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Wansbeck housing repairs go mobile

Wansbeck Homes is introducing new mobile technology to enable staff to manage repair updates remotely as part of an a major investment project.

By Miya Knights, 20 Aug 2008 at 15:24

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A newly formed housing association is introducing mobile technology for maintenance staff to manage repair works remotely.

The mobile roll out is part of an £80 million investment in property regeneration in the North East of England, and is designed to speed up repair response times and improve service to tenants in over 5,500 Wansbeck Homes properties.

Part of Wansbeck Council until March of this year, the now independent housing organisation has used software from Consilium Technologies to manage aspects of its customer service delivery for the past two years.

The provider’s TotalRepairs software manages the organisation’s call centre and its TotalView portal is used for scheduling repair appointments from head office.

Now Wansbeck Homes will use an additional module, TotalMobile, to enable its maintenance teams to receive and complete job information on the move using Microsoft Windows Mobile devices.

Andrea White, Wansbeck Homes business unit manager said: “Consilium has provided the team with an extremely robust, reliable and effective repairs system for the past few years, so as we moved towards a more mobile workforce, implementing TotalMobile was the natural progression.”

The upgrade will free field staff from having to return to head office to complete paperwork, leaving them more time to carry out essential maintenance work.

The new mobile software will replace a largely paper-based system and reduce the back-office processing of work orders, timesheets and material requests.

The housing association has been trailling the TotalMobile module in a pilot scheme, integrated with its existing Consilium systems, allowing managers to plan maintenance workloads more effectively.

Wansbeck Homes’ £80 milion investment is also designed to upgrade its housing infrastructure, including double glazing, fully fitted kitchens and bathrooms and the latest heating systems across its housing stock.

The organisation said that providing mobile working facilities for the repairs team will help to complete these improvements in a more timely and efficient manner.