Boss Drum – Corralling in Your Wayward Info

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy


During my first few years working with Social Housing Systems, I was involved in a lot of full integrated solution implementations. I still surprise suppliers when pulling them up on implementation and data extract/transformation processes. You soon learn how to locate trouble-some and hidden data and use tried and tested approaches to clean it up and present it in the best form possible, for a brand new system.

Strangely, lately I have been involved in a raft of data conversion work, for Housing Groups merging systems or new properties in, and for a few organisations, taking their first housing solution.

That all covers the relatively structured stuff. Even Excel spreadsheets have some structure, however possibly haphazard. I am used to telephone numbers, containing comments, like (work) or (Daughter – Mon-Thu only) etc. Notes and scratch pads are another matter. Free text is of course notorious and using conventional database languages, a bugger to report from. I often come across sensitive data in text and note fields. Historic account references, person details, credit card data, sort codes and others. Some of it innocently blows PCI compliance right out of the window.

The above of course refer to database info. IE in SQL Server, Progress, Oracle, Ingress or Informix etc. Every organisation also has Terabytes of data held on local, network and cloud drives, as well as local Exchange Server storage. Once you start looking, unfortunately you start to see sensitive data in the strangest of places. Fascinating that all this is, within the recent GDPR rules, we should be managing every single byte of sensitive data that we own. Much of it is historic, and a lot down to poor user training and poorly managed habits.

Innocent recording of card/payment details in free text notes are a major Achiles Heal for GDPR compliance

Searching just a small corner of your unstructured data, can take several days and then you only just scratch the surface. You would need a small army (well maybe a platoon), to do a proper job, then keep on top of it too. Data quality groups are something I always promote, wherever I can, but they have  a limit to their vigilance. For a few years I have been actively seeking some more intelligent solutions, to help crack this one.

Last month I think I spotted a pretty comprehensive, proven tool to do the job, called InfoBoss. You don’t need an army of people either, to feed and water it. Just a few pioneering Social Housing landlords are currently using it, in addition to at least one credit rating agency in the Midlands.

It pretty much sniffs out the problems by itself with a set of inbuilt rules, that can be activated to detect data in the wrong place, suspect data problems and breaches of GDPR policy, such as ‘Right To Be Forgotten’. Integral white and black lists enable checking for what should have been long since archived ID’s, that potentially are breaking the law.

The tool has been built on Elastic Search, the platform is scalable, cloud based and quick to setup and very easy to use. Once it has been pointed at a multitude of data sources, within an organisation, it will collate details into a single reportable repository. A messaging API allows set up of automation. Stakeholders can be created that are automatically alerted on new and newly discovered exceptions.

I’m techie, but it’s clear this is more of an end-user, than an ICT team tool, all in a private cloud too.  Check it out by contacting Mark Hobart of InfoBoss or download the InfoBoss data management whitepaper.

Download the InfoBoss white paper here

If you have or suspect you may have data quality issues that possibly contravene GDPR, this is clearly a new tool worth a look.
 
Do mention you read it first on this blog and please let me know what you thought of it too.

Related Post: For big transformation projects, don't shy away from the Big Bang Approach    

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

The Shamen – Boss Drum.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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Making The Most Of Digital Self-Service

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy


This week I have felt that I have truly done the length and breadth of the UK, working onsite with four different Social Housing clients, in England and Scotland. They were all pretty diverse and apart from one, which offered very specialist housing to residents with diverse mental health needs, has I guess, a similar demographic of their customers.

At each this week I was involved in a conversation about self-service, channel shift (Oooo, that phrase does make me cringe!), Omnichannel (that makes me feel much more customer focused) and what services to offer in web/app self-service. Strangely too, all conversations involved reference to how vulnerable/open to self-service residents might be.

Increasingly in some circles, self-service in 2019 sounds like it should be ‘done and dusted’ and a no brainer, for all organisations to introduce. This I find is far from the truth and many organisations clearly need help, direction and to see how others have gone about it successfully. So I am pleased that there will be another ‘Digital Self-Service Conference’ this year, Oct 9th in Oxford.

Click here to register with TONY05 discount

Last year’s was really useful, not just that some excellent case studies were showcased, but also that there was much valuable interaction between attendees. In a sector where others have had successes, made gains from learning as they go, and many strategies can be used to achieve great outcomes, it was super to see it all in one place for a change. I will be there this year and if you use the code TONY05 at the checkout, you can grab an additional discount.

Still, getting back to my discussions this week, some of it centred on ‘vulnerability’. Followers on Twitter might have spotted me engaging with a few threads where a number of SocialHousing residents had quite rightly criticised often overly paternal processes from some landlords.

The sector can get hung up on thinking that services and interaction should concentrate on the low percentage of residents who truly may meet that description. Danger is, assumptions that every resident may be regarded/treated that way, which is not reality.

Digital services for example, absolutely must always be designed around the bulk of residents, not the minority. A reality is that the digital way is not for all. I am digitally inclined, but occasionally I voluntarily choose not to self-serve. These are common and volume transactions, the low hanging fruit so to speak. Providing these digitally by app or response website, frees up staff & resource to provide better services and/or support to the 10% or less of residents who genuinely need it. That way we manage convenience for the many and can properly resource the more intensive areas, face to face, providing much better service for all types of residents.

This years’ Digital Self-Service In Housing Conference is at the The Jurys Inn Oxford, Wed 9th October 2019. Early bird registration from just £150, be sure to grab some extra discount with the code ‘TONY05’. I am pleased to give it a plug as its organised to be non-profit making, with any surplus going to housing charities.

Do let me know if you are going, no-doubt I will be live tweeting throughout the event. I look forward to seeing you there! 

Related Post: There's more to agile & mobile working, than just jumping on the wifi at Marios cafe   

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Dodgy – Making The Most Of It.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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