Friday 21 January 2022

On The Waterfront

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

I remember a time when social housing people would pay good money, to visit Halton Housing Trust, to catch a glimpse of the digital future. You were best advised to pack a few sarnies, a snack, liquid refreshment and an energy bar, as catering was not generally laid on for the entry ticket price.

I never did the trip personally, but met many who had.

Reactions differed, its fair to say. Did you or one of your colleagues visit?

Some of my contacts and clients, thought they had seen the future and worked to set off and implement it, others were horrified with such a fundamentalist approach to digital first or no customer service at all. Its fair to say, those sessions generated lots of discussions and were fabulous in that respect. SocialHousing had been in its traditional mould for the most part and needed a shaking up.

Barriers to digital first thinking I encountered, included (almost comically), “Well our tenants are mostly old and won’t go for it”, to asset and repair managers telling me, “Well we can’t trust them to be logging their own repairs, they will be ordering whole kitchens & bathrooms”. No word of a lie.

Well, the world didn’t go to pot when some decent self-service was offered and all ages, took advantage, to various degrees. At HHT famously, hard to crack tenants were equipped with tablets, creatively funded, which was great. All fabulous ideas that reordered workloads to enable Universal Credit rollout to be managed.

Lets not forget that Halton and the borough I live in, Warrington adjacent, were the initial guinea pigs for the ill thought out opening UC rollout. Drastic situations called for radical solutions. Many poor folk relying on Universal credit at that time, waiting up to nine months, to receive any payments at all. Truly unacceptable. So from me maximum credit for taking a bold, alternative approach.

However, perhaps for most organisations, the realisation is that omni-channel, a pick & mix on offer for residents, actually is an ideal solution, if its available. After all, some of us love the caramel pennies, although others like a mix in different situations. Sometimes its got to be a green foil wrapped triangle when the occasion calls.


I engage with many residents on Twitter and they have strong opinions on the mix offered of how they can contact their housing provider. Also how that is followed up, issues resolved and closed out. Its fair to say that its often after remote service failure, sometimes after self-serving, ‘Customer Service’ then kicks in. Repairs being a common theme, as ITV have highlighted.

If it can be supported and resourced, that ‘Customer Service’ element is of value to be there, at all times if needed. It was interesting last year before Christmas, that HHT opened a new customer and visitor reception area, at the Waterfront, Runcorn. More info here - https://www.haltonhousing.co.uk/about-us/news/new-waterfront-point-reception-opens-its-doors-customers-and-visitors


Of course much has changed in the management team at Halton, with some very good additions from the previous Torus Housing Group structure. Some great people I have had the pleasure to work with previously on serious transformation projects and taken a very hybrid and inclusive view of the customer service being offered.

I personally think that its good that Halton has moved closer to an omnichannel approach to customer service. It’s perhaps vindicated some of those doubters, who made those pilgrimages to Runcorn. Maybe a mix of channels to provide different strokes for different folks, was the best strategy after all…

What goes around comes around. Those 80's leg-warmers or 70's penny-round collars may well come back sometime soon!

Do let me know your feelings via DM or comments 😉

Related Post: Are we aiming high enough for our self-service?


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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.

Simple Minds – WaterfrontSimple Minds – Waterfront.
(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,Affinity,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,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, 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 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Tuesday 4 January 2022

Dirty Sheets

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

I was on a virtual call recently with an organisation, just live on a new comprehensive integrated housing solution. 

It was a project that I worked together with them after procurement as a Critical Friend. It had been a great project, although one that had to be elongated, due to Covid, extreme weather/flooding and some other challenges. The ALMO and a combination of very capable project managers, took all of this in their stride, bringing everything in to time and budget.

I have worked on lots of procurements and a good number I work with during the implementation, to ensure we get the most from the supplier and the project is delivered to expectations set earlier. I know other consultants who help procure and stop there. I am always sensitive to answering the question, “Could I bring this in for that budget and pretty much to that suggested timescale”? This is clearly not a concern for many others. A lot of my clients become my long term friends and its important to me to see the organisation get the solution they procured and the absolute best chance for residents to feel the benefits of it.

So, we have a nice shiny system, however there is an elephant in the room, in tabular form.


Yes my friends, I am talking about spreadsheets, these days its Excel (which has conclusively clobbered Lotus-1-2-3, Visicalc and SuperCalc on the whole). Now don’t get me wrong, I am not Spreadsheet-ist. I like them, but only used for the things that they are best at. Spreadsheets are NOT good at being a database. Excel is NOT a database!

The challenge for this organisation (like many others), is to discover out where spreadsheets are actively in use, then seek out why staff are updating them. It’s a given I guess that all organisations will have multiple copies of historic spreadsheets, that are static and if identified can be easily made read-only or archived automatically.

Asking users to ‘fess-up’ to updating and maintaining spreadsheets, can lead to limited engagement. Users may often hang on to updating spreadsheets, as they perceive it as ‘part of their job’. If eliminated, would that eliminate their job? Probably not, they would most likely do an alternative task, adding more value or being more fulfilling to them.

The windows or SharePoint file system can be used to identify active spreadsheets. Connection tools in Crystal Reports, Qlik and other tools, allow access to spreadsheet properties, creator/amend user etc, which can be the entry point to what spreadsheets are actively in use, week to week, month to month.


In my experience, a lot of the use of spreadsheets is historic. They were completed because a certain manager/director wanted them maintained, or the old system didn’t store that data. In some cases, they are maintained because managers did not ‘trust’ the primary system of record.

Once identified, ICT or business analyst staff need to work out what value is added from the spreadsheet. Also if any data recorded in spreadsheets now belongs in the new solution and put a plan together to move the data to the primary system of record. The change required will modify processes and staff jobs, hopefully cutting out waste and gravitating towards more of a single source of the truth from the new primary system of record.

The attitude towards spreadsheets and their proliferation needs to be bullish. Failure to do so will get in the way of using any new system well and a bullet that needs to be bit!   

Related Post: So Serco and the NHS are not safe to use Excel like a database now?


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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.

David Byrne - Gasoline And Dirty SheetsDavid Byrne - Gasoline And Dirty Sheets.
(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,Affinity,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,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, 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,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark 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Void,MriEngage,MrVoid, 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,Notice, 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,Tilt,TiltAffinity,Today,Tony Smith,Tony Smith That Housing IT Guy,TonySmith that housing IT,TonySmithHou,TonySmithHousing, ,TonySmithHousingITguy,Total,Total Mobile,Totalmobile,Trace,Tribal,Twitter, U2,UC,UK,UK Housing,Ukhousing,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,United Kingdom,Universal,Universalcredit,Universe,Unrest, Valueworks,Van Stock,Vantage,Vantage 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