Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) has chosen mobile technology from 1st Touch (www.1sttouch.com) for its property and land survey employees; with a view to extending the technology to other field-based disciplines across the enterprise.

WDH, who became the largest single housing stock transfer organisation in 2005, has responsibility for over 31,000 homes lived in by over 100,000 people and are the fifth largest housing organisation in England.  With a wide range of housing types from sheltered housing to high rise communities and a £720 million improvement scheme running until 2012, the survey function is a key element of the WDH success story.

The systems used by survey teams, in the field, are therefore central to the delivery of the high standards WDH demands. As an existing PDA solution used by the department was unable to integrate with WDH’s Housing Management system, it was decided to identify a new mobile solution which had proven integration links to the back-office and which was flexible enough to allow electronic forms to be created internally. This would not only improve the systems used in surveying operation but would also enable WDH to take the first step towards identifying a scalable, enterprise-wide solution that ultimately could be rolled out across multiple disciplines including: responsive repairs, maintenance and inspections. After an extensive review of the market and a rigorous evaluation process WDH chose 1st Touch.

1st Touch applications can bring significant efficiencies and productivity increases to any application where field based operatives provide services. 1st Touch has already won widespread acclaim in the social housing market where the software manages, supports and control all aspects of mobile operatives’ activities. The resilient but flexible system enables easy, programming-free, user-customisable PDA based solutions to be created through its easy to use graphical interface and 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 most of the leading housing management systems used by local authority housing organisations and ALMOs.

Louise Muirhead, Senior Business Analyst at WDH felt that these features were a major factor in the decision to choose 1st Touch, noting, “We needed to identify a new mobile solution for the surveying function first of all, as the existing PDA system we had used for this function was not able to integrate with our back-office system. In addition, we still had some forms and spreadsheets that were paper based and we needed all this information to be integrated, accessible and viewable in one single location. We chose 1st Touch to meet these requirements.

“Having seen the system in use at a reference site visit we were impressed by the easy to use mobile application builder with a graphical interface that allows the design, creation and modification of forms; without having to return to the supplier and pay more. There was also a proven integration with our existing Housing Management system.

However, the most influential factor was when we ran 1st Touch on our real-time test environment. 1st Touch performed well and proved the integration throughout exhaustive testing. We were also impressed by the 1st Touch approach as their staff appeared highly motivated to work closely in partnership with us at our offices. With such a clear proof of concept in hand, coupled with a very effective working relationship, we decided to start implementing the system with our survey department. Ultimately though, we can see how 1st Touch can be easily rolled out across WDH to areas such as responsive repairs, maintenance and inspections. In all, we envisage that over 200 operatives might ultimately use it. This would help us achieve significant productivity gains and to improve efficiency right across the organisation.”

Colin Hare, Business Systems Manager at WDH, emphasised the WDH commitment to continuous improvement and customer service, adding, “Our record level of tenant satisfaction illustrates WDH’s commitment to providing high-quality services to tenants, to ensure everything we do is done professionally and that we go that extra mile to meet the needs of tenants.

In addition, WDH aims to exceed the standards of the ‘Decent Homes Initiative’ and, with other government directives to fulfil such as ‘Warmer Greener Homes”, we are always considering ways of improving all aspects of our operations. A key element of this is the use of technology and we are aware of the considerable benefits and efficiency savings that mobile technology can bring to both our surveying function and to WDH as a whole. We look forward to working closely with 1st Touch as we examine these benefits across disciplines.”

Robert Dent, CEO of 1st Touch welcomed these comments adding, “As one of the largest housing organisations in England, getting things right for tenants is all important. WDH has an excellent and proven track record in achieving this. However, in the current economic climate, maintaining high standards is going to be a challenge. By evaluating the considerable productivity benefits and efficiency savings that mobile technology can bring across the enterprise, WDH is demonstrating their commitment to investing in the future. It is the tenants of course who are rightly the ultimate beneficiary. “