Cognito And Orchard Partner To Offer Public Sector Housing Workers Fully Supported Managed Mobile Solutions

Published 14th March 2008

NEWBURY, UK, 12th February 2008 – Cognito, the mobile workforce management company, today announced that it is partnering with public service software specialists Orchard to mobilise arcHouse Plus, Orchard’s CRM solution developed specifically for the Social Housing Sector. The partnership will provide customers with a comprehensive mobile workforce management solution that will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of task-based workers, while at the same time lowering operating costs...

David Perry, Head of Marketing at Cognito said: “Increasingly companies are looking for integrated services, especially in areas like work management where deadlines are tight. The combination of Cognito and Orchard’s joint experience and expertise will allow our joint customers to cost-effectively achieve new service levels through fully managed and supported mobile workforce management solutions.”

By mobilising Orchard’s software, Cognito can help public sector housing management organisations provide better levels of service and work towards achieving better ‘star’ ratings from the Government. Cognito helps housing associations and ALMO’s maximise a worker’s productivity in the field to ensure that repairs and property maintenance functions are executed in a timely manner. In the event of an emergency call such as a broken water pipe or boiler failure, a suitably skilled worker can be sent to the site directly from the field, resulting in quicker response times and higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Similarly, Cognito’s solutions enable customers to reduce their carbon footprint, by reducing the amount of travelling between the depot, head office and work sites. As a result, workers can attend more appointments in a day. The solution also offers real-time access to back-office systems so that workers on the road can update asset management registers property attributes and surveys directly from the field, without fear of data loss. Call centre staff and dispatchers can be freed from administrative tasks and be deployed into customer-facing roles.

In addition, users will benefit from Cognito’s help desk support services, providing technical assistance from both Orchard and Cognito specialists, for any technical or network query. By removing the need for businesses to employ their own technical support, the new help desk support will save them both time and money.

“Partnering with Cognito enables us to offer our clients a wide range of options to mobilise their workforce,” explains John Doughty, Sales Director at Orchard. “By integrating Cognito’s mobile workforce management solutions with our housing management software we can mobilise our clients and ensure their business operations are running as efficiently as possible. Cognito’s help-desk services not only help to differentiate us from our competitors, but also ensure our clients are fully-covered 24/7.”