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

Showing posts with label applications. Show all posts

Thursday, 25 July 2024

Shut 'Um Down

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

Its all very well for you switched on and on the ball organisations, all your quality data in the Cloud and most of your staff applications presented in any modern browser they want to work with. But spare a thought for the Councils and Socialhousing providers, who are still working hard to complete (or maybe just start) that journey. It’s not through want of trying generally I would say. Often budget holds organisations back, sometimes its way more complex, or cultural. While the benefits of Cloud should be quite obvious, however suppliers often fail to make the case for a sale, particularly finance budget holders !

Pretty much eight out of ten of my recent clients, have been trying to move on from something, often multiple challenges. All sizes of organisation are facing this, from managing under 150 homes on an MS Access solution, up to those having tens of thousands assets. Keeping cybersecure is also a growing challenge.

A recent theme has been the vulnerabilities of one of the sectors old favourite Asset Management solutions Keystone, showing up being discovered, getting on for two years since Microsoft pulled security updates for Silverlight. That was no surprise however, since I originally blogged about it in early August 2012, a full 12 years ago. The on-premise servers its installed on can be ‘isolated’ from the network and outside world, although this does make it more challenging to use asbestos info and other asset data, particularly to enhance repairs service and keep it safe & compliant. A quick move off Keystone is not particularly practical to its owners suggested replacement. It certainly looks like a slow transition if its selected. There are good alternatives out there, although insight and third-party guidance would be advised, for folk going down that path.

Solaris desktop in all its glory

Its amazing how much old kit is out there, much of it way beyond its sell-by-date and some clearly on its last legs.

If I had £50 for every time ICT techie told me that they dreaded servers needing a reboot and feared they might not come back up, I would certainly have £600 this year by now. Late, great names such as SunOS, Solaris pop up, decade old not-upgraded SANs, either technically out of support or close too practically. While many organisations have been in a transition off these boxes/platforms for some months or years, clearly some are yet to start on that journey.

The other area that pops up are legacy domains. Some of these are sometimes in the EU and being used in the UK or visa-versa, clearly not totally compliant after Brexit. Also, there are still many group organisations with remnants of original constituent domains left over. These often contain lots of unstructured data, files, documents, spreadsheets etc, many of which historically should have been data cleansed. Again, easier said than done in order to achieve a sufficiently high level of social housing GDPR compliance.

An accurate and up to date infrastructure and application inventory is an essential tool. Clearly, running on recent versions of our applications (harder when not Cloud apps OBVs) is also essential, particularly where we need to rely on supplier helpdesks for support. Its not unusual for me to encounter applications many years out of date, which based on software contracts helpdesks shouldn’t even be taking calls for. However, annual support and maintenance is still being paid on time!

So, have ICT check and update your inventory, getting a short-medium term strategy formed to migrate away and shut your troublesome legacy hardware & infrastructure down. While its perhaps not a quick move, it will shore up foundations to a smoother future for staff and your ICT team supporting it all

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*** Join the discussion with Claire & Aiden ***

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If you are stuck on legacy SocialHousing solutions, reach out

please just get in touch , for a chat over a brew and some digestives ☕😋

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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.

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Shut 'Um Down.
(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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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,Keynamics, 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,MoreIQ,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,QLX, QLF, QL Yuneo,QuantSpark,Qube,QLX,Qlikview,QueryView,Queryview reporting,Quiss, RM865,ROCC,RPs,RSL,Rave,ReAct,Reality,RedkiteCRM,Red Olive,Registered,Registered Social,Rent 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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,Visitour,Visualmetrics,Voice,Voice and data,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Wheatley,Windows Server,Workflow and,Work Hub,Works Connect, XML,Xen App,XenApp,Xmbrace, Yuneo,TS Acutance Consulting, ...
. . . . . . . . . . . . ES | FR | DE | IT | UK |

Monday, 24 June 2024

I Bought A Headache

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

Suspects, there were many

After a few rumours that have been circulating since their Yuneo solution had its plug pulled, back last year, one of the well known #socialhousing solution providers has now changed hands. In the end it wasn't MRI , SAP or dinosaur system slayer Simon Reay, with the deep pockets. Aareal Bank and Advent International, are to sell Aareon (mainly) to TPG for approximately € 3.9 billion, so quite a payday for a few directors one would expect. Canadian investment outfit CDPQ are a minor investor too. Closing of this deal is expected to take place in the second half of this year (2024), subject to the usual customary closing competition conditions and approvals.

It should be noted that Texas Pacific Group (TPG Capital) are not a big software house (like MRI), they are investors.

So that includes Aareon UK, home to product such as QLX, QLF, Arthur, 1st Touch mobile (now “Digital Solutions by Aareon”), Fixflo etc. Many sites & some councils will have one or more of these solutions, which were big sellers in many procurements for some years prior to 2020. Products in the marketplace have moved on significantly though and some of the new entrants are snapping away successfully at the smaller Aareon sites. In the medium to large provider space, many are looking now to native browser and Cloud solutions, Salesforce, D365 etc, that still retain convenient and secure access to data.

The press release talks lots about ‘innovation for customers in the European housing ecosystem’ & ‘on a path of sustainable growth with exciting opportunities ahead for all stakeholders’. That’s got a feel for me of potential exciting dividends for stakeholders, it will be interesting to see how Aareon customers react to this development, if support and other costs rise, service delivered improves or goes backwards for UK housing associations, charities and councils.

Aareon staff have clearly been briefed to talk up the possibility of going ‘into an optimistic growth phase’. Its hard to work out how that might be achieved via sales with potentially sub-optimal product, based on the recent few years. Maybe some bargains may be trotted out here, or LinkedIn will flag up more royal staff, looking for other situations vacant. If I were TPG, I would be looking for decent returns within three years. Investors are brutal, that’s why they are successful.

Here is the standard press release I saw here from Business Insider

If you are a contact with one or more of these products currently, feel free to get in touch to chat or maybe explore future options.

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*** Join the discussion with Claire & Aiden ***

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If you are stuck on a legacy SocialHousing system, reach out

please just get in touch , for a chat over a brew and a Jammy Dodger ☕😋

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The Replacements - I Bought A Headache.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Thursday, 27 July 2023

Speed Racer

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

I have spent long enough in ICT to have been involved with development, witnessed sales promises with good and less good delivery. Getting it wrong can be down to a lot of possible factors, which most of us have historically experienced.

These include over-ambitious sales, lack of good specification definition, poor overall understanding and setting of expectations, incorrect estimates of effort required from the development teams, or perhaps sloppy communications across staff or remote development teams. This last one is very interesting and can also be cultural too, particularly where software development is offshored. While teams often share a common language (English and technical programming languages and technologies), culturally often they could be far from similar.

Offshoring can work very well although often good managers need to be embedded, or local attitudes need taking into account. For example while Vietnamese developers are quite blunt and black & white at times in attitude, Indian based staff can be too optimistic and positive, often ‘to save face’. I’m a massive fan of the sub-continent, but often experienced the same in its four corners when traveling extensively there. These misunderstandings no doubt affect deadlines and lead to incorrect, somewhat de-scoped or lightweight solutions being finally delivered.

Over the last 2-3 years increasingly we hear our suppliers telling us they are utilising agile methodologies and sprints, as this should be a possible thing. If we are trying to catch a train or bus and running late, we ‘sprint’. How could we not think that a methodology like this could not get us our upgrades, enhancements, patches or bug fixes much faster?

Of course, when we ‘sprint’, now and again we drop our umbrella or leave something behind, occasionally making us regret that we rushed at all. Equally, how often were you promised that your supplier was tackling your change in the ‘next sprint’ and you find a month later, after gearing up your project accordingly, that, “Oh sorry it missed that sprint”!

The whole methodology of sprints even brings its own terminology for failure. In one meeting I attended, a development manager stated that 40% of the next sprint was being used to address known “technical debt”. A hapless housing finance manager asked if this would be adding more features around technical rent arrears. I had the unfortunate task to explain the developers were just spending 40% of their resource on what they failed to finish in the last few sprints. Fixation with short & soon deadlines, does lead to various failures as often “we didn’t have enough time”.

Only a few things can practically be done if heading for the end of sprint deadline. Cut corners including features and quality. Force or coerce staff into working (more) overtime. Cut out other activities, such as mentoring or training. So not brilliant for staff (or customers further down the line).

While Kanban dispenses with the time boxed concept of ‘The Sprint’, we will clearly still be hearing much of it for some time ahead. As one client of mine remarked the other week, “failure of the sprint”, is the latest excuse they always heard these days, as whatever they were relying on, was never delivered on time. Clearly, better setting of expectations by management & sales/account management would do much to improve customer service in many areas.

If there is one principle I have taken on board over the years, its to always try to under promise, then over deliver. That’s what people actually remember.

Have you been the wrong end of a supplier sprint and had to explain to your management why your system improvements & transformation will be another three months or more away? You have my commiserations!

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 systems options,

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

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

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Devo – Speed Racer.
(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,Cx Assets, 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,Fuzzlab 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,Keynamics, 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,MoreIQ,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,QLX, QLF, QL Yuneo,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,Rubixx, 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, Yuneo, ...
. . . . . . . . . . . . - | ES | DE | FR | UK |

Monday, 18 April 2022

It Could Be You

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

When the UK National Lottery was launched in 1994, do you remember the advertising slogan promised: “It could be you.”

Since then you like me, might have spend a few bob on it and maybe even had a few (very small) wins from it too. I have always been wary at anywhere I have worked and there was a lottery syndicate. It was insurance paying in that £2 a week, just in case there was a big win and if I wasn’t in, I might have ended up alone as the Critical Friend holding the project. Has anyone else done similar?

Last week it was interesting to see after three decades of Camelot running it, from 2024, it will be a new company in charge. The lucrative licence shootout ended in defeat and was awarded to to Czech-owned Allwyn, which also fended off competition from a number of others. Camelot were not well pleased and had made noises (maybe just of sabre rattling), in the 10 day cooling off period.

A scorecard process during which the rivals were marked on categories such as technology and planned returns to good causes, rated Allwyn higher overall. In what I would call the ‘Method Statement’ section, Allwyn’s pitch outshone Camelot’s in key areas of technology (linking with Vodafone), returns to good causes and efforts to curb gambling addiction. For the process to be compliant, it needs to have been looking forward to what the anointed winner might provide in the future project, rather than dwelling on any past performance.

On past performance, Camelot has had a decline in players, turnover and slapped wrists from the National Audit Office in 2017. Maybe after 4 of these battles to run it, there was appetite for a new face. We all can succumb to thinking the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. There’s nothing wrong with that, although a well structured procurement process, always needs to test that.

So what can we mortals learn, just procuring something under £10m over five years, not a national lottery provider, but some key application software?

Often in the first meeting I have with organisations I am helping to procure feel the process is an overhead, a hassle, that will maybe just throw up an unexpected wildcard supplier. With decent pre-market analysis and good structuring of an ITT, its perfectly possible to be able to reasonably predict two of the top three suppliers, with relative certainty. The secret is shaping the process to known, or determined needs with the help of groundwork. Fortunately, I bring a decade long proven methodology to enforce this strongly.

The best process scoring reflects those needs and priorities, so at the end of the day, hopefully feelings or prejudices are worked out of the process and maximum reliance on pure logic can be best applied in stark black and white. While keeping everyone on track who perhaps only does this stuff once every decade or so, it also provides a valuable audit trail when needing to award and provide feedback to all.

So the way an award (when done properly) and inevitable rejections are communicated, should leave no room for possible challenge. IE to be able to state, “you scored x out of y in this section. What you did well was this, what you could have improved on, was that”, is ideal for everyone. If Allwyn and others were indeed notified in this way, I can see little chance of the latest challenge going anywhere and we will very soon see a new manager of our national lottery.

Back to the original thread of this, if Camelot can’t overturn the decision , there is at least hope for the 1,000 people who work for it, mostly in Watford. They, are likely to be TUPE’d across to the new incumbent. So a silver lining for them

In short, decent social housing system procurement is no lottery, if you get the right help and methodology in place.

If we can help your organisation with any aspect of transformation issues/procurement, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew. I will bring the chocolate Hobnobs 😉

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

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Blur - It Could Be You.
(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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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 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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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Friday, 17 July 2020

New Beginning

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

It was great last week to be invited to present, by what used to be the DWF (the Direct Works Forum) group, which is being re-organised and getting a makeover, a new beginning as ‘Direct Works’.

It will still have a discussion forum, but should be a better organisation to represent Housing Associations, Local Authorities and RSLs employing their own trades staff to undertake repairs and maintenance.

A big thank you to Mike Wilson and Russell Thompson for inviting me. Judging by the volume of recent projects, it’s a good time more than ever, for internal workforces and DLO’s, to share best practice. So I wish them well.

My session was my take on ‘Why we buy some of the best IT and then implement and use it badly” and we had good attendance, many people I am sure have experienced, first hand, a lot of the areas I covered. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am not keen that everyone has to suffer and learn from their own mistakes, why not get a leg up from others? So where with systems do you start?

Well, know your market to start with. Too many organisations rush in and buy the first silver bullet they see. OJEU has always provided pre-market analysis as an option, its strange so few take advantage of it. Risks are rarely taken into account too. Who might have thought that software was risky? Sales people never mention risks, do they?

What about alternatives to external software packages? Who hasn’t had their social housing ICT team, offer to ‘write a system for you’? Often I wager, followed by, ‘How hard can it be’? This approach contains risks too, particularly as its more likely your IT team are more skilled at support than writing quality software. When I was a supplier I had a few customer IT teams suggest they had useful things they had written, which might be profitable (for us both) when sold to a wider customer audience. Only one idea ever made the cut and only then after a total re-write to bring error trapping etc, up to scratch. A common problem, quality control.

When we go to seriously buy, do we understand the problems we are looking to solve? A business case generally flushes this out with benefits. I have seen many business cases done afterwards to tick the box. OJEU does try to protect us from ourselves and we should embrace formal process that does that.

After the excitement of the procurement, how well do we resource projects. Regular readers know I always prefer the A-Team, although occasionally it’s the C, D or reserve teams, we can get stuck with. Never try to involve staff who have to juggle their day jobs too.

In DLO’s and internal workforces, often introducing software creates cultural changes for staff too. This is often neglected and the reason why dynamic scheduling is most often far less than dynamic and users are not guided into new roles and behaviours. As with many issues, some are embedded in the phrase, “well we have always done it that way”.

Well I cover all of the above and more in the recording of the session. I would guess there’s half a dozen takeaways, for even the most seasoned DLO systems implementers. If you would like to get access to the session, checkout this link - Zoom.US/DW_HousingITGuy_Jul2020

Related Post: Budget for regular ICT infrastructure or application maintenance & get the best from your previous investment

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

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Girlschool – New Beginning.
(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,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,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,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,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365, 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,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,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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