"Johnnie" Johnson Housing Trust improves service to tenants with a remote access solution.
Managers in the "Johnnie" Johnson Housing Trust's sheltered housing schemes now have the ability to serve their customers more efficiently thanks to a new connection network that puts them directly in touch with central systems.
"Johnnie" Johnson is a general needs housing association with some 4,500 properties and 6,000 tenants - mostly in the North of England. It was founded by former Spitfire ace Johnnie Johnson, and still operates according to his goals of social responsibility and good service.
"Johnnie" Johnson Housing operates in 34 local authority areas, from Berwick on Tweed to Nottingham and Wales. Its stock includes around 60 sheltered housing schemes, each of which has a warden or scheme manager dealing with residents' needs and communicating with the Trust.
The Challenge
Lack of sufficient connectivity to support direct access to the Trust's central accounts and scheduling systems meant that managers were constantly on the phone to the Trust's headquarters.
The Trust's strategic projects manager Tricia Watters saw a way technology could radically improve the service the Trust gives - and make more effective use of the scheme managers' time.
"What we wanted to do was provide a computer suite in each of our schemes for the managers, so they had access to our main systems, " says Tricia. This would enable them to be more responsive to customers' needs.
But moving to a more connected world was not going to be simple, due to the broad spectrum of IT literacy amongst the staff. The Trust was going to have to invest in improved, easy to use equipment, and provide managers with the necessary level of training.
Secure, reliable access
The Trust required a fast, reliable and robust connection to each of the schemes, with a well-specified set of equipment sitting on the end of it. They also wanted a company that could provide, install, maintain and support it.
Working with Civica Connect, a service provider with a track record of supplying public sector organisations, the Trust created a solution based on Virtual Private Network (VPN) - a secure connection into the Trust's servers - and terminals at the Trust's schemes that use the well-established Citrix protocol.
"Because of the nature of the schemes, we wanted a thin-client solution," says Tricia. Thin clients centralise all applications on the Trust's servers, minimising the maintenance and support required at the remote sites. They are also more secure, all programs run inside the protected environment.
The communications run over broadband, and the system has the added benefit of making sure that access to the Internet is secure.
Improved service for tenants
"If managers want to look for something on the network, they have to go through our servers," says Tricia. "They can't just get onto the Internet and browse. It's restricted and logged."
"Direct access to the Trust's systems has already provided benefits," says Tricia. "One local authority wanted to review housing benefit applications for all forty residents of a scheme. They got all the rent statements they needed from the scheme managers office."
Looking to the future
In the next phase, the Trust plans to run phone calls over the network links, by means of Voice over IP (VoIP) handsets. This would cut the Trust's phone bill substantially, by turning the managers' phones into extensions on the central phone system, making internal communications easier, and enabling calls to be recorded for training and audit purposes.
"Blend Civica's vast experience of converged intelligent networks with a customer who has a business issue - and you have an ideal opportunity to practice what we preach," says Philip Wright of Civica Connect.
"It's our goal to help our customer help their customer and staff to improve service and save money, this solution is a great example of doing just that."