Ingredients:

• 120 strong maintenance team
• In-house designed software system
• Customer Contact Centre
• Pocket sized PC/mobile phones

What do you do when you can’t find the software solution you want in the market place – develop your own!  In less than 12 months, the Trust moved from a situation where many of our trade operatives had never even switched on a PC before, let alone use one, to where the Hand-e-Work system was fully implemented with a whole host of benefits.

These benefits came to full fruition with the most recent innovation; to integrate our mobile solution with the ‘Opti-time’ real-time repairs scheduling system, recently introduced, which provides the facility to agree repairs appointments at time of first contact and to issue works dynamically, reflecting geographic locations of trades operatives and their overall workload. The mobile repairs system and scheduler working in combination is a potent combination resulting in a much improved service to tenants and significant further efficiency gains.

The Wrekin Housing Trust offers a response maintenance service, where customers place repair requests with our customer contact centre.  These are now sent electronically to the Trust’s own 120 strong workforce via handhelds, based on the latest generation of kit that combines a powerful PC and a mobile phone in a single pocket sized device. The Hand-e-Work Mobile Repairs System software application was designed in-house for use by Trade Operatives delivering our direct housing repairs service.

Key Benefits

• 100% take-up by tradespeople
  
• Elimination of paper based ‘work tickets’ has increased trade staff productive time and saves forests!
  
• Tradespeople aren’t distracted by unnecessary phone calls when working
  
• Reduction in data capture delays and errors
  
• Elimination of paper chase freed up back office staff enabling them to concentrate more on service and team management issues
  
• Tradespeople can also take on the job photos and videos for information
  
• Allows closer monitoring of workforce and improved control over job prioritisation
  
• Tenant signs electronic signature that job is completed
  
• Customer satisfaction monitoring made swifter and easier – immediate job completion information enables us to telephone out to the tenant straight away, because we know they are at home, to go carry out a full satisfaction survey.
  
• Automated van stock replenishment (via screens on handhelds which provide screens for recording materials used on each job) gives considerable operational effectiveness

The Hand-e-Work mobile software solution, designed with tradespeople for tradespeople, has transformed our responsive property repairs service, and has already been sold to Community Housing Group, South Cambridgeshire District Council, and Synergy Housing Group

For more information contact Lawrence Gardner on 01952 217071.