Are we keeping up?

I just had a discussion yesterday with a senior executive in a landlord who asked me a great question. I wasn't expecting it, but it was certainly a cracker and it ended up in a lengthy discussion. The question was:

'Why is it you feel that as a sector we are a bit behind the times when it comes to utilising technology'.

It's a big question, and I have some thoughts to why, but first, is it still actually the case? Are we really as far behind as some think? 

I first said that it is definitely not as bad as it used to be, in fact, since the Nov 2020 White Paper, the focus on technology has I think increased. There are certainly more examples of landlords investing in digital transformation projects, investigating, and deploying IoT related initiatives, improving or moving to new systems, focusing more on data governance, management, and insight, and indeed focusing on the customer experience. All good, or is it?

Well, although progress is being made, my initial response was that we are nowhere near the level of investment that we need to see across the sector. Hundreds and hundreds of landlords, especially smaller ones need to look more at technology as a way of improving not only efficiencies, but in my opinion, the customer experience.

As I write this article, I actually noticed a post pop up from Mark Birch, CTO at Broadacres Housing Association where he said 'No organisation can thrive in a modern environment without embracing the capability of ICT services and systems to enable its colleagues and customers'. I could not agree more and could not have put it any better myself, but I would actually add the work ‘survive’ instead of ‘thrive’. I believe those that are indeed behind the times in technology investment will fail their customers if they don't get a move on and perhaps not survive the current storm.

So, back to the question that was posed to me yesterday.

We are behind the curve for many reasons in all honesty, and perhaps some of these are all our own doing. 

In no particular order I gave a few reasons in answering the question.

1.     There has been a lack of sponsorship from leadership teams in the past. I believe part of this is indeed a lack of knowledge and understanding of the benefits a well implemented technology solution, digital strategy or indeed wholesale transformation can bring and how tangible customer benefits can be realised.

2.     Resistance to change. There has in many landlords I have come across been an utterly bewildering refusal to accept change, especially when it comes to that ‘fancy IT stuff’. Those who have embraced the change have benefited, and we need to learn more about these, share the success stories and show it can be done.

3.     Not enough money. I’ve been told by landlords that they can’t afford it. This isn’t necessarily the case, rather a choice to proportion the costs in ‘other’ areas and as mentioned above, a lack of knowledge and insight as to the benefits of technology may have resulted in different decisions and priorities.

4.     We need more advocates of the benefits of technology and digital focus. Some have done a great job, and we need to know more about these so that leaders within landlords can see the case studies, can see that cost effective benefits can be realised and that customers can reap the benefits. One example of this, that some of you, but certainly not enough know about is the Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP) Data Management Framework for Greater Manchester (the very first such framework for a devolved region). The teams involved have done a fantastic job in bringing a strategy together and more should know about it.

I could indeed keep typing, but you’ve got work to do, hopefully implementing great digital strategies. My point is that in the discussion I had it came to light that:

Yes, we are improving as a sector, but perhaps too slowly.

Yes, we are seeing the benefits of some well-run projects, but we need to keep sharing the good examples. We need to keep up with the technology available. We need to keep working hard to ensure the customers, the tenants benefit.