Within the first six weeks of adopting 1st Touch mobile software North Ayrshire Council had achieved savings of 22% within its social housing responsive repairs operation.

The software links the PDAs of mobile repair operatives to OptiTime appointment scheduling and a back-office contractor management system from ROCC. The efficiency savings have allowed the Council’s responsive repairs team to carry out more jobs with existing staff while reducing the number of agency staff and vehicle hires.

Following a decision to replace a previous mobile solution, the Council conducted an extensive review of the mobile technology market. 1st Touch (www.1sttouch.com) was chosen as they were able to develop a system that exactly matched the Council’s needs backed by high-level 24/7 support. In addition, the software has proven integration links to both OptiTime scheduling and existing back-office systems including ROCC.

1st Touch applications can bring significant efficiencies and increases in productivity to any service application which is provided by field-based operatives. The system manages, supports and controls all aspects of mobile operatives’ activities, enabling easy, programming-free, user-customisable PDA-based solutions to be created through its easy to use graphical interface. It is specifically designed to simplify handheld form design and data capture.

Any type of electronic form can be generated without the need for Business Process Mapping. 1st Touch has also developed high quality integration with the majority of leading housing management systems used by social housing providers and local authorities.

John McClure, Project Manager for Building Services for North Ayrshire Council, commented, “Delivering the highest possible service levels to tenants is all important to us. In the current climate, we are interested in exploring ways of achieving efficiencies that support the high standards we set. In conjunction with OptiTime, 1st Touch has helped boost the efficiency of our responsive repairs operation. We are impressed also by the level of service and support they have provided us. I cannot fault them in any way.”

For his part Robert Dent CEO of 1st Touch welcomed these comments, adding, “The focus of North Ayrshire’s social housing operation is to deliver the very highest levels of service to tenants. They have always done this in an exemplary way; yet seek constantly to refine and enhance the way in which they meet these high standards. We are delighted that they have chosen 1st Touch and that they are already seeing tangible efficiency savings. We look forward to working closely with them in the future.”

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