From: Jacqui Stoggall, Director of consultancy, Sovereign Business Integration Group
Sir – In a recent seminar we hosted, there was a clear trend for housing providers to look towards management systems and mobile technologies to reduce costs and improve their customer service. Moving towards online customer self-service and mobile technology to provide a smarter service when staff are working remotely, can save large amounts of time and money as well as improve customer service.
Indeed, housing providers are not only looking towards IT for efficiencies in customer service but also for more effective services. It is clear that organisations need to drive strategic investment in flexible systems that link hard and soft data together, acting as a central repository for information that can then be disseminated off the system, easily analysed and used to make informed decisions.
With the evolution of the ‘always on’ lifestyle, housing providers must be clever about their IT spending, understand the requirements from their customers and assess the value of moving to online, mobile and app-based technologies. Now is the time to focus on future-proofing IT investments and ensuring that informed technology choices are made.
