Background

The Housing Mobile Inspection (HMI) system was conceived to streamline the process of completing and documenting inspections of housing assets. Conducting routine inspections of thousands of geographically dispersed housing assets is human resource intensive, and for our customer required records and documentation to be created and managed in multiple information systems.

In order to realise its full potential in creating efficiencies, the application needed to operate successfully on a variety of devices including tablets and notebooks. It was required to run on all modern web browsers and work offline in areas of restricted mobile network coverage. This modern system was also required to seamlessly synchronise with an existing mainframe-based tenancy management system.

Housing Mobile Inspection App - Tablet

The Project

The business objectives of the Housing Mobile Inspections system included:

  • streamlining the overall housing inspection process
  • reducing the time taken to complete an inspection on-site and to complete post-inspection activities
  • reducing the reliance on paper-based forms as part of the inspection process
  • providing an online repository of inspection reports which can be easily searched and accessed
  • providing RTA compliant inspection reports throughout the lifecycle of a tenancy and automating their storage in the customer's document management system
  • enabling quick identification, capture and reporting on maintenance issues identified during a tenancy inspection
  • enabling the comparison of maintenance trends for the purposes of planning
  • implementing consistent systems and processes across regions.

The challenges to be overcome to deliver a modern mobile inspection system included:

  • the need to support a variety of devices and browsers
  • synchronisation with a mainframe-based system
  • inconsistent mobile coverage
  • the ability to provide an experience that was demonstrably more efficient than existing paper based processes
  • training and aligning processes across multiple large geographic regions.

The customer developed business and functional requirements for the system, and engaged Radical Systems to undertake the technical design, development, system testing and deployment.

The Housing Mobile Inspections (HMI) system was developed using modern Javascript frameworks and a browser-based database for offline storage of inspections and associated photos prior to synchronisation. HMI enabled the generation and printing of inspection reports without any network connection, as well as the capture of the tenant’s signature digitally on the device.

Keeping track of inspection information in the offline database vs. online database vs. tenancy management system and ensuring synchronisation between them was a significant challenge that could only be met using the latest technologies and a great deal of consideration in using the appropriate architecture, frameworks, and design patterns.

The Client

Territory Families, Housing and Communities provides support services across child protection, domestic and family violence, youth justice services, housing, homelessness, social inclusion, sport, and active recreation and celebrates arts, culture, heritage, libraries and archives.

The agency, in conjunction with the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics is responsible for the management of all public housing assets in the Northern Territory including the conducting and recording of routine inspections as per the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA).

Developing the Housing Mobile Inspection system

Radical Systems developed the system using modern technology frameworks with the aim to make the system fast, reliable and intuitive.

The user interface meets the brief of being modern and intuitive, interfacing with the device's camera to allow inspection photos to be taken and immediately associated with inspection details.

The system is completely browser based, a "progressive web app" which can be saved from the browser on to the device's desktop for offline use. It only requires connectivity when "checking out" assets from the pool, and when synchronising the inspection outcome back to the server and the integrated tenancy management system.

Empowerment is key: Inspectors can seamlessly print, email, and text inspection reports to the tenant, and relay required maintenance information to the maintenance service provider for further action.

Housing layouts can be 'templated' for later use to allow the inspector to get started without having to first define the rooms of the house. The final layout and any previous defects are remembered for the next inspection.

If a device is lost or stolen, the security team can rest easy knowing that the encrypted inspection data is inaccessible and can be remotely wiped using mobile device management technology.

And as technology evolves, so does HMI! When a new version of the application is released, saved versions of the progressive web app automatically detect and apply the updates.

Housing Mobile Inspection App - Mobile

Outcomes

At the time of writing, thousands of inspections have been completed by the customer using the HMI system.

They have seen a considerable reduction in the time it takes to complete an inspection, particularly in relation to post-inspection activities which include:

  • updating the tenancy management system
  • writing, printing and delivering inspection letters
  • uploading documents and photos to the records management system.

These post-inspection activities, that typically took inspectors between 30 to 40 minutes per inspection, are now fully automated. An inspector is also now able to text, email or print an inspection report immediately, in the presence of the tenant. This has made it easier to proactively deal with data quality issues relating to contact details, which would normally have resulted in an extra administrative burden to later recognise and correct.

The automation of the inspection process has also delivered improvements in the quality and consistency of inspection records, including the inspection report and the updates written to the tenancy management system. Integration with the records management system has similarly created a more consistent approach to the storage of documents, making it easier to locate previous inspections and associated documentation.

The frequent automated communication between HMI and the tenancy management system has allowed management to see updates relating to high-risk tenancies with minimal delay.

Information security has not been forgotten, with tenants able to access a copy of their report immediately through a secure link with convenient two-factor authentication. Cumbersome processes of creating logins, and managing accounts and passwords are not required.

The HMI system has laid a framework and paved the way for other types of inspections performed by housing and government more widely to be digitised and automated.

HMI lets inspectors spend more time inspecting, and less time completing administrative tasks.