |
| SMS and email alerts by area | Outbound callbacks | 10 to 15 % | 4,000 to 10,000 EUR + messaging fees |
These are 2026 ballpark figures for a Dublin agency or a nearshore French-speaking agency working remotely, excluding VAT. The outage map is the highest-return item: it relies on a set of zones (estate and area polygons) that operations staff update from a simple screen, with no technical skills required.
Technical constraints specific to a utility
Traffic spikes 10 to 50 times above normal in the first hour of an incident, mostly from mobile. A heavy interactive map can weigh 2 to 3 MB and crash under load exactly when it matters. The choices that count:
- a text list of outages by area, served first, with the map as an optional layer;
- lightweight cached map tiles and a CDN with edge caching;
- WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, required under the European Accessibility Act and public sector expectations;
- a static status page that stays up even if the billing system is down;
- hosting in the EU with a clear GDPR data processing agreement.
For the portal, the hard part is integrating with the existing billing system. A daily read-only sync (balances and bill exports) costs 2 to 3 times less than a real-time connection and covers 90 % of use cases. Online card payment and direct debit management can come in a second phase, for 15,000 to 30,000 EUR more.
| Phase | Scope | Timeline | 2026 budget (estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: public site | Tariffs, service requests, news, outage map | 10 to 14 weeks | 60,000 to 140,000 EUR |
| Phase 2: customer portal | Login by account number, PDF bills, history | 8 to 12 weeks | 40,000 to 90,000 EUR |
| Phase 3: payments | Card payments, direct debit changes, receipts | 6 to 8 weeks | 15,000 to 30,000 EUR |
| Hosting and CDN | Servers, backups, certificates | Annual | 4,000 to 12,000 EUR |
| Maintenance | Fixes, updates, on-call support | Annual | 12,000 to 30,000 EUR |
Mini case study
Siobhan, customer services director at an operator serving 45,000 connections around Dublin, handles 9,000 calls a month. The fully loaded cost of a handled call (agent, telephony, supervision) is estimated at 7 EUR. By launching the outage map and the portal, she targets a 20 % reduction: 1,800 calls avoided per month, 12,600 EUR saved monthly, or 151,200 EUR a year. Phases 1 and 2 cost 165,000 EUR, plus 25,000 EUR of hosting and maintenance in year one. Payback lands around month 15, before counting fewer regulatory complaints and better scores in customer satisfaction surveys.
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FAQ
How much does a water utility website with an outage map cost in Dublin?
Allow 60,000 to 140,000 EUR for the public site with map, tariffs and service requests. The customer portal adds 40,000 to 90,000 EUR depending on billing integration.
What call reduction can we realistically expect?
Operators that publish outages in real time typically see 15 to 30 % fewer calls after 6 months. The result depends mainly on update discipline: an outdated map actually generates angry calls.
Does the site need to be accessible?
Yes, WCAG 2.1 AA is the baseline expected for an essential service, and the European Accessibility Act applies since June 2025. Building it in from the start adds roughly 10 to 15 % to the budget, far less than retrofitting.
Should the portal connect to billing in real time?
Not initially: a daily read-only sync covers 90 % of needs and costs 2 to 3 times less. Real time becomes useful once you add online payments.
How long until we are live?
The public site with outage map takes 10 to 14 weeks, the portal another 8 to 12 weeks. Both phases can run in parallel if billing data is available from the scoping stage.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your number of connections, monthly call volume and billing software, and we will price the public site, the portal and payments as separate phases, on a 4 to 6 month plan. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
