Wednesday 15 September 2021

Reference

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

How often in life do we ‘ask a friend’ to get some impartial advice or opinions on something we are planning to do or buy?

It can be fantastically useful in confirming our feelings or stoking up our fears of making a mistake, one which maybe we would better want to avoid. We are used to following references when looking to employ new staff and occasionally provide one. In the case of employees and employers, its often more telling when people refuse to provide any reference, good or bad.

So how important are references, when choosing/procuring new application solutions?

Often its easier to find some useful references prior to a procurement, rather than during or afterwards. Procurement professionals will generally cite ‘references’ quite rightly as being part of ‘looking back’ in the tender process, rather than ‘looking forward’ as per the ITT, hence dissuade doing scoring on references. This often frustrates clients I have worked with, although as I will come on to later, maybe for scoring, references are less inciteful than you might expect. When spending six or seven figure sums on new systems, its natural to want to get reference insights.

Taking reference insights from people you trust, rather than ones that suppliers connect you to, are generally more useful to you. Often with systems applications and software, organisations rarely want to talk about bad decisions they made. This is not helped by suppliers writing up a case study, almost before the ink is dry on the finalised contract. A story you read in Housing Technology magazine three years ago, might not have actually gone live as yet. I see many types of projects, including a good few across a wide range of software suppliers, who have an interesting story behind them. As a critical friend to my clients, I do my best working to prevent repeat of those mistakes wherever possible.    

We are all used to suppliers regaling us with PowerPoint slides packed with their customer logos, at the start of their demonstration pitches. The unaware might reasonably assume that any of those sites with a logo, might make a good reference site. Many reading this will be familiar recognising a logo and knowing work or social contacts at that site. Often even at this stage the pitch isn’t reflecting known solutions in use. The precise question to probably ask, is which of these has been live for a while on precisely the product/version being pitched, plus another option currently implementing that is nearly at go-live.

Skip these precise questions and you might well get in contact with a reference, although not one that reflects what is being pitched. I have seen lots of examples where the only reference site that has been pitched, that was just starting to implement. One client I worked with had this experience and never got the solution working effectively. Strangely enough, I knew people at the site they visited and could reassure my client that they never really got it working either! Its no laughing matter, as public money was wasted at both sites. Tenant improvements, like new kitchens, bathrooms and rewires, that never took place, as that budget was squandered on poor ICT instead.

When reference sites make themselves available, they generally are rewarded with freebies, such as free development days etc. So it is in their interests to participate. It was the same at my old shop, even fans of the solutions, still picked up a free onsite or development day. Beware when the same reference sites are used time after time. These might be the only sites actually live or seeing significant rewards. Its not unusual for these sites to eventually start to refuse to be reference sites, particularly where they might start to struggle to see progress with their problems or development/roadmap issues.

When I was MD at a major HMS software supplier, back about nine years ago, often I would respond to tenders that asked for 3 reference sites. At that time, I and my team put so much effort into customer care, I was confident enough to respond with three matched ones, plus the full customer list, for prospects to contact anyone they like. How many application/solution providers these days might offer that to you? Do ask the question, see how confident your supplier really is!

With reference sites, firstly work to find a reference site similar to yourselves (not way smaller, or nowhere near experienced enough in the solution being considered). Beware the difference between cloud hosted and on-premise versions of the solution under consideration, particularly as is common these days, you are looking for full cloud hosting.

Expect the reference site to be positive about the supplier and solution. However, key questions to tease out how long the solution actually took to implement, problems/issues and importantly how they were resolved by the supplier, should be key. Many insights can be learned from references, particularly around how they tackled data migration, composition of the project or subject matter team etc.

Never skimp on contacting reference sites thoroughly. This element of the process is easier than ever, with the plethora of remote options available, so there is less excuse than ever. Also, if procuring, this reference site could become your ongoing peer and friend with the solution, so invaluable in terms of starting your organisations' networking, to get the best from the selected solution.  

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Related Post: What questions should you be asking suppliers in your procurements?


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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.

Sainté - ReferenceSainté - Reference.
(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.


File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Arthur Online,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking,Bynaric, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica 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Tuesday 7 September 2021

(1st) Touch (has gone)

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

Many mobile working solutions within Social Housing, have often been linked by a quite extreme umbilical cord, to its founders. 

Examples include Microsurveys that was linked only to Codeman, Total Mobile forms that was very linked to the other TM product stack, there was that strange thing created to link with Orchard way back (South View?), OpenMobile, Footprint?, plus does anyone remember ‘Wrekin Hand-e-work’? Apologies if anyone has experienced any unpleasant flashbacks there!

Its been a long tortuous road no doubt. But isn’t that the case when tech is settling down? You know, from GPRS to 3G, to 4G, 5G to goodness knows where?

One solution that was (for a long time anyway) pretty independent, managed a good sized footprint in Social Housing. 1st Touch, emerging from the uni-campus blocks in Southampton, it was free to be sold into all kinds of situations. Examples include with ROCC, Accuserv and other products for contractor applications, as well as with Aareon social housing products, the organisation who finally bought them out.

I was involved with quite meaty projects involving 1st Touch myself over the last six years and even suffered a three day (of my life I will never get back), training course to design forms and workflow. Which I have to be fair, was extremely flexible. With sufficient imagination and experience of Javascript, HTML, advice avec Roy Ménage à trois, you could achieve most things. A great little product, praise where its due.

Once Aareon purchased 1st Touch, they looked to have improved integrations into QLX Housing (or ERP as I often hear it described these days), and I know a number of recent satisfied customers. Unfortunately, as with any product purchase/buyout it often polarises competitors, who may decide to change tack, from past alliances. Early QLX adopters clearly encountered some challenges from what I have seen. Although as I would suggest to any of my customers looking to be application/software early adopters, as in those wild west cowboy films, pioneers generally suffer/die with arrows in their backs. If any of my clients wish to die that way, I do regard it as my duty to warn them first of the risk element.

The recent surprise with 1st Touch, is the newly announced end of life after October 2022, apparently due to MS Silverlight being used extensively in the forms designer. I remember a procurement in 2015 where Silverlight was identified and a forms designer rewrite was due by 2017. A rewrite like so many others on roadmaps, that never occurred. So much for software supplier roadmaps.


Of course, if the forms designer (Management Studio) requires no internal tweaking of forms, it no longer runs and Silverlight, no longer a significant vulnerability. Bear that in mind if you have 1st Touch now.

I have more than one current client, to who this poses a problem and are predictably cracking on with considering alternatives. A future migration product has been proposed, ‘Versaa’ (also a brand of Fitbit, although no-one is suggesting a Fitbit sized device will be sufficient for housing management and contractor solutions. So that might be an unfortunate name chosen there..). Versaa on the upside is promised to provide an enhanced workflow designer to be BPMN2 compliant, hopefully providing flowchart drag and drop support. There is a suggested migration path from 1st Touch to Versaa. Where sophisticated integrations and parsing of data is necessary, clearly we are unlikely to be looking at ‘drag & drop’ or ‘low-code’ here.

Software re-writes rarely come cheap, so inevitably some additional costs coming down the line too, for existing customers. Many QLX customers may well also be quite heavily embedded into 1st Touch mobile and its tenant app. Lets hope the replacement is a brand new product as promoted. A bit of tweaking around the edges, should not be a costly repurcase. Lets hope thats not what to expect here.


I have also already been asked by more than one contact, “what alternatives, can we easily drop in here to replace this Tony”?

It’s not an easy question to answer. There are plenty of options with rich form functionality, but the Achilles Heal as ever is integration. That is where complication creeps in.      

Are you an existing 1st Touch customer? What are your plans? Will you be a pioneer or follow later with the ‘Women and Children’ like in the cowboy films later, in the ‘Covered Wagons’? Feel free to get in touch with your thoughts and lets see where we are in October 2022(!). As ever, feel free to get in touch with questions or if looking for help and advice.

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Related Post: What other mobile solutions recently changed hands?


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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.

Magazine – Touch and GoMagazine – Touch and Go.
(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.


File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Arthur Online,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking,Bynaric, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365, ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Fixflow,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion,Firmstep, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,Goss Interactive,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex,Granicus,GOSS HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management,Homeswapper,Housing jigsaw, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,IEG4,In4Systems,Illumar, Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz,Liberty,LowCode, M3,MAVIS,MD,MDM,MI,MIS,MIS-AMS,MISCS,MRI,MS Dynamics,MRI,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Microsoft365,microsoft 365,MWL,Management,Management Server,Manifest,Measuring,Mebus,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Microsoft dynamics GP 2013,Miracle,MobileIron,Mobysoft,Monopoly board images and pictures,Montal,Mr Void,MriEngage,MrVoid,MRI Socialhousing,MRISocialhousing, NDL,NINTEX,NINTEX workflow,NPS,NPS ASSIST,NPS Housing,NPS Job Manager Mobile,NROSH,Natural,Neighbourhoods and Communities,Nintexworkflow,Northgate,Northgate Codeman,Northgate Public Services,necsws,Notice,Netcall,Netcall Liberty,NEC Software Solutions OA,OGC Buying Solutions,OJEU Limits,ORS,Ohms,OmFax,Omniledger,One,OneAdvanced,OneServe,Open source,OpenContractor,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Options,Optitime,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OutSystems, PIMMS,PIMSS Data,PM,PRINCE2,Paloma,Pamwin,PanConnect,People Value,Peoplevalue,PfH,Pick,PlanForm,Planned maintenance,Plenfific,Plus,Portfolio Management System,PowerObjects,Pro,Pro-Points,Prodo,Progress,Promaster,Propoints,Proval,Providers,Pyramid, QL,QuantSpark,Qube,QLX,Qlikview,QueryView,Queryview reporting,Quiss, RM865,ROCC,RPs,RSL,Rave,ReAct,Reality,RedkiteCRM,Red Olive,Registered,Registered Social,Rent Increase,RentSense,RentSenseLite,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,RobotAutomation,Rocket, Salesforce,Salesforce.Org,SAP,SASSHA,SDM,SHBVN,SM,SOTI,SP,SQL,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting,SQL Server,Saffron,Safron,Saturn,Scenario,Scotland,Scots,Scottish,Scout,Sequoa,Serengeti,Serros,Server,Service,Services,Servitor,Sharepoint,Sim,SimPro, Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Housing ICT,Social Housing Software Applications,Social Media,Software,Software solutions,Spotlight Service,Spotlightservice,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic,SunAccounts,Sunguard,Surveys,Streetwise, Swordfish,Sx3,Symatrix Human,System alignment,Systems,Systemwise, T-Files,TEAMS,TED,TFiles,TP Tracker,TSG,Tagish Casework,Tagra,Task,TAIM,Technologies (India) PVT Limited,Telecetera,Template,Terminal Services,That,Three Star,Today,Tony Smith,Tony Smith That Housing IT Guy,TonySmith that housing IT,TonySmithHou,TonySmithHousing, ,TonySmithHousingITguy,Total,Total Mobile,Totalmobile,Trace,Tribal,Twitter,Tilt,TiltAffinity,Tilt Property Software, U2,UC,UK,UK Housing,Ukhousing,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,United Kingdom,Universal,Universalcredit,Universe,Unrest, Valueworks,Van Stock,Vantage,Vantage Sentinel,Version,Virtualisation,Visualmetrics,Voice,Voice and data,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Wheatley,Windows Server,Workflow and,Work Hub,Works Connect, XML,Xen App,XenApp,Xmbrace, ...
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