Community Housing Group has completed the implementation of an SAP-based mobile working solution developed by Acuma to increase productivity of their housing and field officers by giving them access to corporate data on iPads.
Having reviewed CHG requirements and business operations, Acuma recommended a native iPad application with offline capability, integrated with CHG’s core business applications (housing management, document management, CRM and payments), and delivered with role-based access.
Acuma created a native iPad application so that CHG could move from paper-based systems to evidence-based systems and transact in the field. This was first implemented as a pilot, enabling CHG to test the features and identify areas it would personalise and extend for its systems and field officers.
As a SAP ‘Gold Partner’, Acuma based its solution on SAP’s enterprise mobility platform to design, deploy and manage the application and devices. SAP’s platform allowed Acuma to combine its experience with application development with market-leading technology to produce a feature-rich solution. In addition, the SAP platform can be extended to cover CHG’s future needs such as mobile device management, mobile documents and tenant applications.
CHG reported that it was particularly impressed with the elegant user interface and its ease of use. The application can also be extended to provide modules for different roles, such as housing, repairs and maintenance, welfare advice, neighbourhoods and income recovery, each with specific features.
The application has helped CHG reduce arrears, report fact-based inspections on-the-go and take advantage of iPad features such as the camera, video and signature capture. Housing Officers no longer have to complete pre- and post-inspection work in the office and various specific inspections such as ‘move-In’, ‘scheduled’, ‘abandon’ and ‘mutual exchange’ are now carried out using evidence-based inventories to increase productivity. An innovative ‘scored neighbourhood walkabout’ feature enables CHG’s management to monitor the performance of its estates under different housing officers.
