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

Wednesday, 26 October 2022

No Complaints

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

Most folk who read this blog know I work with SocialHousing ICT systems, projects and procurement. I have never been to Sheffield Hallam or Stirling Uni to do one of their rightly recognised excellent degrees and Masters in housing, although met many professions who have and asked me if that’s where much of my knowledge came from.

That is flattering, although the 25+ years I have had the pleasure to work in the sector, has been my ‘apprenticeship’ in absorbing the ‘knowledge’ and terminology that underpins its systems and processes. I am constantly surprised when Council or Social Housing residents reach out to me on Twitter, in the pub or at the barbers (no joke, I helped one of the managers, who had struggled with her unsatisfactory RSL repairs for over 3 years).

With that knowledge I am always happy to try to help and I thought it was time I put a blog together about the tenants/leaseholder view of the complaints or reporting process. For balance, also because I procure it and implement it week-in, week-out, I will put together a blogpost from the opposite side of the fence too, next month. The second one will explore what’s available for RSLs to manage and better expedite complaints, and achieve better outcomes. So, please stay tuned for that!

So, lets start with some examples, some of which might be spookily familiar to readers in the sector. I wont be naming & shaming, ITV seem to have already cornered that market with repair failures. These are a big originator of complaints. Big cities are the targets for firms of ambulance chasers, left with looking for new low hanging fruit, after the ending of PPI claims, now moving into Repair Disrepair claims. Many of these are pursued right near the end of the 3 or 6 year claim period, as there is greater chance of success then. Some outfits provide a convenient 24 hour chatbot/webchat to help get a claim/complaint started. These are on the rise, although most issues I help with, come straight from residents. I bet many RSL’s reading these still don’t have a chatbot. Do you?

The nice lady at the barbers was with a large local provider and there had been six attempts to rectify a leaking rear secure patio door and had damages to three carpets due to repairs not being properly completed.

In another example, a Council resident had submitted numerous formal complaints that had been mislaid, ignored and substantial personal data had been lost too.

In a third case, leaseholders are seeing charges made, unrelated or explained to repairs said to have been completed and apportioned, without appropriate consultation.

In a fourth case, resident has attempted on 5 occasions to report a repairs issue, no evidence of logging had taken place and on the 6th call, resident was labelled as ‘Vexatious’ and told not to contact the provider or housing officer again.

Repairs issues are behind a significant number of complaints and there is often confusion what is an acceptable repair, how recharges and priorities work, to set expectations. While the days of ‘Tenant Handbooks’ has gone, not all landlords in my experience, have this info easily accessible on websites or self-service.

The first question I generally ask, is if the resident has an audit trail/timeline of their interactions and if they received a CRM call or Request/contact interaction ID in reply. Many residents do not have that timeline and its really key for the complainant to have the facts clearly documented. If complaining/logging anything, residents always ask for that ID number & note the staff member who you spoke to. If completing a request via self-service (if its available), not the repair/request number shown on the webpage reply and any appointment made/requested.

It’s a sad fact that often residents have a much better set of facts, than their Social Housing landlord. That can seriously work in the complainants benefit.

My second piece of advice is when a problem arises, write a clear and concise letter, stating dates/times, ID’s, staff names if known, the nature of the issue, with calm language. Key is to give the landlord 14 days to respond, solve it in 14 days and what would be a reasonable fix from the resident viewpoint. Emails can be used, although a registered posted or personally handed in letter is preferred. Where the landlords staff such as housing officers, or asset surveyors etc are involved, consider inviting them in for a chat about your issues, over a brew & a biscuit. Building bridges for the price of a cup of tea & a macaroon can only do you good.

Keep lines of dialog active, respect each other, be kind but firm, but note all details of course!

Any continued churn/turnover of staff adds further frustration. This should not be any excuse for the complaint being coherently progressed. This is the landlords problem, it shouldn’t become that of the residents.

Thirdly, understand and use the declared landlord escalation path, documenting all interaction with it. Better councils and RSLs, will provide this process on the website, or it can generally be formally requested. Typically, this will move a complaint each stage up to a supervisor, manager, director etc. This must be exhausted before ombudsman may get involved. If the resident has a more complete timeline, there is a greater chance of success with the ombudsman. If this is Council Housing or ALMO stock, often getting a local ward councillor involved can help too.

A complaint going through a number of stages, is harrowing, frustrating and time consuming for residents. For the RSL or Council, this is an expensive business. Many repair issues for example, perhaps involve £100 - £350 of spend to get right, by the time multiple staff are involved in a complaint about it might cost several thousand pounds, of landlord effort to resolve.

Reducing/eliminating complaints is good for everyone, particularly residents.

Check back soon, for the second part of this subject

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation,

please just get in touch, for a friendly chat over a brew.

I will bring plenty of Chocolate Digestives ☕😋

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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.

Beck – No Complaints.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

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

File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Affinity,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365, ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management,Homeswapper,Housing jigsaw, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keynamics, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz, M3,MAVIS,MD,MDM,MI,MIS,MIS-AMS,MISCS,MRI,MS Dynamics,MRI,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Microsoft365,microsoft 365,MWL,Management,Management Server,Manifest,Measuring,Mebus,More IQ,MoreIQ,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Microsoft dynamics GP 2013,Miracle,MobileIron,Mobysoft,Monopoly board images and pictures,Montal,Mr Void,MriEngage,MrVoid,MoreIQ NDL,NINTEX,NINTEX workflow,NPS,NPS ASSIST,NPS Housing,NPS Job Manager Mobile,NROSH,Natural,Neighbourhoods and Communities,Nintexworkflow,Northgate,Northgate Codeman,Northgate Public Services,Notice, OA,OGC Buying Solutions,OJEU Limits,ORS,Ohms,OmFax,Omniledger,One,OneAdvanced,OneServe,Open source,OpenContractor,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Options,Optitime,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OutSystems, PIMMS,PIMSS Data,PM,PRINCE2,Paloma,Pamwin,PanConnect,People Value,Peoplevalue,PfH,Pick,PlanForm,Planned maintenance,Plenfific,Plus,Portfolio Management System,PowerObjects,Pro,Pro-Points,Prodo,Progress,Promaster,Propoints,Proval,Providers,Pyramid, QL,QuantSpark,Qube,QLX,Qlikview,QueryView,Queryview reporting,Quiss, RM865,ROCC,RPs,RSL,Rave,ReAct,Reality,RedkiteCRM,Red Olive,Registered,Registered Social,Rent Increase,RentSense,RentSenseLite,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,RobotAutomation,Rocket, Salesforce,Salesforce.Org,SAP,SASSHA,SDM,SHBVN,SM,SOTI,SP,SQL,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting,SQL Server,Saffron,Safron,Saturn,Scenario,Scotland,Scots,Scottish,Scout,Sequoa,Serengeti,Serros,Server,Service,Services,Servitor,Sharepoint,Sim,SimPro, Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Housing ICT,Social Housing Software Applications,Social Media,Software,Software solutions,Spotlight Service,Spotlightservice,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic,SunAccounts,Sunguard,Surveys,Streetwise, Swordfish,Sx3,Symatrix Human,System alignment,Systems,Systemwise, T-Files,TEAMS,TED,TFiles,TP Tracker,TSG,Tagish Casework,Tagra,Task,TAIM,Technologies (India) PVT Limited,Telecetera,Template,Terminal Services,That,Three Star,Tilt,TiltAffinity,Today,Tony Smith,Tony Smith That Housing IT Guy,TonySmith that housing IT,TonySmithHou,TonySmithHousing, ,TonySmithHousingITguy,Total,Total Mobile,Totalmobile,Trace,Tribal,Twitter, U2,UC,UK,UK Housing,Ukhousing,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,United Kingdom,Universal,Universalcredit,Universe,Unrest, Valueworks,Van Stock,Vantage,Vantage Sentinel,Version,Virtualisation,Visualmetrics,Voice,Voice and data,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Wheatley,Windows Server,Workflow and,Work Hub,Works Connect, XML,Xen App,XenApp,Xmbrace, ...
. . . . . . . . . . . .

Friday, 7 October 2022

Trapped

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

On a far too regular basis, I come across organisations and teams sometimes trapped into a troublesome relationship with a software supplier, due to going live too soon.

You might reasonably ask what I mean by ‘too soon’.

The client might be rushing to meet a deadline, some logical reason like another solution going end of life for example, or a platform they have committed to leave. Alternatively, a CEO, director or other senior manager might have ‘made a decree’ a certain date needs to be hit. I have also worked with sites who are changing location quickly and that has been the driver.

While its great to meet deadlines, they need to be set sensibly and planned in advance sufficiently to be determined to be practically achievable. Its been my job sometimes to have to stop folk in their tracks and tell my client to rethink the plan, as either supplier or client have not sufficiently estimated/assessed their limits. Indeed on occasion, I have asked suppliers 4 or 5 times, are they absolutely sure these promised milestones can be achieved, before getting dates written into contracts, with hefty penalties and service credits. Even at that late stage, its sometimes waved through, than re-thought.

The other elephant in the room is UAT - User Acceptance Testing.

If UAT is lightweight, or issues are not diligently collated and suppliers are challenged to fix before go-live, clients can be persuaded, urged or pushed to go-live prematurely. This can lead to a situation where there’s live running, issues coming out of the woodwork causing wasted effort, workarounds and duplication, that could have most likely been reasonably ironed out before go-live. In addition, useful features may be de-scoped, left for later, that may have been essential for an efficient go-live.

Another essential step I recommend is to have your managers/stakeholder leaders sign off the decision to go-live. Not just ICT or a single team close to the project. Ensure all stakeholders are represented and have a voice, in an honest Go/No-Go decision.

Is a pre-mature go-live in the suppliers interest?

Well a cynic might say yes, as there is usually a hefty payment milestone dependant on go-live (to what ever degree it was ‘successful’). Also, once you are live, you are essentially for most purposes, ‘trapped’ into that solution and supplier. Any pre-leverage is minimised and the client is at the mercy of the kindness of the software supplier.

Also, beware of what a ‘go-live’ really means. Are you truly live with everything expected, or were certain aspects/modules/features descoped because they were not ready, not written, waiting for ‘a sprint’ or just ‘difficult’. These should be warning signs in any software or transformation project. From the initial procurement, be clear what the expectations are on both sides of the relationship. Dont be fooled by talk of a so-called 'Agile Approach' will make it all right. Look how the UC rollout fared !

If you are having problems defining those initial expectations, struggling with UAT, pressure to go-live or suffering the aftereffects of a scrappy go-live, feel free to get in touch!

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation,

please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew.

I will bring plenty of Ginger Nuts ☕😋

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Utopia- Trapped.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

Friday, 23 September 2022

Dark Matter

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

I am familiar with the ‘Dark Web’, although I have never done any transactions on it, spookily enough. I know what its used for and what stuff ends up there. Not a decent place for nice folk I guess.

So, having read about the big recent Clarion Housing Group cyber attack, it was interesting last week to read that the police were warning residents, that it's likely their personal data has been compromised and may end up on the Dark Web. If I were a Clarion resident, to be honest I would have preferred to have heard this direct first from my landlord with an apology, rather than my local county police force. This isn't the first of this kind and will not be the last either.

As been covered in this blog in past posts, data loss and cyber awareness are risks to be evaluated and mitigated, what ever kind of organisation. From the particular viewpoint of social housing residents, loss of data, be it personal, direct debit sort codes/accounts or whatever, can be catastrophic.

While this data breach has been reported in the housing press over the last few weeks, potential loss of data has been played down, while reportedly many weeks of disruption have been suffered by customers. If a breach of personal data can be proven, clearly there are penalties that should be served on Clarion. Clearly, this lost data could be exploited this month or anytime in the future.

While we cannot undo what has gone before, how could this (potential) data breach have been prevented?

Well for starters, have some serious cyber awareness in place. Have your staff as aware of potential dangers, as well as putting the logical and software blocks/measures in place. Often our staff, the human firewall if you like, can be our Achilles heel. Lack of an enforced password policy can be the means of easy attack, tighten up and ensure that an appropriate password policy is in place and followed. Do we limit our users’ execution permissions effectively and enforce the principle of least privilege?

Have we got boundary firewalls and internet gateways tightened up? Can we detect and block executable downloads, continuously block access to known malicious domains?

What’s our malware protection like? Have we established and maintained malware defences to detect and respond to known attack code?

Is our solution portfolio up to date? As matter of course, do we patch known vulnerabilities with the latest version of software, preventing attacks which exploit software bugs?

What’s policy on listing and execution control? Do our solutions prevent new/unknown software from being able to run or install itself, (including AutoRun on USB and CD drives).

Do we actively restrict the functionality of every device, operating system and application to the minimum needed for business to function?

With all of the above in play, we need then to continuously monitor what’s occurring (as Nessa from Gavin & Stacey might say). Monitor unexpected or suspicious activity, keep training staff and have them updated on new threats and issues. Put plans in place to deal with potential incidents and learn from ones that occur. We are on a current path to put more applications and data in the Cloud, where it can be more secure than ever (if we do bother to secure it of course!).

Our UK national Cyber Security Centre term the stages as Survey, Delivery, Breach and Affect

Now I don’t know where Clarion were with all of the above, however the hope would be that they have learned from their recent experiences. The key of course is doing all that is possible in order to safeguard resident data. Once out in the wild, dark web or not, we are clearly down to damage limitation or recompense payments. I think for me, where the latter is involved, corners should not be cut. Social housing tenant data is as valuable as anyone else’s, that should definitely NOT be forgotten.

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation,

please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew.

I will bring plenty of Chocolate Hobnobs ☕😋

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Porcupine Tree – Dark Matter.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

Wednesday, 7 September 2022

Real Life

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

What are we all like with our social media?

Whatever you do, Facebook, Insta, Twitter etc, we are always looking to post our best life, even if we don’t realise we are. I post enough real ale images, although I may take six shots and just post the best, with a decent head (if appropriate OBVs). Its kind of human nature, but does clearly show a false view of our lives. On the downside, we can present a golden shiny view and be suffering and dark inside.

Part of the illusion is that we can groom and engineer those shots to be the best ever (or the best we can manage). What if you couldn’t do that and the social media app decided when you could take that photo you are allowed to post? Some folk I know, may consider that to be violating their human rights!

This is exactly what a new socialmedia app looks to do. BeReal (“Your friends for real”), gives everyone the same two minute window, to post daily. Is this going too far?

I don’t know if any of my contacts are on BeReal, although I am sure a dose of reality would do us all some good sometimes. Particularly when I see tweets from socialhousing tenants and particularly those via Kwajo @KwajoHousing, there’s a different kind of reality there, than is often portrayed in council and socialhousing publicity. More attention to resident issues would reduce the incidence of repair problems and make a massive difference to life chances and outcomes.

My own upbringing in social housing on a Manchester 1960s overspill estate on the edge of the Peak District served me well, although I feel we had better safety nets back then. Rent collectors would look in on tenants every fortnight and be the eyes and ears of the council landlord, potentially picking up issues, repair problems etc in real time. They knew who was ill, who had just lost their job, who had just snagged a new one etc. These people were the ultimate predictive data profilers, something we lost when Housing Benefit was paid direct and for those folk collectors were no longer required.

Indeed, I have been told that some tenants asked that the rent collector still called, so as not to reveal to neighbours, that they were on full HB. So some folk were trying to show their ‘best life’ in their own way, back then. Its likely that the fortnightly rent round with the ‘Gilbert Strips’ picked up many issues quicker, with potential problems solved faster, that today in a more remote fashion we work, relying on our CRM.

We can certainly improve what we do and most organisations I work with are looking to transform so staff work more efficiently and serve residents better. I certainly believe that and in terms of how organisations procure services, if cost is a predominant factor, you can bet that often the reverse is in fact true. All the case management and CRM solution options are mature and out there. Lack of tech is no excuse, whatever size organisation (50 - 50k+ properties) you are.

Some social housing organisations (and councils with retained housing), do seem to struggle with seeing and understanding their residents in real life. To provide better services, we should never take our eye off real life. Complaints always need to be taken seriously and regarded as a means of digesting feedback, to improve services. Fail to do that and we fail to be real. Costly and frustrating internal and external waste is created in our processes, which often managers can’t or won’t tackle.

Social Housing shoots itself in the foot at times, at first resisting the regulator, then agreeing with it. Be real all the time, not just when the regulator is watching, or inspecting us.

Oh & if you try out BeReal, do share with me how you get on 😉

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with keeping it real

or any other HMS transformation, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew.

I will bring plenty of Chocolate Gingers ☕😋

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Magazine – Real Life/Definitive Gaze.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

Friday, 19 August 2022

The Golden Void

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

I was chatting with a client last week about an article in Housing Technology magazine, about how socialhousing providers feel about their data, based on a recent survey. It certainly resonated with the two of us, as we both felt the ultimate importance of data quality, but lamented how much priority is actually applied to that.

Regular visitors to this blog will be familiar with many posts around data, keeping it clean, reconciling it, reporting and visualising it properly, then acting on it.

So many of us talk a good ‘Golden Thread’ or a ‘Golden Asset Record’, which often falls down when significant resourcing is required. The question, “Who will be acting on these insights then”, often pops up, with the (incorrect) assumption that ICT will be fixing it. As we know, ICT are the mechanics, not the drivers of our teams and processes.

It can be very controversial when data errors are sent back to the originators. I have had push back from teams where they have been used to things being fixed for so long downstream, they no longer feel its their job. Of course its their job and supervisors/managers should always be doubling down on it. Correcting data errors/inconsistencies early, saves 5-10 times the effort and cost later.

Its often historic as I think was touched on in the article. Previous processes and staff often set up data formats and processing, which make little sense in the current context. The things cause duplication, often in spreadsheets or distorted data. I do sympathise with staff/teams reaching for Excel and they love it don’t they? Although many I see, can be well out of their depth with a VLOOKUP or Pivot Table. Not exotic concepts, but essential for any minor data analysis.

The biggest misnomer is of course that Excel is a database, or a database solution, which it clearly isn’t. Proper industry strength solutions are the real go-to’s as (proper) database or data discovery /analysis tool. Unstructured documents and file storage objects with content/property info, are clearly another problem needing bringing together. How much of this information is useful, referenced your data subjects legally or not under GDPR?

With all this stuff going on, its not surprising that in terms of most organisations, (not just Social Housing OBVs), rather than achieving a ‘Golden Data Thread’, its more of a ‘Social Housing data Golden Void’. Now that ‘V’ word I know does irritate many people, including several local councillors as well as a good colleague of mine. Barry you know who you are mate! So apologies there, but I think regular readers of this blog will be able to identify with the reference.

The Golden (data) Void represents our 40%+ gap, from the article, in getting on top of our data, which would reassure us that we had ‘a single trusted source for important data’. Just because its hard, shouldn’t mean we keep brushing the problem under the organisation carpet. Certainly if you are changing key systems of record, procuring, you should be tackling the issue now. In fact I would say if you are looking to take a non-productised path, perhaps with Microsoft D365/Salesforce as a blank sheet etc, its even more crucial.

Is your organisation ignoring the issues or grabbing it and running with it?

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with procurement, data review or HMS transformation, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew.

I will bring plenty of Hobnobs ☕😉

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Hawkwind – The Golden Void.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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

Tuesday, 19 July 2022

Warm Leatherette

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

If you are of a certain age you will remember the purpose of ‘a choke’, in our old 1970’s and early 80’s petrol cars. It was to increase the flow of fuel to a cold engine, to help start the engine more smoothly. Perhaps where the phrase ‘pump-priming’ may have originated. Most of us understand that that’s all about. Both are about efficiently warming up either an engine or an investment.

Partnering with a consultant, Critical Friend or supplier to expedite a project is a little like kick starting a vehicle and the process of getting to know what’s out there is the same process.

I was reminded of ‘warming up’ this last week when I was emailed out of the blue to ask if I would be responding to a portal opportunity, to help with a procurement. On one level I was surprised, on another, less so. I have never had a conversation with this organisation, done any work with them or know anyone there. With no warming up being previously done, it puts everyone at a disadvantage.

This is why I usually advocate getting to know the marketplace first, before even embarking on engaging or procuring anyone. This ensures you learn the art of the possible as well as potential budget needed. I try my best to persuade clients to know the market first, even if they have some knowledge from a few years back. Relying on old data can lead to surprises, particularly where effectively comparisons of new Cloud/browser systems, may being made with older cheaper client-server solutions, (which might by now be on their last legs, effectively declared end of life).

Note that getting familiar with suppliers and the market is encouraged in public procurement. This is to help Social Housing, Councils and others obtain best value. Once an ITT is issued however, all communication must be formal & fair to all bidders. With a lack of 'warming up', your favourite supplier might not even express interest. A single leftfield supplier might engage landing you with a broken budget. One Scottish council went out for Document Management cold and landed up with a single supplier bidding and a £5m price tag. Exceeding budget by 235%.

The Pre-Market/warming up process can also shape the build of ITT requirements, OJEU (or post-Brexit compliant) procurement, with current/future art of the possible for transformation. Also, where mandatory requirements may be specified, additional knowledge of what’s actually possible, may prevent suppliers qualifying an opportunity out, due to not being able to meet a stated red-line. Over the years, I have also seen different suppliers qualify an opportunity out, as they had no real prior knowledge of the client. Some ‘warming up’ mostly can prevent this objection, as the impression can be that other suppliers are already closer to the client & opportunity already.

Occasionally too, suppliers can feel occasionally that they are persuaded to engage in a procurement, ‘just to make up the numbers’. I have seen this when I used to work ‘on the dark side’. Personally, I never liked that situation as so much time and effort can be wasted, when there is scant prospect of progressing.

So, in summary, don’t hesitate to ‘pull out the choke’, and embrace some ‘warming up’. It might make a real difference to your modern Cloud orientated HMS or Dynamics CRM Digital platform procurement, if you are looking to work with me, or one of the system suppliers or resellers.

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with pre-market exploration, procurement or HMS transformation, please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew.

I will bring plenty of Ginger Nuts ☕😉

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Warm Leatherette - Trent Reznor, Jeordie White, Peter Murphy.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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