tonysmiththathousingitguy @HousingITguy

Some thoughts on IT and UK SocialHousing from a unique perspective of over 27+ years working with over 140 RSL's, Councils and social landlord groups in the UK, Ireland & Australia. (c) No reproduction without prior/express permission Available for independent housing RSL implementation, procurement of HMS, Repairs, CRM, EDM, DLO, Financial, Scheduling systems, critical friend etc. In Scotland I work with the folks at Arneil Johnston Check us out on Soundcloud /housingitguy

Saturday, 1 December 2012

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

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

Friday, 16 November 2012

Yammer Be There - Banning Internal Email

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK
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,
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, Miracle Software HouSys, 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,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,Tony Smith Blog, Tony smith Housing Blog, Housing Blog, TonySmith, TonySmith Housing,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

Friday, 2 November 2012

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,
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,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