Wales & West Housing Association

Executive Summary

Wales & West Housing own and manage a growing portfolio of 11,500 high quality, affordable homes in 15 local authority regions throughout Wales. Including over 3,000 dedicated properties for older people as well as innovative supported housing solutions for people with a range of particular needs.

Gas & Electricity Safety & Compliance System

As part of their responsibilities, WWHA’s team of field-based engineers conduct Gas and Electrical safety inspections and surveys. Historically, although these inspections were completed electronically, the updating of data and the filing of the resultant certificates was a manual process taking up a great deal of resource in order to keep up with the demand.

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The Problem

Historically, the process of inspecting and issuing certifications for Gas and Electricity safety compliance was a manual, paper-based task, often taking weeks to complete.

The process would entail the manual completion of a form which would then be returned to Head Office via post. Once it reached its destination the details would be keyed into the back-office system and a certificate would be generated.

This elongated and extremely dated process was flawed at a number of points, with forms having the potential to be mislaid and the potential for manual data entry error.

The Solution

Velocity IT worked alongside the team at WWHA to design and implement a mobile solution to facilitate the completion of the survey forms on a tablet device.

• All data is now added on-site and automatically synced with WWHA’s back-office system and integrated with Microsoft Dynamics
• Certificates are produced automatically
• Where internet connectivity is not possible, data is saved offline and automatically synchronised when the signal is re-established

The Outcome

WWHA now have a system that has optimised business processes with the following results:

• Time to produce certifications has been reduced from weeks to a matter of hours
• Removed the necessity for double-entry of data with a source to solution workflow
• Eliminated any potential of ‘lost’ surveys and improved accuracy of certificates being issued
• Enabled greater visibility for certifications in line with regulation and compliance

WWHA said “the process is now working in real-time and the time saved in production of the certificate has been noticeable, particularly the offline capability. The removal of the manual process has enabled both our field and office-based teams to be more productive.”

Most Innovative Use of the K2 Platform 2018

The WWHA project was awarded ‘Most Innovative Use of the K2 Platform 2018’. The award, presented at the annual event hosted by K2, brings together K2 technology partners and their clients to celebrate excellence in the design and implementation of K2 low-code solutions.