Leading enterprise mobile workforce technology group, 1st Touch (www.1sttouch.com) has signed a partnership agreement with software and services group ROCC (www.rocc.co.uk). As a result of the partnership, 1st Touch has fully integrated their widely acclaimed Mobile Workforce system with ROCC’s leading Uniclass Social Housing solution to deliver a best of breed management solution for social housing organisations.

The partnership is seen as a natural development, as the two companies have already worked closely together providing cutting edge social housing solutions for Powys Council, 2010 Rotherham and Morrison plc.

ROCC is the leading supplier of housing repair systems with over 500,000 social housing properties in the UK; currently being managed using ROCC’s Uniclass social repair systems. The integration with 1st Touch’s Mobile Workforce technology means that social housing organisations are now able to obtain a complete solution to meet their needs.

The 1st Touch system manages, supports and controls mobile operatives across all aspects of housing management including: property maintenance, inspections, mobile service provision,  asset management, responsive repairs, utilities (gas and electric) and  performance monitoring together with voids and contract management. 1st Touch Mobile uses low-airtime usage, “Smart Client” technology that automates the links between the field-based mobile operative’s PDA and the housing organisation’s back-office systems, its depots and the warehouse. In marked contrast to other costly “always on” mobile solutions, 1st Touch Mobile Workforce can work with or without a signal, transmitting encrypted, secure data in periodic small bursts. This innovative approach, it is claimed, reduces typical communication costs by up to 75 %.

The resilient but flexible system also enables easy, programming-free, user-customisable solutions to be created; designed to simplify handheld form design and data capture applications. Any type of electronic form can be generated, replicating closely all current working practices without the need for Business Process Mapping. It also ensures that any future changes or updates required by the organisation can be incorporated without any need for code changes to the applications. This reduces any potential ongoing costs for the customer as requirements will inevitably change and grow over time.

ROCC’s Uniclass Social Housing solutions provide business management, ecommerce and business process systems that increase efficiency and improve the management of entire organisations, departments, business processes or specific applications.
In the social housing sector, Uniclass Social Housing is widely acclaimed for providing technically advanced and integrated solutions that encompass the entire business; from contact and contractor management through to financial reporting and from strategic planning down to individual service delivery.

Powerful and flexible, Uniclass is designed and built for internet, intranet and mobile data platforms and secure high availability servers; delivering complete functionality when and where it is needed. Social housing user benefits include: improved monitoring of key performance indicators, enhanced engagement with residents and prioritised investment in sustainable stocks. The system also ensures the delivery of complete, planned maintenance programmes that are on time and budget and the development of new forms of procurement.

Uniclass Social Housing supports management decision making by using real time databases to bring strategic property, tenant and service delivery data together in a unified resource that is available to users wherever they are.

Robert Dent, CEO of 1st Touch believes that the new partnership will set a standard for enterprise social housing technology noting,” ROCC has an excellent reputation in the social housing sector for delivering proven technology that makes a real difference. Similarly, 1st Touch’s ground breaking enterprise mobile solutions have already captured 15% of the market in the first two years since launch. This is a reflection of the real differential in functionality and technology over what was previously available in the market. By closely integrating these two class-leading technologies, our joint customers and their residents will notice a significant impact in terms of improved levels of service, ease of use, efficiency and cost savings. It really is a win-win situation.”

Chris Potter, ROCC’s Operations Director welcomed Dent’s comments adding that in his view the partnership was borne out of a mutual respect built by working together on major projects: “Our overriding philosophy is that we will only deliver the very highest quality solutions to our customers. Naturally then, when you form links with other best of breed vendors you have to insist on the same high standards. We have been fortunate to work so closely with 1st Touch on previous implementations as that gave us the confidence in the quality of their enterprise mobile technology. Given the huge moves to mobile working in the social housing sector, integrating with 1st Touch made complete sense. We look forward to continuing our close working relationship on many other projects.”