Intelligent housing repair software made simple.

Keyfax has always had a rich, deeply integrated solution with ActiveH Desktop which is the MIS Housing Management System. Keyfax now also has a new integration with ActiveH Web to the same high standard, but that is for another blog.

These improvements began when Orbit Housing Association had ambitious plans to improve the way that they handle repairs. They challenged Omfax and MIS together to make several improvements. They wanted to completely review and overhaul all their diagnostic scripts and were focussed on these three ideas:

• Allowing advisors to access the HMS from more places in the scripts.
• Tracking repairs and preventing duplicate repairs before they happened.
• Properly looking forward into the future and not repairing anything that was scheduled for planned maintenance in the near future.

Most ActiveH Desktop users launch Keyfax from a CRM call. But Orbit found that other users outside of the call centre who raise repairs and create tasks in ActiveH don’t always go via CRM and therefore don’t always use Keyfax. Which meant that they didn’t always follow the right process and get the correct SOR codes. So, they wanted to make sure that all users could access Keyfax from the repairs request screen directly. 

Orbit started from the idea that Keyfax could pull in any data at any time from ActiveH Desktop into the repairs conversation. And then they applied that thinking across every interaction to see if what they had could be improved. 

Repairs Diagnostic users can be given permissions to adjust repair priorities and quantities.

So, Orbit produced a list of twenty six ‘must have’ requirements for Keyfax Diagnostics and MIS ActiveH Desktop to support. Happily, some of the requirements were already covered by existing Keyfax and MIS integration functionality. 

Updated Keyfax MIS ActiveH Integration Results

The work lasted for around six months and resulted in new versions of Keyfax (4.4.6) and MIS ActiveH Desktop (7.0.3). The outcomes achieved from the project included:

• Reduction in the number of Keyfax diagnostic scripts from nearly 1500 to 531.
• Omfax rebuilt the 531 diagnostics scripts using best scripting practices, so that they are now easier to maintain and provide improved reporting options.
• Existing repairs can be cancelled from within the diagnostics, and users can even change existing appointments whilst in the diagnostic.
• The diagnostic scripts can pull in a view of the history of repairs from ActiveH.
• Within the scripts, Keyfax can look up into ActiveH to see if any repairs are covered by any upcoming planned maintenance. 

Users can open several screens during a Keyfax session to view ActiveH information

Orbit were delighted with the efficiencies and functionality that the new features brought them. The results show a reduction in orders that contractors ask to be varied or lines deleted. That’s because the orders placed via the new diagnostic scripts are more accurate than they were before. They also take upcoming planned maintenance into account as part of the diagnosis and offer explanation to the tenant about this.

Orbit also said some nice things about the Omfax team that delivered the improvements.

‘Omfax played a key role in the implementation. The team said they have been a pleasure to work with.’

Amanda Newton – Project Manager

The immediate feedback from their users is that everything is improved:

‘Our advisors and trainers have said how much easier the scripts are to use and how useful they find the interactive images’

Sinead Fitzpatrick – Customer Support Repairs Manager

If you are an ActiveH Desktop user and would like to take advantage of some, or all, of the new functionality, simply contact your account manager.