Digital services and data maturity: how is the housing sector performing?

But the sector is not short on optimism. When it comes to solutions, respondents were keenest about the potential of co-creation: 60% said working together with residents would improve digital experiences. Nearly half (48%) said that their organisation would benefit from more internal or external skills to design better experiences. And 41% said that if they had more money, they would be able to execute the ideas they currently have but cannot afford (see graph below).

“A successful digital experience is often as much about embracing change as service design itself,” says Sharon Jackson, head of product delivery for housing at NEC Software Solutions.

“The challenge within housing is a wide range of customer diversity. Some will adopt and immediately benefit; others will need much more support. You can monitor uptake, but a human feedback loop is important, perhaps via local champions, for continuous improvement.”

Despite the focus on digital engagement, providers do recognise that some residents may prefer non-digital communication, and that others who do want to use digital channels may have difficulty accessing them. A total of 57% of respondents said their services are equally accessible through non-digital means, while 36% actively help residents access digital services by providing digital skills training or education. And 28% provide internet or device access for residents.

“Understanding residents is always key,” says Trevor Hampton, director of housing solutions at NEC Software Solutions. 

“If a resident embraces digital media daily, then a good experience via the digital service can be easy to achieve. If a resident is vulnerable and has specific needs, then the digital service design needs to recognise these.”

Housing providers struggle with skills gaps across their businesses. And while the sector is crying out for more skilled tradespeople, surveyors and business leaders, it also needs more digital talent.

When thinking about digital skills for the next five to 10 years, only 15% of respondents said they believe that their organisation has the capabilities to meet current and future challenges. A total of 65% think employees in their organisation need to become more data-literate overall, and 40% would like their employer to invest in more data specialists.

Meanwhile, 56% would like to better harness the capabilities of AI – an area where good data is fundamental.

Respondents don’t think AI will be taking over just yet, however. Looking at how roles might evolve over the next five years, most (72%) said that people will still be doing the same roles that exist today, but digital skills will become more important in fulfilling them (see graph, below). At the same time, 60% foresee a growth in digital and data-related roles.

A total of 41% said that technologies like AI will make some roles redundant. Testament to this is the number of respondents who said that they use AI to help them in their day-to-day work – 68%, versus 32% who don’t.

Among those who use AI, common tasks include capturing meeting minutes, creating first drafts, research, data analysis and responding to emails faster. Those who are more sceptical cite a lack of trust in outputs, a lack of confidence in using the technology, and in one case an organisational ban pending more training and an official policy being put in place.

Better use of data was a recurring theme in part one of this research project, and it was inescapable in this survey, too. While 54% of respondents said that important decisions in their organisation are based on robust data, 46% said they aren’t.

“Our data collection is ad hoc, scant and currently largely unreliable,” said one participant.

“Our data is too fragmented across different platforms and reliant on manual processes,” another wrote. “We are looking at better systems.”

The results give a strong indication that most organisations are currently on a path to data maturity, rather than at their destination.

Defined here as “the ability of an organisation to collect, store and analyse data, then use it to inform decisions across all levels of the business”, we asked respondents to give data maturity in their organisation a score out of 10. The average result was distinctly middling at five, with only one nine and one 10 awarded out of 123 respondents.

The biggest blocker to better data maturity? Better integrations. A total of 72% said their systems are not well connected, so they cannot make decisions about the organisation as a whole. And skills again came up, with half saying they need more in-house data analytics experts (see graph, below).

“Most organisations recognise that well-connected systems are central to good data quality and a single view of the customer and asset,” Mr Hampton says.

“Placing corporate goals ahead of departmental objectives is critical to this ambition and calls upon strong leadership. Consolidating systems can remove the challenge of good interconnectivity and the need for in-house analytics, as this can be available when there are fewer systems to surface data from.”

Looking to the future, the research suggests that we will see organisations continuing to get better at using data to inform actions. We can also expect the sector to improve its data analytics skills, either through training or recruitment, and for the use of AI to increase.

How quickly that will happen remains to be seen. With regulation and oversight forcing providers to prioritise building safety, building quality, environmental performance, governance and more, finding the time and funds for digital projects may be challenging. But if properly implemented, digital improvements are not only essential to future resilience but, in the short term, can directly support compliance and performance in critical areas.