Keeping on top of maintenance is a 24/7 operation for social housing associations. The leading associations are turning to cloud based technology to manage the process.
Previously we’d discussed the benefits of Using Technology to Shape Social Housing Maintenance. In this post, we’re going to delve into the typical features of web-based technology for repair and maintenance.
When a maintenance partner uses On-site, Real-Time, Web-Based Systems and Mobile Technology – efficiency and optimal customer service are delivered as standard.
An all-in-one mobile workforce and job management solution with one single platform links back office, mobile workers and customers in perfect harmony.
Benefits of Social Housing Web Tech include:
- A complete end-to-end solution
- Dramatically improved workforce productivity
- Maximum asset and workforce utilisation
- Web-based so there’s no software to install
- Smartphones that turn into powerful mobile work devices
- User-friendly, easy to implement and easy to use.
8 Social Housing Web-Based Systems Features
Effective technology helps you deliver effective customer services to social housing tenants and housing associations. Eight key features of cloud-based social housing maintenance platforms include:
- Call handling & CRM
- Mobile workforce
- Plan schedule and dispatch
- Notifications and monitoring
- Invoicing and finance
- Health & Safety
- Live tracking
- Reporting and performance
Scheduling and Planning Maintenance Works with Technology
Real efficiency is delivered through the automation of repair scheduling. A modern system provides the most efficient initial appointments, based on location, priority and customer need.
An effective system web-based social housing maintenance system should fundamentally be a Customer Relationship Management tool with the ability to profile tenure types and customer groups at its core.
Operating Rules in Social Housing Technology
A successful property management company (like the RFM Group ) offers appointments by intelligently allocating operatives based on contract rules. These rules organise and find available resources by a number of categories, including skill set, geography, tenure type and individual customer preferences.
RFM Group developed operating rules in partnership with Social Housing clients Habinteg and Railway Housing in the development of our ‘Repair Day’ delivery strategy. We continue to refine this strategy as we build on tenant and asset/component data, as well as improving the skills of our operatives.
Real-Time Data Monitors Repair Progress
At each stage of a repair, from when the request is first received, to being appointed, assessing any required follow-on works through to completion, social housing teams can follow progress through a secure Web-Portal.
Progress Updates
An experienced Contract Manager and their team collect, analyse and report on each works order and additional management information, sharing progress with social housing clients on a day-to-day basis in order to monitor and improve performance.
Client Portal
In addition to providing monthly performance data, we also offer access to our web-based technology via our real-time Client Portal. Our Client Portal provides full access to the same level of information available to our staff and is updated in real-time following actions from central Schedulers/Planners and operatives/Sub-contractors.
Reporting
Reporting is built into a cloud-based system as standard and working alongside clients it is possible to create custom reports, against the contract KPIs and metrics for this service.
Social Housing Customer Information and CRM
A social housing software system manages all information, reporting and includes much of the data typically found in a CRM, such as tenant information, planned Vs actual maintenance, asset management, location, HR and finance systems.
An effective system includes a wide range of standard reports and data exports that should offer great insights that can be used as the basis of further analysis.
Technology in Social Housing Maintenance
We use Performance and Productivity Dashboards to track service contract KPIs, and this allows the team to view our performance on a real-time basis via our client portal, further promoting our open and honest partnership approach. This enables Contracts and Facilities Managers to monitor and control service levels and ensure that resources are correctly allocated to manage demand and service levels throughout each working day.
Vehicle tracking and telematics in Social Housing Maintenance
Vehicle tracking delivers in real-time and displays a range of information, including live location and vehicle status, journey statistics, and route maps. Data can be filtered by contract, by the driver and by date range as required, and displayed in a variety of ways to assist analysis.
The project management team can then review the data to identify where further driver training might be required. Telematics technology enables efficient Social Housing Maintenance.
Real-time Reporting Technology
All activities undertaken are tracked for each work order in the back-office and by the operatives and utilise the standard system interfaces that are available to pass data across between the mobile engineer via an App and the cloud-based platform in real-time.
Ensuring that all data collection stages for each workstream are built into business processes, and configured for reporting purposes. The system should be mapped to the work process to deliver transparent information across an organisation.
- All staff should have mobile devices to input all relevant data as part of the job progression process.
- Use Smartphones to collect customer satisfaction information to provide a complete reporting system in real-time.
- Smartphones capture operational data including:
- the date/time of arrival on-site,
- the date/time of starting the job
- and the date/time of completing the job.
- Each element of work has a unique reference, cost code and stage identifier such as “Work In Progress”, “Completed” or “Invoiced” to enable the generation of works order status reports
- The system provides the means to capture the often complex array of appointment information and enables the real-time monitoring of the repairs service, e.g.
- appointments made/kept, appointments missed, etc.
- It records the date/time the operatives arrive on-site, measured against the agreed date/time of the appointment.
- The cloud-based technology software should produce a variety of reports to help the operational teams monitor work orders. The daily Work In Progress (WIP) report will capture all jobs issued by category and area, identifying jobs that are overdue or nearing an overdue status.
- The system should also deliver a suite of financial reports such as “Budget Monitor” showing committed costs and budget forecasts, P&L statements, direct and indirect costs, and income per person reports
Sharing documents and photographs
Cloud technology allows the sharing and storing of documents such as customer sign-offs, and invoices alongside site images, videos and customer communications.
Technology Partner
Utilising web-based technology to manage social housing maintenance is central to effective customer service and it makes sense to partner with a repair company that is built on technology.
How to Manage Your Repair and Maintenance Data
Data – it’s the engine that drives improvements, promotes efficiencies and generates cost savings. Delivering repair and maintenance work across social housing portfolios and for insurance-related claims is high-volume and varied work that can involve a huge breadth of jobs.
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