Agent Dan

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

Agentic AI has become one of those phrases you cannot escape in UK #socialhousing tech conversations. Suppliers talk about it with great confidence. (OBVs)

Agents that plan, decide, act, learn. Systems that do things for you, not just respond when clicked. Yet when you scratch the surface, most of what is described still lives firmly in the future tense.

Currently as far as I can see, practical use is still quite limited, but not entirely absent. While significant productivity gains are clearly possible, anyone who has dabbled with it will confirm it’s a week of defining your process and six times that defining/confirming guard rails and testing it all thoroughly iteratively. Then it might be a blind alley, as over 80% of pioneers appear to be reporting.

Where agent style behaviour is starting to show real value is on the CRM platforms, particularly Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Not in fully autonomous decision making, but in tightly constrained, supervised tasks. Things like AI driven case triage, where incoming repairs, ASB or damp reports are automatically categorised, prioritised, and routed to the right team based on rules, patterns, and historical outcomes. That is agent-like behaviour in practice, (even if nobody really calls it that on the ground).

I think we are also seeing early but useful examples around assisted case progression. AI nudging staff officers with next best actions, chasing missing information, drafting responses, or flagging cases that are stalling against policy or SLA. Traditionally these might be templated anyway for policy consistency. In D365, Copilot style tooling is already being used to summarise long case histories, prepare updates for managers, or draft resident communications that staff then review and send. It is not autonomous, but it genuinely saves time and cognitive load.

Salesforce based housing solutions look to be a bit further along with orchestration. Some providers are experimenting with agents that span multiple systems, pulling data from CRM, repairs, and finance to support a single outcome, for example preparing a voids readiness pack or highlighting risks ahead of a mutual exchange. Still this is reliant on quality of integrations  in place at times. Again, these are supervised agents, operating within guardrails, not free ranging AI making housing decisions on its own.

On the HMS side, things are quieter.

Most UK housing management systems are still focused on embedded AI features rather than true agentic behaviour. Things like predictive repairs, arrears risk scoring, or document classification. Useful, but largely reactive and contained within a single module. The bigger challenge is that many HMS platforms are still finishing the journey to full responsive-browser based, API rich architectures. Without that foundation, serious agent orchestration across modules and systems is very hard to deliver safely. So for some its jam tomorrow.

There are a few tentative examples. Some suppliers are piloting AI driven scheduling optimisation in repairs, image diagnosis or automated follow ups in income collection. But these tend to be narrow, rules heavy, and carefully constrained. Some not really AI at all in its recent clever Trevor LLM incarnation. Sensibly so. Housing is not a domain where most CEO’s want an AI agent learning through trial and error with real people’s homes and lives.

So where does that leave us.

Right now, agentic AI in UK & Irish social housing is most credible when it behaves like a very capable assistant, not an autonomous decision maker. CRM platforms are better placed to support this today because they are already designed around workflows, orchestration, and integration. HMS suppliers are not out of the race, but many are still building the track while running on it. Many trad HMS already have plenty of under-implemented workflow and similar capability – so think on, don’t be reaching for AI if you haven’t even got to first base!

The danger is not that agentic AI will fail. It is that suppliers & CRM solution partners oversell it before it is ready, and housing providers either over commit or switch off entirely. The sensible path is boring but effective. Start with small (pay as you go), practical agents. Keep humans in the loop. Prove value in time saved, errors reduced, and residents better served.

So, less talk about the art of the possible everyone. More evidence of the possible working on a Tuesday afternoon in a housing office, over a bookies, grocers and a chemists.

Are you sufficiently implemented to be ready for AI  ? 

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

       Related Post: Don't suffer from system under-implementation

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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.

Agent Provocateur - Agent Dan

(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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Are We With The Co-Pilots ?

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

I don’t know about you, but are you finding AI is falling a bit short of what you expected? It is a little for me to be honest.

In the 70’s and 80’s I am sure we were promised moon beans served by cyborg chefs & robot butlers and all this intelligence was going to handle a lot of our mundane hassles. You know, the ironing and boring rubbish like that. Unfortunately, most of it seems focused more on deskilling & taking away creative jobs, painters, photographers and journalists. We are still ironing and will be doing so, for long into the near future I am sure, while the internet is clogged up with AI creations, this is less good all round. In fact future AI trained on other source AI generated content can only degrade the concept.

Copilot as you are probably aware, is being plugged as the Microsoft lead AI product and a great money spinner at £24.70, per user per month. The annual cost exceeds many per seat costs for M365. In fact pretty much any demo of D365 etc will feature a mention of Copilot multiple times. In terms of socialhousing applications built into D365, multiple sales folk will mention it in demos, although concrete use cases are actually pretty thin on the ground. Its always ‘coming soon’ apparently. So don’t waste your time getting too excited there. On more than one D365 demo I have had the response, “Best not to try to use it here as yet!”.

AI including others such as ChatGPT for sure is capable of providing 80%+ of the help, but currently still needs that last 20% of human sense check. Otherwise we can look like fools. Productivity can be improved, but only if you can crack decent accuracy. All the Microsoft stack has AI capability, i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. In Word for example, Copilot will not knockout much in the way of meaningful new organisation policies, but could give you some great pointers to what might be right or wrong with what’s there.

AI to summarise emails or documents can help you determine some of the wood from the trees and potentially get you 80% to where you need to be. While AI can determine the ‘tone’ of a dialog, this may be not much better than the experience of a staff member with a couple of years working on the job. ‘Soft Skills’ are a human trait and certainly will remain so.

AI Translation while useful is nothing particularly new. Google Translate has been translating over 50 languages for ages.

What about Copilot in Excel and PowerBI reporting? Well here’s some opportunities. It can have a go at building queries for you, although with limits when cross-joins or complex imaginative extracts are needed. Again, ability of a skilled staff member to take the grunt work as a starting point, will save time.

In Outlook bog standard rules can be enhanced for sure, however I would always value an experienced staff member over just going with AI. While you can use AI to organise your Inbox, where is the fun in that eh?

My favourite use of AI by far currently and something I would recommend to all however applies to Teams. I am sure you do battle with the Teams frustrations daily, however the most useful features are AI transcription and summarisations. Ideal for easily documenting supplier demos/remote meetings, quickly finding specific terms and conversations etc. An unexpected bonus of the Covid years and the shift to more hybrid demonstrations (shunned & exotic prior to Covid), which would have felt strange or lacking reverence previously.

If you are considering dipping a toe into Microsoft AI, just give it a look with a single user and put it completely through its paces. If you can see ROI, then crack on. If you cannot at this time justify it, maybe come back later. Across 12 months AI is bound to leap forward and improve, maybe come back and review it then.

AI can help you, but don’t assume it’s your silver bullet (as yet). If you are getting any additional practical and accurate uses out of Microsoft Copilot or other AI for UKhousing, please be in touch. 

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

Are your Social Housing ICT solutions doing a good job to support you?

Reach out just get in touch , for a chat any time over a drink and some Ginger Nuts ☕😋

       Related Post: Never mind AI, are you even managing to use Workflow & Tasking properly ?

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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.

Ladytron – I’m with the Pilots.
(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,CxFeedback, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365,Dynaway ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Esuasive,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,FLS,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,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, ...
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Processed Complaints

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

Following on from my blogpost last month, focused on how residents can effectively raise issues and complaints effectively, how should Social and Council Housing best effectively resolve/conclude them effectively.  

Reaction to my previous post prompted a quite a few residents to share their experiences of complaints with their landlords on Twitter, a few can be accessed here  and here.

Complaints and service fails will always happen, that’s life. As I reminded a supplier this last week, ‘nothing in life is ever 100%’, so don’t kid yourself or customers, that you are. When things go wrong, they invariably cost way more to rectify than they might have just to get the issue right in the first place. That’s why complaints should be embraced as a valuable means to improve, rather than buried as dirty embarrassments.

One of the biggest initial issues that residents have with complaints is how their Council or RSL will handle them and how to initiate one. If you are a Social Housing provider, is your defined policy easy to find on your website and can you initiate one from that page? We do tend to do most things from the internet these days, but do we also offer an Omnichannel approach, where residents can phone or walk in too, initiating one?

For example, YourHousing close to me in the North West of England offer good details on online Complaint/compliments (their capitalisation) here.  

A refreshingly open approach 😉

I particularly like the Orbit Housing Group open approach on complaints here, which is also quite candid on numbers being received. The data nerd in me however, would like an ‘Other’ section at the bottom of that table, mentioning the missing 18.07%. How many other RSLs would be comfortable sharing their stats on their website? I haven't seen many.

Lets think about those initial complaints coming in then. If a compliant (or complement) can be submitted via a webpage, where does it initially get recorded? Ideally it should become a CRM interaction, possibly at that stage the start/update of a ‘case’ and initiate a workflow task, for a member of staff to action. If that initial request just goes into an email box (or possible spam if colourful or emotional language used), it might take days to progress/respond to, or start dealing with these. Where good quality self-service is available, ability to submit complaints (or related incidents etc including images/video) against a logged in resident, is of great advantage.

Inside your RSL, once successfully recorded or converted from a CRM interaction, how easy does your systems and processes allow easy access to staff who should have access, to have audited view/update of the whole complaint timeline? What residents might call 'their case notes'. This can be easily supported digitally by most well configured modern integrated Housing Management Systems, or a hybrid of HMS and CRM platform such as Microsoft Dynamics365, Salesforce or Netcall. Some competent standalone complaint solutions are available, although the lack of integration and ability to navigate a 360degree view of the resident, can severely blunt its overall effectiveness. Housing finance staff might be struggling to progress arrears, while being totally unaware of a significant complaint in play elsewhere. Better integration, including to document management (EDRMS) recording video, images, WAV files etc, ties everything together. Repairs are generally the biggest issue area and links of a case to offending Works Orders or Capital Works, helps present a high level view.

Once received we would hope that communication will be key, in keeping the complainant informed at all times. A good internal process should set targets for different types of complaints and this should be visible/shared with residents, to know what to expect. This is one area that clearly often falls down, leads to excessive additional requests in from residents and growing stress and frustration. If systems are set up correctly, much of the communication process can be automated via SMS, email, managing the complaint progression via intelligent self-service etc.

Recognise that residents trying hard to find out what is happening to their complaint and seeing very little in responses back, can easily appear vexatious (and unfortunately be sometimes labeled as such).

The good example below is again from Orbit setting resident expectations 

Where next will the resident complaint go?

Above, a target of ten days, with updates every few days, puts residents in no doubt what the RSL is aiming to do. However what is to be done internally if staff are not keeping to targets? Most HMS/case management/CRM solutions enable automatic escalation of tasks and diversion, on occasions of annual leave/sickness etc. Often these are not correctly configured or enforced internally, email often being used instead. With the latter, tasks can easily be lost, too many staff cc:d in, often everyone assumes (wrongly) ‘everyone else is dealing with it’. So, switch these features on and let staff know all updates belong on the case, not via email. Case time & costs might well also be collated.

So, assuming the case progresses and the issue gets resolved satisfactorily, how does the RSL learn from the experience? Overall costs to rectify quite often are many times the original cost of getting the issue right in the first place, so its crucial that from each complaint, we analyse, learn and work to tweak wider processes, often with the whole journey in the room, to reduce recurrence.

Sample changes I have seen from working with clients over 20 years around complaints, have been:

• Improvements to staff training and experience going forward / mentoring. Building even better relationships with residents improves outcomes for all
• Enhancements to initial repairs diagnosis routines and scripting to capture additional information for more complex repairs, reducing costs, minimising follow-up visits
  
• Better communication when repairs span multiple visits, involve pre-inspections, jobs on hold etc
• Introduction of before & after photos for repairs, to better monitor operative trade quality, including photos for evidencing no-access carding
• Improved presentation of service charges and info on leaseholder billing, introduction of automated module to calculate charges and enhancement of web portal to reduce manual queries and widen transparency
• Introduction of targeted estate/scheme inspections/walkabouts based on complaint hotspots for ASB. EG abandoned vehicle/dumping hotspots
• Enhancement of specialist and targeted Tenant participation groups, involving residents earlier, to nip specific issues ‘in the bid’ before they become more serious and costly to rectify. Trusting residents to be our remote sensors
• Where complaints have initiated change that residents should notice, share it via quarterly newsletters, Facebook pages, twitter or WhatsApp groups. If the RSL has fixed stuff, tell residents, so they know about the changes that are being trialed

At any point in the process, a FOI (Freedom Of Information) request could be made by a complainant OR if the case cannot be amicably resolved, all the details of the case might need to be collated or exported. Where existing solutions may struggle to achieve this, it puts the RSL at a disadvantage. Possibly residents have better access to this information than the landlord, particularly some time after the original incident occurred. An absolute gift for companies that assist residents with Disrepair claims.

Good reporting from the case management system is key. This might include KPIs such as average time taken to resolve, numbers and categories of complaints received, cost to process and cost of exit fix. Outputs must allow cases to be easily monitored by stage, owner, on-time/approaching late/late and current status. Regular automated reminders to staff and management from the solution should be available, to keep cases moving, with easy management insight

I have intentionally covered a lot of ground here, giving some food for thought I would hope for many Social and Council Housing providers. Some clients I have worked with have been using most of these techniques and systems for some time. Others have virtually none, or manage relatively well with manual spreadsheets etc. But that is a rarity.

If your organisation encounters many cases going to local councillors, MPs or the Ombudsman, then clearly there’s a problem. Equally, if complaint cases creates many residents labelled as vexatious or ‘red flagged’ with warnings, it’s more likely that problems lie more with you than your residents. Look again at your internal processes and communication, just small tweaks might make a great deal of difference.    

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with complaint solutions, 

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

       Related Post: How accurate is the info in our CRM systems? 

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.

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


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

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Affinity,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365, ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management,Homeswapper,Housing jigsaw, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,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,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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Real Life

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

What are we all like with our social media?

Whatever you do, Facebook, Insta, Twitter etc, we are always looking to post our best life, even if we don’t realise we are. I post enough real ale images, although I may take six shots and just post the best, with a decent head (if appropriate OBVs). Its kind of human nature, but does clearly show a false view of our lives. On the downside, we can present a golden shiny view and be suffering and dark inside.

Part of the illusion is that we can groom and engineer those shots to be the best ever (or the best we can manage). What if you couldn’t do that and the social media app decided when you could take that photo you are allowed to post? Some folk I know, may consider that to be violating their human rights!

This is exactly what a new socialmedia app looks to do. BeReal (“Your friends for real”), gives everyone the same two minute window, to post daily. Is this going too far?

I don’t know if any of my contacts are on BeReal, although I am sure a dose of reality would do us all some good sometimes. Particularly when I see tweets from socialhousing tenants and particularly those via Kwajo @KwajoHousing, there’s a different kind of reality there, than is often portrayed in council and socialhousing publicity. More attention to resident issues would reduce the incidence of repair problems and make a massive difference to life chances and outcomes.

My own upbringing in social housing on a Manchester 1960s overspill estate on the edge of the Peak District served me well, although I feel we had better safety nets back then. Rent collectors would look in on tenants every fortnight and be the eyes and ears of the council landlord, potentially picking up issues, repair problems etc in real time. They knew who was ill, who had just lost their job, who had just snagged a new one etc. These people were the ultimate predictive data profilers, something we lost when Housing Benefit was paid direct and for those folk collectors were no longer required.

Indeed, I have been told that some tenants asked that the rent collector still called, so as not to reveal to neighbours, that they were on full HB. So some folk were trying to show their ‘best life’ in their own way, back then. Its likely that the fortnightly rent round with the ‘Gilbert Strips’ picked up many issues quicker, with potential problems solved faster, that today in a more remote fashion we work, relying on our CRM.

We can certainly improve what we do and most organisations I work with are looking to transform so staff work more efficiently and serve residents better. I certainly believe that and in terms of how organisations procure services, if cost is a predominant factor, you can bet that often the reverse is in fact true. All the case management and CRM solution options are mature and out there. Lack of tech is no excuse, whatever size organisation (50 - 50k+ properties) you are.

Some social housing organisations (and councils with retained housing), do seem to struggle with seeing and understanding their residents in real life. To provide better services, we should never take our eye off real life. Complaints always need to be taken seriously and regarded as a means of digesting feedback, to improve services. Fail to do that and we fail to be real. Costly and frustrating internal and external waste is created in our processes, which often managers can’t or won’t tackle.

Social Housing shoots itself in the foot at times, at first resisting the regulator, then agreeing with it. Be real all the time, not just when the regulator is watching, or inspecting us.  

Oh & if you try out BeReal, do share with me how you get on 😉

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with keeping it real

 or any other HMS transformation, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew. 

I will bring plenty of Chocolate Gingers ☕😋

       Related Post: What photo skills does your organisation need? 

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.

Magazine – Real Life/Definitive Gaze.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Affinity,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365, ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management,Homeswapper,Housing jigsaw, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,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,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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