President Gas

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

If you are involved in UK social housing, you will have probably encountered 'Inside Housing' magazines Gas Access Campaign. An excellent idea and one that would certainly make the whole area of access, slightly easier. In my experience though, despite the stiff penalties for transgression, so many organisations still leave data records in the area wholly or partially in the realm of Excel.

"Providing they get the job done properly, what's wrong with that?", asks your asset manager. Well quite a lot my good (wo)man, I would reply.

Excel (and Access) breed little islands of data that notoriously are disconnected with your main HMS, ERP or third party asset module. I am sure when the spreadsheet was initially created it was drawn from the current asset list where gas was present. Tenant contacts were up to date as were mobile numbers and email addresses.

Just a few weeks on, voids are processed, new assets taken on, leaseholders buy stock or become 100% shared owners, gas comes to old E7 properties, some of the original contacts become deceased and new ground source pumps (or solar PV) replace gas.

Now how likely is your asset managers spreadsheet to keep pace with that lot?

If I were a betting man, I would give you good odds that they won't. Of course your peripheral systems are keeping pace, as they are recording the changes through repairs and changes in rent charging.  So would it not make sense to manage gas servicing and certification connected with your main system modules?

Each of the major housing management systems out there handle gas relatively well. Some need application of a few service days and once completed generally customer services and contractors can easily be made aware of gas issues too, providing prompts to catch risks before they become issues.

Reporting can be simplified too. Exception reports of (actual & approaching) overdues married up with a report of assets not flagged with any gas status, easily allows effort to be targeted at where issues need a spotlight shone. Indeed across many organisations where I have implemented full processes within existing HMS applications, for gas, 10 year and PAT electrical checks, have said afterwards, "How on earth did we cope before"?

Don't sit in the dark, turn up the heat on your gas servicing procedures, before a terrible accident turns it up on your chief exec. It's a hot potato, make sure you think outside the jacket!

Related Post: While thinking about assets, have you a single unified asbestos register?

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You can link with me on LinkedIn here - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy It would be great to connect !

The Psychedelic Furs - President Gas.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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Look to Your Orb for the Warning

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK

It was a great feeling to see Orbit Group this week scooping Housing Heroes and the Housing Excellence awards.  I would like to wish everyone from David Leach down, Angela Adderley and Roy Evans, the very best, it was so deserved.

I have rich experience of Orbit as a customer, departing customer and a returning customer during my tenure at MIS Active Management Systems.  No legal restrictions bind me from talking about that, feel free to get in touch to discuss further.

I have worked personally with the IT team there at Orbit for over 14 years, during my previous life at MIS and have great respect for them. After over 3 years of trying hard to implement a rival housing system, they reconsidered options. I was there at every point of that really rewarding project and proudly was there the Friday, the new system was delivered live after just over 100 days.

I am not surprised that despite stiff competition that Orbit won through. I have no doubt that the Orbit IT team had also comprehensively underpinned the new CRM system delivery, a resident self-service portal which formed “a bursary for residents to improve their own lives or the lives of those living within their communities”

The Orbit experience reflects a number of factors that I am sure other organisations can take on board to leverage similar benefits.

Firstly, get your housing systems in order. The right degree of integration works wonders at the right price. Your IT team are valuable and expensive in equal measure.

Keep them content and let them contribute to your business objectives. That is one of the key areas where Orbit and David Leach has connected with the main business of Orbit and helped to deliver savings as well as efficiency.

One of the sexiest things that Orbit introduced was iPads. Now this is not new. DFS famously asked staff to purchase their own iPads, Orbit provided them with Citrix access to their main desktop systems. The savings of mileage claims alone were enough to cover costs within four months. Staff are more inclined to work from home, or not come via the office every day. It’s a fact, Orbit have the numbers.

Now, let’s not deny, Orbit at 39,000+ homes is quite large. Although, any RSL with Citrix already, could already deploy this type of solution at little more than the cost of an iPad or Samsung tablet, to deploy their full housing system . Why are you not considering this?

Monster Magnet knew what was going down...




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