tonysmiththathousingitguy @HousingITguy

Some thoughts on IT and UK SocialHousing from a unique perspective of over 27+ years working with over 140 RSL's, Councils and social landlord groups in the UK, Ireland & Australia. (c) No reproduction without prior/express permission Available for independent housing RSL implementation, procurement of HMS, Repairs, CRM, EDM, DLO, Financial, Scheduling systems, critical friend etc. In Scotland I work with the folks at Arneil Johnston Check us out on Soundcloud /housingitguy

Sunday, 27 December 2020

The Transition

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

If you have been keeping up with this blog and like me have been still working hard, you have probably been doing so from home. My blogpost from April2020 explored our challenges with Teams, Zoom and the whole working in your PJ’s (bottom half only though)!

Its fair to say, if you are lucky enough to be able to do your job remotely, like me you have probably adapted by now to it. I feel sorry for the many people who’s jobs do not allow working from home. Many of those, have found work has often evaporated, or often as a matter of course puts them in potential danger. I say thank you now, to each and every one of them, for keeping the plates spinning during 2020. Without you all, 2020 might truly have unraveled.

I’m convinced having chatted to scores of friends, contacts, colleagues over this year, that there is never going to be going back to exactly as we was. Particularly at work.

I don't know who originated this, but big credit to Clare, who first shared with me 8-)

Interestingly back in Feb/early Mar 2020, I was starting a big piece of work with a medium sized social housing landlord, with over a hundred staff, who had only just moving into some new serviced offices. Little did they know that over the next nine months, those plush offices would only ever be about 15% full. Now no one I know there can imagine a total return to the old ways.

A friend of mine who lives locally, who I have known a couple of decades, has worked the last nine months from home, with his other half doing the same. Clearly that’s been a bit claustrophobic at times. It could help you connect with your partner better or maybe hasten a breakup of course!

His employer, a nationwide waterways charity, has decided its quite liking most of its staff working from home. Its planning to mandate it as universal going forward. In fact it appears to have plans to sell off offices, probably some nice canal-side locations, which might become quite valuable with housing planning permission. So you can see the rational.

How does my friend feel?

Well he’s not overwhelmed to be honest, as you might expect.

That’s not what he signed up for initially in his job and he wont receive any compensation, his extra heating expenses, are regarded as offsetting his fuel he might have used traveling to work. Now, I’m no HR expert (although I have procured a few HR/Payroll systems in my time). Maybe one of my hardcore HR expert contacts, might be able to clarify what employment law might mandate around this? Please comment!

So, mid-Covid19 we have moved forward faster in nine months, than in the last nine years, for work flexibility. However, would it work for many of us meshing home and work life going forward? Going back to pre-industrial times, home and work was often the same thing. During Medieval times, most working-class English people lived in work-homes. The single-story, one-room houses were “a combination of kitchen and spinning/weaving/dressmaking workshop, bedroom and dairy, dining room, butchery, tannery, and byre.”. It was ‘all hands on deck’.

I’d like to question, without coming across as a Luddite, if we would all totally embrace a return to all that?

I think I know the answer, but I would love to hear your take on it.

I have worked independently for nearly a decade and I miss being in an office with colleagues you can lean over to and bounce ideas, questions (and sarcasm) off. Collaboration is an essential part of a healthy work-life balance, for people. It also adds value to the organisation, its staff and its customers.

It will be interesting to see how companies manage the balance here, with a particular emphasis on SocialHousing. I would not like to see service to residents to be reduced. If practical, this situation and the experience of the last nine months, can improve service to tenants and other residents. That would be my hope anyway.

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 Longcut – Transition.
(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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Friday, 18 December 2020

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

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

Over the last few days I have watched the Brexit mood music go from hopeful, to not so much, as the UK divorce from the EU plays out in the open. At the time of writing, the interplay continues….

Lots of folks I have worked with on big transformation projects will recall my analogy on procurements and long term relationships with software suppliers. Most commercial relationships with software suppliers, last longer than many of our personal relationships. They also need to nurtured by both parties, encouraged to work, effort from all sides are needed. So there are lots of parallels there.

Initial warming up of clients is like those first flirts. An initial demo of the solution is like a first date. Everyone on their best behaviour. Don’t crash the demo system, hide those errors, everything must be pristine and magical in software demo land.

ITT time is a bit like some initial dates. Still everyone on good behaviour, but a few slips of the mask. A bit like breaking wind occasionally or leaving the toilet seat up. In the real world, we have all been there.

By the time we check out the reference sites, its close to being able to checkout some ex’s. Did ex or current long term partners have a good experience, although encountering a few rocks in the road? How did the supplier smooth out those rocks in the road? We will only get offered the better ex’s though. OBVs. Old ex's will be rewarded too, by suppliers, but that does not mean if the right questions are asked, they will be open and honest.

Once we have made our choice, implementation may be 6-18 months, we might be tied in for five, maybe ten years. Go-Live is not the destination, its just a first stop on the journey. A healthy relationship with your software suppliers is essential. Its up to everyone to work at that, to get best ongoing value for money.

Breaking up, is hard to do, if it comes to that.

Much like Brexit, if two sides are far apart, language can be harsh and the co-existence can be uneasy. Generally in real life, a solicitor might be the neutral third party that highlights where both parties are being silly and where reasonable compromises should be considered.

I start with many of my clients, asking me, “Tony Can you help us get rid of x and replace it with y”? I think that’s always the wrong place to start. My instinct is to re-engage with their software partner, which I would guess in about 70% of situations, leads to some ‘Marriage Guidance’. That’s not so easy to get your head around in real life, so I understand reactions to that suggestion.

One of the biggest objections I experience, is the cost. “My supplier will want to charge me £1,000 to book time to do that, and it will take 5 weeks to set it up”. My stock reaction is “Really”? I often encounter suppliers wanting to charge clients for scoping something they are actually going to sell them. Go figure on that one, its pre-sales matey, if you are going to charge us to find out our requirements, take that off the selling price (FFS).

I may have the magic touch, I don’t know, (I doubt it), but no supplier I have ever engaged with, has ever charged for a ‘Marriage Guidance’ session, with one of my clients as yet. That’s probably something to do with the thought that if issues are not solved, I will be providing lots of available practical alternatives. Most issues are solvable and divorce lawyers would agree, keeping a line of communication open, is always the way forward.

Chances are too, that successful resolution of issues with your software supplier, will be good for you and them. After all, switched on suppliers want to have happy customers, paying annual maintenance for a long time into the future. Why would they not?

So, the thought I would leave you with, is that perhaps an exit, might not be best for all. Get a trusted third party to introduce a neutral view, that might unlock the situation.

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

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Utopia - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

Tuesday, 8 December 2020

Save Me

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

I was chatting to a client recently, who I have worked with on a number of occasions, over the last nine years. We have done a variety of projects together and many of my customers come back again and again, or come via recommendation.

Its great to be adding value to projects of all types, with various degrees of tech involved, although often its process and cultural change, that brings the true transformational magic.

While talking, I asked a question that I don’t normally ask. That was even though I knew they used other consultants sometimes, why they so often came back for me to work with them?

Their answer surprised me in that it was, “Well we have found when we work with you, we save far more money, than what we pay you in consultancy”. I was pleased in one respect, but I knew if I told my accountant that, they would tell me I should perhaps be charging much more! I certainly wont be notching up my day rate, however I totally understand where they were coming from.

Where I come into projects ‘late in the day’, often to help recover something or do some ‘marriage guidance’ with them and their suppliers, often its already gone too far already. Fix the small initial issues, ask the awkward questions and think them through early, always saves much more time and effort further down the line. Procuring is generally exciting stuff to the procurer, poring over the detail is not glamorous, but very essential. Lots of managers are visionaries, somewhat less are the ‘finishers’, who suffer from extra charges and hassle, further down the line.

Probably, the earlier in the process I get involved, the more potentially can be saved. Often getting into the detail up front, sharpens minds, better defines scope and provides a better yardstick to measure delivery, when the implementation boots hit the ground. Bringing experience of another hundred or so projects with associated intel’, also provides my clients with a potential toolbox of ideas, strategies and methodologies, which could be adapted to work well in their particular situation. In some cases, I have helped reduce overall ICT system costs from over £4m to well less than half that.

Arriving later in a project to help dig a site out of a failing (or potentially failing) project, often provides fewer levers for means of recovery, that’s my experience. Again its all about the detail. Project history detail, contract detail, concise meeting minutes all present and accessible. I have recovered plenty of projects via different results. Every challenge is a little different and each offers potential to turn individual situations around. There are plenty of examples where thinking back, hard cash has been clawed back or saved. Long running projects can be more like a poker game, than a commercial venture.

Certainly, in the future this will all make me think more deeply on potential engagement value add. Meanwhile, don’t suffer in silence, if you need help please give me a shout!

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

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The Saints - Save Me.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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