Case Study - NCHA Fleet Management

Nottingham Community Housing Association

Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA) is one of the largest locally-based housing groups in the East Midlands, managing over 8,100 homes and housing more than 15,000 tenants in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland.

Secure Data & Efficient Fleet Management

NCHA had two specific requirements - firstly, an online secure database system which allowed support workers to effectively manage and record their service users' requirements from enquiry, referral, move in, needs, risks, support plan creation, Outcomes Star and ongoing monitoring.

NCHA also required a Fleet Management System to manage all aspects of the project vehicles, enabling the recording of journey details, fuel records, and maintenance records.

Our Approach

Breeze IT were awarded the contract to develop a bespoke Windows VB.NET that allows support workers to deal with and record their service users' requirements. We were also asked to develop a Fleet Management System to manage all aspects of the project vehicles. We opted for a web based VB.NET application connecting to a SQL Server 2005 database.

With this new project, great care was taken throughout the analysis and development to ensure that our approach delivered a solid software solution and carefully considered data access, due to the distributed and confidential nature of the projects dealt with.

We opted for the use of a web service that could handle multiple secure data connections to a centralised SQL Server 2005 database. Each project worker has a secure login to the application and, as long as they have an internet connection, they will always be able to connect securely to retrieve their service users information regardless of their location.

The Results

The results of the development project delivered a bespoke Windows application that effectively delivered a system for NCHA which enabled staff, wherever they were located, the flexibility to manage and record their service users' requirements from enquiry, referral, move in, needs, risks, support plan creation, Outcomes Star and ongoing monitoring.

The Fleet Management system allows all outlying project sites to maintain their journey details, fuel records, and maintenance records as well as providing a method to invoice service users for their journeys. Comprehensive reports also allow Housing with Care and Support management personnel to continually monitor expenditure and income of their vehicle fleet.

The result, a comprehensive web based application to effectively manage the needs of service users and manage all aspects of the NCHA vehicle fleet.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the SuRe application, over time, has actually cost us a lot less than some of our other mainstream software products we have purchased. By the time I had added up annual user licensing and support, upgrade and modification costs, typical of all our 'off the shelf' systems, I realised that commissioning a bespoke development was a very wise move. SuRe plays a critical role within this department and if the past is anything to go by then I have no hesitation in commissioning Breeze IT for further bespoke software development projects.
John Bartle, Assistant Director - Nottingham Community Housing Association