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Fay ShanahanFay was appointed to whg in October 2017 as Corporate Director of Operations, bringing 18 years of housing experience to her post.
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The digital revolution: housing must catch up, or be left behind
Technology is changing the world at a head-spinning rate. Housing must act quickly to keep up with that pace of change, argues Fay Shanahan
If I said to you that this moment, right now, is the slowest moment in time that we will ever experience again you probably wouldn’t believe me. But these were the words used by tech entrepreneur Baroness Martha Lane-Fox, keynote speaker at the O2 Blue Door Conference in London last month, to describe the next evolution of our digital world.
But, I hear you ask, what is going to make such a huge difference to all our lives? The answer, quite simply, is 5G.
This is not going to be just ‘a bit better than 4G’, it is going to be so much more. It is a thousand times faster; it will connect more than just people. It will be able to connect buildings, homes, roads and rail infrastructure, even traffic lights and the white goods in our kitchens. It will make possible new products and services that have yet to be imagined.
We live in extraordinary times, but we must remember that not everyone has benefited from digital innovations.
“We live in extraordinary times, but we must remember that not everyone has benefited from digital innovations.”
And there is a risk some people will be excluded, further marginalising and isolating them from the opportunities technology can bring.
As social landlords we have a long and successful track record of working with communities that are struggling. It is our communities that are most at risk of being digitally excluded, but which could have the most to gain.
At WHG we have recognised this risk and made it a key aim of our Digital First Strategy so nobody will be left behind. We have used our data to design a range of initiatives that will engage different customer groups. We are not taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead we are tailoring our approach depending on where someone is on their digital journey. We are also in the process of rolling out our Clever Conversations to our colleagues, so they too are empowered to talk positively and confidentially about the benefits of being digital with our customers.
We are also working closely with our partners – not only our statutory and third-sector partners, but also our private sector partners and contractors, such as O2.
However, for WHG, being a digital business is more than just launching a customer portal. You need to review, map and change all your back office processes, take out redundant processes and challenge yourself to reimagine old ways of working. Cleanse your data and engage your teams. We are only just starting this work ourselves and our strategy takes us up to 2024.
In future, I imagine we will be working in digital workplaces. Mobile working will be the norm, we will have smaller offices or they will be servicing more colleagues on a more irregular basis, as staff may have no fixed hours. Technology is increasingly challenging our assumptions of how we live our lives and this is a scary prospect.
For boards, leadership teams and IT colleagues everywhere, these changes bring many new challenges. We’ve seen big businesses, like British Airways and TSB, suffer as a result of a technological failure.
On a personal level, only recently I received an email from Gary Fulford, our chief executive, asking if I was in the office. “Strange,” I thought, “he knew I was in the office.” On closer inspection the email was not from Gary, but from someone pretending to be Gary. Phishing emails like this can result in significant losses, so organisations need to be alert.
How many organisations in the housing sector have an overly complicated and dated IT infrastructure, with too many IT applications that are probably now obsolete? If this is you, you are not alone. This was a shared feeling by some big businesses at the O2 conference.
What does this mean for our sector?
“We have got to catch up. We have got to invest in IT, attract and retain talent and create new and effective partnerships.”
We have got to catch up. We have got to invest in IT, attract and retain talent and create new and effective partnerships.
At WHG, we made the decision to significantly increase our investment in IT and business intelligence teams last year. We have spent this year recruiting some amazing new colleagues, many of whom have joined us from outside the sector.
What was my favourite takeaway from O2’s conference? A description of the challenge facing all IT teams right now: “It is like trying to change a plane’s engine whilst it is still flying!”
For those who lead or work in IT, this is exactly how it feels.
Fay Shanahan, corporate director of operations, WHG
