Whats My Name?

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/

 
I am a big believer in giving bigger projects and implementations a name. For some reason, ones with a name seem to succeed better and usually these make me feel better, when getting involved.

I remember when I completed a technician apprenticeship in the early 1980’s. On the very first day it was explained that all the practical projects we completed should have our assigned number stamped on it. Mine was M508, I can still remember as I have a few tools I made on that course that still come out of the shed have it neatly stamped on them. Reasoning was that as apprentices we would take pride in having our number on our perfectly engineered projects. Much like a car has a neat badge on the front and back, rather than some 'erbert untidily daubing ‘Astra’ on the back, as the car rolls off the production line at Ellesmere Port.

A project name generates pride in the stakeholders involved and makes communication easier. This is one area that is often overlooked, although one of the key strands of a PRINCE2 centred project. One of the problems with ‘projects’ is that they are unique, different from ‘Business As Usual’ and everyone’s standard jobs, they are abstract. A name makes it more tangible and something most people can get their head around.

One great project name I came across was ‘OCRopus’. You can guess what sort of project that was, the name encapsulated it. First three letters explain what it does and it’s a clever subversion of a real word, unique and easy to find on the organisations intranet.

Another fun one was from a housing group implementing a new housing management system and having the broader aim of reaching three star status. They came up with ‘HMS Tristar’ with the sub-title ‘Get on board’ (geddit?). Others I have seen; Quantum (the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction), which was a project to increase efficiency through implementation of a new financial and reporting system. Also Amplio (not named after the political alliance in Uruguay as far as I know...)

I think the key is to make it memorable, if possible fun and with a link to the purposes of the project if you can. Where totally stuck a few turn to Japanese or Greek mythology. The lazy resort to random project name generators such as the one at http://online-generator.com/name-generator/project-name-generator.php

Beware though, you project could end up being one of these:

• Dreadful Jazz
• Remote Toupee
• Disappointed Door
• Endless Postal
• Teal Longitude
• Needless Bird
• Outstanding Gloomy Balcony
• Shiny Neptune
• Hideous Zeus
• Railroad Maroon

Better you come up with something more related to project objectives and the business area, I am sure your management team would thank you for that!

Read on, could Qlikview revolutionise your housing stat's presentation?

http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2012/12/rear-qlikview-mirror.html

 

The Clash knew what was in a name "Whats My Name?".


(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, MD , Director , Housing software, UK, United Kingdom,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, HousingIT, Innovation,Inside Housing,Internet Portal,Invu,Ireland,Irish,IT Budget,IT Training,iWorld,Keylogic,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,management reporting,Measuring Change,Mebus,Miracle,MISCS, 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,Miracle Software HouSys, Reports,ROCC, NINTEX , NINTEX workflow , Rocket,RPs,RSL,Saffron,SAP,Scots, Scottish,Scotland,SDM,sector,Server Virtualisation,servicing, Universalcredit, universal credit, universal credits, 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, Systemwise, Factorwise, Blockwise, Block wise, Task,Terminal Services,Three Star,Today,Total repairs,Tribal,Twitter,U2, 07854-655009 , 07854655009 , 07854 655009 , "07854 655009" , tonysmith , tonysmiththat , thathousing , thathousingIT , thathousingITguy ,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,Universal Housing,Universe,Unrest,Van Stock,Voice and data,Wales,Welsh,Windows Server,Workflow and tasking,Xmbrace,XML

Yammer Be There - Banning Internal Email

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or LinkedIn here http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

I read an interesting article this week about Halton Housing Trust looking to ban email by 2014, that captured my imagination. An estimated forty per cent of staff time was spent ‘dealing with internal email that is of no value for the business’. Read the full article in InsideHousing here http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/regulation/landlord-plans-to-ban-internal-email/6524652.article


The decision to ban email was inspired by a similar move by Atos Consulting, spookily enough located right next to HHT's building in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Maybe some advice was exchanged in the smoking area between both buildings. I certainly think there is some mileage in that one.

One replacement being considered is Yammer, the business social media collaboration platform acquired by Microsoft in Summer 2012 for $1.2 Billion. Presumably HHT will be using many of the premium features. It will be interesting in what direction Microsoft does decide to take it. Some of that uncertainty might put me off personally. I can imagine Yammer fitting right in very quickly with the bright young things of Silicon Valley type companies. To get the most from it within HHT and possibly other housing providers I would guess a lot of training and a genuine change of mindset from all staff expected to use it, might be needed.


Email can be very disruptive and particularly in the same way that staff are provided with Excel and never trained to use it properly, then waste person years going around the houses performing tasks badly. Email can be the same. Outlook or a similar email client is provided and rarely are users coached in how to deal with email coming in, proper use of To: , cc: and bcc: .

How many times have three people been named in a ‘To:’ box and nobody deals with it because they think the other two must be on to it. 

Also how many times have you been emailed by the person sitting next to you, instead of the two of you just discussing and resolving an issue?


Instant messaging can sometimes be even worse, something that can be responded to straight away, like a phone call, not like emails that can be left and dealt with at an appropriate time.


One aspect about emails that is really good however is the trail it provides. A perfect audit sometimes to disprove claims and assertions. This is one area that cannot be lost with a move to Yammer or A.N.Other. One phrase that I should actually have programmed in to a function key for outlook as I type it so much is ‘Confirming our earlier discussion..’ . The perfect way to document what has gone on be all parties.


A number of RSL’s with appropriate housing management systems have moved from internal email to workflow tasking or use of tasking in-trays. This means that any internal activity, that most likely will involve one or more people, can be traced via CRM or other modules of an integrated system. Any decent tasking system allows escalation, referral and closure of tasks, with corresponding activities closed off or set at an appropriate status on completion.


For example, a resident request for repair logged as a CRM call might generate a pre-inspection, a repair job, that job may be passed to the internal workforce. Several internal tasks (which could before have been emails) might be raised based on job issues. When these tasks are resolved, the job is closed and CRM call completed. Obviously, this flow can be embedded in workflow and tasking, something that would not be practical when using just email.


Now if Microsoft integrated Yammer more fully into Dynamics CRM, took advantage of standard workflow and Sharepoint for presentation, I think that would give existing options a great run for their money. Good luck to HHT, as one of my local RSL’s I would be pleased to see how this project unfolds.

Read on, more social media in housing:

http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2013/09/three-little-birds.html

James Ingram and Michael Mcdonald say "Yah Mo B There".


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

PS I have noticed I have been getting a lot of traffic from the Housing Southern IT Forum recently http://sit-forum.co.uk/. Thanks everyone, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle, please get in touch and let me know!

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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How Much Is Enough? (Data conversions that is...)

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

After being asked this question for the third time in the last week by different organisations moving HMS, I felt moved to write a post about it. A true potential minefield in a project. An area that sometimes drastically over runs, struggles to produce even a single clean conversion until the eleventh hour or is not given the emphasis required and causes a disaster further down the line. If you are doing one at the moment or ever been savaged by a data conversion, read on....

I have been involved in many implementations and conversions. Some from the contract side, many at the coal face. For me the magic number is four. To the inexperienced it might appear that just one conversion at go-live should be needed. Why should you need more, wont that just push costs up? Won’t we just extract exactly what we need to transfer and import it smoothly into our new system? It’s just data, how could that go wrong? These points explored here are just as valid if converting and implementing a single application like HR or a big bang of a multi-module Housing Management System. The latter of which, I have experienced over a dozen, many first hand.

Generally it will go wrong and many elements of tailoring will be needed along the way. Audit checks to ensure everything needed is being extracted from the current system (and nothing extra – like those car-ports from your old Mayfair system in 1992). By audit checks I mean reconciliations to the penny (yes the penny!), number of items, count of live contacts, works orders, whatever. Fail to have that in your plan and you plan to fail. Transformations will then be needed to use new codes or match new formats. Maybe (very wide, I kid you not!) fixed length ones will be needed, certainly different table import formats. Same audit checks on those numbers need to occur on the new system when the data lands there. Every risk or issue to be conscientiously recorded. Miss this step, fudge or hide any issues and they will bit you and your project team later, bigger and badder.


In successful projects, the first conversion in my experience should be completed within the first 3 months (or third of the project). Possibly 65% or more of all data should be successfully converted and be good enough for preliminary project champion or stakeholder training, setup and other activities. The whole process should be built to be repeatable from the very start. This is a very important point. A hand-crafted conversion that takes 20 days, could not be of any use on a go-live, unless we are happy for a few hundred staff to have no systems for 20 days.

This first conversion should product a rich and valuable list of information, issues and risks that should be aimed to be pretty much mopped up by the second conversion. At the second, 100% of data or close to it should go through this one, with the usual reconciliation's to the penny and the number of items etc. Multiple databases obviously needed for these purposes, pointing to possibly 4 times or more of the estimated live working disk/database quota needed to conveniently support these functions. A virtualised environment makes this much easier these days, providing a bit of planning ahead has already been done. It’s ok to not have a 100% audit signoff, providing the mis-matched elements can be explained. Don’t be tempted to hide or bury these, they will come back to haunt you if not tackled.

The third conversion should be close to six weeks or so of the planned go-live and works best if treated like a serious dummy go-live. Timings should be collected, and if successful should validate that from a conversion viewpoint at least, that the go-live conversion will be ready to roll. 
If the outcome indicates anything other than that, resist the temptation to bury the bad news and press on. Honesty is the best policy, honest! Be prepared to inform management that you are not ready, the go-live date will need to be provisionally moved until a successful third conversion can be done and 100% reconciled. Your supplier may not be happy as they might not have a slot for you, if your project moves 6 weeks back. Most will do their best to accommodate in my experience, but don’t be surprised if your project will be delayed for a few months rather than a few weeks.   

It is very likely that at initial proposal stages of a contract, a supplier will include some implementation days allocated to data conversion. Note though generally the onus is on the customer to extract the data and provide in specific formats for provided loaders. Do not underestimate the size of this task. Specific or specialist tools, skills or software may be needed. Most systems come with standard reports that can aid reconciliation, once data is loaded. Some suppliers will offer additional chargeable days to take on more of the extraction process, depending on their experience of source systems where data is coming from. Some customers will have an in-house IT team that understands the original data or a ‘tame IT bod’ they have come in on a regular basis, who might be good candidates for extracting data. These approaches can have different outcomes dependant on personnel, culture, depth of existing system data structure knowledge etc.

Whoever extracts/converts the data it is the responsibility of both supplier and customer to agree the reconciliation of the data, pulling out and imported in. Ultimately, the sign-off will be down to the customer, as a final user acceptance. Personally I like to see a proper signature, a bit old school I know, but reassuring, that everyone understands the gravity of what is being signed off. Only certain data issues then generally fall under the suppliers ownership. For example if perfectly converted data becomes corrupted later by the new system. Missing or unconverted data found later, after signoff (and any associated costs etc) is generally the responsibility of the customer.

The data sign off milestone is crucially important for customer and supplier. It protects both and they give it low priority at their peril. Both need to take appropriate responsibility. An article in Inside Housing magazine in August 2012 ‘A Costly IT Error’ , was pointed out to me recently, where shortly after implementing a shiny new housing system, many thousands of residents were under billed by £100,000 after a rent review. For once a little windfall for residents!

That InsideHousing article (see http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/accent-in-costly-it-error/6523173.article ) was quite vague as to the real issues of how the data got in that state, it’s certainly not you might be looking for in your project, a few months after go-live. It does however underline the importance of the robustness of data conversion, audit, reconciliation and sign-off. I have always stood my ground and insisted in all of my projects to see that signoff signature in blood. It saves everyone’s bottoms later and goes as far as feasible to reduce the chance of things like the example above.

Read on, to how communication with your residents can break down:

http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2014/07/communication-breakdown.html

The Fixx - How much is enough?.


(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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This Is A Low

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


In an informal chat today with an insider close to the Northern Consortium, I heard a whisper today that possibly Cardiff and Birmingham (Aston Villa) HITEX housing IT solution events may need to be cancelled. This is due to poor supplier and housing IT department and management take up.


Looking at the list of suppliers signed up this year there were some prominent figures missing from the list. I did not spot the two most popular HMS system suppliers Orchard and Aareon as well as Northgate. Maybe holding out for a cheaper deal nearer the events. Everyone appears to be tightening belts, looking for bargains and delaying decisions where they can be.


I have had great experience of HITEX in the past, found new customers there, taken prospects to the right solutions and enjoyed some lovely buffets. The mini-shepherds pies and the Thai kebabs were my especial faves. Even though it’s free for up to 10 IT and systems staff from housing to attend, there appears to be limited takers this year. Even a few hours out of the office seemingly becoming difficult in these strapped times.


The NHF IT IT in Housing Conference and Exhibition at Olympia is also coming up soon in November 20th / 21st. possibly people are waiting for that one instead. It’s certainly one where there is more prospect of your supplier taking you for a free meal out, if that’s your thing. The conference exhibition is generally free to attend, register here - http://www.eventdata.co.uk/Forms/Default.aspx?FormRef=ITHB2Visitor


The emphasis most places I go is on squeezing more from existing systems and that includes your existing suppliers. Start trimming out things you pay for and don’t use. A few weeks ago I identified savings of £3.5K per annum just by taking some printers off annual maintenance. A lot of these things are historic. A decent printer used to cost over a grand, now it’s plummeted to just a fraction of that. You might need help in identifying some of the bloat, but a lot can be worked out yourself with some digging. Also don’t forget those modules you paid for and never implemented. Also the ones you used to use and now don’t. I have found similar savings there, moving to cheaper read-only licences, ditching them altogether or moving it all to Access or SQL Server.

**** Quick update : 26th October 2012, Aston Villa Birmingham and Cardiff HiTex venues dropped.

Read on to: Some Exhibitions That Are Thriving

How low can it go?.


(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, MD , Director , Housing software, UK, United Kingdom,
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Technologic

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


When can you be too techie? When you are like me and had a background in many diverse industries, from engineering, manufacturing, retail, distribution, clinical and finally 14 years in housing software, you pick up lots of baggage. With me, the drive to solve problems often causes me to dig deep into my experience for the best answer or a mix of options. It’s rarely the most obvious approach.

A lot of my knowledge was gained by doing, reading textbooks, in one case by writing on-line help for a whole suite of ActiveH products. In the latter case you learn much about your own products, how many set up screens are absent or ‘hidden’, as well as what the quality of your developers is like. Particularly getting a head in a textbook or trying stuff out is not everyone’s cup of chai. Many staff do hope to go on an expensive course and have it spoon fed.

When I was involved in the sales process I generally opened and closed demos and was always on hand to answer those interesting questions from the floor. Five years writing/supporting the product, five implementing it and five managing, directing and selling it put me in a good position for answering those questions in an honest manner. It’s disingenuous to infer that ‘Everything’s Possible’ only to find when you have purchased, it’s another story. I have always slept better being honest.

Being at a demonstration to a prospective customer in the position of Managing Director was sometimes problematical too. Some prospects pointedly took the view that maybe my software house was small and that’s why I had come along. My stock reply was “perhaps the competitors did not think you important enough to warrant a visit”. If you deal with a very large company, you can wind up as a mere customer number in the ledger, regardless of you putting hundreds of thousands of pounds of business their way each year. The second part to my reply was always that “I know this software inside out, so I am sure we can answer all your questions at this early stage as a prospect. If you join us as a customer you will see me at every user event, interested in your needs and at any time I am available for you to contact directly, day or night”.

It seems a common thing in some organisations and with certain managers, that once some people reach a certain level, they take pride in professing to be ‘non-technical’. That might be a disinterest in how to get a simple select out of SQL server, how VLOOKUP works (I should do a whole item on that!) or how the core product functions or integrates together. As can been seen above it did me no harm. In many situations that knowledge helped cut through the cow cookies. In several it helped either clinch a deal or turnaround a tense situation.

It always impresses me when someone I am working with reveals some geeky experience. Only a few weeks ago I was working with a great IT Manager who whipped out a spreadsheet for a project we were involved in that really impressed me. He had embedded in some really funky VBA macros to quickly compare data we were assessing. Icing on the cake, but with it came a feeling here was no fool and someone who will have no difficulty testing staff or supplier protestations, to get the best outcomes.

So I am quite proud that I carry that old baggage around with me. Whether I am involved in a procurement project, business process review, integrating new modules, converting, testing, integrating reporting or workflow etc, I benefit from the sum of all that experience. How many of your managers are proud to retain a certain level of geek-iness for the good of your organisation?

Can you be too techie?.


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

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Universal Credit

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


Well, no doubt about it, if I had £50 for every passionate person in housing I have talked about this subject with, I would certainly have over a grand in my jeans back pocket by now! If you have been working under a stone for the last two years, Universal Credit will centrally replace six of the main means-tested benefits and tax credits in the UK into one single monthly credit. Many prominent figures including John Seddon (he of the ‘systems thinking’ approach), have already questioned the initiative. His open letter to IDS is here  I have more faith in John than "Iain Duncan Cough" (as Lord Gnome called him).

As you might have read in this month’s Housing Technology magazines article, "Welfare reform - Taking Credit where its due", which I was invited to take part in, I have strong feelings about it.  Download it here  it starts on page sixteen.

I don’t think it’s all bad however. I believe that the benefits system is a safety net provided by a fair and just society, it should not become a way of life. All my life I have been in employment and paid eye-watering amounts of taxes to support this and still do. Having seen systems in a number of countries around the world, imperfect as it is, this one is relatively good on the whole. A simplification should be a good thing. People like ‘simple’ don’t they?

Many of the changes that will have most effect on residents are the new way benefits will be received. Monthly not weekly rings alarm bells straight away. What percentage of poorer or aged residents now can navigate even through a week without the temptation of a ‘payday’ or loadshark loan? Many moons back I remember my teenage experience on suddenly moving from weekly to monthly pay. Even being money savvy, that s a big change. Even bigger is the way HB will be rolled up in that payment and will go straight to the claimant. I find it unlikely that the proportion that keeps the roof ever their head will be ring fenced in the family budget somehow.

Spookily enough so do thirty low-income households interviewed by Ipsos Mori this last week 17th September 2012, as reported in Inside Housing magazine. See this link to read the Inside Housing article.

‘This laissez-faire approach will create real problems not only for families themselves, but also for public service organisations, such as social landlords and childcare providers, that families will end up owing money to,’ he said.

The report notes the changes to housing benefit payments are also likely create ‘significant problems’ for social landlords, and could damage their credit ratings as their income would be seen as less stable.
It states: ‘The result would be that housing associations would have to pay more to borrow money, with knock-on implications for the building of affordable housing and new dwellings.’
A further angle on it from the Spectator Blog this week too here.

So what should RSL’s and Housing Groups be doing to prepare before October 2013 for this? Can IT and housing systems help? Most certainly your existing systems can help. I am sure there are few silver bullets to assist in this, however, don’t put faith in a great dashboard that for £20K can ‘drive insight into your resident arrears...’ or similar.

In my experience I have recently done work with a number of organisations who are only just tightening up the way their arrears procedures are married up with rent accounting and financial systems. Many are only just implementing workflow and (what I might term ‘smart’) arrears processing, including initial signup inductions. If your organisation does not use automated arrears or workflow in your systems, or maybe just in a cursory manner, it needs to be analysed and smartened up sharpish.

Auto arrears and particularly workflow is often left to phase 99 in a new HMS project. This is because its generally tricky, needs much involvement from the rents and management in a project team or capabilities were perhaps oversold in the first instance. Often too, solutions should span more than on system and supplier, so your prime provider will struggle to provide the best for you. In an internal project with one or more module ‘champions’, possibly utilising an outside consultant to inject new ideas and techniques and also engaging your suppliers too, you will stand a chance to drive improvements.

Signup and also annual tenant reviews are an ideal time to educate residents, link them with local credit unions, basic bank accounts and drive the move to a higher proportion of payments, in order to access HB via direct debit. If you are not already on AUDDIS, get on it either via your housing management system (if it supports it) or a supplier such as Bottomline . Closer relationships with residents will be needed, so your CRM module needs to be up to scratch, detailing all intercourse back and forth with your organisation. Consider opening up access to all your staff to CRM. Costs can be high, be sure to explore licensing models, often a ‘lite’ user licence can be available at reduced cost.Check you are leveraging all your communication options too, email, SMS TXT, autodailers, preferred languages, twitter, facebook etc.

Keep an eye too on how well your asset management system integrates. With the bedroom tax coming, that needs a serious consideration on bedroom / permitted person data. One for a future blogpost methinks!

Also don’t forget the economic times we are currently in.  Apart from whoever has got the gig to write the core system for the DWP, possibly usual suspects; Accenture and IBM, most suppliers keen for a deal can these days be more flexible on price. Don’t forget to ask for yours!


Many things are already universal.


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

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Good Enough

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

As anyone who reads or lands on this blog will know, I keep a roof over my head from the proceeds of working with IT, particularly Housing IT. Don’t get me wrong, I have a true passion for social housing and work like crazy to help everyone get the most from it. Well working that way, all that effort gets trickled down to all our neighbourhoods eventually. That's what I believe anyway.


I remember having a chat with an IT chap at Arena housing some time ago at a HITEX exhibition, put together by the Northern Housing Consortium. These are coming up shortly, usually at iconic football stadia or places such as Wembley or York Racecourse. This years are at Chelsea FC London 1st November, 6th November in Cardiff at the Marriott, 13th November DW Stadium at Wigan, finally Aston Villa FC Birmingham 15th November. They are worth a look, check them out. Usually they come with an excellent free lunch, make a beeline for the mini shepherds pies and Cornish pasties, my personal faves. I digress...


Anyway, this cracking stubbled chap and I were discussing ASB solutions. Where I was director at the time at MIS Active Management Systems we had a housing related case management module which covered ASB. It would have difficulty fitting with IBS OpenHousing however (now Capita Open Housing) and i think Arena were using ReAct. Now that’s an excellent standalone solution, I asked him if they were making best use of it. He asked me why I was interested as it was unlikely that we would replace it etc.


I was interested as if it was used well, it would be enabling safer neighbourhoods, joined up thinking and better communities. Spookily enough, an Arena scheme Adamson Court is just at the bottom of my road. A happy community there spreads into a happier safer neighbourhood in the surrounding streets. So Arena’s great use of ASB case software directly affected the quality of my life and surroundings. Arena are now merging with Harvest to form ‘Your Housing Group’. As an aside, I am pleased there will be no competition watchdog investigation into this. (blimey have they nothing better to do??).


So, I am always pleased to be able to give some free advice and lend a helping hand. A contact on social networking asked me last week about CORE. You know, the recording at the end of a new let or sale. For the housing management system in use, addition of the CORE module would have cost over £60K. With some VAT on there tooNow CORE relies on so many fields of information to be found in the source letting module, which frankly are never always there. It makes it necessary to pretty much always confirm information on the ECORE website. Now when you look at that in the round and also compare that with other customers (of that same HMS), the logical conclusion is that doing it manually is good enough.


That's certainly not the most profitably option that I can suggest, but it’s actually the right one. As anyone who knows me would guess, that’s what I suggested. Manual is way good enough. No big IT project, funds freed up to spend on 20 new kitchen or bathroom refurbishments. I hope I have done my bit to improve a little corner of south London.




Sometimes good enough is good enough.


(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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