• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Housing Technology Main Logo

Housing Technology

Housing | IT | Telecoms | Business | Ecology

  • Free Subscription
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Research
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • Awards
  • Recruitment
  • On Demand
Home / Magazine Articles / SharePoint beats mobile coverage for Coastline

SharePoint beats mobile coverage for Coastline

Coastline Housing in Cornwall is using Microsoft SharePoint to combat the difficulties of very patchy mobile coverage across its rural properties.

Justin Floyd, mobile solutions architect, Coastline Housing, said, “Unreliable coverage in Cornwall has been our biggest barrier to mobile working to date. Coverage is patchy at best, even with the help of BT wi-fi spots. At the same time, Coastline needs to push forward with mobile working because, given our very rural spread, it has the potential to really change the way we work.”

Coastline’s initial foray into mobile working involved getting its responsive repairs workforce online with PDAs during 2010; this resulted in savings of around £8,000 per year and a change in its working culture.

The housing provider is now embedding mobile working across its front-line housing teams, with the roll-out of 40 Windows tablets with SharePoint installed on them, designed to give employees the same IT capabilities in the field as they would have at their desks.

Floyd said, “SharePoint Workspace allows us to complete forms and edit documents offline, which will automatically synchronise with the network once the device comes back into signal. In addition, we’re developing workflows so that works-order emails, customer letters and tasks can be automatically generated when front-line workers fill in relevant fields on a form at, for example, a void property inspection.

“We’re still finding our way and continuing to discover the potential of this software. Of course, part of the sticking point with mobile working comes down to the cultural change for staff. However, it’s starting to really gather pace as our front-line workers realise that they can save time and effort by updating information on their devices when they are at a customer’s property rather than having to return to the office to type up their notes.”

With more data being gathered electronically, Coastline’s analytical capabilities are increasing. Floyd said, “With paper forms, data is static or requires a lot of manual processing to make it useful. With electronic forms, we can now quickly do analysis, measure performance and even plot trends via GIS.”

Louise Beard, director of housing and care, Coastline Housing, said, “Over the next five years, we will be growing our stock by around 15 per cent thanks to an investment of £131 million to deliver one of the largest affordable housing programmes in Cornwall. However, we don’t want workloads for our staff to increase by that same percentage, so mobile working will be key to keeping pace with our expansion without losing that all important customer-service provided by our front-line teams.”

See More On:

  • Vendor: Microsoft
  • Housing Association: Coastline Housing
  • Topic: Mobile Working
  • Publication Date: 044 - March 2015
  • Type: News

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent Articles

  • The ‘triple power’ of funding, authority and technology
  • Manningham Housing exceeds arrears target with RentSense
  • Editor’s Notes – Data matters more than ever…
  • Why you need housing-specific software and generic business software
  • Not another dashboard?
  • Driving continuous improvement at Medway Council’s housing services
  • Wates streamlines R&M with FLS Visitour
  • Bromford Flagship signs with Totalmobile
  • Why you need housing-specific software
  • Real-time arrears’ predictions with AI-powered forecasting
  • Adra inks deal with Asprey
  • Attracting and retaining the GenZ workforce
  • Source-to-pay trends in housing
  • +AddJust migrates 160,000 RoI housing assets
  • Launch of Zoho Social Housing CRM from i4Housing
  • Raven Housing’s Modern Workplace project
  • FourNet launches agentic AI platform
  • Getting horizontal… Generic software vs. housing-specific software
  • Totalmobile & Exactly.Tech partnership
  • Improving your data structures
  • Hyde’s AI-powered income management
  • Raven Housing takes Aico for fire safety
  • Get your data right early… Or pay for it later
  • Guinness transforms resident engagement with CCaaS
  • Alliance Homes takes on cloud GIS from Cadcorp
  • Totalmobile launches Field First
  • Technology & data to comply with Awaab’s Law
  • Platform Housing welcomes its first digital apprentices
  • Improving investment performance
  • From IoT data to purposeful action

Footer

Housing Technology Main Logo
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Contact
  • Free Subscription
  • Book an event
  • Research
  • Update Your Subscription
  • Privacy Policy

Welcome to the housing Technology – Trusted Information For Business Professionals in HOusing

Housing Technology is the leading technology information service for the UK housing sector and local governments. We have always believed in the fundamental importance of how the UK’s social housing providers use technology to improve their tenants’ lives.

Subscribe to Housing Technology to gain market-leading research, unsurpassed peer networking opportunities and a greater understanding of your role to transform your business.

Copyright © The Intelligent Business Company 2025 | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
Housing Technology is published by the The Intelligent Business Company. A company with limited liability. Registered in England No. 4958057 | Vat Registion No. 833 0069 55.

Registered Business Address: Hoppingwood Farm, Robin Hood Way, London, SW20 0AB | Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8336 2293