What Presence ?

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

I am often banging on in socialhousing solution and transformation projects I am involved with, about incorporating thoughtful comms. Without it (whether you regard it as ‘fluffy’ or not), we cannot keep staff and management well informed, set expectations and efficiently communicate. If a project may take 12,18, 24 months or more to complete, that’s a long time for humans to stay focused on. So, everyone needs some help.

Hopefully, we have an organisation comms team or staff member(s), who can assist ICT or the project team. If we have some of these folk, we expect they are well skilled, often with qualifications and experience they can supply and also generally some PR skills too.  

It’s generally recognised that good comms starts with openness and a desire to engage. Communication is a two way street and when we forget that, organisations have generally failed. In addition internally, we expect the comms team to be involved with the outside world too. IE responding to residents, customers, the press and others, reacting to concerns, problems and other challenges.

In this blog on occasions we have explored resident issue, particularly around that perennial challenging area ‘repairs’, but also others such as ‘knowing our customers better’, case management and self-service. Often its lack of integrated joined up thinking. These days (those post Don-old)  we are all plugged into social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, BlueSky, LinkedIn etc. Indeed, I have a lot of followers who are tenants, leaseholders and other residents and I hear a lot about their issues and concerns. These help me consider real life when assisting organisations with process review and new solutions. Getting their problems solved often rely on comms working properly with managers and staff to be flexible and proactive.

Strangely, some of our largest UK social housing providers seem to be getting even more remote from their customers and not using ICT solutions or integrated comms, to bridge the gap. The regulator ticks off and appears to place many of these on ‘the naughty step’, on a monthly basis.

Some larger providers seem to be purposely closing down social media channels, and reducing means of residents communicating issues/concerns. Examples are Sanctuary and GreenSquare Accord. The latter left Twitter back in April 2024, at a time a lot of criticism was being received there.

I cannot understand why organisations, particularly ones that are meant to have a clear social purpose, think just putting their fingers in their ears, will help some of the obvious issues go away. Typically residents get involved in setting up their own social media groups, podcasts etc and if issues are not being addressed, they will drive the comms, (as some are with GSA). Running away from the moral high ground and not addressing issues, does not reflect mostly my view and experience, of over a hundred RSL’s and other providers I have worked with historically. Every organisation that goes down this path, soils many hundred others who can be wrongly regarded as ‘just the same’.

Residents and the sector deserves better and I know I have seen on the whole are capable of delivering better.

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

Do your SocialHousing solutions support your CRM & Case management? - Problems?

reach out just get in touch , for a chat over a brew and some Hobnobs ☕😋

       Related Post: How can good CRM save waste & better deliver for residents ?

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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.

Orange Juice - What Presence?.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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

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

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Semaphore Signals

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


Its becoming a perennial problem, retrieving data from old storage media.

I suppose its not new, think the Cascajal Block, Rosetta Stone, papyrus, Roman stone tablets, wax cylinders, typed documents, One Inch tape reels, DAT tapes, Eight Inch, 5 and a quarter, 3.5 inch and zip disks.

The CD/DVD has just persevered so far. All of these historic formats pose different problems, yet all can (at a pinch and with some time expended) pretty much be turned into something readable by humans or trawled via a search engine.

Popularity of the Internet Archive (at https://archive.org ), shows to me the value of getting all that data accessible.

Having our data in old historic media formats, does pose a problem and particularly I have seen many organisations, successfully digitise historic formats and realise space savings, often enough to add a gym for staff. (Do ask me about that one!).

Bringing ourselves pretty much up to date, we are using cloud hosted apps, such as Twitter, Facebook and others to have interactions, that should probably have an audit trail to assist and protect all parties. These apps do allow reasonable tracking of conversations, not for sinister purposes, but to reasonably solve issues.

Putting my cards on the table, I hear of a number of issues where this is not the case, which is very disappointing and not what I generally see. In fairness I am generally working with organisations, looking to improve processes and systems, so I rarely encounter this with social housing landlords, in my working life. I have done my best however, where I encounter this, to point residents in the right direction. It’s the right thing to do.

Some apps these days do not allow access to a clear audit trail. More and more apps are brought into CRM interactions and this area is ever changing. Customer service bods need to be constantly aware of what’s popular.

The Signal Messenger App, is one such (https://signal.org/en/). Since 2018, encrypted end to end messaging. Signal has another interesting feature, that it can self-destruct messages send to users, from five seconds to a week once read. Once messages are gone, they are really gone, forever. So even beyond GDPR. Without taking this into account, much of a valuable audit trail can be lost.

Keen scholars of GDPR will be aware that wilful manual deletion after a freedom of information request is made, is a criminal offense under the FOIA. However, if a message or data was already deleted, or deleted automatically, no crime has been committed. 

From an organisation viewpoint therefore, a separate audit trail would be needed from Signal, if in use.

Spookily enough,  I was interested to hear that Signal was becoming popular with our current batch of newly installed Tory MP’s in the UK. It allows a bigger group than WhatsApp, and I would think the automatic deletion of messages might be a definite advantage, in the current Corona Virus environment and Brexit progressing before the end of the year.

Usually, sensitive documents and media can be restricted for 30 years, before release. It would be very convenient that some decisions are labelled ‘restricted’, about the pandemic response etc. Am I the only one suspecting in 30 years time there might just be a folder, named ‘Signal’, completely empty.

If there is ‘nothing to hide’, lets hope that an audit trail is maintained…. 

Related Post: UAT - I have seen clients fudge testing and it never turns out well...
 

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.

Wreckless Eric - Semaphore Signals.
(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, ...
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