• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Housing Technology Main Logo

Housing Technology

Housing | IT | Telecoms | Business | Ecology

  • Free Subscription
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Research
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • Awards
  • Recruitment
  • On Demand
Home / Magazine Articles / Risk or no risk? – We decide

Risk or no risk? – We decide

From Mandy Dunstan, head of business transformation at The Barnet Group.

As part of Housing Technology’s series of articles from The Barnet Group and their IT transformation, this issue we’re looking at how the housing provider deals with risk.

It’s impossible to embark on an IT transformation project of this size without factoring in risk. But how do we do this and what does it mean for our staff at The Barnet Group? As an operations manager, I am very excited about the package we have bought from Covalent to help us manage risk and to give us an overview of the organisations’ performance and where we can look for improvements.

At the moment when reports need to be collated for senior managers, we have to manually pull information from Saffron, our existing housing management system, and then paste it into another spreadsheet before sending it to our performance team to make sense of it all.

There are three main benefits to us of using risk and performance management software such as Covalent:

  • Customer trends: the performance indicators data, which we have been using since May 2013, means we can look at tenant patterns, or trends emerging and do proactive planning, rather than have reactive responses to problems.
  • We can update our records more easily: by removing the manual element of updating tenant information, staff can be more efficient by sending automated reminders to update. This in turn enables our staff to be more proactive in their work by using self-service.
  • Group risks: in the near future, we will definitely be able to manage risks even more effectively because we will be able to track performance and allow managers to look at potential risks ahead of their impacts and come up with solutions.

To ensure that Covalent is practical and fits in with the way we do business, we asked managers to take part in the selection of the product, the design of the system dashboards and loading all the current risks and action plans.

We have now stopped using a plethora of spreadsheets to manage risk and introduced an automated approach to risk; this way managers and staff are looking at the same correct and up-to-date information in real time. And because a large part of our operations is about reactive change and risk, Covalent empowers staff and managers alike to identify trends and proactively plan for them.

See More On:

  • Vendor: Covalent Software
  • Housing Association: Barnet Group
  • Topic: Performance Management
  • Publication Date: 038 - March 2014
  • Type: Contributed Articles

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent Articles

  • Artificial intelligence in housing
  • Mobysoft – Data problems affecting complaints’ handling
  • Data, AI and private-sector strategies
  • Smart repairs & smarter homes
  • From firewalls to fortresses
  • Achieving three quick wins in AI
  • Rebuilding Selwood Housing’s IT infrastructure
  • Are you ready for organisational AI?
  • PIMSS releases AI Document Reader for compliance
  • Calico Homes cuts arrears with RentSense
  • FourNet launches digital transformation index
  • New income recovery software from Voicescape
  • Asprey Assets at YMCA
  • I love spreadsheets…
  • All watched over by machines of loving grace – AI assistants and adult social care
  • The rent revolution – The case for AI-powered payments
  • Unlocking safer living through data
  • Aareon acquires MIS ActiveH
  • Vericon launches MouldSense
  • Back to the future at Housing Technology 2025
  • FireAngel wins Which? Award
  • Maximising income and preventing homelessness
  • Anchoring digital innovation with Plentific
  • Cynon Taf Community Housing gets Housing Insight’s Arrears Manager
  • Tenants, AI & your biggest compliance risk
  • EDITOR’S NOTES – Data, standards & straight-through processing
  • AI as a social housing expert
  • South Yorkshire Housing halves arrears with Mobysoft
  • Bromford Flagship wins Aico’s smart-home competition
  • Putting VIVID’s customers in control of their tenancies

Footer

Housing Technology Main Logo
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Contact
  • Free Subscription
  • Book an event
  • Research
  • Update Your Subscription
  • Privacy Policy

Welcome to the housing Technology – Trusted Information For Business Professionals in HOusing

Housing Technology is the leading technology information service for the UK housing sector and local governments. We have always believed in the fundamental importance of how the UK’s social housing providers use technology to improve their tenants’ lives.

Subscribe to Housing Technology to gain market-leading research, unsurpassed peer networking opportunities and a greater understanding of your role to transform your business.

Copyright © The Intelligent Business Company 2025 | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
Housing Technology is published by the The Intelligent Business Company. A company with limited liability. Registered in England No. 4958057 | Vat Registion No. 833 0069 55.

Registered Business Address: Hoppingwood Farm, Robin Hood Way, London, SW20 0AB | Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8336 2293