As part of the council’s ongoing move towards digitisation of our services, plans are now well under way to replace the Housing Repairs scheduling software system One Advanced/Kirona DRS currently used to book trades with Mears and schedule inspections for NLC Technical Officers. This new system, planned to go live mid-June, is called Field Services, and is part of the Microsoft suite of applications.
The launch of Field Services will be a new way of working within Housing Repairs and will affect Housing staff, Customer Service Hub Staff Technical Officers and Planners who currently book and plan the inspections and repairs.
The current system has served us well over the years, but a lot of staff time is spent inputting information manually, we need one intelligent system that can be scaled across other services and offers digital scheduling and a mobile way working for staff.
This will be a change to the way you do your job, it will simplify the way you work, saving time and making us a more efficient and responsive service.
The system is currently being built in an agile way that will allow us to test the functionality in incremental steps. This testing will be carried out by staff who will use the system and allow them to influence any changes that need to be made to the system before going live in June.
The key part of the change is You!
We understand that you may feel confused, concerned, frustrated or sceptical about the introduction of this new way of working and how it affects you and your job. We want you to feel valued and part of this process and put your trust in this new system.
The project team have also been working with the Training and Organisation Development Team to develop appropriate training to ensure that everyone has the necessary skills to use the system and full training will be provided in a workshop basis over the coming months.
We have also created this are to keep you updated as the project evolves and the plans are underway to add a FAQ and set up a group on Yammer to allow you to ask any questions in the coming weeks. If you have not already registered for Yammer, now would be a good time and ask to join the Housing Repairs – Field Services Community.
In the meantime, if you have any concerns you can speak to your line manager or one of the representatives on the project team from your area:
- Repairs Contact Centre, Customer Service Hub is Environmental/Waste Solutions – Henry McNally
- Planners – David Crosbie
- Technical Officers – Alan Clark
- Business Development and Support – Jane Brentnall
This is set to be an exciting period of change, and everyone will have the opportunity to get involved from the very beginning. Yes, we are modernising how we operate but we need your input and support to make it happen.