Issue 77 | September 2020 www.housing-technology.com | £6.95 HOUSING TECHNOLOGY 2021 03-04 March 2021 The Oxford Belfry IT goes green The importance of green computing in housing Housing management Customer management Digital transformation, lockdown, DIY internet services, self-service business automation & digital twins portals & tenants in the cloud Finance management Infrastructure Green procurement, voids & arrears IoT, remote alarm monitoring, hyperfast and ‘rent first’ financials broadband and social value Mobile working General news Digital marketplaces and dynamic Resilient Innovation 2020, data-centric scheduling in the cloud housing and mergers & acquisitions © The Intelligent Business Company 2020. Housing Technology is published by The Intelligent Business Company. Reproduction of any material, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden without the prior consent of the publisher. Companies Editor’s welcome in this issue September 2020 3C Consultants 54 Aareon 05 & 14 HOUSING TECHNOLOGY 2021 – TWO DATES FOR YOUR DIARY! Active Housing (Hallnet) 34 In the wake of the pandemic, we are very pleased to announce Aico 38 & 42 Anthony Collins Solicitors 24 that the Housing Technology 2021 annual conference and executive BigChange 33 forum will now be taking place on either 03-04 March or 15-16 BPHA 06 Cardiff Community Housing20 September 2021 at The Oxford Belfry in Oxfordshire. Castleton Technology 10 Central Networks & Technologies 37 If the continuing pandemic is likely to prevent the March dates being possible (based on Civica 20 & 46 government advice/rules, social distancing and other coronavirus-related factors) then CJC Procurement 28 we will immediately announce a switch to the September dates. All aspects of the event Clarion Housing 22 Curo Group 05 will simply be migrated to the later dates, including all delegate, speaker and sponsor Curve IT 36 bookings and all overnight hotel bookings made at The Belfry. DXW 30 FireAngel 08 Gravesham Borough Council 10 Gray Fox Consulting 16 Great Places Housing 05 As you can imagine, the rationale behind having two sets of dates booked and confirmed GreenSquare 26 for our twelfth annual conference is to give all participants as much certainty and Hallnet 34 Halton Housing 49 confidence as possible and to ensure that we can continue to provide our sector with Harrow Council 36 a single event to bring together housing professionals and IT suppliers for two days of Homelync 38 & 42 Horton Housing 37 informal networking, 40+ business/IT presentations, technology demonstrations and Housing Insight 12 & 20 business meetings. Housing Partners 37 Hyperoptic 44 For further information about Housing Technology 2021, please see: Incline IT 40 housing-technology.com Industrial Dwellings Society 20 iOpt 38 Landmark Information 52 LAST CHANCE FOR RESILIENT Manifest 05 Matterlab 22 INNOVATION 2020 M-Files 05 & 18 As many of you will know, instead of making our annual visit to the BT Tower in London, Mobysoft 23 MRI Software 37 & 50 we are running Resilient Innovation 2020 on Tuesday 22 September as our first truly Node4 46 ‘digital only’ event. North Tyneside Council 31 Northgate Public Services 46 In the current circumstances, Resilient Innovation 2020 will focus on how housing Notting Hill Genesis 32 Ongo Homes 23 providers can use technology as the underlying basis for delivering inspiration, Orchard 26 & 31 confidence and security in everything from their current day-to-day operations through Peabody 32 to their longer-term strategic goals. Plentific32 Propeller Powered 46 Kindly sponsored by Aareon, BT and FireAngel, the event will comprise a series of short Radian Group 34 Renfrewshire Council 38 interactive presentations from one of BT’s ‘futurologists’, Coastline Housing, Johnnie Rotherham MBC 26 Johnson Housing, Kingdom Housing, Orbit Group and RHP. Thirteen Group 33 Tower Hamlets Comm’ Housing 05 Full information about Resilient Innovation can be found at: Voicescape 26 housing-technology.com/event/resilient-innovation-2020. Your Homes Newcastle 23 EDITOR DESIGN & PRODUCTION SUBSCRIPTIONS THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS Alastair Tweedie Jo Euston-Moore Subscribe at: housing-technology.com or COMPANY LTD [email protected] [email protected] email: [email protected] Hoppingwood Farm @housingtech Robin Hood Way EDITORIAL AND NEWS PRINTED IN THE UK BY London PUBLISHER [email protected] The Magazine Printing Company SW20 0AB George Grant magprint.co.uk United Kingdom RECRUITMENT [email protected] [email protected] Head Office: 0208 336 2293 housing-technology jobs.housing-technology.com @housingtechjobs HOUSING TECHNOLOGY IS PRINTED ON ERA SILK MADE FROM 50 PER CENT UK-RECYCLED WASTE PULP AND THE BALANCE OF PULPS FROM CERTIFIED FORESTS. Forthcoming events Resources Housing Technology’s IT Finance & Procurement HOUSING TECHNOLOGY 2020 report Resilient Innovation 2020 housing-technology.com/ 22 September 2020 | ONLINE EVENT research housing-technology.com/event/resilient-innovation-2020 DOWNLOAD TODAY… Housing management 05 HOUSING Finance management 23 TECHNOLOGY 2021 03-04 March 2021 Mobile working 31 The Oxford Belfry Customer management 34 housing-technology.com Infrastructure 37 /event/housing-technolgy -2021-conference Feature - IT goes green 46 General news 49 46 IT goes green The importance of green computing in housing Are business analysts Remote alarm monitoring 06 under-appreciated in 08 combats ‘no access’ housing? Thirteen boosts repairs & A fresh perspective on 33 maintenance with BigChange 42 IoT in housing TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE Please see housing-technology.com/showcase for more information | HOUSING MANAGEMENT By Hallnet Aareon QL Next Generation The future of Housing Management Solutions has arrived Ei1000G SmartLINK® Gateway Introducing Active Portal Housing Insight – A success story The smarter way to check every Active Portal is a self-service customer portal brimming with features and integration options, designed to help tenants manage vital aspects of their tenancy. Remotely Monitor Fire and CO Alarms Bringing Innovation tenant’s safety. At any time. Options galore Maximum Fire and CO protection Established in 2011, PanConnect by Housing Insight was developed from a vision to provide the housing sector with an adaptable holistic set of software tools and We’re speaking at • Zero touch registration and login • Repair diagnostics and appointment selection for Tenants and Properties. business-focused solutions to enhance housing management processes. Tailoring Solutions Resilient Innovation 2020! • Multiple tenancy information • Tenancy documents • Alerts and two way messaging • ASB reporting “Meeting and exceeding the By 2013, product development was directed alongside As the company grew, in terms of both our customer • Account information and statements • Tenancy applications challenges of Covid-19 by strategic partnerships in the housing sector, including base and our internal teams (support, technical and • Rent payments and Direct Debits • And much more United Welsh Housing and Trivallis Housing. 2015 saw sales), our core values of maintaining strong customer Delivering Results accelerating the use of Real time status updates and instant diagnostics Housing Insight successfully launch its core systems, relationships and understanding clients’ requirements technology” without requiring access to properties Tenant Self Service and Mobile Staff App. Later that remained a key focus for the business. With a clear 3 FireAngel Street, Coventry, West Midlands Tina Kennedy, Head of year, having won a competitive tender, Housing Insight road map for planning future growth, we continued to Unlimited property profiles stored within partnered with the customer Solas (now part of Pobl Group) align our resources to meet our customers’ needs. Our Digital, Aareon FireAngel's secure cloud system to build a platform for their supporting people team. strategy has always been to build solutions to improve business processes in partnership with our customers. This was the start of the PanConnect suite of solutions. Unique 'FireAngel Predict' algorithm monitors Here comes the lockdown… AI The wins keep coming In March 2020, the country was put into lockdown, a and detects the risk of future fire events to With another successful tender win at Bron Afon situation that impacted the housing sector dramatically, allow earlier intervention Community Housing to provide our Mobile Staff App but with changing customer priorities, we were able to for its compliance, neighbourhoods and general needs adapt. Our commitment and support gave them added Cost-effective solution with running costs as housing teams, complemented by our Customer Self confidence in our ability and the solutions we had in little as 60p over 10 years per alarm* Service Portal and App, the housing provider continues place enabled our customers to continue their day-to- to work closely with us, amending the solutions to meet day activities. Our Customer Self-Service Portal and App Actively monitors a property’s RadioLINK+ Collates data and provides real-time its changing needs. Cloud Ready Future-proof properties with a hybrid system enabled customers to increase engagement with their Get More Done Implement Quickly Future Proof or SmartLINK enabled alarms notifications Implemented Open System that can be upgraded at any time Rise to fame tenants, pushing out bespoke messages and updates, in as little as With a growing and established presence