Social housing, technology and doing things the “old fashioned way”

When I was at school, we didn’t have our own calculators. I remember we had a box of calculators that we were allowed to use in some lessons, but not often at all. We mainly had to work everything out the old fashioned way.

The children that followed us through school would have had their own calculators, then calculators on their phones, and now all sorts of fancy ways to do their maths homework.

“Alexa, what’s the square root of 676?”

Technology is now firmly in every part of our lives, and increasingly important in the social housing sector.

It goes without saying, some things are just better done the old fashioned way, tried and tested methods and age old processes are hard to beat…when they work! It does throw up the question though.. Why fix something that isn’t broken? 

What we have found recently is that there is nothing wrong or broken with the way any one organisation has been doing things, and we certainly don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but we do think for some there are some ways technology can help. 

We’re seeing things like virtual property viewings and Zoom meetings become the norm. AHBs that were muddling using spreadsheets and Post-it notes when they were all together in the office have learned to embrace tech over the last 11 months, to keep going as normal when so much has changed in the world of work.

I’d like to think that we’ve helped. Plenty of people have told us how valuable they’ve found our online rent calculator over the last few months and this is where the tech piece really comes in…

You see, virtual inspections and meetings via zoom have really become standard now over the last 12 months and are very much a one size fits all solution to 90% of the office working population of Ireland. However our rent calculator is specifically designed with one sector in mind – social housing. It would be fair to say that new tech solutions specific to the Irish social housing sector have been few and far between during this pandemic because so far what is helpful for everyone has also been helpful here too. However, we are now seeing a shift, where tech is meeting industry head on, finding solutions to specific problems and developing systems to align with the new normal, and that’s exactly how our rent calculator evolved. 

Not only is technology changing as a result of Covid-19 but so is the world around us. Think of your day-to-day. A lot of the conversations and meetings many are having are Covid-19 centred… risk assessments, logistical problems and health and safety considerations might just be some of the conversations forming part of your daily routine. This new work load on top of what was already a demanding workload means there is no better time like the present to start considering new ways of working and getting the key tasks of your day done quickly and efficiently. 

You might be thinking that you are a small organisation and so change isn’t required at the moment and that’s ok, but I would urge you to take some time to look at the tools that are available to you, some of which are even free! There is no downside, only the chance to implement some useful tools into your day-to-day or to learn about some new things that might help you and your team, and if not..well, nothing lost, nothing gained really. Just a bit more knowledge about technology within your industry which will be easy carried. 

Running any organisation in these times is challenging, but it’s easier if everybody is using the right tools.

We’re running a big conference next week for agents explaining how we can help.

Only joking, of course we’re not. But if you’d like a Zoom meeting or a call to understand how our simple, powerful software can help you to adapt to Covid, we’d love to talk.

If you’re still working out rents “the old fashioned way”, treat yourself and check out our online rent calculator.

CLICK HERE to see it for yourself.