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/

Related Post: How well does your organisation handle repair recharges? 

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

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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.

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

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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. . . . . . . . . . . .

A Day At The Races

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

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of a couple of days at the Kirona Optitime DRS conference held at Chester Races. Needless to say I caught up with a large number of friends, contacts, clients and new interesting folk, wrestling with some of their systems.

I went along with a dedicated group of people I do a lot of work with at Walsall Housing Group (whg) , we work a lot on continuously improving our customer journey. As you can imagine, the group I was with were very interested in how many others had tackled this.

Surprisingly, a number of the speakers were still wrestling with some areas such as accurate diagnosis of response repairs, including arriving at reasonably accurate SMVs. Use of front end scripting tools appeared basic at best and often more primitive and inflexible options were in use. Although I don’t think many realised it, some organisations would really benefit from help & assistance in that area. Whg are relentless in their use of scripts, enforcing them widely and keep them tightly accurate and up to date. Indeed, we had Sarah, whg’s super scripting lady with us at the conference.

David Todd lets his hair down and belts out 'Hey Jude' at the Kirona Rocks evening entertainment

While scripting is a brilliant tool in my opinion when used correctly, a good CRM or Contact Manager type solution is also a pretty essential component. By that I do mean one that should be used by the whole organisation, not just where calls come in. If the latter is the only means of populating it, the organisation sees a 110⁰ view, not a 360⁰ one. Whg for one, have recognised this and CRM is utilised universally across staff supporting 19,000 homes, allowing excellent customer service.

Ann Parkes, from whg’s customer service team will be leading a session at the NHF IT conference at London Olympia, Tues 18th Nov, entitled ‘Personalising The Call’. I will be helping with any techie questions we might have, it would be great to see you there.

On efficiency, again The Wrekin explained what can be done with no backlog repairs, weeding out of your worst rated stock and consistent replacement/development. Even being a bit sceptical and looking beyond the statistics, which clearly come out a bit lower, it’s still an impressive story. Backlog/unallocated repairs are the bane of any organisation, it does baffle me why these persist at most places. Clearing those allows faster tackling of repair requests and potentially better service. Knowing your stock categorised by NPV, desirability etc is also essential. Something you should have already to feed into your Living Will, more on that here http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=living+wills  

Related Post: Are DLOs ripe for a come-back?

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You can link with me on LinkedIn here - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy It would be great to connect !

Queen - Tie Your Mother Down (from the album A Day At the Races).
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, or you could benefit from any of our services please get in touch and let me know!

You can access a quick list of 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 or issue.




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Shopping

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

After Solvares buys More-IQ, then merges with Totalmobile. UK housing DLO & contractor repair systems just got a lot more interesting. Two announcements in four days and neither is small.

Following on from consolidating FLS (Fast Lean Smart) recently, Solvares Group has acquired UK-based More-IQ, a true Cloud dynamic scheduling specialist that has been aiming straight at social housing landlords. Good on Nick, Katie and Gael on that one. 😉

Then Solvares and Totalmobile announced yet another merger, creating a combined group of 800+ people supporting 4,000+ customers, with housing explicitly called out as a key sector. This matters because scheduling these days is not a nice-to-have. In housing repairs, it is the control room. If the scheduler is average, everything downstream looks average too: customer comms, compliance visits, voids sequencing, multi-trade, right-first-time, and the “why did nobody turn up?” calls.

What does this mean in simple terms, a view from a seasoned sector Critical Friend ?

Solvares is stitching together optimisation and scheduling brains with a mainstream field service execution platform. More-IQ strengthens the cloud-native scheduling side, and Solvares explicitly positions it in their comms as boosting its offering for the housing sector and accelerating cloud-native innovation.

The Totalmobile merger statement is basically “planning through to execution”, at scale, with no immediate change promised to existing customers. Well, they all say that don’t they?

These platforms are winning some significant housing deals and often banging on about those wins. How some of those pan out to satisfactory go-lives might be somewhat shankier. I mean I see some of these in my projects.

Community Housing recently has selected Totalmobile’s platform to support repairs for 6,000+ homes, with 70 operatives, aiming for March 2026 go-live and projecting £750k+ net savings over five years. Hyde Housing has a published repairs contract with Totalmobile extending field-service and scheduling capability across wider operations. Wandle Housing Association awarded Totalmobile Connect, Mobilise and Analytics via G-Cloud. Raven Housing Trust and Vivid Homes are great More-IQ examples.

So what should DLO repairs managers and housing organisations do next? Maybe don’t panic. But also not sleepwalk into a new foreign-owned group making quiet changes while you are busy fighting damp, mould and backlog. After all, there are some great alternative indie choices out there too, such as ROCC who quietly seem to be just getting on with doing a good job with everything ‘in the SAAS box’. 

Here is what I would get nailed down now, in writing, (with dates OBVs) :

Roadmap certainty: what gets invested in, what gets merged, and what gets nudged toward end-of-life over the next 24 months. The press line is “no immediate changes”, but “immediate” is doing a lot of heavy lifting  there (like every merger or acquisition).

Commercial protection: what happens to pricing at renewal when products get “simplified” into bundles, or the additional contract clauses bubble up.

UK housing priority: ask how UK housing feature needs, support coverage, and escalation routes are protected when priorities get set outside the UK. Lets hope all decisions need not go via Heikendorf, DE in the future, that would not be clever for customers across the British Isles, RP's & AHB's.

Integration commitments: if your HMS, CRM, comms, compliance, BI Reporting, or contractor ecosystem hangs off scheduling, insist on a clear integration support plan. In a merger, interfaces are where surprises breed, particularly if some products could be depreciated, or swapped with other alternatives.

And what about OneAdvanced DRS, you know OptiTime as was? (Showing my age now)

This is the bit that should make OneAdvanced customers and prospects sit up straighter. OneAdvanced markets Dynamic Resource Scheduler as a core product for field workforce optimisation and it is also being sold on G-Cloud frameworks as Resource Scheduling (formerly DRS).

But the competitive pressure is more real than ever, because Solvares has just bought a supplier that is positioning itself as cloud-native dynamic scheduling software with a housing-first focus, and it is now (most likely) being paired with Totalmobile’s execution platform.

So the likely impact on DRS is not “DRS is dead” (not quite yet anyway). It is more like this: procurements get harder, buyers will ask more awkward questions about what “cloud” really means, and incumbents will be pushed to modernise faster because the Solvares-Totalmobile combo can pitch an end-to-end story with a cloud-native scheduling engine at its centre. Again, this is not an only option, look and think out of the box, you don’t always have to be with the big boys. Often small and perfectly formed is an advantage.

If you are a DRS landlord/user, you probably do not need to rip out and replace. But you should use this moment to extract roadmap clarity and commitments, because serious competition has just arrived with a variant of 100% true Cloud scheduling and (potentially) a much bigger chequebook behind it.

My Take is this could genuinely help providers, if it leads to better scheduling that matches the reality of housing, then actually executes cleanly in the field. However, consolidation is never a charity project. It is a control project. The winners will be the landlords who treat this like any other high-impact supplier change: tighten governance, pin down roadmap and commercials, and keep hold of their operational data and integrations so they stay in the driving seat. Hopefully the consolidated helpdesk will not give you too many sleepless nights.

Is your organisation struggling to justify a software change, or worried not everything has been covered? 

Get in touch , I will drop in for a cuppa & bring the Fox's Chocolate Gingers ☕

       Related Post: As a client told me recently, the right Critical Friend, will potentially save you more money than you spend.

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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.

Pet Shop Boys – Shopping

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


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here , what projects do we get involved in? Access them 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,ActiveF,ActiveFinance,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Affinity,Aidenn,Agile,Agile365,AHB,AirWatch,Alscient,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,BrikHousing,Browser Applications,BC, Business Central, 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,Cx Assets, 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,CxFeedback, DRS,Deeplake,Datatank,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365,Dynaway ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Esuasive,Esynergy,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, F&O, Facebook,Factorwise,Fast Lean Smart, Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,FLS,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion,Fuzzlab Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best 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Self Help

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

I’m still often surprised at how limited self-service options are for residents today.

Either its incomplete, has a UI for residents looking more like our back-end 2000’s HMS system, not there at all, or in many cases not so convenient for residents as evidenced by poor take up of 15% or less of tenants that are regular users. 

Poor integration is often presented as a challenge or excuse, as is often seen from some of the laggard legacy suppliers, possibly still feeling their way on their digital journey. Also sometimes the web platform developer people come unstuck too. As usual here, I’m too polite to name the guilty, after all some suppliers can at times surprise us for the better ! 

Thinking back, I remember talking at a summer self-service conference, hosted by the ActiveHousing chaps in 2018. Those guys now are part of the wider Plentific - https://www.plentific.com/ property operations solutions offering, one of the most feature rich platforms in the sector. Back then I outlined seven whole years ago, what ‘good’ probably looks like and will persuade tenants to choose that Digital First strand, from the available omnichannels we can offer. The cost of self-serving is still pence (but only) if volume can be achieved, failure to channel shift, still generally results in a telephone chat costing £10 upwards.  

Fast forward to today and we have a more aggressive regulatory environment, post Grenfell and just prior to Awaabs law coming to support socialhousing residents this October, 5 months away. On the latter, it is definitely a concern and reason for CEOs to lose sleep and there is no shortage of providers looking to ‘come up with something’ as part of their self-service. It’s often a mad long form of 30 questions, with the ability to upload your damp & mould at the end (if as resident you get to the bottom, without actually losing the will to live!). Anyone can knock up a website form, its cheap and cheerful, but what might create real change, and improve the resident experience?

On a chat a week or so ago with Simon Wilkes, who was at that conference, now with his Plentific hat on, I asked him what they thought ‘good looked like’? Luckily, this is no laggard supplier and has a wide portfolio of proven integrations with most HMS and repairs solutions out there. On quite a few of my own projects, I have had these guys in the room solving API problems generally quickly. In one case working with four other of the ‘rutting stag’ suppliers, bottoming out integration challenges in hours, not months.

On integration I am sick of hearing the answer/excuse, “well there’s nothing we have failed to integrate to as yet”, when clearly it cannot be evidenced as yet. In these cases your go-live may well seriously over run the introduction of  Awaabs law - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/awaabs-law-to-force-landlords-to-fix-dangerous-homes  being introduced (and perhaps the Grenfell Enquiry finishing too. I kid you not).   

So, what’s new in Plentific’s resident experience solution – originally known as ActiveHousing? 

Well in the proven solution that can be implemented in as little as 3 months, there’s a new key tool I am liking a lot, in readiness for Awaab’s law, in helping to identify and address damp and mould hazards within tight fixed time frames. All the emphasis is on early reporting, diagnosis with AI support to nip small incidents in the bud, before there are major spore health hazards for residents and landlord asset damage can escalate. This, like other platform aspects are being continually developed, so unlike bespoke homegrown self-service web developments, its back to the SocialHousing provider to maintain, keep secure and maintain regulator alignment. 

The bonus of having the advantages of proven integrations to the wider Plentific repairs and housing solutions stack & tech development roadmap, open up ever richer opportunities to access and act on real-time information, particularly around compliance. There is neat diagnosis support for integration with     video calling technologies, ability to capture images and videos of resident damp and mould. This underpins regulator compliance confidence, as there is before and after evidence collation, proving rectification actions undertaken. 

More important than pleasing the regulator of course, is the confidence that councils and RSL’s are keeping residents safer, particularly some of the most vulnerable in our communities.

Catch up later in June (24-26th) with me at Manchester Central at Housing 2025 . 

Plentific, will be there too on stand E24 in the main hall. Ask Simon or any of his colleagues, if you can take a butchers.

Any comments, observations or queries, please share.  

Off the shelf or build your own - how to scope your options ?

Get in touch , I will drop in for a brew & bring your fave chocky biscuits ☕

       Related Post: How Plentific helped tackle the Covid repairs backlog for landlords

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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.

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(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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