Case Study: Box Springs Mutual Water (CA)
Small utility, big challenge
Box Springs Mutual Water Company serves a small, close-knit community in the Edgemont area of Moreno Valley, California. With just 6 employees managing everything from billing to field operations, office manager Karen Collins wore many hats — and their outdated billing system wasn't helping.
Frequent billing errors were costing the utility tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and 20+ hours per month on manual data synchronization, a constant burden on staff.
The legacy system had become a liability. The language it was built on was no longer supported. "At any given moment, we could have been a ship in the ocean with no lighthouse," Karen explained. "We would have been absolutely lost without that customer data."
Beyond the technical risk, the system was fundamentally unintuitive. "You had to know the system and know where to look for everything,” Karen noted. “It was not intuitive at all — just digging through menus all the time to try to do what needed to be done."
But perhaps the most frustrating limitation was how the system handled customer information. Box Springs serves an area with significant rental turnover, requiring them to track property owners, property managers, current tenants, and secondary tenants on leases.
The old system could only store owner and current tenant information — when a tenant changed, that historical data was lost forever. So Karen had to keep an entirely separate filing system to keep track of past tenant information and past ownership information.
Making the switch
Box Springs’ general manager Mark Iversion learned about Current Software and saw an opportunity. In her previous years working at Eastern Municipal Water District, a 600-employee public water district, Karen had been through numerous large-scale software implementations.
She was initially very hesitant about switching to Current Software. But Current Software seemed different, a modern, cloud-native customer management platform designed to simplify utility billing and enhance customer experience.
Box Springs became Current Software’s first live customer in March 2024.
The system Karen had been hoping for had finally arrived. Current's customer contact database connected all information to the property, allowing Box Springs to maintain complete historical records of owners, property managers, tenants, and secondary contacts.
"That was one of the things that I really liked that Current offered — a far more robust customer contact database that is connected to the property," Karen said.
A solution for employees and the community
With Current Software, billing officers have everything they need to serve the community, including:
- Guided billing automation
Current offers a blend of automation and user control that flags critical issues for review while still allowing billing to take only minutes instead of days.
- Integrated customer portal Both the utility and ratepayers see the same data. Box Springs shareholders gained new self-service options while utility admins no longer need to manually sync data.
- Proactive delinquency management
Current provides a command-center-type view of delinquent accounts to give fuller visibility and control over late customers.
“I couldn’t be happier with this transition,” said Box Springs General Manager, Mark Iversion. “With Current, I know we’re on top of our bills and customers in a way we never were before.”
The results
Once the team at Box Springs Mutual Water transitioned to Current Software, they saw the following benefits:
- Enhanced customer experience Customers now have access to detailed usage insights and billing information through the integrated portal.
- Operational efficiency The elimination of manual data synchronization reduced errors and saved time, enabling staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.
- Improved financial stability With accurate billing and proactive delinquency management, Box Springs Mutual Water achieved greater financial stability and predictability, setting them up for success in other parts of the business.
Freeing up the team’s time has had a positive impact on the other projects the team needs to tend to.
“It’s really amazing — we’re finally getting to other projects like redoing our rates which has been on my mind forever.”
Unlike their previous setup requiring multiple systems, Current became Box Spring’s single source of truth.
"Current is our billing software," Karen said. "But it holds all kinds of data for us. It holds not only every month's bill, but all of our customer data as well. I don't have another source that I keep customer data other than Current."
A reliably intuitive platform
Coming from a large public water district where she did not use the billing software firsthand because it required dedicated specialists, Karen appreciated how Current made complex processes accessible. At Box Springs, where everyone wears multiple hats, that accessibility was essential.
Perhaps the best testament to Current's usability came when Karen began transitioning her role from full-time to part-time. A new employee started in January 2026 without any specialized background in utility billing or software systems.
"Anybody that has any office experience at all, once they walk through the different menus in Current Software, it's just so self-explanatory and super easy to intuitively find what you need," Karen explained.
Box Springs Mutual Water’s successful implementation of Current demonstrates the simple yet transformative power of a modern, cloud-native billing system.
Karen's successor will inherit a billing system that's built for success — one that's intuitive enough to learn quickly but robust enough to handle everything a water company needs.
As Karen prepares for retirement, she's confident in the foundation Current has provided.
"Knowing that the Current Software team finds a way to help us get the work done, that peace of mind — that's huge," Karen said.
By modernizing its systems, Box Springs Mutual Water not only improved its operational efficiency but also strengthened its financial health and enhanced customer experience.
Box Springs Mutual Water is now better positioned to serve its community with confidence and reliability.
To learn more about whether Current Software could help your utility company better serve your community, click here to book a demo.