IT Trends

John Stuttard, RSM Robson Rhodes

Background

Every two years we undertake a national survey into the use of IT by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs). Surveys were conducted in 1996, 1998 and 2000. Our aim is to:

• Determine the uses of IT and the IT issues facing RSLs;
• Provide benchmark data which RSLs can use to review their use of IT;
• Identify issues that the main IT suppliers need to address; and
• Provide comparisons, where possible, with previous surveys.

For this years survey we have collected the data using the principles of e-commerce (i.e. electronic communication links). We set up an Internet web site and invited 430 RSLs, using e-mail, to access the site to complete the questionnaire. 130 RSLs responded to the questionnaire. We sent an electronic copy of the questionnaire with the e-mail just in case RSLs could not access the web site. Two thirds of responses accessed the web site direct and the rest sent their completed questionnaire by e-mail or as a paper copy. From this process we have learnt many lessons about using e-commerce principles. After all, how can you conduct an IT survey today and not use the Internet?

Trends

Since 1996 we have observed the following trends:

• A significant investment has been made implementing PCs as now, on average, 75% of staff have access to a PC compared to 43% in 1996. However, still, on average, 14% of staff at non-office locations are being excluded from IT and systems.
• Nearly all RSLs are using package application software now (97%) compared to 89% in 1996.
• Unix is still the most popular operating system in use (43% of RSLs use it) but there has been a significant growth in the use of Windows NT (from 16% in 1998 to 40% in 2000) for running housing management systems.
• Only 22% of RSLs said they would be changing their housing management system during the next two years - a dramatic drop from the previous two surveys when 37% indicated that they would be changing. This is not surprising, now that the year 2000 issue is over.
• As expected, there has been a significant increase in the use of the Internet for e-mail with 81% of RSLs currently using it compared to 26% in 1996. Its main use still appears to be communicating with IT suppliers.
• There has been no increased use of electronic means or diskette to transfer housing benefit information as 69% of RSLs still receive the HB transaction information on paper compared to 72% two years ago.
• The quality of management information has deteriorated with only 57% of RSLs having good/very good information compared to 74% in 1998. Also during that period very little progress has been made using modern reporting tools such as report writers and executive information systems.
• The quality of service provided by suppliers has deteriorated from 89% satisfaction rating in 1996, to 78% rating in 1998 and to 70% rating in 2000. Similar trends are shown on implementing new systems, with 34% of RSLs being dissatisfied now, compared to 21% in 1998 and 10% in 1996. The reliability of the systems has been static over the three surveys, with about 86% satisfaction level. The ability of suppliers to meet RSLs' needs has also deteriorated: 26% of RSLs now believe their systems do not meet their needs, compared to 21% in 1998 and 14% in 1996. It is unclear whether RSLs' expectations of their IT supplier have increased, or IT suppliers are delivering a poorer service. ·
  The number of IT suppliers to RSLs is getting less as more amalgamations occur. The number of products, however, remains static apart from non-year 2000 compliant systems. New entrants still come to the market, usually if they have written a bespoke system for a smaller RSL. So there is still plenty of choice.
• There has been no significant change in the number of RSLs which have an IT department (70%) and still about two thirds of the IT departments report to the Director of Finance

We are unable to compare the IT staffing levels as this year's questionnaire was not consistently answered. From the 1998 survey we collected IT staff levels and in 2000 the most reliable information is the IT staff budget. The following table attempts to show the staffing level comparisons, assuming that, on average, one staff member costs £25,000 to employ.

Also we cannot undertake proper IT cost comparisons over the three surveys as, for this year's survey, we have collected actual figures, rather than ticking a range and attempted to ascertain the true cost of IT including data communications and depreciation.

The table below shows the total costs expressed against three indicators:

A question we are often asked is: how do RSLs compare to other business sectors? Comparing our survey result with data provided by the National Computer Centre's members survey shows that shows that RSLs are under-investing in comparison to other sectors. In terms of IT expenditure per employee, the comparisons are:

Conclusion

There have been significant changes in the use of IT by RSLs since 1996. However, the investment in IT is not as much compared to other sectors and RSLs are slow at introducing new technology. I wonder what the year 2002 survey will show? Perhaps we should do a bit of crystal ball gazing, put our thoughts into a sealed envelope then see who is the closest when the survey is conducted again in 2002.

A copy of the survey report is available on this web-site to download or view here. Please contact John Stuttard on 01132 254192 or e-mail john_stuttard@rsmi.co.uk if you want to discuss the survey further.