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

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

Serco Don’t Lose That Number!

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

Earlier this week, a few thousand people and probably a dozen at least of my contacts, probably grinned with a knowing smile.

Of course I am writing about the UK’s national Serco Test and Trace spaff-up, relying on Excel spreadsheets, to collate and process Covid-19 tests.

If I had £500 for every time I had told people off for calling 'info in spreadsheets', a database, I could have retired by now.

The situation could be laughable, if it were not so important and crucial.

Now, if anyone wants to spread blame around, I would personally start with Microsoft. Why So, you might ask🤔

The original Lotus 1-2-3, as anyone who broke their teeth on it during the 1980’s may remember, only had a maximum of 8,192 rows (and 256 columns). Now if it had stayed at that size, a very limited number of fools would have tried to store lots of data in it and sensibly selected a proper database to do the job. But no. As Reeve’s and Mortimer might have said, “They couldn’t let it lie” - .

Microsoft’s Excel gave us 65,536 rows, immediately giving the illusion of it being a ‘database’, not a useful summary manipulation and presentation tool, which is what a spreadsheet does best. I have been involved in so many projects where users, managers and directors in some cases, have been firmly wedded to spreadsheets, needing to migrate to proper solutions, with protection, data control and robust audit. I have often proposed amnesty, after replacement system go-live, where spreadsheets can be dropped.

My proposal is that if the fearsome and opposing communities in Northern Ireland, could put their weapons beyond use, we should have a spreadsheet version of the Good Friday Agreement, where users do the same and promise never to return to them again. For some its starting to catch on thankfully.

For sure, Excel can be a good place to start for an initial prototype, but no one should continue to try to run a whole enterprise on it. Serco are not alone. Eight years ago or so, I worked with a big organisation, dealing with £8m of monthly transactions on Excel with its one million row and memory limit creaking & ready to break. Fifteen years earlier, with a turnover a 50th of that, spreadsheets just kind of worked. For that organisation it took about 4 months to procure and 12 to implement, a proper finance, feeder and self-service solution and they never looked back.

Serco however have apparently been paid £12b of taxpayers dosh and should have been able to build their own database quite quickly with 20 or so of the right ICT staff, none of which would have probably stuck with Excel, if there was any capability of a millions of test a day Moonshot a-coming.

In my time manipulating data, I have witnessed many things Excel does trying to be clever, without telling you. Truncating to 65,536 is common where old solutions can only use XLS format to export. No doubt you might have experienced that too. The type and length of unique ID’s seen in the SocialHousing sector, is ripe for Excel to helpfully swap then to scientific notation. How we laughed at that one, several weeks down the line.

So, beware the spreadsheet, its not a database. Don’t do a Serco Track & Trace, learn from their mistakes.

Who in YOUR organisation needs to take that advice to heart?

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Steely Dan – Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

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

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Thursday, 1 October 2020

Rescue Me

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

Perhaps no one (except for maybe Albert Camus, seventy three years ago), could have confidently predicted COVID-19’s impact on the Social Housing sector in 2020 – particularly its repairs function.

Last week’s news of more lockdown-focused tightening prolongs existing challenges even further.

Most of the organisations I work with, especially where internal direct labour is involved (the trusty DLO or Building Services Team), have stripped back their repairs function. It’s just Emergency and Voids works now.

For the latter, a couple of my clients have focussed on preparing temporary accommodation for homelessness provision or early prisoner releases. Many DLO staff, including one on my street, oddly enough, have been furloughed.

More than one current client of mine has highlighted that tenants are ‘cottoning on’ to the new normal and logging minor issues as far larger ones, to squeeze repairs into the Emergency priority zone.

The dilemma for all appears to be a building backlog of ordinary, urgent, routine repairs (and some Right-To-Repair priorities in Scotland). Regulators seem to have dragged their feet in offering direction. However all those logged issues will have to be chewed through and everyone expects their current workforce to struggle when work orders can finally be scheduled.

Back in January, I blogged about Plentific, which could be described quite rightly as the socially-minded ‘Uber of Repairs’. The company and the concept is interesting to me as it has gained exceptional traction with providers such as Notting Hill Genesis, Peabody and uses a unique platform attractive to the sector. It also features a mature marketplace to match skilled staff, rated on each job, to sector demand. Verification of staff certifications and capabilities are coupled with a fast-paying financial platform, a key benefit for the framework of contractors.

The Plentific Platform

I was interested in how Plentific is expanding across the wider UK and more so, how COVID-19 may have impacted its business model. What’s the best rating achievable for works undertaken in this new normal?

Like others, Plentific initially saw a drive to more Emergency priority work, including the new innovation of COVID-19 deep cleans, particularly in London, where the Coronavirus spike hit first. With a number of trade staff within social housing clients self-isolating or furloughed, Plentific throughput was similar to the same quarter 2019.

From recent webinars and my own contacts in the sector, I know that Plentific is rapidly expanding into major conurbations across the UK. I understand that expansion of the platform’s ecosystem has led to more partner contractors under their wing already in the West Midlands, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.

This important development I believe unlocks a potential new resource in the main urban areas, becoming available to be used as a ‘pressure release valve’, for the social housing COVID-19 backlog.

More importantly, if as the scientists seem to be suggesting, a second peak arrives, Plentific might well be the backup for a DLO or your key partnering contractor.

Plentific Battling the backlog discussion

Availability of solutions, as we all know, is one thing. Passing muster with procurement in order to exploit a new digital-world contractor, such as Plentific, can be something else. Framework-only is quite common these days, particularly in local authorities and fortunately a framework does exist.

Personally, I am liking the ‘Uber of Repairs’ concept, particularly as it's cost effective for landlords and potentially can drive up resident satisfaction. Contractors seem to like Plentific too, as it’s a personal and on-going relationship (way beyond the taxi Uber). Go check out more at https://www.plentific.com/

Catch the blog monthly archive at
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Cabaret Voltaire - Rescue Me.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

Sunday, 20 September 2020

Tried and Tested UAT Method

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

As anyone who knows me will testify, my job involves all kinds of work to help organisations find, select, implement and get the best from the right solutions. Spookily enough, over the past two months, I have been involved in helping two very different clients, progress with UAT (User Acceptance Testing).

I am sure many readers of the blog have been through this essential project phase, some perhaps also together with me.

I am no stranger to thorough testing and can compare & contrast over the years, the various organisations and software houses I have worked in and with, from the late 80’s to present days. I can spot good quality control in development teams, as well as sloppy and also barely existent.

Representing software houses on site, I have had the experience of confirming a user is right to criticise our programmer spelling of ‘Correspondence’. That one was particularly galling when I knew English was not that users first language. In my UAT over this last month I found error messages, where the software houses name wasn’t even spelled correctly.

I know at this point, more than one software development director, will be emailing all his programmers, to check that one. At least get your own name right. Lexus, Mercedes, Jaguar or even Kia, wouldn’t dare get their names misspelled on your vehicle boot, now would they?

Both of the customers I am working with, are thankfully using a home developed UAT. Expecting your software supplier to provide a set of UAT tests is a bit of a mugs game. How can it cover everything your organisation needs and the most important things for your teams? Exactly, it couldn’t, so don’t kid yourself it could. It’s the clients responsibility to check if everything will work. If you sign it off as ok and it wasn’t, you will either have to live with its foibles (perhaps) forever, or cause yourself grief after go-live.

As soon as you ‘sign off UAT’, you most likely need to make a milestone payment and in many cases, to fix what issues are left, will take months on a helpdesk, cost you to fix or never ever be fixed. The key to managing UAT issues, is the prioritised issues or RAID log. Decide which issues are red line ones. IE the ones that you absolutely wont go live without. Don’t be afraid to insist development fixes are delivered for testing, rather than wait until after go-live. If I had £50 for every fix I have been promised coming, ‘In the next sprint’ or ‘just around the corner’, and was disappointed, I could perhaps treat myself to that sexy ‘Specialized Turbo Kenevo Comp 2021 Electric Mountain Bike’, by now.

So what might pressure you to cut corners on your UAT?

Well you might be pressured to hit a particular date. Ask yourself, would anyone in your organisation thank you for going live with a system missing key working functions. Maybe better to clearly and concisely justify why you aren’t ready and move your target date to be something more realistic?

Your supplier might be mad keen to see your milestone payment, after UAT signed off. If they had configured it right in the first place, you may not be under that pressure.

Your suppliers' on-site consultants might try to convince you some of your ‘issues’ are ‘design features’. This is an interesting one, as it assumes that you haven’t really seen any other examples of ‘software’ at work or anywhere else in general life. This is something that programmers could fob people off with in the 80’s and 90’s, telling them black was white, but increasingly its not washing in 2020. If some programmer has cut corners and will make you and your users lives worse or less efficient, get it called out. Developers are meant to be automating what we do, to make us more, NOT less efficient. Don’t get fooled by supplier consultant staff telling you, that because they made the software work once and you made it fail 5 times, you are somehow the problem.

One niche aspect I have encountered is where UAT is being done on a test system and failing badly, suggested supplier solution is just use the live database to go live on and the failing UAT issues may go away. In what world would this make logical sense? If your supplier cannot get your system fit to fly through UAT on a test database, they wont be capable of doing on a live one.

Finally, reports (if you can get suppliers to supply them, as apparently they are as rare in some solutions as rocking horse sh1t), are always a great area to test. How often do the filter criteria make little sense or carry scant relevance to the team hoping to use it for insightful analysis, or the supplier report developers, have no grasp at all of what the purpose/content of the report may be? Poor original specification or communication while prototyping/writing/installing the reports, often sets the scene for later UAT friction. Then just watch, for some supplier accountant gatekeeper, to state that ‘we supplied the standard report’ and additional filters to make it useful to you, might well be ‘Change Control’, even if you are trying to get apparent no-brainers, such as dates in European rather than 09/11 type format.

UAT is a necessary evil and for a strong long relationship with a supplier, it should be executed well by customer and supplier. Fail to get it right and those memories of unfixed issues, being pushed to go-live pre-maturely, will linger for the rest of the (often rocky) relationship. If you and your supplier tackle UAT and its issues responsibly, you might be on your way to a long and fruitful journey.

Related Post: How often does a primary software supplier, struggle to control third party project suppliers?

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The Longcut - A Tried And Tested Method.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Jump Start

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

From a housing systems viewpoint, I think its fair to say we are in very interesting times.

We have some existing suppliers already capable of providing SaaS & browser delivered systems, Also there are quite a few in transition to that state, and MRI, a new supplier group, recently assembled by its US owners. With that current mix, it’s no surprise that many social housing providers are looking at MS Dynamics 365 (D365) and Salesforce too, as alternative pathways to support future innovation, efficiencies and improved service delivery to residents.

D365 has been increasing in popularity recently, with landlords using Microsoft Resellers and/or internal ICT resources, to get the most from the platform. It can be expensive to rely purely on reseller resource and sometimes smaller ICT teams, certainly in my experience, always can benefit from ‘being shown the way’ or having a collaborative jump start, in order to get the most from D365.

We are a sector I have always found to be very generous with sharing skills, expertise, good ideas with other organisations, as this all assists with the central social purpose, of why we are here and improves lives of our residents

In this vein, I was quietly surprised to discover a new initiative to share a number of functional blocks for social housing organisations, using or looking to get a jump start into D365. The aim of Chris Roberts, who has worked in the sector twenty years, and ten with Dynamics CRM, is to provide useful templates to support Person, Property, ASB, complaints etc, absolutely free, via a brand-new forum and I would hope with Chris, a future community D365ForHousing.

I’m liking what’s available (and planned to be coming) will need configuring, but reasonably will take organisations 60%+ towards where they need to be, to get working practically. This could clearly suit organisations looking to dip a toe in, without committing maybe £30k+ with a reseller, plus the obligatory Microsoft user licences (don’t get me quite on that one just yet!). The whole concept is a forum for sharing experiences, finding and exchanging advice. Without monetarisation, RSL’s and maybe resellers prepared to share for free, I think this is great for the sector.

I had a great chat with Chris last week and his experiences with AmicusHorizon, then Optivo and others have all gone into the openly available building blocks, which are all independent of those organisations. #D365ForHousing . I think its great that Chris wants to give back to the sector, after enjoying working in it and like me willing to step out and strive to make a difference.

Chris is well connected to contacts at Microsoft and clearly has received support for the project, as this is sure to bring more in the sector to D365. I think its something the SocialHousing sector would benefit from getting behind, as the whole thing can be set up in a trial within a few of hours for FREE, then used to kick start the project, support a business case or help bring people up to speed with the functionality available.

In the last 7 months, around 25 RSL’s have expressed an interest and two have spun up a trial, remarking how easy it was. I am very interested who this might be a good fit for. With my clients, maybe D365 is not a good fit, based on appetite for risk (particularly in Local Authorities).

Chris remarked, “If you're a decent sized RSL and up and running with D365 then this probably isn’t something for you (although you'd still be welcome to download the modules). Its aimed towards those starting the journey or are still trying to decide if Dynamics is for them, these solutions will help get you up and running and will significantly reduce implementation costs”. So for RSLs, that can only be a move in the right direction. If you are a Microsoft reseller reading this, possibly availability of this, will be a nudge in the direction of upping your game on productised solutions. If you are a traditional HMS provider, I guess it should really focus your thinking. Feel free you commercial guys, to comment.

I have seen a few D365 projects go well, crash/burn, seriously over-run etc, for all sorts of reasons. I was interested on Chris Roberts take on that. Are landlords tackling D365 properly?

He said, “I think they are now. A number of us have implemented Dynamics and are happy to share the good, bad and ugly, that's one of the great things about our sector. I think my advice would be make sure you take colleagues with you, spend time understanding them and their needs (while managing expectations). The technology is an enabler but its useless without user adoption. From a development point of view I'd suggest, where possible, to stay as close to out of the box functionality as possible. This wasn't always possible in earlier versions but D365 is a different beast altogether and should be considered with the rest of PowerApp and Microsoft 365 functionality. Finally, avoid a 'big bang' go live, its very difficult to manage and can have a serious impact on user adoption.”

Spookily enough, going for a MVP style of implementation is often how resellers frame D365 implementations. Where many of these go wrong is that the simpler aspects that D365 does well, form the early focus. Dealing with the Rent Accounting and in-depth Repairs, if they are going to be part of your project, need planning early, even if they are only expected to be delivered in 12 or more months time. These as experienced people know, are the really tricky nuts to crack. Perhaps if via #D365ForHousing, all the early simple aspects can be implemented, in a very quick similar way to what works for others, the real value-add that resellers can bring to the table, is the integration and difficult displacement of those two key housing modules. They are still the two main sides of the coin to most Social Housing landlords. IE how we collect and spend money.

On the spending of money, here I come back to those costs of D365 licences.

Both Chris and I agreed that Microsoft licencing could be fairer for Social Landlords. Maybe a multi-tiered license taking in concurrent or reporting users, only accessing data, could be considered. Contrasted to SalesForce for example, I have heard some of my clients, describe the comparison as ‘obscene’. For sure, fairer licencing may attract many smaller organisations to D365, the so called ‘NHF smalls’. A missed Microsoft opportunity, IMHO.

One last thought, on the subject of ‘opportunity’. Both Chris and I talked about the opportunity to combine the jump start building blocks with possible social purposes. We had both heard of similar ‘incubator’ type projects, where high school students, maybe even gifted residents from your own community, could gain valuable experience with D365. Now wouldn’t that be a wonderful potential win-win?

Go visit, check out #D365ForHousing at deliveringcrm.net

Related Post: Few projects are a 200metre sprint, strap in for the more likely marathon

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Runaway Go - Jump Start.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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