How to … Set up an internet-based repairs reporting service

With more people getting access to the internet, social landlords are increasingly setting up facilities for their tenants to book repairs through the web rather than on the phone. For internet-savvy tenants, this is quicker and easier than a telephone call.

A number of IT companies can set up a repairs reporting and appointment-booking facility as part of a council's or registered social landlord's website, either a ready-made system or one tailored to the particular requirement of the landlord.

Ready-made
Off-the-peg software is the easiest route as far as RSLs are concerned and has already been adopted by many, including Halifax-based Pennine Housing 2000. Policy and regulation manager Andy Thorpe, who oversees Pennine's website, says: "We used an off-the-peg system because it was the simplest way. We saw a system used by another RSL, Knowsley Housing Trust in Merseyside, and contacted its contractor, Connect.

"It cost around £4000 to set up the system with our name and logo, to slot it into our existing website and to have it reviewed, updated and maintained after a year, but we negotiated over the price and I'm sure other people could too.

"Since we installed the system in June we have had 53 repairs booked on it, which we are pleased with because we don't have a huge amount of tenants with internet access. There's been a couple of glitches but Connect has been very good at sorting out the problems."

Tenants click on images to choose which type of repair they need, enter their rent book number, address and any comments and then choose an appointment time from morning or afternoon on any available day. They can also ask to be called back to discuss the repair. The system then sends an email to Pennine's office, from where staff send it on to the relevant contractor.

Tailor-made
Manchester council chose to have a repairs reporting system tailor-made to its own specification so that it could be integrated with the computer network the council uses to book maintenance contractors.

This integration means that repairs are booked in real time as the system automatically contacts contractors, rather than the request being sent on from the housing office. Tenants can also look at the status of past repairs, check the appointment date, see if the job has been cancelled or confirm that it has been done.

John Burton, Manchester housing's team leader for IT, feels that because it books the repairs automatically, it is more efficient than systems where the housing office handles the repair request. "It's better to have less human interaction," he says.

Manchester's entire computerised repairs system, including the booking facility, cost the council more than £100,000. The council gave IT contractor Anite a flowchart for the series of simple questions it wanted tenants to answer to determine how urgent their repair is.

Burton warns organisations thinking of installing any online repairs system to take pains to make it easy for tenants to use. "It's not always obvious to people on the inside what's easy to use and what's not, because we all work in housing and understand technical words," he says.

"Using plain English is very important; I've seen other systems that just use pictures, but we felt that didn't work so we went for a mix of words and pictures. It's well worth consulting with tenants and doing trials with a mock-up."