Special

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


I am sure you like me have often bought goods from eBay or Amazon, when you get strange plugs on them, maybe not for your country/region, or with strange adapters. That’s what happens when products are made and adapted afterwards to use in other ways, situations and places.

Software is much the same.

Great if you are very vanilla in needs and requirements. In that situation, you are likely to have few real gripes. If you are ‘special’, then you might just get quite frustrated with suppliers who refuse to recognise a lot of things they might regard as special, but are just bread and butter to you.

Why would it concern me?

Well anything that concerns my clients, interests and concerns me. Also, having been involved in working for an English software house involved in SocialHousing systems, I have some experience in this area. While different landlords, charities and RP’s in the same country have their quirks, leave England’s green and pleasant land and software has some more specialness to contend with.

Devolved administrations have now control of health, housing and legislation to a certain (or total) degree. This leads to mixed standards, returns and regulations. In Wales or Scotland, to see a system solution default to ‘English Decent Homes’, rather than WDH or the SHQS, is a crime worthy of a small fine. Increase that if you see all three coming up in the solution. Irritating if nothing else. Also, never have an option showing for ‘Right To Buy’ in the solution outside of England. The sensible devolved nations will smile when they remind you it was dropped a few years ago.

Travellers and historians (or maybe just having a passing historical knowledge) of the UK, will know that in Scotland, there is a whole separate and in many ways unique legal system. A job title I have occasionally struggled with over the years, is the ‘Procurator Fiscal’. I have yet to meet one in real life, although different titles and different laws, mean different terminology particularly used in communications. This is a very key difference and I have seen clients change whole systems or create (hated) elaborate workarounds, to get around the issue. Why suppliers are so lax with this I do not understand. In selling to Scotland, most suppliers have to agree and sign a contract conforming to Scottish Law, so you would expect the clue to be right there.

Leave the UK and the specialness gets worse.

Just across the sea from Holyhead or Fishguard and the specialness really starts. While the UK systems of Housing Benefit and Universal Credit work in a very similar way, Social Housing is funded in a particular way in Ireland. Under the differential rent scheme rent paid is directly related to household income and subsidy assists the original build. Worryingly I have seen much rent software exported to Ireland, that fails on this most key of requirements.

Second on the Irish irritation list is address formats. Try fitting a Kerry, Cork or Dublin address & postcode format into a standard UK address control. Its fun, but its rarely right!

Its amazing too how often a change to Country or Region, such as Ireland or Australia can make a big difference in standard functions or date formats. Even more amazing is that sometimes software is deployed to other countries for SocialHousing use and this type of functionality has not always been checked and tested, to operate coherently. Field labels and database column names often irritate too. In some places we have ‘Local Authorities’, in other regions ‘Councils’. Just one example that I have seen anger over in past projects. Suppliers just stating ‘Well that’s just the way it is’, never cuts it.

You would hope that in the new world of SaaS and cloud deployed solutions, most of these problems should start to be designed away. I would hope for that to be the case, but do not rely on it as the silver bullet. Take my advice, always ask where software originated or was designed. It will give you better clues, where to check for possible issues!

If you are a supplier, take some of these thoughts on board. Recognise your customer (& prospect) specialties. Ignore them at your peril !

Related Post: How do you prove your system interventions are truly making a difference
 

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.

Garbage - Special.
(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, 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,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, Swordfish,Sx3,Symatrix Human,System alignment,Systems,Systemwise, T-Files,TEAMS,TED,TFiles,TP Tracker,TSG,Tagish Casework,Tagra,Task,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, ...
. . . . . . . . . . .

My Mistakes Were Made For You

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



Do you make mistakes?

It’s a bit of a trick question in a way, as being human, we are fallible and mistakes are actually something we all do. How we manage or learn from them is really the key. Best selling authors have made fortunes writing and creating methodologies around that whole concept. 

Putting our mistakes aside for a moment, focus now on ones that create problems in organisational data. So often detail data brings down a lot of KPI’s and returns. Slow or missing repair order updates can distort performance. Poor void processes can exaggerate the cost of empty properties and boost average void days. A key SocialHousing KPI yardstick. I am sure you and fellow colleagues may know of many more local ‘hobby-horses’.

I was involved in a session with a group looking at better KPI’s and summary reporting quite recently. Not surprisingly some of those very problems came up.

If you were in a ‘Reporting’ or ‘Performance & Quality’ team, the first reaction I am sure, is to ‘fix the data’. I mean, who would want to report an average void turnaround of 14.5 days, when you knew sensibly that it was nearer ten days? That is what in many places, actually happens.

Bad data is filtered out, often users are chased to sort the data, so another cut can be taken. Your KPI team get there in the end. In many situations, the KPI team ‘fix’ the data, so the results look more like reality, or at least somewhat better.

In my world, I am unsure that is really the best strategy.

Like a teenager, who has his room tidied by their mother, rather than taking pride in it themselves, the problem gets moved upward. If your data is massaged by your KPI team, those users will never understand the value of getting data right, in a timely manner. The only way our staff will understand the value of data and getting it accurate, as much as possible, is that their own problems/errors are passed back to them to correct every time. Of course, after they have been educated in why getting it right is so crucial. 

A good example I saw a few months ago is poor data recorded when signing up and starting tenancies. Taking the default DOB (‘date of birth’ to you none hipsters..), as todays date in many (un-helpful) systems, to apply to the tenant (or joint tenant), causes all kinds of issues. Also setting the wrong member of the household, as the key contact. I have seen DLO staff, looking for primary school children to sign jobs off, on the doorstep. Wrong on too many levels to list here.

Can you guess how the above problem was solved?

Well, rather than the performance team defaulting ages to 18 if under, consider for a moment that legally, none of our tenants should be under 18, the fixes were pushed to the staff that got them wrong. If they had some to address, they got them daily by email, and it was explained to them why they received this stuff. The inference was that if you get it right first time, you will not be clearing it up later.

The truth to be communicated is that we are paid to be responsible, accurate and record stuff that all our colleagues will find useful and in many cases essential. That’s what we are all paid for, people. If that all goes into coherent systems, then maybe the KPI folk can just take a data cut on the 5th of the month, every month and that will reflect where our organisation is actually at.

Getting data correct is more a cultural than an ICT challenge. If you think I can help you with that challenge, please be in touch. http://acutanceconsulting.co.uk/acutanceconsultancy.htm  


Related Post: Should your projects be a race or a marathon? 

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.

The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made For 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: 360,1stTouch,4Js. , 07854655009 ,365Agile," """" ",,#UKHousing,#HousingDAY, #HomesForBritain,#InternetOfTenants, #Shout,1st Touch,3squared,Accuserv,Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,AirWatch,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos, Asprey e-state pro,ActiveHousing,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview,Agile365, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning, Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,Civica Genero,Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting, Community Reward Services, Consilium, Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Contact 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Time Is The Key (when Gas Servicing)

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


I usually encounter gas service process at least four times a year, when working with various clients. It's a tricky one, always a hot potato as your chief exec can go to prison for it, if not managed adequately.

In these austere times, its one area then, where we might be reluctant to tinker with it, in case we degrade service. Dealing with it in a smarter fashion, we might actually be able to improve service, reduce staff time and save money, which could be deployed elsewhere.
Using some sample stats from a 21,000 unit RSL, it paints a picture which is probably replicated across many other landlords.



Where costs are being incurred for no-access and the admin/letters generated to manage the process, a third of your gas services, could actually be soaking up 56% of the budget. Having the figures to analyse is half the battle, but clearly reducing the number of customers who do not allow you in first visit, is going to produce a significant saving.

Over 21,000 units here, if we could reduce the number of customers requiring more than one visit by just a third, we would make savings of close to a quarter of a million pounds annually. (a third of the difference between basic & real cost £742,637 is £247,545).

The number of gas services requiring more than one visit, will be on the increase as we have a greater mix of shared owners. Most of these are at work during the week and are unlikely to be in during the usual social housing hours, we are used to keeping. Rather than setting up out of hours and weekend appointments as exceptions, only after letter 2 of the gas process has been generated, we should be considering them as a first appointment. This might get us the holy grail of a gas service first time, and improve customer service perception too!

Now a few DLO managers will have their head in their hands at this point, oh-the overtime bill!
Well, how much overtime could we buy for £0.25m? Also, the other tool at our disposal, if we can turn our data into clear information, is our service history. Basic analysis of even just the last CP12 certificate date and time if we have it, can yield some serious insights. If we complete certs by mobile, we will most likely have both date and time. So, we know if we completed each in normal working hours or on weekday.


   
A profile view of our tenant based on previous gas service behaviour, can help us schedule our initial appointment with a greater chance of first time success. Targeting tenants with a previous history of only being available outside normal working hours, we can save many times the cost of a gas service, perhaps undertaken at time and a half. There is probably a case for considering flexible working patterns for gas engineers. Many might welcome this flexibility and incentives could be used to further improve productivity.

This logic driven approach will be far more effective than just starting the service cycle, two weeks earlier, in reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Insight for gas service should not be seen in isolation, other data can easily feed into this area. As tenants retire, have recorded vulnerabilities or move into work, these can all drive the targeting of that first gas service appointment. In addition, repeated no-access from a new tenant, might indicate other factors, such as a safeguarding issue, crime or potential illegal sub-letting.

     Catch the blog monthly archive at https://archive.org/details/@housingitguy

Related Post: Fooled again? Get the Procurement of new ICT solutions right will you? 

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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.


Pierre Moerlen's Gong - Time Is The Key.
(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: 360,1stTouch,4Js. , 07854655009 ,365Agile," """" ",,#UKHousing,#HousingDAY, #HomesForBritain, #Shout,1st Touch,3squared,Accuserv,Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,AirWatch,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview,Agile365, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning, Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,Civica Genero,Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting, Community Reward Services, Consilium, Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Contact Manager,Context,CIH,Chartered 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Data Hunter-Gatherer

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

I always despair when I encounter or procure reporting features and modules in Housing Management Systems. They are collectively so poor, particularly for ad-hoc reporting that end-users should be capable of managing, maybe 90% of the time.

All the mainstream housing system providers tell you they have a standard reporting set and offer report training based mostly these days on SQL Server Reporting Services. Now I know that SSRS has moved in leaps and bounds since 2004 when it first appeared. Initially it was like a Redmond chainsaw with no handle, which needed VB techies to make it sing and dance. In my humble opinion I still think you need developers (.net ones now..) to make it properly boogie. It's clearly not a great situation.

Obtaining PDFs of those mythical 'standard reports' honestly, is like tracking down rocking horse sh*t. If I were more cynical, I might conclude that there were few standard reports to render into Adobe Acrobat format for me. Lack of a credible reporting set is a major drawback to many systems.

For procurements, I Iike to have a specific session on ad-hoc reporting. Many suppliers have experienced my sealed envelope and when I pick up the phone to the 'deal-or-no-deal' banker. Without much exception, suppliers always state, "Well users wouldn't come into IT and expect you to knock up a report, crossing modules like that in 30 minutes, now would they?".  Do you think that's realistic? I don't. The real world does not neatly fit into Rent, Void, Response Repairs , Lettings, Assets modules does it? I see just that type of query, most days of the week.

If I had a free reign on procurements demos I would turn them completely on their head. Session uno, would be the reporting one. That's the payback for all user effort, and that's what the organisation turns on, how it makes decisions.

Since the dawn of time, man has relied on data. It's just only recently all in 1's and 0's. Today we are no less the data 'Hunter , Gatherers' than our distant cave dwelling ancestors. They relied on smells, prey tracks, weather and other data, they turned into a survival instinct.

To keep our organisations alive, we have that same reliance on our ICT providers to connect us with the key data that runs our business. IE Where our revenues originate, what we spend money on and what do we understand of our customers, needs & habits (i.e. customer profiling). Ask yourself, how well does your systems help you achieve these reporting aims?

So, should your supplier or you be working harder to deliver your reporting, safely gathered in? Probably depends how much annual maintenance you are paying towards reporting and the contribution the module makes to your organisation.

Related Post: Picking a name, a bigger part of a project than you might think...

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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.


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


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