The Black Hit Of Space

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One single from my 1970’s, way before Phil Oakey made the Human League 80’s cool with Susan and Joanne, has always stuck with me as lyric brilliance, The Black Hit Of Space. 

Now I love the Human League pre & post the split, but this track must be one of the most brilliant. It’s the tale of stuff getting out of hand. A hit that reaches number one in the charts, then carries on into minus figures.

“I reached for the tone arm which was less than one micron long, but weighed more than Saturn and time stood still”

For some finance teams, their chart of accounts can feel like that turntable tone arm, weighing more than Saturn. That’s the second largest planet in our solar system and I would say that if anyone out there has more than 5,000 cost centres in their chart of accounts, they probably have a Saturn Shaped problem. The big question is ‘Why’?

The answer is usually that staff, managers etc cannot extract reports from feeder systems, so they ask for more and more detail to be recorded within the finance nominal or general leger. The point that is missed unfortunately, is that the detail clearly already exists in the feeder (Housing, Repairs or Contractor etc) solutions. So why push the feeder system problems, further down the line?

I have heard many tales and witnessed a few organisations suffering this issue. Many people tell me they don’t get it. My explanation is the difference between my shopping trips and my credit card bill. The former could include lots of craft beer, fancy cheese and macaroons. Perhaps 50-100 items and lots of detail. I pay using a credit card. When I look at my Visa bill, I can see what I spent at Morrison’s, but not how much of it was cheese. That was detailed on my shopping bill, if I was interested in analysing it.

The detail stays where it belongs.

Organisations need to stay firm to use finance solutions at the level that is sensible. They should not be providing a Band Aid plaster to get around poor reporting facilities, elsewhere in the organisation feeder systems. Finance team manager’s need to be strong in how they tackle this. The answer is not to expand finance, its to sort out detail reporting.

As anyone who knows me from procurements, they know my distain about the general quality of standard system reporting provision. Tragically, some have laid this deficiency at the door of finance teams. If you are a finance manager or director, suffering a chart of accounts looking like Saturn, then revaluate your feeder solution and work to slim Cost Centres down.

Look again and invest in feeder systems, no need to get James Burke on the case….

Related Post:Sick of software providers? Why not DIY ?

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

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Human League – Black Hit Of Space.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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Tube-Snake Boogie

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It's fascinating talking to users sometimes around processes they are meant to follow, but don't, because they perceive that they don't have the available admin' resource to follow/populate a system the way it was designed. Generally that's how managers have guided the design of it too.

Here's an example for you, that might strike a chord about things that happen in your organisation. Policy dictates that all work must be ordered up-front when required. That might be a purchase order in the finance system or in housing client repairs. It should be there when the contractor finally invoices, so there is something to auto-match up that document to. I guess auditors out there all go crazy for that stuff too, and quite rightly. Doing it that way stops fraud, or at least makes it many degrees harder. Most clients I work for demand I email PDF invoices to a portal and they always quote a PO reference, date, contact etc, that authorises the work I do.

Recently in one organisation, a certain team have decided that they will not issue works orders and instead its far simpler for a third party contractor to contact another contractor, with an address (might even include a postcode if you are lucky), to initiate a few hundred pounds work. Eventually an invoice appears with no PO reference. Guess what, those efficient finance team members spend some time checking, adding the invoice to suspense, then they put the document on hold.

That certain team then get tasked to query it. It gets looked in to and once they realise what's happened, they raise the works order (they should have in the first place). That certain team can then tell finance to have another go, they have another go and it gets passed. This can introduce a few days or weeks into the mix, even longer if the monthly BACS pre-list deadline is missed. The honest supplier who carried out the work sees the effect in their cashflow.

Now, let's not even think about the fraud potential here. Just thinking about the extra waste created, it's obvious that much more admin' is involved here for 'that certain team' as well as finance, due to not following the lean process. 

Think of admin' required, as being the toothpaste in a tube. If you do most of the admin' early in the process, it's like pushing the toothpaste to the front of the tube and using it early. If you squeeze it to the rear, you end up using it later instead. If the later, extra effort (toothpaste) is used for all that query time. IE if you are not following a well thought out process properly, more admin' (or toothpaste) will be needed, not less.

Why not just manage users to do it in the right order, at the right time to expend minimum effort? If senior managers helped their staff get on board with this too, how much time would we save? In some organisations we might even save whole members of staff. Worth a thought eh? How do you squeeze the tube in your organisation?

Related Post: Are we really leveraging the benefits of workflow for efficient systems?

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ZZ Top - Tube Snake Boogie.
(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!

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Figure It Out

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Its not that frequent that I get involved in data reconciliation’s, but strangely I have helped a few organisations with them in recent weeks. How do you go about checking that what you take from a legacy system, is what lands in your new system? Its even more complex when several legacy systems are coming into a single new system.

So, what should we be looking at?

Well hopefully, data will be extracted into either a staging database or intermediate CSV’s (Comma separated Value flat text files). As anyone will know who has been through this process, its usually something that is carried out by the client, rather than the supplier of the new system. Because of this, its generally not that difficult to generate some statistics at that stage.

When I was a key implementer, I used to have a big list of areas which would be on my main hit list, many of which should be able to be reconciled right to the penny. Examples include rent balances, debit charge, cost of open works orders etc. While grand totals are a great guide, its likely that differences need to be split by Owning Body, Area, Scheme, Trade Type, Needs Category, debit frequency, Current vs Former etc, to meaningfully be sure of the integrity of data.

For my peace of mind too, I always urge my clients to find good legacy reports, to reconcile extracted (staging) data, then data when it lands in the new target system. If these can be passed to Excel, some templates can be developed, to quickly check these. In some cases, I have helped clients create something that can be quickly compared within 15 minutes. This is crucial at migration time and also to have all this ready and pre-cooked.

In an ideal world, regular data cuts could be done, with checks in place, way ahead of the final go-live. All differences need to be chased down quickly, so final go-live will be reliable. Data migrated might include EDRMS documents, appointments from a dynamic scheduler, or other sources.

Its usually common cross-referencing between systems will be in use, to allow data migration. These should be considered and understood to provide a reliable reconciliation. In particular, spot checks of every combination, for individual type of code. E.G. every type of charge code, asset type code etc. Config of these cross-references , during set up needs to be carefully controlled, as does changes in the data extraction that might be done to accommodate these.

Common ‘gotcha areas’ include around tenancy movements. Provisional starts and ends for tenancies, can pretty much always be expected to affect voids and debit values and numbers. These can always be isolated and a decision made if these are held back the last few days of the legacy system, and perhaps manually set in the new system we are moving to.

For audit purposes, a full list of all system areas, legacy data source counts/totals and equivalents in the new system, should be created, before making a decision to go-live. If an agreed reconciliation cannot be agreed, I personally would never suggest its right to go live.

Figuring it out, you can expect, will always shake out some legacy data that needs to be data cleansed. That’s always a bit like an archaeological dig, and a subject for a whole future blog. Before you try to go live with a new system, ensure you have taken time to ‘figure it out’.

Related Post: Big data, much like adolescent sex, in many ways 

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

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Royal Blood - Figure It Out.
(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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Thieves Like Us

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In lots of the system and process Critical Friend work I regularly get involved with, I see plenty of wide open goals, which could easily enable internal fraud.

Early on, here in this blog, I must declare my honesty, you can of course trust a boyhood good Catholic and altar boy. I can assure you that I have never had to confess to breaking the eight commandment.

However, a father of one of my primary school friends (a senior in the St Vincent De Paul Society too), was hauled off for a six month stretch at HM's Pleasure, for swapping his gas meter connections around a few weeks each quarter. He was only caught when British Gas found one quarter he (accidently) supplied more gas to them than he had from them (apparently). As with all criminal dodges, it was sussed in the end when mistakes were made and they asked for three years of similar crimes to be also taken into account too.

Who knew that swapping your gas meter pipes around, would run an analogue meter backwards? Maybe that’s why suppliers are almost falling over themselves, to tempt us over to Smart Meters?

I don’t think I have a particularly criminal mind, but in one of my early jobs in retail ICT at Littlewoods Liverpool, I did a lot of work with the internal auditor, particularly with the payroll packages. We did have a payroll of over 32,000 staff, so it was an area that got attention pretty much every other month. His name (strangely) was Gerry Myers. I learn't a lot through the questions he asked, bespoke reports he wanted etc, It was a real insight into how a criminal mind might work, or a detective. He kind of had the charisma of Columbo, without the cigar, (just when you think you have seen the back of him, he would ask, “Just one more thing….”).

System and project reviews for me often identify numerous security holes that I recognise, like those in a 16 month matured Swiss cheese. For example, obsessive system control of responsive repairs budget is common. If a kitchen repair SOR cost escalates from £85 to £365, the repairs team experience a grilling like the Spanish Inquisition. There is generally a tight audit trail of authorisation for a DLO or key partnering contractor. It's very rare these are not tightly linked to the finance purchase ledger too. Trying to embezzle here, is as crazy as trying to gemmy open an ATM cash machine.

However, where external contractors are used with manual replication of documents in the finance purchase ledger, or fed from a hefty (multi-million pound) capital/cyclical budget, there is often rich pickings, even if just a few % can be creamed off, there’s a few hundred grand per annum for the taking. Unbelievably easily stolen in plain sight.

One project I was involved in for a large Midlands based landlord, involved automating asbestos surveys and any follow-on work, updating Asset register and leaving a good audit trail. While we had rolled this out for reactive and voids work, the planned/capital/cyclical team, said, “we can't work like that”. The reason was that team were not actually in control of ordering asbestos surveys. They just added a PO to the value of the monthly invoices when they came in. The budget was over £600k for asbestos annually. I explained how between three of us, we could pocket 3 x £20k each annually, by just starting a convenient arrangement to raise £60k of bogus orders, which would always just be paid. For all I knew it might already have been happened by accident now and again!

Its tempting to put specialist compliance/cyclical contractors totally in charge of doing the work, with few checks & audit etc. Gas service & LGSR is a very common situation for this. Where there are few controls, poor/missing integration to finance, apart from the staff cost of waste due to double-handling, it’s an open goal to the unscrupulous.

There have been plenty of cases that have come to court, the latest being one at Greenwich Council, where last month two Council workers were jailed, over a £1.5m false repair contracts fraud. A nice little earner for using the technique I have outlined above, this time by arranging bogus lift works and servicing. Nice little earner, read more on it here.

This is one of many. 

When I was at one of the HMS system suppliers in a past life, there was a case in 2005 where a two handed social housing DLO con of over £330k was perpetrated over just 7 months. Read about that one here -  There were plenty of integration, checks and balances in the supplied solution, however few were implemented and audited, by the landlord. You can bet they certainly were put in, after that court case.

Internally audit must remain vigilant, it should not and cannot be just a tick-box exercise. Trust your audits or system reviews, think like a thief and be sure to prioritise plugging any gaps found. While improving organisation security, internal efficiency will also be improved, opening the door to effective transformation.

Subscribe to our blog here on this link, to always catch the latest news on whats happening in the sector.

Acutance Consulting would be happy to help you review systems options, 

please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew ☕😋

       Related Post: How can landlords manage repair complaints better for everyone 

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.

New Order - Thieves Like Us.
(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,Fuzzlab 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,QLX, QLF, QL Yuneo,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,Rubixx, 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. . . . . . . . . . . . - | ES | DE | FR | UK |

Shadowplay

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

Let’s talk about the dangers of shadow IT in social housing, that awkward family secret everyone knows about but nobody wants written down in a board paper. Only last week, a client asked me in the review I am involved with, “Will you be rooting out the ‘Shadow IT’ around here”? Every landlord has it. Most pretend they don’t. And many are quietly running large chunks of their service on it while telling themselves the “core system” is well under control.

In housing, shadow IT isn’t some hoodie-wearing tech rebel spinning up servers in a cupboard. It’s far more British and far more tragic than that. It’s the Excel spreadsheet that started life as a “temporary tracker” during a HMS system or reputational issue back in 2018 and is now the only place anyone can reliably find your damp and mould cases. It’s the Access database built by someone “who was quite handy with IT” and left three restructures ago (we love restructures folks, don’t we?). It’s the compliance supplier web portal that everyone logs into because, frankly, it works, while the landlord’s own system gets updated later, badly, or not at all.

And before anyone gets sniffy, this stuff doesn’t exist because housing staff are idiots. It exists because systems don’t quite do what was promised, change requests (RFC’s) take forever, reporting is weak, and people are judged on outcomes, not architectural purity. When a neighbourhood officer is told to manage risk, meet deadlines, and keep tenants safe, they will use whatever tool actually lets them do that. Governance doesn’t fix a leaking roof.

The problem starts when the workaround quietly becomes the truth. That spreadsheet stops being “just for now” and becomes the thing everyone checks first. The core system becomes something you update to keep ICT happy. Extracts start doing the rounds by email. Versions multiply. Someone adds another tab. Someone else adds free text. Before you know it, you’ve got personal data, compliance information, and operational decisions sitting in a file called “FINAL_v7_REALLYFINAL.xlsx”. Strangely enough, organisations big & small all suffer from this.

At this point, congratulations. You don’t just have shadow IT, you have mission-critical housing services running outside any meaningful control. No proper security. No real audit trail. Poor or no clear ownership. No resilience when the one person who understands it goes on leave or, heaven forbid, leaves the organisation at the end of their contract. (where’s the knowledge transfer, good question?) 

In a regulated sector, this should be setting off alarm bells. Boards are signing off assurances about data quality, compliance, and risk while large chunks of the evidence live in places the organisation officially doesn’t recognise. Auditors ask for a report and suddenly there’s a very awkward conversation about which system is “the real one”. Spoiler: it’s usually not the one that was procured quickly & cost seven figures.

Excel deserves a special mention here. Excel is brilliant. I use it daily. It is not, and never will be, a housing management system, an asset register, a compliance or any other kind of a database. The moment someone says “don’t worry, we manage that in Excel without really understanding how a VLOOKUP works”, what they really mean is “we hope nothing goes wrong and nobody looks too closely”.

Supplier portals get a free pass far too often as well. Portals are fine if they’re part of a proper data flow. They are not fine when they quietly become the system of record and your own system is playing catch-up. At that point you’ve effectively outsourced control of your data without admitting it, documenting it, or governing it. That’s not innovation or disruption, that’s drift.

The most corrosive impact of shadow ICT is what it does to trust. Once staff learn that “the real numbers” live somewhere else, the core system becomes ceremonial. Data quality drops. Reporting becomes a debate rather than a fact. Digital transformation stalls because nobody wants to give up the thing that actually works, even if it’s held together with formulas a hope and a prayer. I should know, I am a fallen Catholic.

This isn’t an argument for banning spreadsheets or telling staff off. Shadow IT is a symptom. It shows you where systems don’t match reality, where governance has slipped, and where organisations have quietly accepted risk in order to cope.

The danger isn’t that shadow IT exists. The danger is continuing to rely on it while pretending it doesn’t.

Because the moment Excel, a portal, or a side system becomes the place the real work happens, your “core system” isn’t core at all. And everyone in the room knows it, even if nobody wants to say it out loud.

Maybe its time a third party came in and rooted out all your organisations “Shadow IT” chief?

Is your SocialHousing  ICT / transformation project drastically overrunning  ? 

Get in touch , I will drop in for a coffee & bring the KitKats ☕

       Related Post: The right Critical Friend will save you stress, time (and money) ?

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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.

Joy Division – Shadowplay

(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,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,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 from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HCL,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,HousingOne,Housing-One, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IPC,iProperty Cloud,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfinityGroup,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,InclineIT, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keynamics, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz, M3,MadeTech,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, MRI,MRI/Capita,MRI Housing One, 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,Plentific,Plus,Portfolio Management System,PowerObjects,Pro,Pro-Points,Prodo,Progress,Promaster,Propeller,Propoints,Proval,Providers,Pyramid, QL,QLX, QLF, QL Yuneo,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,Rubixx, 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,Techlabs,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,Visitour,Visualmetrics,Voice,Voice and data,Voicescape,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Wheatley,Windows Server,Workflow and,Work Hub,Works Connect, XML,Xen App,XenApp,Xmbrace, Yuneo,TS Acutance Consulting, ...

. . . . . . . . . . . . ES | FR | DE | IT | UK

  

Rip it up and start again

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

Every so often a landlord, council, charity or other organisation gets in touch asking for what they describe as, “a bit of quick consultancy”. The pitch usually goes something like this: “Tony you are the housing IT Guy, can you help us swap out this system we’ve decided we don’t like? We’ve just seen something new, the demo was slick, the salesperson was charming, and it all looked ten times better than what we’ve got.”. Now it could be a contractor/DLO, CRM, Housing, Asset Management or Finance FMS or any other solution.

It sounds simple on the surface, but let’s be honest, this is classic grass-is-greener syndrome. A shiny system being shown in a carefully crafted demo is not the same as a solution that fixes our real world problems. Most of the time nobody has actually stopped to ask the most important question: what is the actual issue we are trying to solve? Instead the assumption becomes that the software is broken, the supplier is useless, or the old (clunky?) system is holding the business back.

But in my experience, the culprit is rarely just the tech. It is often something deeper. Culture getting in the way. Processes designed in a hurry years ago that no longer fit. Organisational habits that nobody notices until a properly planned change project shines a light on them. Poor configuration decisions made on day one and never revisited. Shabby implementations that were rushed or under supported. Or the classic regular favourite, a complete lack of resourcing for training, data quality and business ownership. Software cannot magically compensate for all of that, no matter how sexy the demo reel.

Which is exactly why I turn down these swap requests unless we start in the right place. 

Before anyone goes system shopping, someone needs to lift the floorboards and find out what is actually rotten. Sometimes it turns out the system is fine and it is everything wrapped around it that is creaking. Sometimes there is a case for a change, but it should come from evidence, not impulse and not a too optimistic sales pitch. 

Replacing a system without diagnosing the underlying issues is like repainting a damp wall for a resident. Looks great for a week, then the stains creep straight back through. You spend a fortune, disrupt your teams, and recreate the exact same pain on a new platform, transferring all our gripes into a Cloud SAAS full responsive browser application. Everyone just ends up asking why the promised magic fix never arrived.

Think on, no, I am not your man for a quick ditch and shift job. But if you want someone to come in, ask valid yet awkward questions, identify what is genuinely going wrong and help you fix the foundations before you reach for a GCloud or other framework, then aye, give me a shout. That is where the real value sits.

Is your SocialHousing  ICT / transformation project drastically overrunning  ? 

Get in touch , I will drop in for a strong brew & bring the Jaffa Cakes ☕

       Related Post: Will the right Critical Friend will save you stress, time (and money) ?

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

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.

Orange Juice – Rip it up and start again

(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,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,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 from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HCL,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,HousingOne,Housing-One, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IPC,iProperty Cloud,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfinityGroup,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,InclineIT, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keynamics, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz, M3,MadeTech,MAVIS,MD,MDM,MI,MIS,MIS-AMS,MISCS,MRI,MS Dynamics,MRI,MS Dynamics 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