The challenge

Over the last few years Equity Housing Group has worked to transform the business to become more customer-centric, which included comprehensive reviews of its services. As part of this transformation, Equity’s Neighbourhood service has been developed significantly, resulting in an increasing number of mobile workers required to return to the office to update records. These administrative tasks take them out of the community and lead to less interaction with tenants in their ward.

Kenneth Power, Executive Director, Corporate Development at Equity said:

“We are a geographically challenged organisation and all too often mobile officers are put under pressure to become more visible and accessible to customers, but they are trapped by having to permanently come back to the office to do paperwork. The driver for implementing a mobile working solution was to enable Housing Officers to become more mobile and accessible for tenants, working effectively within their communities while maximising time and visibility.”

The Solution

Equity identified an opportunity to work with Footprint Solutions via a framework agreement . The framework, which is open to all registered social housing providers and local authorities in the UK, allows Equity to bypass standard procurement processes as the necessary legal procedures have been completed; this means trusts can buy solutions direct from Footprint at fixed prices.

David Fisher, Chief Executive of Equity met with the Footprint Solution team and immediately recognised the innovative nature of Housing Support Pro, which would lead to enhanced customer experience and operational efficiencies.

Power added:

“We have been impressed with the level of service provided via the framework and the seamless integration with our existing Civica system. The ability to bypass standard processes and access cost effective, innovative solutions such as Housing Support Pro was an attractive option for the Group.”

The Result

Equity deployed Housing Support Pro in June to enhance efficiency and data gathering for Neighbourhood officers. With Housing Support Pro, the Group hopes to enhance efficiency for mobile officers and allow them to spend as much time in their ward as possible, delivering extra services to customers as a result.

By using the application, officers can access tenant records and information out in the field, allowing them to raise forms and make swift decisions while in the customer’s home.

While they are still in the early stages of implementation, Alex Heyes, Head of Neighbourhoods, expects to see a range of benefits from using Housing Support Pro. He said:

“Our partnership with Footprint Solutions is about being able to maximise the relationship mobile officers have with tenants while out in the field.

By using the application we expect to see significant time savings for the Neighbourhood team due to the fact an officer can complete more tasks during one transactional visit with a customer.

We are also hoping to embrace some of the added services such as text messaging large groups of customers, which is something we recognise our customers would benefit from. We look forward to utilising the solution and realising savings and efficiency gains as a result.”