Calling All Nations

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

Earlier this week I was in an interesting meeting with a housing association in the South West of England. A quite exceptional lady in the meeting (you know who you are), had already asked me to answer a few questions about where I thought the marketplace is at the moment. In particular ‘What the future looks like for Housing IT – what are the great innovations?’

Well wow, what a question? Aside from the usual things (depending on where you are now, integrated housing systems, mobiles or tablets, scheduling, better reporting...), one area I highlighted was one I think will become more and more prominent.

That area if you asked me today is automated calling. This is a technology already fully utilised within the automotive industry. If you own or lease a BMW, Lexus or Merc, or similar quality car and use an authorised dealer, you may have already encountered some of this Voicescape technology before. As my associates, friends and family will know I am not a petrol-head, preferring comfort over speed. These systems are tuned to get a response quickly, helping to make retention of customers a reality. The silent auto-dialler experience coming out of call centres from Mumbai to Cleethorpes does not wear well with these petrol-heads. That proven experience also should work with hard headed customers and residents of Housing organisations too.

As this computer telephony technology is automatic it could be set to make any number of calls a day, fully recorded and audited for a whole week and beyond. This could be to chase your arrears, ask a question about the repair that has only been performed 30 minutes ago, or help with annual survey of family size, essential now the so called ‘bedroom’ tax is coming.

Increasingly too, particularly in bigger UK cities, ‘ambulance chasers’ finding the squeeze on PPI and accident claims are now targeting social housing tenants to open ‘disrepair’ cases. “Has your landlord failed to repair...call us now, no claim no fee.....” yadda yadda yadda.. This technology could issue an automated call every three months, just to ask “Have you any repair issues to log, press one for no or if satisfied with condition of your home, two for yes”. Proof of response or even attempting to survey has been shown to assist in court.

The changes to HB payment, are probably the ones on your mind though. To chase arrears a simple call could be set up: “This is a call from the Ideal HA, your landlord. We would like to discuss your increasing arrears debt. Press one to speak to us to assist (creating a priority inbound call), or two to make a debit or credit card payment now....”
Where language preferences are held for the resident, this could easily be carried out in Urdu, Bengali, Spanish, Mandarin etc. Of course, the better your contact profile data, the more effective this could be. Stats are all easily available from the process, to see the effect on arrears collection improvements etc over time.

I, like many other well informed housing professionals consider the current policies, as squeezing RSL’s and Housing Providers too much. The emergence of universal credit in the hands of residents, not split into HB paid direct to housing providers causes problems in my opinion for RSL’s and Residents. I grew up in social housing. If I were there now on the breadline, like many of your residents, I know that if I had money in my hand, maybe I would pay my menacing loan shark (or PoundsToPocket etc) first, before my caring HA. Still, we need to work within this idealology, I take my pointers from David Orr on that one, when you cannot fight it, work with it.

So the logical outcome is that HA’s will spend more money either with housing officer visits and/or CRM outgoing calls, unless IT technology can further assist. Traditionally, the HMS would be generating plenty of arrears letters. I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to open my letters very fast, unless they are in a red envelope. I always tend to answer the home phone though, or mobile or read texts sent to me.

It’s no surprise that in court, letters are assuming a lesser significance. To be able to document that numerous calls or texts a day for many weeks were sent to a resident, (together with traditional activities) and what responses came back, can be a more compelling argument. Even more compelling are the possible costs. At only £3 a tenant per year from someone like The Housing Contact Company, Call-2-Collect represents pretty good value, when the cost of a letter is about £12+ or a single call centre conversation about £4+ every time.

That’s why I think that this is one of housings current and future innovations, an untapped technology. Look out; it’s probably coming down your road, sometime soon. While it’s not ‘The’ Silver Bullet, it’s certainly one I would like in my Universal Credit & Housing reform Bill holster.

More on the Housing Contact Company at http://www.housingcontact.co.uk/


Maybe this is what INXS meant back in the 80s.



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Lets Work Together

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

Wow, workflow. A module always certainly specified by right thinking housing and computer consultants. Have you got workflow? Did you implement it? Does it just sit at the bottom right of your users screens, teasing you (if so I think I can guess what HMS you are using)?
Well, I asked you more questions than answers there people didn’t I?

Workflow means many things to all types of people. The top and bottom of it should be that intelligent workflow is that piece of glue that makes your housing system mould around your individual processes. An extra piece of flexibility and programmability that enhances basic module integration. The better ones are close to common languages like VBA, almost like a macro in nature. Its a bonus having it embedded right into the whole system too, rather than it being a little fragmented.

A minimum should be work tray management. iWorld users will know what I mean. The generation of tasks that might be directed at say a HO (Housing Officer) to call or visit a resident or a customer, as output from processes, are an ideal example of workflow. The system progressing tasks to follow your organisation processes.

Other places where workflow scores is when an exceptional circumstance occurs and different actions are needed. Rather than staff noticing that the resident logging an urgent repair is an elderly double stick user, in order to qualify for it to be upgraded to an emergency priority, the system could do it for them. They don’t even have to know, or you could remind them with a message if it has occurred. The programmer in you may recognise this workflow snippet:

If (Contact.Vulnerability = “DSTICK” or Contact.Vulnerability = “BLIND”) and Contact.Age >= “60” and WO.Default.Priority = “Urgent” then
       WO.Default.Priority = “Emergency”
       MSGbox(“Be aware, Default priority escalated to Emergency on this order as resident old and vulnerable. This follows our customer care policy”)
EndIf

The emergence of workflow should reduce the need to run out and change your housing management system every five years as your organisation changes. Also, it is worth having some of your IT team or key module champions aware of, or able to write some workflow to add flexibility inside your organisation. The alternative is to spend costly days with your systems supplier and often wait many weeks or up to 18 months in some cases (people tell me) for work to be completed.

So, does your housing system fit your organisation processes or not? If it doesn’t and you are already trying to use your workflow facilities to the max, you have a problem. Maybe you have no workflow, you should be looking perhaps for some more modern HMS solutions in that eventuality.

As mentioned, some Housing Management Systems (HMS) have workflow built in by design. Others use workflow as a bolt-on. In some cases, testing automation (or manual scripting) software  such as ‘Testcomplete’ can be used to achieve certain actions. This can have variable results, but is prone to major upgrades with application software, causing problems.

Do you think your organisation is being best served by workflow? Here’s a no-brainer tick list, see how well your workflow is performing:

• Arrears process (assisting in allowing totally flexible processes, emailing and texting where appropriate, generating outlook or mobile appointments for your staff setting up visits and appointments)
• Void process (alerting other teams as soon as notice provided, organising/scheduling a void inspection, communicating with lettings or asset team, updating your web pages, if this would be a CBL advertisement, automatically passing to the local CHR is you use one)
• Satisfaction Survey (automatically linking with external services you might use, like Voluntas, generating outgoing calls automatically if using one of the emerging caller systems (more on that in a later blogpost methinks), creating follow up tasks for CRM or P&Q (Performance and Quality) staff to investigate demand failure)
• Repairs (take into account resident profile like vulnerabilities, religious beliefs, age etc in prioritising and appointmenting repair, automatic awareness of defect periods and neighbourhood factors, like notification of asbestos in the scheme etc to contractors, links with text, email and mobile modules, automatic determination of financial codes)

As the above shows, the logic of workflow can prevent the need for ‘everyday’ decisions to be taken by staff, meaning that residents and customers see a consistent approach. E.G. if they are a double stick user and aged 62, their urgent repairs always well get upgraded to a 24 hour emergency, who ever or however a works order is initiated.    

In the current environment, how is your system workflow performing to make your organisation more efficient? If it isn’t, prepare to ask some questions or find someone who can!


Canned Heat, they might have needed a decent short-back-and-sides, but now they knew a thing about working together.


(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk

File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Process Review,Business social networking,Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics,

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Changes

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK
or LinkedIn here uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/

If there were any doubt that Microsoft were out of touch with their 1 billion users, that was backed up this week by two users I made very happy by restoring their Office 2003 menus to them via a little extra provided by http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

It was worth a jam doughnut in one case and a hug and a kiss(?!) in the second situation. Don’t tell ‘er indoors.

But why on earth do that?

While wrestling with that question I was looking into an upgrade of Access from 2003 to 2010 when I read this on Amazon from Ian Pearson from Beds UK, who I would wholeheartedly agree with:

From the manufacturer's description:

"With its improved interface and interactive design capabilities that do not require deep database knowledge ... "

The terms "improved" and "interactive" clearly have a broad definition. The Access 2007 interface is actually intrusive and unintuitive. The core of a great product is still there (see Access 2003) but I can't see many persevering long enough to find out. Oh yes, there is also a new feature (multivalued fields) which controversially breaks a critical database design rule.

After a bit of time with the new Excel 2007 interface, you realise it works, but why oh why did they then apply it to everything else in the Office suite.

Don't buy or upgrade unless you have to.

Five stars for the best PC database product, minus 4 for a truly awful interface and multivalued fields.”

Why mess with something that works, have Microsoft been listening to the geeks? Apple don’t appear to do this, nor do Adobe?

Another review from Mr. A. Jawed "E Jawed" (Greater Manchester, United Kingdom) – (he got my attention right there!)

This review is from: Microsoft Access 2007 (PC) (CD-ROM)

I am a prolific user of MS Access with VBA with 15 years programming experience. I've been through all the versions since Access 97/2000/2003, and know them inside out. I am at pains to finally admit after extensive use of 2007 that the graphical front-end on this piece of dung is absolutely awful!

Microsoft have (as usual) gone a step backwards by reducing the customisability of the object views. To make matters worse, where it was extremely easy to set the options of the database to hide all the menu bars, navigation bars etc, they have now made that task incredibly difficult too. You have to create new system hidden tables with 'XML ribbons' to hide the usual navi-bars to get you DB to look like a regular app. Migrating existing 2000/03 databases will also give you new nightmares. A lot of old VBA functions don't work, and your database will be ridden with bugs upon migration from an older version - like sub-forms that become un-editable Read-Only for no reason if created previously in pre-2003.

Also gone are the regular text menu bars in place with these wacky looking graphical icons. All the regular features have been shuffled around and I can't tell what's gone where.

I hate Access 2007 and hate Microsoft for their regular conventional screw ups. Microsoft's HQ's retarded logic dictates that you should create something good to start off with, then every 3 years ruin it step by step with worse versions.

Well you sort of have it there. If like me, you are a bit like me, you probably need http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/ In fact I would go as far as saying make the payment to these guys, straight away. You will save that in the first hour, just with one user.

It makes you want to move to Apple. I don’t think they would be so stupid to make that schoolboy programmer type mistake. 

Read on to Word Up,

http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2014/01/word-up.html

Sugar knew the meaning of changes.



(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk

File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Process Review,Business social networking,Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics,

CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS Template,COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation,Consultancy,Consultant,Contact Manager,Context,

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Brass In pocket

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

You might be like me in that you try to check or at least take an active, passing interest in your supermarket checkout bill, making sure that you did get that 3 for 2 offer etc. Let’s face it too, it pays to check.

This time of year is generally when you will be billed by all your IT system, support and application suppliers for their annual maintenance. So, it’s probably the most crucial time to check your billing, as once you have paid it, you may well have to wait another year to resolve any issues. Hopefully reading this post you might find a few hundred pounds in savings, if you find any more, I wouldn’t ask you for a cut, but please do contact me or comment, with what you discovered.

As often we find in everyday life, situations change. That gym membership may not be working for us if it’s dropped off to just a visit a month. Maybe we find we didn’t need all those Sky Sport channels after all... You know the drill! In these times of austerity we are all looking down the side of sofas for savings too, aren’t we?

It’s the same with some support contracts, particularly hardware. They can rollover from year to year, with nobody really questioning the benefits or in fact the risk of that support ever being required. For example, in the current climate of virtualisation, I have encountered RSL’s still paying hardware support on one or more servers, that are now virtualised and on the physical server where it now sits. Madness. Although something that can easily be overlooked, bringing in possible savings of several hundred pounds.

Going back ten or more years, it was often prudent to have printers, PC’s, workstations etc under some form of maintenance contract. These devices (the ‘tin’ as they are often called), have become little more than mere commodities. From a supplier viewpoint, they are generally supplied in bulk with ultra-thin margins. Profit is generated from adding value with configuration days or on-going maintenance contracts.

As these devices are now so cheap and fast to source, it can often be more prudent to keep a few on hand as spares, rather than shell out for annual maintenance. As annual maintenance also generally includes some annual RPI element too, over ten or more years it can easily have doubled, under weight of compound %ages. From a technology viewpoint it is also relatively simple to setup follow-me or wireless printing. This can reduce the number of devices considerably, with many organisations often opting now for just one printer per floor. Pence per print is reduced and so is overall cost, increasing ROI.

Carefully examine each of the items you are being billed for and reassess if you still need that service. In some cases, some services should be extended as well as others dropped. For example if virtualisation has meant that there is greater risk concentrated in specific areas.

Annual software maintenance is often one of the biggest outlays. This generally covers access to a reliable, accessible and efficient helpdesk and often access to upgrades etc for application areas such as your housing management system (HMS). If your IT staff or user teams question the quality of service you receive, or there are a number of outstanding issues, that are felt to not being resolved in a reasonable timeframe, this is an ideal time to bring it to your suppliers attention. There is no greater lever than holding up a £55K invoice in your accounts department, to help get some of your long standing issues some much needed attention.

HMS suppliers are always keen to declare modules ‘live’ or ‘signed off’. That does not mean that the housing organisation’s definition is quite the same as the supplier! In some cases, modules might be billed that realistically are not and have never been live from the customer viewpoint. Two that often come up are Planned Maintenance and Development. A couple of notorious areas for staff preferring spreadsheets and little local Access databases. If you have any doubt that any modules are actually live or not, look internally, (or engage outside help to), before discussing this with your supplier. Often the latter will only be pleased to offer some ‘free consultancy days’ to move the situation along, if annual maintenance for the module may continue at some point in the future.

Modules that require some aspect of setup can also suffer from this issue. Reporting can often be one. Business Objects could take many years before an appropriate universe was created and useful reports roll off the end. If there is evidence that you are being charged for modules or applications that are not live or not being used, assess if they can be dropped from your maintenance schedule.

Historic modules that are being supported as ‘read-only’ can also generate quite a bit of annual maintenance. Consider how many times a year they are being accessed. If annual support is £8K and the read-only system has just five enquiries a year, that’s costing an eye-watering £1,600 per query. In a case like that it might be better to have internal IT or a legacy database specialist strip out the data to a little SQL or Access database, making significant savings. Check if you still need these and drop what’s no longer needed, making alternative arrangements.

Lastly, RPI can really increase annual maintenance charges considerably. Often it can seem that you are buying the system again every three years. If you are happy with your system and current supplier, approach them to discuss a discount. Alternatively, a possible a donation of a discount to neighbourhood improvements or specific charitable projects. You will be surprised how far some suppliers will go on this. It’s a good news story for all parties and importantly, your residents and communities benefit.

If you are less than happy with your suppliers, do let them know. Having the opportunity to be flexible can be far cheaper than going to market, possibly in a tender situation. On the whole, I am sure that suppliers try their best to satisfy their customers. If they didn't, they would not be able to continue trading.

Read on to: How does your organisation interact with tenants/customers on Twitter?

Possibly, you would prefer to have the brass in your own pocket.




(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk

File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Process Review,Business social networking,Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics,

CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS Template,COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation,Consultancy,Consultant,Contact Manager,Context,

Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Deeplake,Development Systems,Document Management,Documotive,ECMK,EDRMS,England, English,EnterpriseBI,ERP Systems,Finance,Financial Systems,Getting best from,Grasp,Grip,hardware,HG,Housemark survey,Housing Blueprint,Housing Group,Impact Response,implementations,In House,In4,Infoflow,Information Technology,Informix,inHouse,in-house workforce,Innovation,Inside Housing,Internet Portal,Invu,Ireland,Irish,IT Budget,IT Training,iWorld,Keylogic,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,management reporting,Measuring Change,Mebus,Miracle,mobile functionality,Monopoly board images and pictures, Montal,MS Dynamics,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Neighbourhoods and Communities,Northgate,Notice,NROSH,OA,OGC Buying Solutions,Ohms,OJEU  Limits,OmFax,Omniledger,Open source software,open tender,OpenHousing,Opti-Time,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,Paloma,performance management systems,PfH,Pick,PIMMS,pimms4communities,Planned maintenance,Plus,PM,Progress,Promaster,Proval,Pyramid, QL,QLX,Registered Providers,Registered Social Landlord,Rent Increase Freezes,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,gotonysmith,ROCC, Rocket,RPs,RSL,Saffron,SAP,Scots, Scottish,Scotland,SDM,sector,Server Virtualisation,servicing, Servitor,Servitor,Sharepoint,Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Media,Software,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting Services,SQL reporting services,SQL Server,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic Asset Management,Sunguard ,Surveys,Sx3,System alignment,Task,Terminal Services,Three Star,Today,Total repairs,Tribal,Twitter,U2,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,Universal Housing,Universe,Unrest,Van Stock,Voice and data,Wales,Welsh,Windows Server,Workflow and tasking,Xmbrace,XML, 07854-655009 , 07854655009 , 07854 655009 , "07854 655009" , tonysmith , thathousing , thathousingit , thathousingITguy, guy

Channel Z

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

Channel shifting is a recent phrase that many organisations and IS teams have recently been given to wrestle with. I have even been at a rather excellent presentation extolling the virtues of moving enquiries from expensive to less expensive channels. Often the process is that consumers start the initiative, business follows, then public sector get on the bus last of all.

As at 2010, the last time anyone appears to have checked, the costs of a face to face transaction was around £8.70, call centre £1.65 and website, just five pence. They say that there are damn lies and statistics. Quite rightly I cannot find the source of these taken from a Capita presentation, but it shows that this strategy has some legs. Volumes were not quoted, if they were I think we would have learnt marginally more.

I have seen the process at first hand. At one software demonstration I was involved in, residents lined up to tap at the satellite office window, trying to gain entry. It was explained that the room we were in was an area office, closed 3 months ago and these residents should be calling the 0845 number or visiting the head office in town, six miles away.

It made me smile as I could imagine my old mum doing something like that. If she was still alive today I could imagine she would be avoiding the internet with a vengeance. The internet and web access is often touted as one of the preferred channels for driving contact to. The government ICT strategy from March 2011 Government states it “will work to make citizen-focused transactional services ‘digital by default’ “.  Buoyed by the success of on-line tax returns and DVLA tax disc renewals, surely it’s the right way to go?

RSL’s are positive and receptive to this. There are many solutions out there too, so it should not be so taxing for the IS team to sort this for you. Most of the more switched on HMS suppliers have an out of the box internet facing solution for your residents these days. Also a few other third party solutions out there, such as SeeMyData. The more adventurous can also go down the DIY route. So what might be best for you?

It all depends on cost, how it’s to be supported (if it’s a package, that’s less of an issue, just pay your annual maintenance), what features you want to expose, do you want to reach just tenants or anyone in your contacts database, importantly how much do you want or need to customise? Remember, if you build it yourself, the application should be properly documented, so you are not vulnerable to staff changes or other risks.

Many solutions effectively utilise a data warehouse (a bit of a grand term, maybe just six tables populated overnight). While this can create resilience (ie if your main system goes down, your residents still have access), if you have a problem populating it, you lose service for some hours or days. Also you can be tied down to a limited set of tables and columns.

The ideal solution would be an out of the box solution from your HMS supplier, flexible and expandable to beyond your HMS tables & modules. For example, could you add additional info to the CMS like TP activity or locality info? Direct interactivity is a must too. If a customer can submit a query direct to the CRM or customer service team (as a call), rather than submit an email into some remote box, checked and emptied twice a day, that’s real joined up thinking. Also, can it easily be accessed in a mobile device browser, such as Safari on iPhone. Maybe even an app for Android or Apple IOS on ipad or iPhone.

Don’t forget security either. How will you sign up residents and contacts, what password and username arrangements will you need. Will you opt them all in, or ask them to sign up? Be sure to have your data protection lady as part of the project team. I just know she will have an interest! For goodness sake, don’t make it too hard though. Many solutions can be vulnerable to SQL injection attack too. Have someone in to undertake a belt and braces penetration test. It can reduce much embarrassment later.

One big disappointment with most channel shifting projects, is the terrible lack of take up. To take a solution at £1 a year per resident sounds good value, but not if the take up is only 270 people. If you manage 30,000 properties that works out at £111 each. Blimey, you could have nearly 3,500 face to face transactions for that. So what is the secret of getting your customers engaged?

Well, give them something useful. Make sure they have access to see their repairs and others in their block, close or scheme. Same with planned works, it’s great to see what’s going on in the neighbourhood and how it might affect you.  Access to rent account and rent changes is great if you are a leaseholder or not on HB. Ability to see local events is useful; parking suspensions or community events etc. ASB and the ability to see locally what issues are in play or to log ASB diary entries would attract me to log on more often. Also if you are a RSL with training and other initiatives in the community, promoting those via the web channel, as well as the usual CBL opportunities, is one more reason for your customers to engage.

Worth a mention here too, is digital exclusion. A big issue for older, unemployed and social housing residents in particular. Some RSL’s are tackling this by adding WiFi into schemes and doing tie-ups with charities such as ‘Help The Aged’ and others. Recent research suggests that over 60% of the over 65’s have never used the internet. For the unemployed 76% use the telephone and 10% attend the office whilst only 13% use the web/email. Only 10% of council house tenants and 6% of housing association tenants use the web/email.

In summary, I am sure it’s essential the RSL truly understands what customer service means and is dedicated to providing the lowest cost service of the kind that residents actually want. Internet/smartphone is part of that jigsaw, remember it’s not a silver bullet, just a chunk of what will be a piece of the overall ying and yang. Oh and keep an eye on your ROI. Essential before initiating any project of this type.

Read on to : Service Charges, how are yours managed?

Channel shifting, its not new, I am sure they have had it in Athens GA too.



 

(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk

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Connected

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I was pondering the other day, why IT teams are not more ‘plumbed in’ to management at large, particularly in the housing sector. In the space of just three weeks I have heard of three organisations where surveys of the profiling or other nature, were initiated, with no thought how the collected information may be stored.

In all three cases, the IT team were informed near the end of the process, when completed forms etc were coming in. The missing link in all cases was a lack of a rent account, tenant or contact number to tie the answers to. Now, if each of those were worth £50 to me, I would have £150 by now. Not enough to retire on, but it might have come in handy at Cheltenham last week!


Why is that the case, why does IT not often figure on senior management teams and boards?

Quite often it is because senior management is so remote from IT, the applications that actually run the business are operated and understood only by staff many layers down. It’s easy to have a slightly cynical view that things can be chucked over to IT when needed and those multi-functional staff will sort it.

It’s often the reverse of that where either
a)    A catastrophic IT project has been suffered
b)    A charismatic IT manager/director is in place
c)    One or more senior management, directors or board members pursue and understand an IT centric approach

The benefits are a no brainer. Connected, joined up thinking enables IT to be aware of (& to anticipate) what is being planned by the organisation, also for IT to flag up limitations. Most IT teams are limited by the applications in use and practical integration between them. Honesty is really the best policy. In my experience it saves much disappointment later and everyone sleeps better at night.

To move closer to a better relationship between IT and Senior management, a sales type approach often helps. Sell what IT brings to the organisation and how crucial it is. Aim to under promise and over deliver. Believe me, they will be eating from your hand. If not, the organisation will need to keep paying that excessive overtime bill, to fit all those things in at the last minute.

20 years ago, The Stereo MCs had cracked this.





(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk

File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Process Review,Business social networking,Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics,

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Crystalline Green

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In these desperate times, every place where savings can be made is being visited. One big area for many landlords is grounds maintenance. Particularly where a LSVT has taken place, the contractor responsible for it may still be the local authority.


Stories abound too of great savings to be realised from taking grounds maintenance in house, my local landlord ‘New Charter Housing Trust’ in Greater Manchester, being the latest. NCHT are predicting savings of £1.2M over the next five years. This includes grass cutting, weeding and hedge trimming, in this example to be completed inhouse.


As an additional bonus (there’s no end of good news with this!), the new team (called appropriately ‘Green Charter’ - Geddit!) will employ up to 29 people during the summer.


So, how should IT and systems be helping us work out if we can all be making similar savings? Can it?


Step one is to define the problem. It is unlikely that currently your association is in possession of an up to date inventory of green spaces, requiring grounds maintenance. “Up to date” you say? Yes, that’s probably the crucial bit.


The strips of grass, listed trees and historic open space information provided at transfer of stock, (or even when it was initially developed) is a living, breathing thing. Its affected by many factors, new build, storms and inclement weather, changes to street furniture and land sales.


One relatively small housing association I am aware of identified savings of £40K per annum for grounds maintenance, based on new accurate information. Over 15% of spaces no longer required services being carried out (rolled over each year) and a number of additional ones were located. This task for about 4,000 homes took approximately a month


How did they do that so quickly? Well, in truth it’s not all that tricky with a modern GIS solution.


The use of GIS was traditionally a silo type operation within an organisation. Also very expensive due to the eye-watering costs of mapping tiles. Both of these things are changing, particularly costs. Its possible to have change out of a years savings on grounds maintenance, once a GIS has been acquired. Particularly in the case of savings of £1.2M, the costs of GIS is a relative drop in the ocean.


Each green space can be identified as a polygon, categorised and recorded on a mapping layer. Export or interfacing of these objects and dimensions to your housing asset management module, then enables this information to be accessed in a number of situations. Hybrid/Satelite layers makes it even easier to locate and compare grass with concrete. This opens opportunities way beyond simple use by the Assets team.


As the polygons define areas required, it is a relatively easy job to accurately estimate costs internally, for your own contractor team or to request comparison quotes from external contractors.
Exposing this data to other areas of the organisation, this information can usefully extend customer service. How good would it be when a leaseholder next calls your customer service centre, complaining about grass not being cut, that your CRM team can see the details directly from the screen in front of them. “Is your long grass at the front or rear of your property?”, “Rear”, “We are only responsible for the rectangular strip at the front. Anything else we can help you with today.......”.


You are probably getting the idea. Imaginative integration is the key to that, one of my favourite hobby horses. Ensure when you evaluate any GIS system, GGP, CadCorp or Esri etc, that the quality of links with other systems, has high prominence in your scoring. That will ensure that GIS does not remain in a silo, with two boffins in the corner of the asset management team.

I wonder how Alison Goldfrapp keeps her lawn in check?.



(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk

File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Process Review,Business social networking,Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics,

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