Application spaghetti, middleware, business intelligence and reporting
Housing Technology interviewed housing operations and data integration specialists from Mobysoft, Plentific and Voicescape about fragmented data, disconnected systems, manual processes and realistic expectations when it comes to getting better views of housing providers’ operations.
Blinkered vision
Emily Shaw, senior director and product lead at Plentific said, “Fragmented systems, de-centralised data and manual processes are the main barriers to housing providers getting a 360-degree view of their operations.
“Housing providers usually have a patchwork of legacy solutions that don’t communicate with each other. Data about properties might be in one system, tenant data stored somewhere else, financial data in a separate platform and maintenance requests in another, creating data silos and inconsistencies.
“Even if a housing provider’s systems are integrated to some extent, the core data itself is often not centralised. Information can be in spreadsheets, on individual computers or in paper files. This lack of a single source of truth means there are multiple versions of the same data, leading to further inconsistencies and confusion.
“Furthermore, many housing providers still rely on manual, paper-based or email-heavy processes for operations such as repairs, inspections and tenant communications. This can create a significant lag between an event happening and the data being recorded.
“These all combine to prevent real-time visibility and make it almost impossible to understand the true state of operations, track KPIs and ensure regulatory compliance.”
Gary Haynes, managing director of Voicescape, said, “The main reason is fragmentation. Disconnected systems and processes mean that information shared with one department often doesn’t reach another, even when both are dealing with the same customer.
“Another major barrier is a landlord-centric mindset. Many housing providers fail to recognise that system fragmentation is their responsibility to fix. Instead, they assume tenants should navigate the confusion, placing the burden on the very people the system should serve.”
Realistic goals
Engin Yilmaz, director of product innovation at Mobysoft, said, “A true 360-degree view of housing doesn’t mean a single monolithic system that does everything – that’s neither practical nor desirable. Instead, it’s about creating connected insights across critical domains, such as customers, properties and services, so that housing teams can act with confidence.
“New technologies, such as AI-driven data platforms, are making this achievable today. Rather than chasing perfection, housing providers should focus on having ‘good enough to act’ models, where data is timely, reliable and joined-up enough to support decision-making, compliance and service improvement.”
Plentific’s Shaw said, “There’s a misconception that a ‘360-degree view of housing’ means having a single platform to view everything, and that’s where some housing providers may be chasing the end of the rainbow.
“If you have a manageable number of integrated, purpose-built systems that integrate where needed, the data in each system should be reliable and referenceable. Too often, a centralised data warehouse is seen as the ‘silver bullet’ to overcome poor systems and processes, and chasing this goal might be both unattainable and won’t produce the results that you’re looking for.
“Rather than saying you need ‘everything’, clearly articulating what data you do need to see and why will help to define the scope of what’s needed.”
Business- and role-specific views
Mobysoft’s Yilmaz said, “A housing officer may only need a clear, actionable view of a tenant’s rent, repairs history and vulnerabilities, whereas a senior executive may need a broader perspective across arrears, stock performance and regulatory risk.
“However, they must both be fed from the same trusted data foundation. Without a shared version of the truth, business- and role-specific dashboards risk becoming yet more silos.”
Voicescape’s Haynes said, “Role-specific views are essential for specialists to do their jobs properly but they must sit within a system that also enables a 360-degree view of housing for those who need it.
“At the moment, tenants often bear the burden of fragmentation. They may call one department to report a repair, only to be contacted separately by income or customer experience teams, each unaware of the other’s actions. The result is confusion, duplication and frustration.”
Application spaghetti
Mobysoft’s Yilmaz said, “Housing providers put up with ‘application spaghetti’ because, historically, they’ve had little choice. Housing providers have grown their IT estates reactively, adding ‘point’ solutions to meet their immediate needs or to address new regulations. Over time, those decisions have resulted in the creation of complicated, overlapping systems that are expensive to untangle.
“Housing providers tolerate this state of affairs because ripping out and replacing their core systems feels too expensive, disruptive and risky. But the downsides are operational inefficiency, duplication and difficulties seeing the bigger picture.”
Plentific’s Shaw said, “Housing providers are often victims of sunk cost and legacy investments. Many have spent years and significant amounts of money investing in legacy software for core functions such as housing, finance and asset management. These systems, while often clunky and lacking integration, are deeply embedded in their daily operations. The thought of a full rip-and-replace project is daunting, expensive and disruptive, so they continue to make do with what they have.
“Departmental silos and ownership can also feed a ‘good enough’ mindset because the change management of cross-functional tools is a large undertaking. While knowingly frustrating, this is often seen as an acceptable cost of doing business.
“However, new regulatory pressures, such as Awaab’s Law, are changing this. Inefficient, disconnected systems can now have serious, real-world consequences for residents’ safety and regulatory compliance. What was once ‘good enough’ is becoming a critical business risk, making poor application architecture increasingly intolerable.”
What’s the solution?
Voicescape’s Haynes said, “Application spaghetti isn’t unique to housing providers – it’s a common technical challenge across most business sectors.
“For example, the retail banking sector successfully addressed it through targeted systems integration, middleware and smart data sharing, not by overhauling every system. These acted as a bridge, enabling information to flow between front- and back-end systems.
“Housing providers should take a similar approach. Rather than pursuing expensive, over-engineered CRM rollouts that risk discarding valuable knowledge embedded in housing and asset management systems, they should focus on practical integrations.”
Plentific’s Shaw said, “The solution to application spaghetti isn’t to find one mythical platform that does everything; that usually leads back to the same problem, just with a new IT supplier.
“Instead, the solution is a two-part strategy. The first part is to create a connected ecosystem where systems can talk to each other through robust, API-based integrations. Housing providers get to keep their best-of-breed systems while being able to connect to and extract data from them.
“The second part is working out what the ‘systems of operation’ are and what the ‘systems of record’ are (in some instances, they may be one and the same) – establishing clear boundaries of use cases between systems will drive the architectural design in an informed manner.”
Shared/open data standards
Mobysoft’s Yilmaz said, “Shared data standards are absolutely essential for reducing complexity, improving interoperability and ensuring that data can be trusted across organisations. Initiatives such as HACT’s housing data standards are already showing the value of creating common definitions.
“However, data standards alone aren’t enough. Housing providers also need technology platforms that can put those standards into practice, transforming their data into insights and embedding them into their day-to-day processes. Without that bridge, data standards risk remaining a theoretical exercise.”
Voicescape’s Haynes said, “In theory, open data standards sound like a sensible solution, and nearly every sector has explored them, but in practice, they quickly become unmanageable.
“Beyond the most abstract definitions such as ‘tenant’, ‘property’ or ‘repair’, the differences between systems and housing providers are too significant. Attempts to create a ‘common data model’ often become too complicated, expensive and slow to deliver value.
“Rather than chasing perfection through rigid standardisation, the sector should aim for practical progress towards better integration and data-sharing where it matters most, without getting stuck trying to define everything for everyone.”
Examples of 360-degree views
Mobysoft’s Yilmaz said, “We’re seeing housing providers beginning to achieve 360-degree views through targeted, domain-specific views that then connect into a broader operational picture.
“For example, some housing providers have used analytics platforms to bring together rent, arrears and tenant vulnerability data, giving income teams a clearer and more proactive way to support tenants, while others are integrating damp and mould, repairs and complaints data to meet the impending requirements for Awaab’s Law.
“The next stage, and this is where platforms such as Mobysoft’s PropertySense are heading, is to take those successes and scale them, so that housing providers can gradually build toward a comprehensive, 360-degree view of their homes, tenants and services.”
Voicescape’s Haynes said, “Some housing providers don’t acknowledge there’s a problem at all and are content to maintain the status quo.
“Others are trying to solve the problem by scrapping their housing and asset management systems entirely and rebuilding their business operations from the ground up. This approach is risky, very expensive and often ends in failure, especially when it involves discarding decades of specialised knowledge embedded in established systems.
“In our view, the most sustainable route forward is to assemble best-of-breed systems and use internal integration ‘glue’ to stitch them together, with a customer-facing layer on top.”
Plentific’s Shaw said, “We regularly work with housing providers to help them achieve a 360-degree view of their operations or at least make a significant jump towards that goal by using the Plentific platform to centralise and digitise their repairs, inspections, voids, damp and mould and compliance workflows.
“Before, that data would have been scattered across emails, spreadsheets and different contractor systems. Now, they have a single, real-time platform that connects the key data points across all of these operational areas.”
Housing Technology would like to thank Engin Yilmaz (Mobysoft), Emily Shaw (Plentific) and Gary Haynes (Voicescape) for their contributions to this article.
