This IDC Executive Dinner and Discussion, co-hosted with Globo, looked at the role of mobility in transforming the social housing industry and how it vastly enhances the user experience for all parties. Shortage of affordable housing, exacerbated by the economic downturn, is a major challenge in the UK. It is estimated that more than 1.5 million households are waiting for a social home and many of them have been on waiting lists for more than a year.

IT enabled innovation is at the core of social housing operating models to enable them to manage their assets efficiently and improve services for the tenants. Mobile computing in particular, holds promises to make housing association field workers more productive, but most importantly to innovate the tenants experience, by offering a more convenient channel to report vandalism, request repairs or book appointments for home allocation or re-allocation.

This dinner offered social housing IT and business executives a platform for sharing lessons learned and envision future road maps to harness the value of mobile computing. The discussion, moderated by IDC’s EMEA Research Director, Max Claps, focused on: strategic business priorities for social housing associations in the next 12-18 months, the current status of mobile computing initiatives within the context of ICT, top priorities for considering mobile applications for employees, among other topics.