From: Mark Birch, Strategic ICT manager, Gateshead Housing Company Sir – Around 18 months ago, the ALMO I work for was placed under review by its parent council. This followed a number of similar reviews across the country. Some had already been taken back into the council, some had remained in place. The announcement sent…
Keeping the lights on is not enoughRead More →
030 - November 2012
European housing network
From: Henk Korevaar, Founder, F-fectis (Netherlands) Sir – I would like to examine the possibilities and benefits of establishing a European network for IT professionals in housing associations. Europe has 19 countries where housing associations exist. As far as I know, only in the Netherlands and the UK do networks exist for professionals in IT…
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Moving IT systems into the cloud
From: Peter Wilson, Senior technical architect, JMC IT Sir – More and more clients are asking me, ‘should I be putting my IT systems into the cloud, particularly when we all want to cut costs and make the best use of our shrinking IT budgets?’ It seems that housing providers are increasingly looking at cloud-based…
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Benchmarking IT services
From: Claire Bayliss, Director of IT consulting, Montal Computer Services Sir – Over the last couple of years, many heads of IT have expressed consternation about the applicability and relevance of benchmarking data to their organisations, in particular the HouseMark benchmarks. HouseMark has responded to some of these concerns by adding a further set of…
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Profiling for universal credit
From: Jeff Hewitt, Managing director for housing, Civica Sir – With the introduction of universal credit looming large, it is more important than ever that housing providers clearly understand their tenants, particularly those considered high risk or vulnerable to these changes. In fact due to the added pressures introduced by the Welfare Reform Act, there…
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Are consumer devices right for housing?
From: Stewart Davison, Product launch manager, Capita Software Services Sir – With the rise of the smartphone, the concept of mobile working has seen a significant uptake within housing organisations. Prior to this, PDAs were the height of mobile technology but with their limitations including a singular operating system, it meant they were kept mostly…
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