Severn Vale Housing Society has successfully deployed a mobile working system from Telecetera for its repairs team. The system is now being used by around 30 field-based workers and 15 office-based staff, and has meant that there are now hardly ever any outstanding or active repair tickets. Telecetera reported that the mobile project cost in the region of £45,000.
Following an audit of its operational process, SVHS decided to focus its attention on its repairs service as this area was identified as the most promising in terms of increasing value for money and achieving productivity improvements. At the time, the housing provider’s repairs team were chasing over 100 job tickets at any one time and the main office was receiving up to 200 requests for repairs each week.
Following a tender process, Telecetera was chosen to implement its Connect mobile workforce system. Through working with a variety of SVHS employees, certain modules were identified as meeting particular areas for improvement, including job scheduling, appointments, stock and reporting.
After a pilot programme with selected workers, Connect was rolled out in stages to ensure teams had enough time and training to integrate it into their daily routines.
Alex Wakeham, field operative, Severn Vale Housing Society, said, “Connect is easy to use for the average person, and helps structure my day with my time being used more effectively.”
All jobs are now completed through one system; there are no additional forms and site teams have gone from 100 unsolved job tickets to just a handful. In the first year alone, active repair jobs went from 200 to zero and through real-time reporting, SVHS is seeing more ‘right first-time’ data and more in-depth information, as well as being able to manage appointments and the location of its mobile workers.
Darren Knight, customer service manager, Severn Vale Housing Society, said, “Before the introduction of Connect, it felt like every other call was a tenant chasing a repair, which wasted their time and put pressure on our staff and resources. Connect helped prevent these avoidable calls and increased our call-answering times, reduced our ‘abandon’ rate and allowed the customer service team time to take on new work due to the time savings.”
