E trading, business intelligence technology, and automation software have shown vast advancements. So much so, that they can be transformational for a social housing repairs service. Partnering with a repair and maintenance management provider that adopts these effective digital technologies can create a wealth of benefits. These include significant administrative cost savings, improved workforce productivity and efficiency, and increased customer satisfaction.

Below we discuss the next steps in our guide of things to consider when choosing a managed service provider.

1. E Trading

With the average social housing repairs service carrying out over 20,000 repairs a year, the volume of invoices generated from materials supply alone can be huge. In fact, if each of those jobs generated just one materials invoice it could cost up to £500,000 every year. E trading solutions like XML, EDI, consolidated invoicing, and job/operative validation can eliminate paper processes. These also improve accuracy and significantly reduce costs.

2. Management information, KPIs and performance metrics

A drive for transparency in social housing brings with it the increasing expectation of better systems, reports and data. Your repair and maintenance management providers ability to capture and share data is a crucial factor. Data that is accurate, timely, and relevant will help you truly understand the cost, performance, accuracy, and efficiency of your repairs and maintenance partnership. A productive partnership with your repair and maintenance management provider should focus on a range of things. Not only on supplier KPIs but also providing a detailed suite of procurement management information that can be benchmarked against your strategic objectives.

3. Mobile working

An average van stock of repairs and maintenance materials for social housing consists of around 150 different products. If tailored correctly, that van stock could complete over 80% of routine daily repairs. And in turn, remove the need of leaving a job to travel to a store. However, trying to manage this process of usage, recording, and replenishment without a suitable IT system is next to impossible. Both for these basic requirements and in terms of continually improving that stock profile. The same applies to trying to manage large stock volumes.

For more tips on choosing a managed service provider, download our infographic here:

View our FREE infographic here

For further guidance on procurement management, please get in touch with us. You can contact us via email at managedservices@travisperkins.co.uk or through our online contact form. One of our experts will then be in touch to answer your enquiries.