If you didn’t notice from this edition’s cover, this is the 50th edition of Housing Technology.
While we still remain a prime candidate for the BBC’s Have I Got News For You ‘guest publication’ slot, so much has happened in the social housing sector since 2008.
In Housing Technology’s infancy, it was apparent to us (and to most of our readers, no doubt) that the housing sector definitely lagged behind the commercial sector in terms of technology adoption and innovation. Mobile working was a relative rarity, web-based applications almost non-existent and legacy systems were mired in out-dated IT infrastructures.
Fast-forward to today, and housing providers are leading the way in pioneering ‘to scale’ internet of things (IoT) programmes unseen in the commercial sector, cloud-based applications and mobile working are the norm, and, most importantly, technology is now typically seen as the single most important factor in driving housing providers’ business strategies.
Housing providers’ IT departments have completely transformed themselves in the past decade or so, from being reactive ‘utility’ services to becoming proactive, value-adding enablers of fundamental changes in how housing providers run their internal operations and external services for tenants.
