Bolsover District Council has chosen mobile workforce technology from 1st Touch (www.1sttouch.com) to control support and mange over 50 mobile operatives in responsive repairs, gas services, electrical services and VOIDS management across 5400 homes. The PDA based system will be rolled out over the next six months.
 
1st Touch was chosen because of its smooth integration with Academy Housing Management from Capita and OptiTime scheduling software. Once fully operational the new system is expected to significantly optimise productivity and reduce costs.

The 1st Touch system manages, supports and controls mobile operatives across all aspects of housing management including: property maintenance, inspections, mobile service provision,  asset management, responsive repairs, utilities (gas and electric) and  performance monitoring together with voids and contract management. 1st Touch Mobile uses low-airtime usage, “Smart Client” technology that automates the links between the field-based mobile operative’s PDA and the housing organisation’s back-office systems, its depots and the warehouse. In marked contrast to other costly “always on” mobile solutions, 1st Touch Mobile Workforce can work with or without a signal, transmitting encrypted, secure data in periodic small bursts. This innovative approach, it is claimed, reduces typical communication costs by up to 75 %.

The resilient but flexible system also enables easy, programming-free, user-customisable solutions to be created; designed to simplify handheld form design and data capture applications. Any type of electronic form can be generated, replicating closely all current working practices without the need for Business Process Mapping. It also ensures that any future changes or updates required by the organisation can be incorporated without any need for code changes to the applications. This reduces any potential ongoing costs for the customer as requirements will inevitably change and grow over time.

Commenting on the news Bolsover District Council Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Keith Bowman said, “We are committed to supplying the very highest level of services to our tenants and to ensure that these services are consistent across all our  support services. We conducted a full and robust tender process that looked at a number of areas where the benefits of mobile technology would improve the delivery of services and raise productivity levels.
 
“1st Touch came out on top after proactive networking, where we actively sought the opinions of other organisations at which the system was employed. One of the other advantages they had was the availability of additional modules to cover a number of different service areas such as Voids and gas. This gave us the consistency of data and management control that we were looking for.”
 
For his part Robert Dent, CEO of 1st Touch welcomed these comments adding, “There is no doubting Bolsover’s huge commitment to continuously improving the service levels they provide to their tenants. They have a forward thinking team with a vision to deliver.

We are delighted that after close consultation with other user organisations that they have chosen 1st Touch and look forward to working closely with them.”