Tony Smith,that Housing IT Guy https://uk.linkedin.com/in/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

Thursday, 22 January 2026

Make A Move (exit the 18 month club…)

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

On Critical Friends, Critical First Steps, and the 18-Month Limbo Club, the other day out of the blue, a director from an organisation I’d recently worked with dropped me a note to say thank you. Not for rescuing a go-live, or untangling a programme that had quietly drifted into spreadsheet archaeology. Not for stabilising something already wobbling. They thanked me for (just) getting them started.

Started on their procurement journey to new systems that is.

That small detail stuck with me, because it highlights something in my three decades in the sector, I've noticed we do not talk about enough in #socialhousing, asset management, repairs, customer services etc. A lot of organisations are not failing at implementation. They are not even failing at procurement. They are stuck somewhere earlier, in a kind of organisational limbo where everyone agrees change is needed, but nobody quite pushes the first proper domino over.

The “Critical Friend” role I have often written about previously is often seen as something you bring in once procurement is done & dusted. Contracts signed, steering groups formed, and the inevitable workshop where someone asks what success looks like, (while everyone avoids eye contact). But by then, many of the most important decisions, or non-decisions, have already been made. Being a Critical Friend much earlier is different. It is less about fixing a plan and more about helping an organisation admit that it does not yet have one, (or at least sometimes not one it is prepared to act on).

What that usually means is asking awkward but necessary questions before anything has gone to market. What problem are you actually trying to solve? What is the real cost of staying as you are, beyond the collective sighing in meetings? What does “better” look like on a grey Tuesday morning when the phones are busy and a system is under pressure? And perhaps most importantly, are you genuinely ready to move, or are you still doing a bit of superficial browsing and tyre kicking?

Browsing is where a lot of organisations get stuck. Suppliers engage positively. Demos are attended. Workshops are run. Requirements are discussed and refined and discussed again. Suppliers may suggest a dodgy feeling direct award. Someone produces a draft options appraisal that feels reassuringly substantial. And then time passes. Eighteen months. Sometimes two years+. Nothing formally progresses, but everyone feels busy and involved, which can be oddly comforting.

Software suppliers have pointed this out to me more than once, (usually with admirable diplomacy OBVs). They will honestly say that engagement has been good, which is true. It just has not gone anywhere. And the reason is rarely a lack of intelligence or intent. It is usually fear or inexperience, dressed up as prudence.

There is often a quiet fear of procurement itself. Not because procurement colleagues are unreasonable, but because procurement is where thinking turns into doing. Up to that point, it is all hypothetical. Once procurement enters the room, it becomes about routes, governance, compliance, and decisions that have names attached to them. It becomes harder to stay safely non-committal. My attitude is very much to engage with procurement early however, they are not to be feared! Its a fallacy that your procurement team are there to prevent you buying anything.

There is also anxiety of the marketplace. Housing has a long memory, and system changes that went wibble linger in organisational folklore for years. People worry about picking the wrong supplier, or missing a better one, or being dazzled by shiny dashboards, or that integration disaster, while the fundamentals quietly disappoint. That anxiety can keep organisations circling the runway long after they should have taken off.

Above all, there is fear of making a mistake. In social housing, mistakes land on real people. Rent/Service Charge accounts, repairs, compliance, damp & mould, and trust are not abstract concepts. No one wants to be the person whose name is later associated with an “unfortunate outcome”. So the safest option can feel like not deciding at all.

The problem is that no decision is still a decision. It just spreads its impact quietly over time. Limbo has a cost, even if it feels calm. Good people burn energy propping up creaking processes and legacy systems. Workarounds and spreadsheets harden into unofficial policy (the Shadow IT). Data quality never quite even starts to improve, because nobody wants to invest effort cleaning and preparing data for a system that might be replaced “soon”. Transformation opportunities are missed, not because the ambition is lacking, but because the foundations are not moving.

After a year or two of this, organisations often feel tired before they have even started. So much discussion has taken place that the emotional energy meant for delivery has already been spent. At that point, ambition gets trimmed. Scope is quietly reduced. Or the whole thing is deferred again, usually until after the next restructure, which in housing terms can sometimes mean a very long wait indeed.

I sometimes wonder whether more organisations are stuck in this early limbo than are struggling with delivery programmes that never quite land. Implementation failures are visible and noisy. Pre-procurement paralysis looks sensible from the outside. It gets described as caution, or due diligence, or waiting for the right moment. Housing is very good at creating more moments to wait for.

There is a simple test I often come back to. If you had to state, honestly, the single biggest thing stopping you from moving to procurement, what would it be? Not the long list of issues, but the real blocker. Until that is named, organisations tend to orbit the problem rather than tackle it.

If any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, it is not something to be embarrassed about. The pressures are real, the risks are real, and the environment is unforgiving. But organisations that move well are not those that eliminate uncertainty. They are the ones that acknowledge it early, structure it, and move forward anyway.

That is where the right experienced Critical Friend can genuinely add value, long before a contract is signed. Not by telling you what to buy, but by helping you move from “we should” to “we are”.

So if your organisation recognises that it is blocked at the very start, do consider reaching out to me at some point. Not when the programme is already smouldering. Earlier than that, when you are still standing on the touchline, debating whether the ball is regulation size*, and wondering why the match never seems to start.

* Size 5 in case you were wondering - circumference of 68 to 70 cm (about 27 to 28 inches) and a weight of 410 to 450 grams at the start of a match. The internal pressure should be 0.6 to 1.1 bar, which is 8.5 to 15.6 psi.

Is your organisation doing more pondering than transforming ?

Get in touch , I will drop in for a cuppa & bring the Hobnobs ☕

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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.

Lostprophets – Make A Move

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

Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here , what projects do we get involved in? Access them 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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Monday, 5 January 2026

Art , Empire, industry

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

Most people in social housing will have come across Manifest Software Solutions (previously South View for you oldies out there!) at some point, even if they did not always realise it. They tend to be good when systems stop talking to each other and patience is running thin. APIs, flat files, awkward legacy databases, vendor finger pointing etc. Manifest usually find a way through.

Likewise, SAVA will be a familiar name to anyone who has spent time wrestling with EPCs, energy modelling, retrofit evidence, intelligent energy modelling, or the growing pressure to actually understand stock performance rather than just report on it. What far fewer people seem to have clocked is that both of these firms now sit inside the Infoshare+ group , which has been quietly recently building a footprint across local government and social housing.

That quiet bit matters. The sector is used to big, noisy players with glossy launches and confident claims about transformation. InfosharePlus has not done that. Instead from CIPFA in Nov24, it has been steadily assembling capability that sits underneath the surface. Integration that works in the real world rather than the ideal one, and energy and asset intelligence that aligns uncomfortably well with where regulation, funding and scrutiny are heading. It raises an interesting question. Are we watching the early stages of a new MRI, Civica or Aareon style group forming, not by swallowing whole housing management systems in one go, but by slowly stitching together the bits that everyone else struggles to do well?

If that is the ambition, it is not a bad one. Infoshare+ does have the current strapline “Helping local public services create better outcomes for all”, which is positive. Then again, Google adopted “Don’t be evil” as an informal corporate motto in the early 2000s too. I don’t recall that sticking in the end that one!

I don’t think the SocialHousing sector does not really need another monolithic platform promise. What it needs is less friction between systems, better evidence behind asset decisions, and fewer heroic spreadsheets propping up regulatory returns. Starting with integration and energy data is arguably a smarter route than starting with front end functionality. It tackles real pain rather than perceived gaps. But this is also where many previous attempts have sometimes come unstuck.

For this to be genuinely good for the sector, Infoshare+ would need to resist the temptation to simply become another vendor gravity well. Housing organisations already carry too much technical debt and too many overlapping tools. The value here only materialises if integration is used to reduce duplication, not multiply it, and if energy and asset data becomes part of a shared, trusted core rather than another specialist silo. If clients end up with three loosely connected expensive platforms just wearing one pretty badge, nothing has really improved.

They would also need to not forget to lean hard into the social purpose of their client base. Social housing is not just another regulated industry. Decisions about data, evidence and systems have direct consequences for tenants, safety, affordability and trust. Getting this right means prioritising transparency, auditability and resilience over shiny features. It means being honest about what can and cannot be delivered, automated, and designing for the long term reality of stretched teams, ageing stock and political scrutiny. Plenty of larger suppliers talk about this (and AI almost forever these days!). Fewer consistently design for it.

There is also a cultural challenge. The reason original firms like Manifest and SAVA are generally currently respected is that they tend to deal mostly in reality rather than aspiration. They understand messy data, imperfect processes and the compromises that come with legacy estates. Scaling that mindset inside a growing group is not easy. Many acquisitions fail not because the technology is wrong, but because the delivery culture gets diluted or buried under layers of governance and sales pressure. Often in group structures, it might take over 3 months to even get a quote for quite routine work. If Infoshare+ wants to do this better than others have managed, it will need to protect that pragmatism rather than sanding it down.

From my decades of Critical Friend experience, looking at this development as a client or sector observer, I would be less interested in whether Infoshare+ becomes the next big name, and more interested in whether it becomes the most trusted one. Trust in this sector is built by fixing awkward problems without drama, being clear about ownership when things break, and helping organisations simplify rather than accumulate. Charging a perceived reasonable price is appreciated too, less of the £10k staring price for everything maybe? . Quiet growth can be a strength if it stays grounded in respectful reliable delivery and purpose.

There is something potentially interesting forming here. Whether it becomes genuinely positive for social housing will depend on choices made now, before the group gets too big to remember why people valued the individual parts in the first place. As ever, the sector will judge it not on ambition, but on whether life gets materially easier, safer and more defensible for the people who have to live with the outcomes.

More on Infoshare+ Public Sector here and its larger more diverse owner Omni.

Is your SocialHousing ICT / transformation project drastically overrunning ?

Get in touch , I will drop in for a cuppa & bring the chocolate gingers ☕

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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.

Bill Nelson’s Red Noise , Art Empire Industry

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

Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here , what projects do we get involved in? Access them here

. . . . . . . . . . . . ES | FR | DE | IT | UK

Wednesday, 31 December 2025

Times Change

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

Late autumn this year I found myself doing something that felt oddly symbolic of where #socialhousing systems tech is right now. One day in London, I was sat in a room full of people talking about CRM platforms, cloud everything, Agentic AI and transformation. The very next day I was with a long-established UK HMS supplier, still wrestling their way through cracking full browser compatibility, legacy architecture, and the sheer effort of dragging decades of product forward into a modern world to make it saleable.

The contrast could not have been sharper.

The CRM event had an almost evangelical feel to it. Satisfied users. Big smiles throughout. Big stories. Also some big price tags for some. Organisations talking openly about spending significantly more than they ever would have done on a traditional housing management system, but justifying it because it delivered what they needed operationally with less grief. You could feel the belief in the room. Not just belief in the product, but belief in the journey they had chosen. OK Rev Blackgrape, "Whose souls are we gonna save" ?

The HMS day felt very different. Not bad, not negative, but grounded. Practical. Good to see they were honest about the challenges. You could sense the effort going in, but also the drag. The dead-weight of history. The compromises that come from having to modernise something that was never designed for browsers, cloud delivery, SAAS or rapid iteration in the first place. You can see why some recent would be ‘has-been slayers’ thought it best to just start from scratch.

Which pretty much sums up 2025 for me.

Across this last year I have helped some clients decide that a CRM platform genuinely was the right answer for them. Others who had already gone down that road and then needed help finding a way back to a more traditional HMS. And plenty where CRM was never really a contender at all, because the complexity, user seats cost, current absent IP or operational risk just did not stack up. There truly is something for everyone, as I proved in 2025 for the small (under 190 homes) up to the large (over 38k homes) providers.

So where is the market actually up to now?

There is a growing narrative that only CRM platforms can innovate. That they are the only ones moving fast, experimenting, releasing new functionality, AI Agents and responding to modern expectations. Meanwhile some HMS suppliers are still accused of undertaking radial rubber tyre 70's style retreads. Recent HMS supplier consolidation has certainly not helped. New user interfaces bolted onto old cores, maybe flat text data exchange. Browser layers masking systems that were never meant to live there. Old legacy functionality dropped and not carried through. Innovation slowed not by lack of intent, but by technical debt.

There is some truth in that I think, but its not the whole story.

CRM platforms absolutely can move fast, especially when they are not carrying decades of housing-specific programming baggage. But speed comes at a price. Cost, complexity, dependency on extensive reseller led configuration, and the need for organisations to effectively build their own housing system on top of a general purpose CRM platform. Easy and flexible access to data, often assumed / promised, often not so seen in reality. For some providers, that is empowering. For others, it becomes exhausting, after all we are in the business of managing stock, not developing software !

On the HMS side, the big question is whether serious innovation is possible while parts of the product estate are still incomplete, partially browser based (on the journey..), or constrained by older architectural decisions. Can suppliers genuinely leap forward while also keeping the lights on, via potentially a shrunken help desk, for thousands of existing customers. Some will manage it. Some will struggle. And some will quietly fall further behind than they care to admit in their Powerpoints..

For housing providers, councils with retained stock, the last ALMOS, AHB’s, and charities, this leaves a pretty uncomfortable middle ground. Do you bet on the flexibility and promise of CRM and accept the cost and effort. Do you stick with traditional HMS and hope the innovation curve steepens. Or do you end up walking one path, only to later retrace your steps when reality bites?

I have seen all three this year (and the fourth choice of the ultra-modern HMS cloud built from the ground up too).

What feels certain is that 2026 is not going to be any calmer. Housing system procurement decisions will be likely to get harder, not easier. The stakes will keep rising. And the gap between what suppliers say is possible and what organisations can realistically absorb will be tested more than ever.

Interesting times ahead. Not always comfortable ones. But definitely interesting for journeying beyond this first 25% of the twenty first century. If what I have covered here sounds familiar to you and your organisation, maybe that’s a ride we might be able to work together on getting you to where you need to be.

Is your SocialHousing ICT / transformation project drastically overrunning ?

Get in touch , I will drop in for a cuppa & bring the Jammy Dodgers ☕

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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.

New Order – Times Change

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

Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here , what projects do we get involved in? Access them here

. . . . . . . . . . . . ES | FR | DE | IT | UK

Monday, 1 December 2025

Terry Waite Sez

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

You’d think, after three decades working with social housing ICT in organisations, I’d have seen every flavour of delayed ICT implementation known to humankind. But apparently not.

Recent projects have shone a light on a whole new genre of horror. In an off the cuff conversation recently with some procurement professionals we had a wry chuckle about how project teams often get so close to our software suppliers, its almost like they have agreed to be taken hostage, without noticing. Close to where I live we had a real life hostage in Terry Waite, educated at Stockton Heath County Secondary School (where he became head boy). Hopefully this post will save you from the “Terry Waite experience”.

Projects that run so way, way beyond their contracted timelines, cost envelopes, and original scope that even “Stockholm Syndrome” looks like a healthy working relationship. I must stress up front, this is not the fault of the procurement team, so don’t be running to them when the issues finally emerge.

Let me set the scene Shakespeare style, because if you work in UK SocialHousing, I can guarantee you’ll recognise at least a fair chunk of this.

Act 1: The Great Oversell

It always starts the same way. Compliant procurement signs off a shiny new housing system / CRM / data platform that was apparently “delivered successfully” somewhere (it’s always a council no one can contact because the project team “moved on”, ever heard that old chestnut?).

The demos were slick, the roadmaps looked credible, and the supplier said the magic words: “No, no, this isn’t a prototype. It’s basically ready. Just needs a bit of configuration.”. Slim chance any meaningful soft-market engagement tool place, right questions asked during procure, or any external impartial third party Critical Friend involved.

Fast forward 9 months and the client is discovering that the “product” is actually:
• Five wireframes,
• A half-started API,
• and relying a Scrum Master Jedi space cadet developer, called Carl who only works Tuesdays and sometimes answers Teams messages.

Act 2: The Delays That Are Always Someone Else’s Fault

Here’s where the real fun stuff starts.
The supplier discovers ‘unexpected complexity’. By which they mean: we never actually considered or built this bit.
Your Subject matter experts (SME’s) are blamed for being unavailable. Usually because they’ve been dragged into three other failing IT projects at the same time.

Data migration is apparently now “your problem”.

Even though the supplier’s salesperson swore blind last year that “our tools handle that automatically”. Limited data tools or config provided, probably some command line stuff, so like chainsaws with no handle.

And then the classic:
“We’ll need to raise more expensive Change Control for that.”. A phrase now heard almost more frequently in the sector than “Have you tried turning it off and on again chum?”.

Act 3: ICT Starts to Side With the Supplier
This is where the proper 'Stockholm Syndrome' bit creeps in.

Project teams who have been battered by eighteen months of supplier excuses start to internalise them. I’ve watched perfectly sensible people begin to turn into Terry Waite, defending the supplier like they’re auditioning for a Channel4 hostage negotiation documentary.

Things I’ve heard in real project meetings, with my own ears:

“To be fair, they’re trying really hard.” - (No they’re not. They’re trying to sell you the 8th Change Control in 18 months)
“It’s not the supplier’s fault the module isn’t finished… these things take time.” - They do, yes, but not three years, Pauline!
“We shouldn’t escalate, it might upset them.” - They’re not an endangered species. They’re your contracted supplier.

Once IT starts parroting supplier talking points, senior business stakeholders quietly lose interest. Project Boards stop meeting, or worse, the only people turning up are ICT and the supplier, the two groups most invested in pretending everything is Absolutely Fine. Someone might notice and try to involve procurement. Guess what, its not really their problem.

And at this point, the supplier has effectively taken your project hostage.

Act 4: Senior Leadership Fatigue

As humans we are pre-wired to think not too far beyond a single orbit of our nearest star. When a project runs past 12 months late, corporate and human memory shortens.

People move on. New Directors arrive, assuming the system must almost be live because the budget’s mostly spent.

You will have experienced this one. Project Boards get cancelled “just for a month” because the sponsor has something more urgent. Then it’s two months. Then it’s “shall we just reconvene after year-end or Christmas🧑‍🎄🤶 (no year specified) ?”.

Meanwhile the supplier enjoys the freedom of operating without scrutiny. It’s magical what you can get away with when no one’s checking the mileage on your sprint burn-down charts.

Act 5: The Last-Minute Crisis Call

Here’s the real punchline.

After three, four, sometimes six years of this, the organisation finally admits something’s wrong. And guess who they gonna call?

Yes (not Ghost Busters!). Me.

And what I find is depressingly consistent:
• Its an archaeological dig to find the original tender and contract (to check what teeth we might have to bite our supplier with)
• A project team who can’t remember what the original business case said.
• De-scoped requirements to the point we are not actually delivering core requirements
• A supplier who still insists “we’re 90% there” (always 90%, never 92%, 69% or the actual 38%).
• A half-configured system glued together by promises, spreadsheets, lucky pants and hope.
• And business users who now hate ICT with the power of a thousand suns.

You can almost hear the theme from “The Shawshank Redemption” playing as we dig through issue backlogs older than some of the apprentices on the team.
So why does this keep happening?

Across multiple clients, councils, ALMOs, HAs, and AHBs I’ve supported over the years, the root causes are depressingly predictable:

Oversold products - Solutions sold as mature via PDFs and PowerPoints when they’re closer to shabby GCSE coursework.
Under-skilled/staffed implementation teams for client & supplier - Your project shouldn’t hinge on “a really good data conversion contractor, Norman” that Eric in ICT found on LinkedIn, nor supplier implementers from another half-implemented site.
Unrealistic timelines - A £1m transformation which should take 21 months, sold on a £300k 9 month schedule.
Weak governance - Project Boards that meet quarterly “if diaries allow”, with high-level sponsors missing from client and supplier.
Change Control addiction - A supplier finance business model masquerading as a methodology.
Internal staff worn down by attrition

Eventually they accept the supplier’s narrative because it’s easier than fighting it.

Breaking Out of Captivity

When I get involved early enough, there are things that generally work:

Re-establish governance ruthlessly. Have your supplier exec sponsor ruck up in person monthly in person to experience some of your pain (especially if you are on the remote edges of rural Scotland, West Wales, English West Country, Galway etc)
If a full Project Board isn’t meeting monthly, it’s not a Project Board, it’s a rumour. Also, have the supplier sponsor ruck up in person, forcing them to feel some of the SMT/EMT pain of not having the benefits of your project, plus ongoing cost of internal and external staff budget.
Force transparency.- roll in the burn-down charts, backlog reviews, demo-driven delivery, RAID stats and being held to account for ever-aging issues. No more “trust us”.
Re-baseline the whole thing - Painful and brave, but better than throwing good money after bad.
Re-empower business leads. ICT should support delivery, not rewrite business requirements on the fly OR be the sole delivery stakeholder. Round up the real (other) business stakeholders.
Hold suppliers to the contract clauses you have, not going with vibes and vague promises. And sometimes, controversial, but true, you might have to pull the plug on the project. Because after too many years of captivity, sometimes the hostage doesn’t need a mediator. They need a rescue mission.

Final Thought

If any of this rings uncomfortably true in your organisation, you’re not unlucky. You’re just living through the same pattern that’s played out across the public sector over and over. Birmingham City Council perhaps one of the most recent.

The trick is spotting Stockholm Syndrome before you start defending the supplier’s latest “unexpected delay”. Also, if you’re already defending them? That’s when you need someone from outside the room to remind you who’s actually tied to the radiator 😉

Is your SocialHousing ICT / transformation project drastically overrunning ?

Get in touch , I will drop in for a coffee & bring the KitKats ☕

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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 Fall – Terry Waite Sez

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

Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here , what projects do we get involved in? Access them 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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