4Housing Overview
4Housing is a comprehensive, flexible and future-proof business application for social housing providers and property portfolio management organisations developed by 4D. It provides information for Executives, Managers and End Users alike presenting it in a graphical manner, which makes it very easy to understand. The solution automates time-consuming activities such as data input and is delivered on a web-based platform so that users can access it anywhere.
In the last 17 years private sector lenders have invested almost £20 billion in housing associations. This dwarfs any other private sector lending initiative into social programmes. The Housing Association alone will invest £3.9 billion in affordable housing from 2006 – 2008 creating around 84,000 new homes. England itself has over 1,500 independent Housing Associations managing over 2 million properties which house over twice that amount of people ! With these kind of numbers Executives and Managers need accurate and detailed information fast.
The provision of regulatory statistics covering viability, governance, management and development is compulsary and has to be provided on time, every time for compliance purposes and so that funding for projects isn’t impacted on.
Keeping track of every property, and the condition it is in with the various restrictions and the legal implications surrounding them is no mean feat. This is combined with the demands of the tenants whose expectations are higher than ever before in terms of facilities and levels of service.
All this means the demand for information within every Housing provider is higher than ever before. Reports cannot take days to produce anymore - neither can the accuracy of them be called into question as decisions have to be made and delays in making them could cost thousands of £’s if not millions.
Many Social Housing providers and Property Portfolio management organisations suffer because they are not able to access this kind of information in a timely and accurate manner. Very often information has to be compiled manually, having been input into spreadsheets so that it can be consolidated with data from other people and / or applications; something in itself that is time consuming, laborious and prone to error. Even then it is not uncommon for people to have different versions of the truth !
It is for these very reasons that 4D has developed 4Housing.
4Housing is a suite of four modules currently, designed to give organisations the right kind of information to the right people when they need it and in a format they can understand.
The modules cover Rent and Arrears, Lettings Management, Voids Management and Repairs Management with more in the pipeline.
4Housing interfaces with all of the major Housing and Finance software packages enhancing – not replacing – them to provide a centralised reporting function which can be used across the entire organisation.
The same information can also be provided to remote or field workers via devices such as Blackberry’s so that Users don’t have to be tied to their desks or a Network.
The architecture is built ‘around’ existing software Applications so that the investments are maintained and protected. All data processes are automated and the data itself is ‘staged’ so that there is no additional impact placed on the source Applications.
The data is presented in a graphical manner which can follow a Corporate identity or be tailored to suit each users needs and requirements.
Rent and Arrears Management Module
Rent and Arrears Management helps with the management of the income from each property and the debt that may incur. The level of payment and debt is monitored against any given time period and can be overlaid against that from the Financial Application budgets.
The collection of Rents can be monitored by any region, patch or by the Collecting Officer responsible for that area. Data can be ported onto portable devices such as Blackberry’s so that up to the minute information can be seen as they carry out their daily duties.
The headline categories for reporting in the Rent and Arrears Management Module are: -
- Time Periods
- Property
- Property Types
- Bed Sizes
- Tenant Types
- Current / Previous
- Period Bands
- Amount Bands
- Payment Methods
- KPI Measures
Some of the available reports in the Rent and Arrears Management Module include: -
- % rent roll by officer / patch / region
- Breakdown of credits by payment type
- Outstanding benefits by patch / authority
- Number of Accounts in Arrears
- Unit types with high arrears (flat, bedsit, 2 bed etc.)
- Tenancies with the highest arrears (assured, shared owners, benefit)
Lettings Management Module
Lettings Management assists with the profiling of the types of property and who they have been let to. It allows the tracking required to ensure that the requisite numbert of properties have been let to different schemes or ethnicities, for example. It also details the waitng times for each Application allowiong Executives to foreard plan for refurbishment programs or the acquisition of new properties or Housing Associations.
The headline categories for reporting in the Lettings Management Module are: -
- Application Dates
- Letting Dates
- Property
- Property Types
- Bed Sizes
- Ethnicities
- Reasons
- KPI Measures
Some of the available reports in the Lettings Management Module include: -
- How many units available by scheme / patch
- Breakdown of letting type / category
- Annual / monthly / weekly rent roll on lettings
- What % of rent roll is lost on lettings?
- Which tenants best placed in lets / new lets
- How long have units been vacant?
- Number of new lettings by patch / scheme
- Where are the lettings geographically
Repairs Management Module
Repairs Management helps with the performance of the organisation in relation to the levels of service that are being provided to the Tenants, especially if this part of the service is subcontracted out to a third party.
The module keeps track of the types of repairs that are required making it noticeable if any one particular element is causing excessive costs to be incurred – or if any one property or property type is experiencing increased running costs.
Contractor performance is also managed from here as response times and unforeseen costs are logged by job and by property.
The headline categories for reporting in the Repairs Management Module are: -
- Target Dates
- Property
- Property Types
- Repair Areas
- Repair Priority
- Repair Types
- Repair Status
- Repair Overdue
- Contractors
- KPI Measures
Some of the available reports in the Repairs Management Module include: -
- Number of repairs logged
- Repair completions / emergency / routine
- Priority repairs by location region
- Repairs type by unit / tenant / organisation
- Days overdue by priority
- Repair value
- Repair budget vs. performance
- Contractor performance vs. target
Voids Management
The Voids Management module manages the Finances not realised due to the void status and the length of time that they have not been let. In association with the Lettings management module it can assist with the forward planning of refurbishment programs or the acquisition of new properties
The headline categories for reporting in the Lettings Management Module are: -
- Void Dates
- Property
- Property Types
- Bed Sizes
- Void Types
- Void Status
- Classification
- Period Bands
- KPI Measures
Some of the available reports in the Voids Management Module include: -
- How many units available by scheme / patch etc
- Breakdown of void type / category
- Annual / monthly / weekly rent roll on voids
- What % of rent roll lost on voids
- Which tenants are best placed in voids / new lets
- How long have units been vacant
- How many new voids by patch / scheme
- Where are the voids geographically
