Report to:
Item No:
Northwards Housing Board
11b
10th November 2015
Title:
Digital First Strategy
Date:
30th October 2015
Author:
Steve Finegan, Head of Business
Effectiveness and Communications.
E mail:
[email protected]
0161 720 5872
No
Confidential:
For:
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action required)
Tel No:
NOTING
DISCUSSION
APPROVAL
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PURPOSE OF REPORT
The Digital First Strategy sets out Northwards approach to the delivery of services with a
growing and increasing focus and priority on the delivery of online services. It supersedes
Northwards current digital strategy which is focused primarily on tackling digital exclusion.
The report sets out the reasons for adopting a digital first approach and how this will
future-proof the organisation to be a more efficient, smarter organisation delivering
services that are value for money and meet the needs of our customers in a modern world.
RECOMMENDATION
The Board is asked to approve the implementation of Northwards Digital First Strategy
2015 – 17 and to receive a report on progress during 2016.
Risk Management
Regulatory & legal
compliance
IMPLICATIONS
The strategy impacts all the key risk areas in current risk
management register. A balance needs to be maintained
between the provision of modern accessible services and the
delivery of efficiencies to ensure there are no unintended
consequences. Equally the pace of technological change is
such that the organisation needs to respond proactively to
remain effective in a constantly changing environment.
There are no direct regulatory or legal compliance issues.
Equality analysis will be undertaken during the implementation
of specific elements to ensure we remain compliant with the
required standards.
Consultation/Consideration:
Sub-Committee:
Area Panel:
Task Groups:
Ward Councillors:
Yes, No or
N/A:
No
N/A
N/A
N/A
Name
Date:
The Digital First Strategy cuts across the whole business and comprises of four elements:
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The Internet of Things
Modern, more efficient working
Channel Shift
Digital Inclusion
The strategy can only succeed if it is integrated into all aspects of the business, particularly
the strategic planning process, and for this reason it is important for Board Members and
the senior management team to embrace and consider our digital first approach when
planning and designing all aspects of the business in future. In some cases this will
require a courageous approach to change and to try innovative approaches that add
tangible business value, and at other times it will simply be sound business sense.
Recommendation
The Board is asked to approve the implementation of Northwards Digital First Strategy
2015 – 17 and to receive a report on progress during 2016.
Northwards Housing’s “Digital First” Strategy 2015‐17 Introduction In 2014 the Northwards Board approved our first Digital Strategy, which had five key objectives:  Motivating more tenants to engage with us via digital channels and enhancing resident involvement;  Developing channels that offer more value for money;  Providing more tenants with access to the internet;  Increasing our tenants’ digital skills and confidence;  Developing our understanding of our tenants’ digital usage. The strategy highlighted the cost of traditional service delivery when compared to digital services and focused primarily on issues to address digital exclusion and the challenges for the business engaging with tenants online. The strategy has had varying degrees of success and a review of the delivery of the first digital inclusion action plan is due to be reported to the Board at the end of 2015. Adopting a “digital first” strategy is about taking the existing digital strategy to the next level to make Northwards more efficient, potentially more innovative and, ultimately, a better business. The strategy will support our need to make ongoing efficiencies and deliver services that offer our customers value for money. Digital First is not about the provision of digital services only and at the expense of everything else. Rather, Northwards’ strategy is to provide multi‐channel access to services, but with a growing and increasing focus and priority on the delivery of online services. In addition, we will look to exploit and deploy modern technology to develop smarter ways of working and smarter homes. Doing things digitally can often be perceived as being an add‐on to the status quo; a “nice‐to‐do” rather than something essential. But the fact is that digital innovation is forcing the world to change at a breathtaking pace. Concepts that at one time sounded like science fiction not only exist, but in some cases have become a day‐to‐day reality (to quote Dr. Michio Kaku, the smartphone you probably have in your pocket right now has “more computer power than all of NASA back in 1969, when it placed two astronauts on the moon.”) We live in an era of revolution, and just as the Industrial Revolution enhanced and completely transformed businesses in the 18th and 19th century beyond recognition, the Digital Revolution is doing the same for modern day companies right now. It offers Northwards the opportunity to reimagine our business from the ground up. That’s not about going digital for the sake of it and fixing things that aren’t broken, but rather it’s about critiquing and evolving; keeping and building upon what is already efficient, but having the vision to use digital technology to radically change and improve how we operate where it will make a difference. By making a sound business case for implementing such changes, our aim is to focus on those areas that provide a greater level of operational efficiency and / or improvements to customer service. 1 The following areas are some of the ways in which the Digital Revolution is already improving businesses and services:  The Internet of Things  Modern, more efficient working  Channel Shift  Digital Inclusion These areas are the basis of Northwards’ strategy and set out how we can utilise technology in a way that means Northwards is responsive to the way the world is changing: The Internet of Things The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is a term used to describe how everyday objects – TVs, cookers, fridges etc. ‐ are connecting to the internet and sharing their data to be used more efficiently. Currently, there are over 40 million UK based devices that connect to the IoT, and this number is expected to grow into the hundreds of millions by 2022. In a report from their Chief Scientific Adviser in December 2014, the government set out their vision for the UK to “become a world leader in the Internet of Things” (see https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vision‐set‐for‐uk‐to‐become‐a‐world‐leader‐in‐the‐internet‐
of‐things). The report suggested creating an IoT Advisory Board, bringing together private and public sectors and allowing “for greater coordination of funding and support for the relevant technologies.” The huge benefits the IoT offers to housing providers is spelled out in a white paper from Capita titled ‘Smarter property management: when the Internet of Things meets smart asset management’ (2014). Here are some of the observations the paper puts forward: “The Internet of Things promises to radically alter how housing providers manage their assets. By receiving constant accurate information on the state of their stock, providers will be able to conduct repairs exactly at the point of need and ensure they prevent costly problems. Boilers A connected boiler can let the housing provider know of a fault immediately, communicating the details of any parts affected, much as car computers tell the mechanic what is happening under the bonnet. The difference is, no mechanic needs to plug a machine in to read the results. The boiler will continually be ‘phoning home’ telling the housing provider whether it is OK or needs a new part. Gas Safety This application of IoT technology would save a huge amount of administration, phone calls, and the possibility of multiple visits to the property in order to diagnose the issue and carry out repairs. With the Gas Access Campaign recently reporting that access difficulty alone will cost the sector £1/2 billion over the next 10 years, the potential savings for the public purse could be considerable. 2 
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Once this technology is proven to be reliable, it could even negate the necessity for physical gas inspections altogether, as the organisation managing the boilers could have a record throughout the year of the boiler performing within safe parameters. Humidity Apart from boilers, another likely area for housing providers to explore is that of humidity. Damp causes untold damage to properties. Unfortunately it is often too late before providers are informed of the damage so the costs to repair run into the thousands or tens of thousands of pounds. Smart sensors to measure humidity already exist and, while they are not expensive, the price is likely to drop still further in upcoming years. Receiving accurate data from sensors will allow housing providers to monitor households that appear to be struggling and work proactively with them before someone becomes ill or a property becomes damaged. Protecting older people Examples where IoT is being harnessed include care facilities, where sensors unobtrusively monitor that the occupant is moving about, that they have opened the fridge, or have cooked a hot meal. What if an elderly person has not gone to bed for 48 hours or the television has been on for more than 12 hours?” Northwards has already started dipping its toes into IoT technology. For instance: the NEDO trial of air source heating systems in a number of our properties includes sensors which tell us if there is a problem with the system, removing the need for tenants to call us the asset management team are in talks with Scottish Power about trialling their ‘Connect’ app – a remote control that allows you to change your heating settings from your smartphone. Obviously, this could have a big impact on fuel costs for our tenants Northwards is in talks to participate in a HACT pilot programme to test out the Blue Maestro temperature, humidity and pressure sensor. 
It’s worth considering how others are already using IoT to benefit their business e.g. Samsung, Apple and Google In 2014, Samsung bought SmartThings, a company which creates technology that enables appliances, utilities and security within a home to be controlled using a smartphone. By diving into IoT, they hope to reignite their household appliances division by enabling their products to be networked. Similarly, Apple has launched a platform called ‘HomeKit’ that software developers can use to pair household devices with the iPhone, while Google has spent large sums of money on Nest Labs, which produces smart home thermostats and smoke detectors, and DropCam, which makes household security cameras. 3 Modern and more efficient working The purpose of an office space is, ultimately, providing staff with everything they need to do their jobs. With the rise of mobile technology, however, some jobs need no longer be tied to an office at all. To do their job, most office‐based Northwards employees currently need a computer of some sort, a phone, internet access, network access and a printer. None of these things, however, necessarily require an office to deliver them. Most people have internet access and some kind of computer device (whether it be a laptop or tablet) already at home. A number of staff already use tablets and mobile phones and have remote access to the Northwards network and email accounts, enabling them to work from different locations. Another function of an office is, of course, to provide a space for meetings. But video conferencing facilities like Skype or GoToMeeting allow us to host these meetings virtually, enabling us to use the time it would have taken to travel to the meeting more efficiently. Clearly, there are some roles at Northwards that regularly require the person to be present in a particular building at particular times of the day. But many roles lend themselves to the flexibility that agile working offers, and even those employees in more fixed‐location roles could still benefit from having the opportunity to take their “workstation” away with them to tackle their more administrative tasks at a time and in a place that’s more convenient. Clearly, we have plenty of things already in place to assist agile working and at a time when the organisation is concerned with making efficiencies and providing value for money, the potential to reduce operational overheads makes sound business sense, and it could be seen as a huge staff benefit:  Mobile staff means less employees in an office at any one time. This means we can rationalise offices, downsize to smaller offices, or reduce the number of offices we have.  Evidence suggests that flexible working reduces absenteeism, meaning healthier employees with less time off work.  True mobile working will enable those employees who regularly visit tenants to offer a much more flexible service. Regardless of the reason for a visit, tenants often use those occasions to enquire about all kinds of aspects of Northwards’ service. If that employee had mobile access to all aspects of the tenant’s data, they could deal with the query there and then and prevent the need for further contact. A big step towards facilitating agile working at Northwards will actually coincide with our procurement of a new housing management system (HMS). Complementing the system will be a 4 mobile module that enables staff to spend more time out of the office whilst still having access to the HMS. This module will be available on smartphones and tablets and will allow staff to pick up jobs and appointments allocated to them, and to update or complete the jobs on the system without having to return to the office, or even without having to go to the office first thing in the morning. New jobs allocated to them will be delivered to their mobile device and the user alerted. In addition, users will have access to check a rent balance and view information or order work for tenants they were not scheduled to visit. The new housing management system is provisionally scheduled to go live in November 2016, with the mobile module expected to be rolled out in early 2017. Channel Shifting Successfully “shifting” customers from more costly forms of contact to digital channels that are cheaper requires a radical change in the way we deliver our customer services. While it’s important to make sure that our digital channels are inviting and provide a great experience for the user, it’s not enough to just put those channels out there and hope for the best. Northwards’ approach to channel shift is not simply about reducing costs, it’s also about providing the best customer experience. Using data from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), who found that:  Social housing providers could save more than £340m per year by using more cost‐effective online communications to their 9.5m residents.  Local government could save around £360m per year by moving online just one monthly contact/transaction with the 4.1m adults in social housing that they discovered have never been online. By successfully channel shifting tenants, Northwards would also take a proactive approach to mitigating the impact of welfare reform and preventing potential loss in rent by ensuring a greater amount of successful Universal Credit claims. The Government have set challenging targets about the number of claims online therefore digital applications will be the default approach they expect claimants to take. Implementing this strategy means Northwards will also directly support the Manchester City Council (MCC) Digital Strategy. MCC have pledged to develop people’s skills, create a “social city” and bring about “digital reform”. This means that the council and the city as a whole is becoming more reliant on digital methods to engage residents: e.g. embracing social media, encouraging and enabling more people to become “self‐service” customers via the web, developing more mobile content and apps, and providing free Wi‐Fi in public areas. 5 Over the last three years in response to budgetary challenges, MCC have also made significant cost savings and developed more self‐service options online for the public, increasing online transactions by 101,000 over the last two years. Our Digital Strategy will complement MCC’s by helping our tenants to keep apace of the digital evolution of the city and supporting them to develop as “digital citizens”. We need to proactively dissuade contact with non‐digital channels and steer tenants towards self‐
service ahead of ALL forms of contact ‐ even digital ones. The most successful channel shifting eliminates contact altogether by getting the user to self‐serve, rather than just switching the user to a different form of contact. Successful channel shift will involve things like:  Pre‐empting an information request. For instance, users of Amazon.com will be familiar with their very regular and targeted update e‐mails that pre‐empt questions and typically prevent the need for contact with the seller (e.g. informing you that your transaction has been processed, when it’s likely to arrive, when it’s been dispatched). Many delivery companies provide users with email and text updates on the ETA of their packages. A similar system could enhance our existing repairs texting service, advising tenants of a more realistic time of when their repair operative will arrive, or giving regular updates about where a repair is up to, reducing significantly the need for calls or visits. 
Customer insight – mapping all the offline customer journeys for the service and identifying every ‘touch point’ i.e. through whom, how and where it’s accessed to understand if and how a digital solution can be introduced. 
Getting customer facing staff on board and trained – all points of contact should be used to promote digital, i.e. frontline staff, Customer Service Centre, repair operatives. We would need to make sure that staff and partners are familiar with the digital service, able to help with digital transactions and don’t lead customers back to more traditional channels. 
Identifying users’ triggers for using non‐digital channels and satisfying these needs through our digital services by: monitoring usage of digital transactions to identify where in the end‐to‐end user journey customers are dropping out, and doing customer research to understand why they’re failing to finish the digital transactions o limiting the need for users to revert to non‐digital channels (e.g. phone or face‐to‐
face) to do things like checking the progress of their application by providing this information digitally o taking account of our customer demographic, identifying those who need assistance to engage with digital services and providing that help. The new HMS will have texting and email embedded within the system to allow proactive reminders to be generated automatically without need for manual input. It will also be able to generate emails / text automatically where say a tenants hit a level of arrears. o
6 In addition, the new system will enable customers to register their communication preferences, such as receiving information by email or via the customer portal, reducing the costs of posting letters. Digital Inclusion The benefits of being able to access the internet are well documented. At Northwards our aim is to offer tenants the support to increase their confidence and online skills. This means they will be in a stronger position to take full advantage of the digital age, whether this is shopping or banking online or become more social. As well as the growth in transactional services online, we also know that a significant number of tenants will need to be able to search and apply for work online or make benefit claims; a key risk area for the business if tenants were to remain excluded. Digitally excluded individuals are defined by the DWP as those who never access the internet, or do so no more than three times a month, and lack confidence in their internet skills. The Digital by Default 2012 report claimed that around half (4.1 million) of the 8.7 million UK adults who had never been online at that time lived in social housing. The 2014 figures from the Office of National Statistics suggest that this number has since dropped to 6.4 million adults, and ‐ according to research by Ipsos MORI ‐ internet access is thought to be rising among social housing tenants but usage remains considerably lower than among the population at large. Our own research into levels of digital exclusion amongst Northwards tenants seems to confirm these findings. In 2014, we commissioned a sample telephone survey with over 4000 tenants and of those surveyed, 49.6% said they had access to the internet. By comparison, Ofcom’s Internet Access – Households and Individuals 2014‟ report claims that 84% of UK households have internet access, so internet use amongst Northwards tenants appears to be significantly lower. Results from our 2014 Customer Satisfaction Survey also strongly support these findings. Out of 2,719 returns, 47% of tenants answered that they have internet access at home. Over the last year, Northwards has implemented a Digital Inclusion Action Plan following the recruitment of a Digital Inclusion Officer to help deliver training and advice to tenants, as well as other “hands‐on” work around the digital strategy, including recruiting volunteer digital champions. We have launched free Wi‐Fi in our offices, as well as a Digital Hub in the Cheetham office. We are also working with Manchester City Council and other housing providers around the city to procure affordable internet provision for tenants across a number of our high rise blocks and communities. We need to make sure our employees are also digitally included, as this will be vital in ensuring the success of any work we do around channel shift. Re‐imagining Northwards Northwards has a lot of things in place already and this is set to increase over the next few years to make us more digitally efficient. But we need more than just the right technology or the right ideas to become a ‘Digital First’ organisation. We need a culture change towards a ‘Digital First’ attitude to win the hearts and minds of our staff. We need staff to understand the technology and the 7 digital services, to appreciate the thinking behind how and why we use them, to be proficient in utilising them, and – most of all ‐ to become ambassadors for them. Only then will we truly realise the potential of the digital resources we have at our disposal and make Northwards as efficient as it possibly can be. Clearly, digital innovations are bringing significant benefits to those businesses and public services who have the vision to use it to change the way they do things for the better. This strategy is Northwards’ commitment to develop a Digital First agenda in the future development of services as opposed to being a stand‐alone strategy. Summary of future digital developments 
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Rationalisation of front of house customer services to support self‐service and a review of the telephone answering service to support channel shift. Once phase 2 of the website is complete (2017) and tenants are able to self‐serve fully via the web modules of the Civica replacement, we should actively push people towards it and away from the call centre. There are different ways of doing this, gradually reducing the call centre opening hours over time, changing KPIs and promoting online alternatives, whilst introducing safeguards for more vulnerable customers for whom such a reduction may have a negative impact. To further encourage self‐service, we would require all our staff – but particularly those on the front‐line – to fully support channel shifting. This would mean not only informing them of exactly why we’re doing it and why it is so important, but also training staff to better understand how our digital channels work. Website improvements to facilitate online transactions, particularly for repairs. We are planning to introduce a full self‐service repairs ordering system that allows tenants to book repairs, make an appointment, cancel / amend appointments and track appointments in late 2017 (subject to introduction of the new HMS). It’s worth remembering that all Manchester Move applicants have to bid by the web. Clearly, these people can access the internet in some manner, so we should actively encourage all new tenants to engage with us digitally in the first instance and plan a series of campaigns to promote and support people to get online. Increased support for tenants who are digitally excluded. Using and developing more sophisticated approaches to customer insight will enable us to target communications and services to support tenants who are vulnerable and unable to engage with us online, at least without support. Working with tenants, we would develop new guidelines to support channel shift and seek to increase our digital inclusion work with the use of volunteers. 8 
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We will continue to work with MCC and our partners to explore access to free and low‐cost internet access, including access to low‐cost devices. Promoting more efficient ways for paying rent and reducing those that are no longer cost effective. In 2014‐15, we collected over £50m in rent. 63.2% was received as full or part housing benefit payment. 3.1% (£1.5m) was paid in cash at the housing offices (excludes debit/credit card payment) which accounted for a further 3.9% while 17.7% came from PayPoints (where you also pay by cash) and Post Offices (where you pay by cash or cheque). A further 12.1% came from standing orders and we took a further £135k in council tax payments. Clearly, there continues to be a reliance on physical transactions. At least 21% of those rent accounts are people paying rent in‐person. This clearly isn’t efficient. There’s likely various reasons for this, but two of the most probable explanations are digital exclusion and a lack of a bank account. It’s worth noting that in 2014‐15, the call centre also received over 6000 calls about paying rent from 1,307 tenants. Putting aside the incidental repercussions of 56% of our paying tenants being so digitally reticent, the direct impact all this has is that staff are spending time dealing with a not‐
insignificant number of rent payments in the office or at the call centre; time which could be avoided if these tenants were able to self‐serve. It is already possible for tenants to pay rent over the phone without the need to speak to anyone, so greater use needs to be made of the automated solution offered by MCC through efficient use of IVR technology by Northwards and campaigns to promote more convenient alternatives to paying cash at the housing offices, such as Paypoint. In addition, we need to work closely with MCC to push for the development of mobile responsive payments via their website or consider the use of Allpay as an alternative. Improving communication with tenants who have ordered a repair. Manchester Working has a text system in place to communicate with tenants at various stages of the repairs process. Improvements could include: o Day before text could be reworded to remind the tenant of what repair was agreed, including the time. Ideally, if the repair was reported online, the text could signpost the tenant back to the website to change the appointment themselves if it is not convenient, rather than getting them to call instead. o Introduce an extra text on the morning of the job with a link to a web page which shows you where the driver is, how many jobs they have before they reach you and a regularly updated time of arrival. This kind of software is something which delivery companies use regularly to keep the customer informed and prevent further contact. 9 Giving tenants very, very regular updates of an ETA for their repair would cut out a lot of unnecessary engagement. We currently receive enquiries on Facebook along these lines, e.g. “Hi there the workman that was meant to be coming today job number W3217334 has not arrived..can you advise if they are still on their way?” o The final text could be used as a satisfaction survey, replacing the physical copies we send out currently and making savings on paper and post in the long run. Some of these improvements could be implemented immediately, without the need for extra financial investment.  Deploying modern working methods where appropriate. Northwards has already taken steps to becoming more agile and this is expected to grow, subject to the needs of the business and dependent upon the job role: o Around 11 employees have already been issued with Microsoft Surface tablets, enabling unprecedented mobile working opportunities o The Rehousing team has a tablet which they share and successfully use on home visits o In 2017, once the Civica replacement is bedded in, IT will rollout the accompanying mobile module to front line staff for use on smartphones and tablets, allowing them to provide a significantly more sophisticated and flexible service to staff while away from the office (as explained earlier in this document) o Our Citrix home working solution enables secure network access out of the office o Northwards emails can be accessed anywhere via the web, through an Outlook portal and on work mobile phones o Various systems like Civica, Yammer, SharePoint and covalent are also accessed via the web, and thus also available externally. This strategy can only succeed if it is integrated with all aspects of the business, particularly the strategic planning process. In some cases this will require a courageous approach to change and to try innovative approaches that add tangible business value. This ensure our success this strategy will be supported by a rolling action plan that identifies the short, medium and long term goals which will be reviewed annually. Mark Hesford Steve Finegan 110915 (updated 30.9.15) o
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