Aster Group chooses integrated Mobile Workforce Management system to improve efficiency of its repairs management staff maintaining over 10000 of its homes in the UK
 

Aster Property Management, the repairs and maintenance company of Aster Group, one of the largest housing association groups in England, has introduced an integrated mobile and enterprise management system to improve the delivery and efficiency of maintaining over 10,000 of its homes in Wiltshire and Hampshire. The solution is being provided by Cognito, a leading provider of mobile workforce management systems and ROCC, a provider of back-office housing management solutions with assistance from Just Housing. This is the first customer in a new partnership formed by Cognito and ROCC to provide integrated mobile and back-office solutions for the social housing market.

Initially 50 builders, electricians, joiners and other remote building staff at Aster Property Management have been equipped with mobile devices to reduce paperwork (completing job schedules, health and safety forms, tenant signature capture and repair description and invoices) when they are working off site and reporting back to head office. Aster believes the new system will save them money on productivity - reducing the total time for each job and better management of resources for job despatch and vehicle inspections for example. The company will also save in fuel costs and be able to provide a better service for tenants. The project went live in October.

Aster is a thriving Group providing homes and housing related services in central southern and south west England to over 40,000 people. It owns and manages over 16,000 homes across the UK and provides services with a staff of over 760.

Julian Paine, Corporate Projects Manager,at Aster Group said, “The housing market is highly competitve. In order to continue to be the best at service and efficiency, we need to continuously improve our work processes. The new ROCC and Cognito solution willl give Aster Property Management greater control over our resourcing and as a result save time and money. More importantly is that it will enable us to improve customer service through quicker and more efficient responses and more first time fixes to housing maintenance requests. With more than 16,000 homes to manage having the most effective mobile workforce and back-office integration solution in place is essential.”

The Aster Group employed Just Housing as its partner to bring about transformational and systems change and they have project managed the concept and delivery of this project. Richard Barker, Just Housing Senior Project Manager and current Interim Managing Director of Aster Property Management, said “ I have been delighted with the progress of the integrated mobile workforce management system. It’s imperative within the housing repairs sector that you have a dynamic back office system and to achieve this, the use of industry leaders such as ROCC and Cognito are critical for successful projects.”

ROCC has become an Accredited Integrated Software Vendor (ISV) in Cognito’s Partner Programme and have worked with Cognito to integrate their Uniclass Enterprise system with Cognito’s Mobile Workforce Management System, to create an easy to use mobile working solution that enables key information about customers and jobs to be accessed and completed 'in real time'.

David Perry, Head of Marketing at Cognito comments “We are delighted to be working with ROCC to provide mobile solutions that make a real difference to bottom line productivity and efficiency in the housing market. This client win cements our relationship, and we look forward to working together to support further public sector mobile workforce management solutions in the future.”

Chris Potter, Uniclass Director at ROCC, confirms “Selecting to work with Cognito provides ROCC with a reliable, proven mobile solution for our customers in the housing sector that delivers the functionality, resilience and industry best practice that we demand for our customers.”

ROCC Computers provides IT solutions, consultancy and services to organisations in various market sectors throughout the UK and has been doing so for over thirty years. Their Uniclass Enterprise product is in use in a number of housing associations throughout the UK.

Cognito provides consultancy, solutions and services to organisations with task-oriented field workers, enabling them to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.
 

Contact for further information:
Chris Potter
ROCC Uniclass Director
Tel: 01273 274710
chris.potter@rocc.co.uk