Letters Sent

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

A truism about ICT systems is that we should try to configure them to do as much of the logical and mundane tasks, that they are really good at. Often that can involve (properly) configured workflow.

For example, checking nine or ten things every interaction we have with customers, so we serve them appropriately and tailor service best we can. One warning message can dissect the fact we need to know our customer is ‘hard of hearing and also generally visited in twos’.

Hopefully staff are generally better at the human empathy skills (we would hope) and would be better at spotting a stressed or ill customer and have skills ICT would not have to help them with those challenges.

Clever and well thought through automation is useful and valuable. However, its easily disrupted or knocked out of kilter.

New system or solution implemented with insufficient or limited testing?

Perhaps upgrades are applied to software and not coherently tested?

Possibly staff change and insufficient training is provided to enable new intakes to operate the system as needed to drive automation?

Maybe we don’t report and manage volumes, so its challenging to notice if we have a problem at all?

In other cases, managers assume ‘automation must be happening’ and either does not realise they are still responsible for managing the service and how it works, or monitoring it. Over the last ten years I have seen more and more confusion about who is managing what. Ownership is a lost art I guess. Grenfell was the ultimate recent example of how checks and balances never took place, management & oversight was absent and Seventy Two innocent residents paid with their lives.

While ICT automation in Social Housing is unlikely to cause serious fatalities, however in medicine for patients awaiting cancer or other serious diagnosis, absence of communications can be very serious. You may have heard last week that Nottingham University Hospitals Trust failed to send 400,000 letters. Read more here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66950204

Apparently, it started in 2008 and reasons cited spookily were ‘Lack of responsibility’.

While this is terrible, there are valuable lessons to learn from.
•    Test all aspects of new systems and never accept anything at face value. That’s your responsibility, not your suppliers
•    Monitor performance
•    Spot-check outputs on a regular basis, to confirm automation works as designed
•    Use incoming complaints as your service feedback loop. If we think 100% of communications are being automatically issued and complaints have increased by 325%, analyse where the original system failure is occurring

In this post I have concentrated on automation that has gone wrong. However, with the many systems I encounter and regularly work with, often the problem is that available system automation is not in use. Some of this can be easily worked out, others may need a help desk call. With some suppliers it might (feel to always) be £10k of implementation consultancy, whatever you are asking!

While expense might be involved, never lose sight of ROI. Maybe a £10k investment can be recouped in x months through staff savings. Or better still we don’t save staff at all, we just retrain them to add more value and have more fulfilling roles.

Don’t forget if you are struggling with automation, just get in touch and ask!

Subscribe to our blog here on this link, to always catch the latest news on whats happening in the sector.

Acutance Consulting would be happy to help you review your automation, 

please just get in touch, for a chat over Hobnobs & a brew ☕😋

       Related Post: Are you getting the best from workflow?

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.

Half Man Half Biscuit – Letters Sent.
(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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Do It Yourself

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



Last week I was reading the July 2017 edition of Housing Technology magazine.

Interestingly it had articles that extolled the go-live virtues of HMS packaged solutions (4 supplier success stories) and also big ERP (1) at Sanctuary Housing. Strangely, on page four there was also a success story, from a 12,000 home landlord who had gone it alone, DIY just like the old days, how we used to do it.

It was very interesting to read Lawrence Gardner’s article and to hear about the journey he has taken the Wrekin on, for the last five years. I am sure it can feel quite good to have broken free from the shackles of your software suppliers and can dedicate resource to the specific issues being encountered, rather than waiting for ‘Roadmap Enhancements’ to be delivered. Lawrence did not outline what software tools, over just five years it had been developed in, with just 11.5 man years. Clearly Telford rather than Hanoi or Bangalore, is where certain key HMS software providers, should be cutting their code.

My experience of developing a rich HMS solution at my old shop, between 2004-2008, was about 26 professional developers beavering away for about 4 years. That’s 104 person years in Microsoft VB6 technology. We might assume the Wrekin have not developed this in .net. Few clues here then, for any of the UK’s 300+ RSLs/RPs, to pick over, to replicate this themselves. The Wrekin have got previous form on the product front however, if anyone remembers the Hand-e-work solution. Possibly speculating, ‘Hand-e-Housing’ may be released in the coming months. Watch this space.

However, I have had lots of chats over the years with many clients, who have wanted to consider building a HMS from scratch. They often ask, “How difficult can it be?”, “It’s just people and properties isn’t it?”. I have also had that conversation with one client who had their own in-house housing system up until about 7 years ago and after having a (mainstream HMS) package for a while, were considering building one again.

I asked, “Why did you abandon your last in-house HMS then?”. The reply was that it fell behind with needs of the housing team, regulator, returns/KPIs and was poorly documented, so vulnerable to key staff leaving/retiring too. They clearly did not have 104 person years to chuck at it either, so it would have been a pretty basic solution, at best. Understandably, a (sensible) decision was made to select another packaged HMS.

There are alternatives out there as well as DIY, MS Dynamics CRM, ERP from a number of sources, as well as the usual packaged HMS solutions. Each come with their own risks, costs and anticipated richness of functionality. That latter deliverable is perhaps easier to evaluate with a package solution, less so on a project involving much faith and trust, based on high hopes and often extravagant sales promises.

When you are using an external software supplier, at least (as some RSLs & Housing Groups) are finding, you can always dig out the contract and with some assistance, take them to/threaten a trip to court for damages. Bear in mind it would be very hard to do that with your own ICT team, if they didn’t manage such a good job of the deliverables, as the Wrekin.

Related Post: Dont leave documenting your in-house ICT solutions, it soon could be too late!  

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.

Gloria Gaynor - Do It Yourself.
(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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