Although it is well known that visual images can be instrumental in helping people to quickly grasp an issue, the task of designing images and infographics to have that desired outcome is far from easy. This paper provides examples of infographics that successfully influenced thinking with each spurring a succession of decisions that helped the organisation concerned to manage its costs down.
Housing Association managers need answers quickly to questions ranging from ‘what are we spending to maintain our communities and will it be enough?’ to ‘how do we reduce costs without undermining service levels?’. Within this paper we present three examples of ‘data visualisation’ used by different Housing Associations across the UK. All three were designed to answer questions similar to those above, and each helped the Registered Provider (RP) concerned to find ways to reduce costs.
To stay one step ahead of the challenges facing Housing Associations Business Intelligence (BI) practice is having to evolve fast. Some Housing Associations may need to develop their BI capability further in order to provide the right sort of intelligence. This guide outlines six principles that will help ensure success.
In 2013 a CGMA study reported that there was a lack of financial modelling and data analytics expertise among finance teams. Judging by the feedback given by delegates on the CIMA Mastercourses that Develin delivers, this finding still holds true today. Does it matter?
Local Authorities are being encouraged to innovate in their efforts to tackle and prevent homelessness. As a result, work to locate and help those at risk of losing their home is gathering pace. But to prevent homelessness, a strong prediction capability is needed. This article describes briefly what’s required.
In June 2016, working with one of the major London Housing Associations, Develin used ‘predictive analytics’ to identify which of their tenants was at greatest risk of becoming homeless. The predictions were able to look far enough ahead for ‘turnaround’ help to be provided. This is the story.
This case study demonstrates that despite negative perceptions, predictive data analytics can be accessible, affordable and highly effective even with limitations within the data. The key requirement however is to lose the word ‘big’ and to start to think small.
This paper presents examples of ‘data visualisation’. Each played a part in helping one of Develin’s clients to reduce their costs. Its purpose is to demonstrate how a good visualisation can tell its own story, and in a way that will capture attention more effectively than the written word.
This case study outlines the benefits that can be achieved when people within an organisation are given the chance to test how the business will perform under different scenarios. Most prominent amongst them is a tight control of costs.
An effective way to achieve a major reduction in costs involves ‘unifying the back office’ activities. This means consolidating distributed and fragemented back office activities into single groups. The approach taken by the Network Housing Group seeking to unify its back office activities and consolidate several legal entities into one.
Explanation of the way in which costs are being prevented within a leading member of the G15 group of social housing providers through the use of predictive analytics. Residents at greatest risk of abandoning their home because of mounting problems are being encouraged to stay.
Description of the way in which additional value from better ways of working was identified within the Affinity Sutton Group. The result was used to calculate the Return On Investment (ROI) for a major investment in technology to improve capacity and reduce costs.