Monday 28 March 2022

Schedules

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

How times have changed in the world of scheduling diaries in Social Housing, for trade repairs and other resident visits.

There was a time when scheduling was the proverbial Marmite, with most housing professionals I worked with, either with the binary choice of ICT/application scheduling as ‘essential’ or ‘not essential as good staff are the key’. In the former case the options were pretty much ‘Optitime’ or nothing really, to automate and aid the efficient scheduling of work to be issued.

Funnily enough, I find you can pretty much ‘carbon date’ repairs people talking about scheduling in the Socialhousing sector, by if they call that product Xmbrace, Optitime, DRS (Dynamic Resource Scheduling), Kirona or OneAdvanced. Also, those guys memories, war stories and battle scars of a migration from version 4 to version 5 of that on-premise delivered product.

Xmbrace Kirona Optitime DRS scheduling

However, getting on to nearly two decades of diary scheduling in housing, we are in a very different landscape, one being more dominated by Cloud computing, higher expectations of APIs/integration and native browser delivered solutions as default.

We now have a wide variety and in some ways bewildering array of options open to us, particularly if we are interested in scheduling multiple teams, not just contractor repairs, maybe compliance, arrears and asset management & surveys.

If course a lot of software providers had a go at writing a scheduler (why how hard can it be?), crashing and burning or only having a single user etc. ProScheduler or was it PromasterScheduler is one that springs to mind, that I came across. I think I was always being told that someone new was always ready to sign up to it. Something that does not make sense in practice and clearly would have brought with it risks of little new investment or ideas going into it.

In the move (or rush for some software suppliers) to redevelop/modernise the integrated HMS for the Cloud, many are adding their own integral ‘scheduler’. These can have varying degrees of being ‘dynamic’, at times a difficult noun to define. At the bare minimum these can be ‘drag & drop’ diaries that feed mobile appointments, right up to some aspect of being able to reshuffle tasks (jobs, visits etc if you like). Many contractor solutions these days include their own scheduler option, sometimes after many years of integrating to the old DRS default. Examples include Totalmobile TM with their Optimise option. I think it would be prudent for suppliers to consider retaining the opportunity for clients, to go for the in-house as well as any preferred available external option.

TM Totalmobile Optimise scheduling

In some recent procurements, I have worked with clients already with seats on schedulers, such as DRS and preferring to move to a new solution taking those forward. After all, they were currently just paying annual maintenance for those diary seats and this can be more economic/convenient than swapping out.

Contractor solutions used primarily outside housing, also often come with their own scheduling facilities. One example is BigChange, that provides bulk-scheduling options as well as the expected mobile integrations.

‘Plug-In’ scheduler options have been available for some time, such as Click (now part of Salesforce Field Service) and the new written for Cloud ‘More IQ’ solution. The latter is backed and designed by a number of original DRS development staff, including Gael Sianson a chap very recognisable from Optitime events. I remember an interesting evening exploring a hotel Calvados menu with him and his colleagues, many years back before the full move to Kirona.

FLS Fast Lean Smart scheduling

I notice too that FLS (Fast Lean Smart) appears to be gaining some traction in Social Housing recently too. Good modern API’s are essential for these standalone options, particularly where an integration into Cloud/Browser applications or D365 (Microsoft Dynamics 365) are being considered.

The list above is not intended to be absolutely comprehensive, so apologies if I have inadvertently missed any products.

So, what should be considered when looking at the available options?

  • Carefully consider (3 or 5 year) cost of ownership , including integrations, per seat and annual maintenance pricing. What are the costs of adding additional diary seats. Are these cheaper, the more you add?
  • If an existing solution is already in use, is it economic to swap out? How well does that existing solution function, supporting the Customer Journey?
  • Speed – For your mix of diaries (repairs, arrears, estate management etc), how fast can appointments be assigned? Will customer service agents have a resident on waiting for 3 seconds or 30? Is it this fast with ten diaries when demonstrated, or the 350 diaries in your actual real world staff team? 
  • Will your scheduler work with self-service quickly and and any repairs diagnostic tool in place?
  • How many matching metrics are needed? Areas, towns, locations, sub-locations, trade primary/secondary skills, ability/experience, multi-trade, paired visits etc?
  • Are you looking for an on-premise or more future-proof native in the Cloud solution?
  • Is there a preference to reduce software suppliers to a consolidated (trusted) solution or a mix of best of breed, with multiple suppliers and application sources/technologies?
  • Is your scheduler choice already integrated (& proven) to your application software, or is a new interface needed? A rich set of available and well documented APIs can speed up the latter.
  • Technology - If the scheduler is cloud based, can it support 1,000 diaries as easily as a 100 and scale up/down quickly if required?
  • How much dynamic scheduling is really needed?
  • How well would aspects such as road conditions and other minute by minute optimisations be taken into account?
  • How easy should bulk automatic moving of diary appointments be possible. E.G. from three staff members that have just phoned in sick, having gone down with the Covid19 ?
  • Also, will features such as 'doorstep' follow-on/up appointments be capable by trade operatives/other staff? IE staff on the scheme as well as office based agents can also flexibly re-appoint. Cloud based scheduling might be a certain advantage there.

At some point it would be interesting to put a blogpost together on some real-world scheduler experiences, or in fact examine one of the newer offerings in more detail if that were practical. Stay tuned if we can do that a bit later in the year.

If we can help your organisation with repair, DLO, contractor, scheduling, mobile or self-service application and transformation issues/procurement, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew 😉

       Related Post:Why are Social Housing Repairs often these days so poor (or perceived as so)?


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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 Cutter Music – SchedulesDavid Cutter Music – Schedules.
(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 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,In4Systems 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, 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,More IQ,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Microsoft dynamics GP 2013,Miracle,MobileIron,Mobysoft,Monopoly board images and pictures,Montal,Mr Void,MriEngage,MrVoid,MoreIQ 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 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, ...
. . . . . . . . . . . .




Tuesday 15 March 2022

Cyber Insekt

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

Between my last blogpost I published and now, Europe as we know is now at war. Not a ‘Cold War’ like in my youth in the 80’s, but a very ‘Hot’ one as Russia have invaded Ukraine. My hopes and prayers, as I am sure yours do, go to my friends of Ukraine origins in the North West and the poor people of the country, for a speedy resolution.

Over the last decade or so, we have been told that UK conventional forces (apart from Trident nukes), can be reduced and new wars are more likely to be fought in cyberspace. Well, Ukraine hasn’t quite played out like that, despite the Russian GRU having its own ‘Fancy Bear/APT28’ team, dedicated to hack for the soviet government. There has been few recent high profile reports of cyber attacks on Ukraine internet infrastructure etc in the last few weeks, matching the shells/missiles dropping in. By all accounts, over the last five years, since Crimea and Donbas invasions, there has been a lot of probing Ukraine cyber infrastructure, by its neighbour to the east.

Recent sanctions appear to be causing the Russian people problems already, despite not really having an effect on Putin. While the latter is unlikely to unleash his weapons on The West and NATO anytime soon, it is not so far fetched that Russia could be unleashing cyber attacks which could be easily denied instead. Some historic examples, such as the NotPetra Malware Attacks accidently spilled over into other countries and hacks affected commercial companies to the tune of $10b, including Cadbury, Maersk shipping and Merck pharma. Behind that spill over appeared to be buggy code. We can only wish that UAT drastically improves for future ransomware.

Its likely more intense Russian cyber aggression can be expected, so all business in The West, should move to a policy of heightened alert and as the US Cyber & Infrastructure Security Agency might term it, “Shields Up”. Our organisations specifically may not be the target, but we may easily become collateral damage.

So, I would say its time to take particular stock of your security and cyber awareness, including interconnectivity, infrastructure and your human staff firewall. Is your penetration testing and that of your Cloud based applications, up to date and are recommendations being followed up to eliminate/drastically reduce risks?

Many actions are very easy to carry out with some loose security, unnecessarily spare open server ports etc. Bringing a website down, supporting a DOS (denial of service) attack, stealing customer or other personal details. IE everything from low level harassment to serious disruption.

This should be a time for all organisations to take stock of their cybersecurity as we are in heightened times. Keep on top of the main touchpoint areas in the office or when staff are working from home :-

  1. Have regular backups of all your key systems and data. Keep copies securely in the Cloud/off-site and check periodically that they can be recovered.
  2. Apply any new security patches for your operating system, web browser and all other software on your devices to keep them secure.
  3. Install and regularly update anti-virus and anti-malware software across all your devices. regularly test they are operating as expected
  4. Use strong complex passwords and change them regularly. Also, where possible use two-factor authentication for added security.
  5. Promote use of different passwords for different websites/services or consider using a reputable password management tool.
  6. Encrypt any sensitive data and do not send passwords or other sensitive data via email unencrypted.
  7. To protect against phishing or ransomware be cautious of clicking on links sent to you/staff within emails, social media websites/apps or unfamiliar websites.
  8. Use a firewall and check that your internet router/firewall has the latest firmware installed.
  9. If you operate Wi-Fi networks, make sure it has encryption (eg WPA2) and regularly change the Wi-Fi password.
  10. Use a VPN (a virtual private network) if you are accessing your systems over public Wi-Fi or an insecure network.


Be aware and staff safe, in what is becoming an ever more dangerous world, in Ukraine and also potentially in a digital way, much closer to home.

Related Post: Keep a close eye on your human as well as ICT firewall?


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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 Fall – Cyber InsektThe Fall – Cyber Insekt.
(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 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,In4Systems 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, 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, 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 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, ...
. . . . . . . . . . . .