In Disrepair

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

We all remember the PPI miss-selling scandal. The seemingly often daily calls, “You can cash in big – press 'One' now to start your claim…”.

It was irritating and good to see over eighteen months ago for it to finally end and we could return to mobile phone, 'have you had an accident that wasn't your fault' and parcel scams. PPI claims were mostly driven by ‘boiler room operations’ that relied on just a few folk taking up their chances, while irritating everyone else. There is good and bad news to the end of PPI and that the callers are still gainfully employed, except now many of them have moved into Social Housing Disrepair Claims instead. 

While as regularly revealed by the excellent Kwajo Tweneboa, there are some terrible repair horror stories out there, not all are down to lack of effort on some landlords.

Unfortunately, this is looking more and more like a happy hunting ground and there is plenty of scope for cashing in and potential big costs for landlords. Of course there would be less profit in this, if repairs were managed better, particularly using many of the technology & ICT means available, I often write about in this blog.

I am talking about well managed internal contractor/DLO teams, better diagnosis and scripting of repairs up front, better (automated & personal) communication, convenient repairs scheduling, mobile control of repairs and satisfaction follow-ups to catch snagging. Nothing here I would regard blue-sky, but how many council housing and socialhousing teams are properly taking advantage of all of this? If they are, how are they managing with self-service good enough to allow residents to be aware of when repair visits are due and help to manage amendments & cancellations?

Getting this right with integrated system solutions would probably eradicate 65% of issues. The remainder is perhaps down to maintaining a high quality of contractor trade work, so ITV TV don’t send a film crew down to one of more of your schemes to see the state of damp or dangerous properties. I would certainly read about less problems direct on my Twitter feed from residents across the UK and wouldn’t be sharing as much practical advice either.

However, whether a repair has been ignored for too long, bodged or just had six or more multiple visits that neither has actually closed it out, are all ripe for the ‘Disrepair Claims Ambulance Chasers’. Sadly so are repairs that perhaps have been closed out well, however with variable communication throughout. All can be caught up in the mix as the boiler rooms target lots of socialhousing residents and more & more turn into complaints and disrepair claims.

If you are not on top of it, others will be...

Over the last two years I have encountered more and more system requirements in procurements around disrepair claims. These involve accounting for an insurance amount for repairs, better case management and CRM tracking progressing to court cases.

In addition, one area often glossed over, the recovery of data (often in other systems) to formulate and manage an evidential timeline for the particular repair being challenged. In a recent project I am involved with, we are carefully examining where granular trade repairs visit data can be added to more ‘header’ type information, to support Disrepair Claims, going forward in a new better integrated data solution. Some legal & GDPR guidance is being fed into how data can be best retained and managed.

Social landlords failing to be able to evidence issues (or non-issues), can expect to be taken to the cleaners by the ambulance chases and in some cases, residents with better data on the repairs issues than them. Also, lets not lose sight of all this data being a means of reducing future issues and driving improvement/transformation. Getting the job done right first time, is good for resident and landlord. Its also more cost effective, something essential and more crucial as inflation starts to nudge up to 1970’s levels, which will almost certainly cause future tightening of repair budgets.

Ignore the Disrepair Ambulance Chasers at your peril.

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with DLO/repairs, scripting or wider HMS transformation, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew. 

I will bring the Chocolate Hobnobs ☕😉

       Related Post: Why do we fail so bad sometimes with Social Housing repairs? 

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.

Dan Auerbach - Heartbroken, In Disrepair.
(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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Smooth

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

As I have written a few times on this blog, consistency is pretty much synonymous with quality, as regards customer/tenant interactions. Also as reported quite intensively recently and called out by the regulator, lack of consistent response to repair interactions is a particular challenge. From my experience on social media where I have a few hundred followers who are residents/tenants, the challenge goes way beyond just repairs. Solutions also need to deal with reception of interactions in self-service, as well as via a back office CRM solution used by an agent.

The best route to securing consistency is a good scripting solution, powerful enough to cover all bases (not just response repairs) and very customisable to everyone’s local quirks and specialties. I think the most frequent scripting solution used within Social Housing and councils, has been Keyfax supporting repairs and all other enquiries. A decade ago while on the HMS supplier dark side, I completed many happy successful projects with Omfax and Peter Graddon historically.

The Keyfax scripting environment

These days, for more than a few clients I work with, the traditional HMS is in the bad books and more exploration of Microsoft Dynamics 365 (or other CRM’s, such as SalesForce or Netcall) can be the order of the day with the likes of resellers such as Crimson & Esuasive. While its possible to build elementary scripting into D365, for sure it can be clunky and very time consuming.

The D365 KeyNamics App

Its not surprising that a lot of organisations that previously had good experiences of Keyfax are now using a new proven Cloud version specifically engineered to plug quickly and directly into D365, ‘KeyNamics’. It handles both back office and web self-service facing provision and I had a good rake over it a few weeks ago. I have a particular interest as with many of my procurement projects, I am often retained to be involved as Critical Friend during implementation too.
  

One big bonus I see in KeyNamics, is that in addition to being very scalable taking advantage of native Cloud features, it comes with proven pre-baked in connectors/APIs to make the implementation integration process smoother. 

It has been implemented in just a few weeks and put fully live in under a couple of months.

I have seen a number of badly supported add-ins to D365. KeyNamics is backed up by dedicated helpdesk support, which has certainly made a big difference, for the Dynamics community to integrate/implement themselves, or alternatively for software solution suppliers/resellers to simply and quickly plug it in. Detailed documentation (from http://help.keyfax.biz) is freely available.

Other diagnosis tool solutions are available for sure, but not with the ease of script build that Omfax provides in KeyNamics. In alternative solutions, an out of the box template can be the only starting point, or the need for excessive hand-crafting by originating supplier, which can be expensive. I have seen many Keyfax sites where end-users manage all their scripting themselves, with no dramas. Good to see this has been carried through into KeyNamics.

KeyNamics setup in D365

While I like what I see, how do Social Housing landlords, juggling multiple primary solutions, such as Pobl in South Wales, (or others), find the experience?

Following a series of mergers, Pobl Group were using two different Housing Management systems alongside KeyFax. To both solidify a unified way of working, and improve on previous systems, Pobl chose to use Dynamics CRM as a single central Housing Management System. As part of this we chose to use the KeyNamics Dynamics Integration.

The Pobl Project Manager told me it was a pleasure to work with the Omfax team. "From a project and implementation perspective, it went very smoothly, and we didn't have any major issues. There was plenty of support from their side, which was instrumental to the success of the implementation".

And at Platform Housing, Sarah Clarke Transformation Lead was very complementary :

“Our work with Omfax has delivered real benefits for our colleagues and customers. By using Keyfax we have achieved consistency and efficiency in our contact management. Omfax have understood and supported our ambitions throughout our Dynamics 365 implementation, and we look forward to working with them in the future.”

If your transformation strategy is taking you down the Cloud-First route, or it might be on your radar in the next eighteen months, catch the Omfax team exhibiting later this month at #Housing2022 in Manchester, 28-30th June. I’m sure they will be happy to chat about your Dynamics scripting requirements, on stand TE34. When I chatted to the Omfax chaps last week, they still had a few exhibition passes left, if anyone is interested in booking a slot with them – get in touch at https://www.omfax.co.uk/contact-us/

I will be at the event too, I hope to see many of my regular blogcats & post readers there!

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with CRM, Digital Platforms, scripting or wider HMS transformation, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew. 

I will bring the Jaffa Cakes ☕😉

       Related Post: Is Microsoft Dynamics the only CRM option? Why not give Salesforce a look? 

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

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

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.

Santana – Smooth.
(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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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, ...
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