The company supplies essential maintenance and repairs to more than 5,500 properties in the area, which has benefited from a government grant of £80m towards property regeneration.

It has purchased the TotalMobile solution from Consilium Technologies, joining the TotalRepairs and TotalView systems already in place and provided by the same supplier.

Andrea White, business unit manager for Wansbeck Homes, told Service Management that her company was still getting to grips with being a newly-formed organisation. Many of its staff had formerly worked for Wansbeck Council, some for many years.

This had meant that several of the company’s field workers had used a paper-based reporting system throughout their career, making it a lengthy process for some to adjust to the new system. Others, however, had only required basic training.

Field workers are equipped with the HTC V6300 hand-held device, said White, chosen for its large screen that staff had found easier to read.

Wansbeck Homes began to trial its new system at the end of February this year, allowing additional fine tuning during the month long pilot scheme.

‘We inherited our stores and scheduling system from the council,’ said White, ‘so to add the latest Consilium product was the next natural step for us.

‘We already had the back office system and were happy with the way it was working, so it made sense to put everything together.

‘We’ve concentrated on our repairs response teams to begin with,’ she continued. ‘We’ll roll the system out to the rest of the workforce in time, but we’re just working on a day-to-day basis for the moment.’

Improvements in efficiency have already been recorded, with workers receiving detailed information on their devices. A total of 24 fitters were using hand held devices at the time Service Management’s call, encouraging the company to look at team management aspects where field operatives with different skills are required to work on the same project.

‘We’re seeing an increase in productivity already, which is quite a surprise as we thought it would take longer for people to adjust,’ said White. ‘Productivity is already up by a few per cent and we’re expecting big increases when everyone’s used to the system.’

The perceived benefits had been time saved by avoiding trips to and from the main office, reducing transport costs and providing more time for field workers to deliver high standards of service and response.

Wansbeck Homes is aiming to be fully mobile by the end of the year and expects to see a return on investment within the following six month period.

Further improvements to its service offering are planned, including the launch of a web-based portal to allow clients to raise and track calls, additionally providing feedback on the level of service received.