Magenta Living is working with Housing Support Pro to pilot Client Connect, a mobile working system that provides access to personalised forms and tenant and property details while on the move.
Before the introduction of Client Connect, Magenta’s neighbourhood officers had to log into a housing management system and extract the information they needed through printed reports to take them off site to tenant appointments. They would then complete actions from those reports and laboriously retype the information when they returned to head office.
While the housing management system generated appointments and documentation, the officers were unable to access additional reports offsite, which meant they couldn’t add information or record details about new issues identified while with tenants.
Magenta began designing forms and collating data for Client Connect ready for the initial pilot to begin in January 2016. During this time, Magenta went through some internal changes, with the restructuring of some of its teams resulting in neighbourhood and tenancy enforcement officers being given control of individual neighbourhood patches. This change meant that staff could easily use Client Connect as part of their day-to-day roles and help them monitor their individual patches while out and about.
Dominique Blundell, head of tenants and environmental services, Magenta Living said, “We have looked at mobile systems before but they have never progressed beyond the investigation and trialling stages. We wanted something that would integrate well with our other applications and really benefit those using it, making their job easier and ultimately providing a better service to our tenants.
“Having spent time working with Housing Support Pro to design forms and processes fit-for-purpose, we have now given iPads to the relevant staff, allowing them to familiarise themselves with using a mobile device while on a job.”
Colin Arnold, head of ICT, Magenta Living, said, “Client Connect is also enabling our staff to record their contacts and interactions automatically into our Civica CRM system. Now when we get a call into our contact centre, we can see when a tenant has been seen by a member of staff and view what was recorded; this total visibility is a huge benefit.”
