When my support team closes a ticket, we record what actually resolved it. One of those categories is training: the fix was walking someone through a different way to run a process.
Looking back at last year, a lot of our critical-priority tickets landed in that category. The software was working. Somebody just hadn't run that process in a while.
So we built a day of hands-on training into HCTC 2026.
What these moments look like
I'll keep these anonymous; they could happen at almost any utility.
A payment lands on the wrong account and the reapply posts twice, on a write-off account no less; it has to be deleted and reversed before cash update can run. A deposit refund batch runs with the wrong selection criteria and creates hundreds of pending refunds to unwind. An AMI read file gets uploaded twice because the first looked like it failed, and every duplicate has to be found and deleted before billing.
Nobody in these stories lacks ability. Each task is easy when you've practiced it recently, and stressful when you haven't run it in months and billing is due tomorrow.
What the smoothest-running teams have in common
The teams who rarely call us share two habits.
The first is collaboration across departments. When billing knows what cash receipting is doing and when, the whole operation runs quieter; most of the messes above are two processes colliding.
The second is a mindset: retiring the printed instruction sheet taped to the monitor and asking "what is the system actually doing, and how can I use this?" The enQuesta customer information system keeps evolving, and the teams who keep asking put each new capability to work.
One water utility we work with is the proof. After investing in training on enQuesta's Job Scheduler, they automated daily work orders, billing without update, AMI data sync, and ACH, so their staff spend that time on the complex customer needs that deserve a person's attention.
What Monday, December 7 looks like
Pre-conference training is one day. Monday, December 7, the day before HCTC opens.
That day we run two tracks side by side, and each one is a full day:
- Daily Operations Mastery: workflows, billing adjustments, and exception management
- Advanced Analytics in enQuesta: turning data into decisions
Because the tracks run at the same time, each person attends one of them. If you want both covered, send two people.
Plan on a working day either way: laptops open, running real processes one on one with our team. Everyone who completes a track leaves enQuesta certified for the processes we cover.
If you're only sending one person, pick someone with a train-the-trainer mentality. They'll teach the team what they learned, and a $600 registration becomes training for the whole department. Send someone who needs an enQuesta refresher, or someone newer building their foundation.
"My team is too busy for a training day"
I hear this a lot, usually followed by "they'll pick it up on the job." On the job they'll pick up how your utility currently does things, which may be the way it's always done things rather than the way the system should be run. Training exposes better ways to work and puts your people alongside fellow utilities who've solved the same problems; this year's sessions include presentations from our clients.
The details
Pre-conference training is Monday, December 7 at the Gaylord Rockies in Denver, ahead of HCTC 2026 on December 8 through 10, the conference's 25th year. Pre-con registration is $600 through October 30 and $750 after, separate from conference registration, which is $1,350 early bird.
Register for pre-con training. I hope to see your team in Denver, and I'd love for their next call to us to start with "we learned this at pre-con."