Thinking of buying a property - SmartShare has thousands of properties to buy or rent across the UK
Affordable homes for everyone
Thinking of buying a property - SmartShare has thousands of properties to buy or rent across the UK
SmartShare Group is a leading provider of consulting, IT and outsourcing solutions to Local Authorities.
Our consulting professionals specialize in unlocking value by providing excellent service to your customers, while delivering desired business outcomes for your company. By building “same side of the table” relationships, we provide powerful insights and deliver solutions that improve customer experience, reduce cost-to-serve and increase profitability.
At SmartShare we provide rapid response and planned maintenance services to Local Authorities and registered Social Landlords and deliver in excess of 3,750 repairs every day to a portfolio of over 100,000 homes nationwide.
SmartShare currently undertakes partnering arrangements for more than 50 Local Authorities, Arm’s Length Management Organisations and Housing Associations. We tailor our service offering to meet the strategic aims of each individual client to achieve a service that demonstrates:
• Value for money
• Exceptional levels of customer service and satisfaction
• Continuous improvement
• Making the local community a better place to live
These four pillars provide the foundations and support for our key objective - to provide an excellent service to all our customers. Central to this are the 500 people we employ who all play their part in the handing back of more than 300 decent homes each week.
All trades are covered, typically using directly employed local operatives to ensure excellent levels of workmanship and customer satisfaction.
At SmartShare we listen to our customers and understand their needs. Our employees work hard to provide truly excellent services and we constantly strive to improve on what we have to offer.
Through closer relationships with all our stakeholders, we are continually developing practices across key areas of our operations that make a real difference to how we interact with them.
Each partnering arrangement is delivered by a 100% dedicated local team from a local branch. This team is focused on the needs of one client and is headed by a partnering manager.
We provide full transparency in our operations in both financial and performance sectors. Our in-house developed IT system (SMS) interfaces with our clients’ software, providing both greater access and efficiency.
We are always looking to create resourceful forms of support for our clients and residents. Initiatives such as the SmartShare Home MOT and the Imprest Van Stock System are examples of many areas where creative and logical thinking has led to improved services with cost savings for our clients.
This best in class service is a direct result of our best in class training. We recognise our staff as our single biggest asset and that is why SmartShare employees are amongst the most skilled in their relevant job areas.
SmartShare Direct personnel have all worked as specialists in the Social Housing maintenance sector for many years. They can provide a bespoke assessment of your repairs and maintenance function Deliver on the spot remedial action if significant non-compliance is found Benchmark performance and value for money against fully outsourced models Review operational practices Document the route map to improvement to meet TSA inspection needs or HQN accredit DLO assessment criteria.
Getting to the heart of understanding what your customers’ desires, motivations and behaviors are — and having a plan and the capability in place to capitalize on this information — can truly transform your business. At Vertex, our business advisors bring years of real-world experience to the table. We leverage our strong heritage in customer management services to help you achieve the outcomes you desire for your customer management operations.
We are expert at:
• Uncovering critical customer experiences that, when acted upon, drive significant revenue and retention benefits
• Helping clients recover hidden value through proven tools and methodologies
• Improving efficiencies and reducing costs through sustainable process and technology change through our collaborative approach
• Reacting to customer input to enhance the customer experience, and in turn generating greater client revenue and cost control.
Advisory services to match your needs
• Our services portfolio is designed to address three critical business opportunities within your customer management operations:
• Optimization of your customer contact center’s performance
• Alignment of customer experience
• Optimization across multiple interaction channels.
Regardless of your business need, we can offer you the right blend of specialist skills and industry experience, coupled with a proven track record that will enable you to achieve your desired business outcomes.
Our vision at SmartShare is to bring the best of the public service and the best of the private sector together and that is why we now provide support to social social-housing clients who want to self-deliver their repairs.
What makes us distinctive is that we offer local authorities, their ALMOs and Housing Associations proven private sector knowhow, gained from working with some of the country's most highly respected partners and social landlords. We combine this best in class experience with a powerful public sector ethos - offering the best of both worlds.
Areas such as ICT, plant and vehicles have traditionally suffered from lack of investment. SmartShare can bring all of that as well as high levels of expertise in HR, Finance, Health and Safety and Operational Management. We can also deliver real value through better buy arrangements with suppliers and other partners.
The result is a mutually beneficial arrangement all-round and for Housing Association clients there can be the added benefits of tax savings.
Through SmartShare Direct we can offer Managing Agent, Joint Venture solutions and Interim Support to clients.
Managing Agents
This is a simple model which can deliver real savings to the landlord whilst also giving it greater control over its repairs service. Trade operatives are employed by the social social-housing landlord and the management is provided by SmartShare beyond the short-term.
Benefits include:
• Tax efficiencies (for RSLs, in particular).
• Landlord retains flexibility of service policies.
• Terms and conditions of operatives are the same as colleagues in other parts of the social-housing organisation.
• Private sector business judgments and management techniques are applied to the DLO in order to keep it competitive.
Joint Ventures
Joint Venture Companies (JVCos) and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are arguably the pinnacle of partnering arrangements for delivering maintenance services. SmartShare Direct sees the new generation of such arrangements as exciting vehicles that can give social social-housing landlords:
• A dedicated DLO.
• A majority stake in the running of the DLO.
• A long-standing partnership with SmartShare, a market leader in the field of delivering repairs and maintenance.
• Flexible governance arrangements.
• Limited liabilities.
• Tax efficiencies.
Irrelevant of the delivery model, as well as delivering the core building maintenance services, social landlords can expect SmartShare Direct to:
• Deliver added value through helping to meet and exceed central Government's modernising and efficiency agendas.
• Deliver the social landlord's strategic aims such as community cohesion, jobs, training opportunities, economic growth and increased investment in the local community.
SmartShare Group IT Department and SMS
SmartShare use their own job management system, SmartShare Contract Management system (SMS) and currently process over 3,750 jobs per day through the system. This flexible system is able to provide operational and financial control of multiple types of work from response to cyclical, decent homes, voids and capital works.
SMS holds historical information on all work carried out by our company on over 500,000 properties.
The system is written by an in-house development team and is built upon the robust SAAS Server framework. The solution provides:
• SmartShare with a management tool that integrates all of our back office systems as well as many of our clients' IT systems.
• SMS operates from over 70 locations throughout the UK.
• The system allows reporting over individual and multiple contracts, locations and clients which provides valuable insight into best practices and opportunities for efficiency gains.
• SMS can operate as a fully integrated contractor system or as the lead system providing call centre functions such as CRM and trade diary appointment bookings.
• We have software licensing solutions that allow our clients to utilise this system as their lead system and reducing the financial and operational burden of existing systems when the opportunity is available. This is supported by an in house team of Microsoft certified analysts and development staff with proven experience in the social social-housing environment.
• SMS is constantly evolving to meet the challenges of the business and provide innovational solutions that give SmartShare an industry leading integrated contract management system.
We are currently developing a solution to provide a unique integrated Care & Repair solution as part of our company strategy.
SmartShare partnering ethos is driven from the very top of our organisation and the Group has a long history of successful collaborative working arrangements.
We have a partnership approach that includes our clients, customers, the supply chain and subcontractors. Partnering contracts are in various forms including PPC, NEC and TPC.
Our growing experience of working in collaboration with clients nationwide is helping to shape our approach and achieving true working partnership models.
Partnering to include residents
Residents are at the heart of what do and their views taken into consideration throughout our operations.
In our partnering frameworks, residents are given opportunities to influence the decision making process and we promote and encourage their direct involvement in all areas.
In our partnership with Welwyn and Hatfield Council for example, the Partnering Management Board consists of residents, operatives, client officers and SmartShare' Managers. This resident-centric approach has been recognised with two awards from the Institute of Maintenance and Building Management.
Training and Qualification
At SmartShare we are committed to the personal development and training of our employees because we recognise that our staff are our single greatest asset. We were one of the first companies in the sector to achieve Investors in People status in 1994 and have successfully maintained our accreditation despite the massive increase in staff numbers of the last few years.
Trade competency
SmartShare has an in-depth approach to establishing the skills competency of new employees. All operatives must achieve the SmartShare Induction Certificate before they can begin work on site. As part of our induction procedures, we obtain copies of any qualification certificates and ascertain any training requirements not covered by the induction process to put a training schedule in place. A clear care-serviceser progression is mapped out for every operative when they begin working for SmartShare. An operative can achieve the necessary qualifications after 18 months to be considered for a supervisor's role.
All records of previous training, induction training and further training are held by our HR department.
Tenant Liaison Officers and Supervisors are given NVQ3 training to ensure that standardisation of service is achieved across all contracts. All SmartShare staff receive extensive and on-going customer care-services training.
Maintaining and Enhancing Skills
At a general level, SmartShare seeks to monitor the skills base of its employees. From the information gathered during appraisals, a regional training plan is established and then delivered either by our in-house training department and qualified trainers or through external organisations.
Health and Safety Training
All SmartShare employees are given full Health and Safety training and no operative is allowed to start work on a site until they have completed SmartShare bespoke, British Safety Council accredited and audited, one-day training course. Before starting any job all operatives complete a Health and Safety Induction that covers the specific hazards applicable to the scheme they will be working on. Training techniques and employees' compliance are continually reviewed and training updates and regularly delivered through our Healthy and Safety training away days.
SmartShare is a British Safety Council accredited company and every member of the Health and Safety Team has received its accreditation as well as Approved Instructor status. This is of considerable benefit to SmartShare as the Health and Safety Team can train every technician in the practical risks that go with the type of work that we carry out.
With experience comes the responsibility to innovate and create new, resourceful forms of support for our clients and residents, never allowing conventional thinking or bureaucracy to get in the way.
There are many examples of initiatives we have developed in order to provide a better service for our clients and their customers.
24 Hour Customer Service Centre
SmartShare 24 hour Customer Service Centre provides residents with a unique personal service. Residents are able to report a repair whether it is routine or an emergency, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The staff have a high level of technical and customer care-services training to deal with varying contract types and the different contractual obligations and repair policies we offer.
SmartShare Home MOTs
Our aim is to service the common elements that normally fail to reduce the likelihood of visiting the property again that year. It is also designed to identify works that should be part of a planned maintenance programme. The outcome is a reduction of reactive expenditure whilst greatly improving resident satisfaction.
Text Ahead & Text Reply
Keeping our residents informed with our Text Ahead and Text Reply Service.
Local Employer Partnerships
SmartShare has Local Employer Partnerships in place where we work with Job Centre Plus to prepare individuals for work, training them and providing support during recruitment and their initial employment. The Ealing Diploma and Enterprise Centre and Wigan Skills Centre are just two award winning examples.
National Diploma Champion
We are an active partner in the National Diploma Scheme working with the Education Business Partnership and local schools and colleges. The scheme helps deliver vocational training to 14 to 16 year olds in construction and engineering skills, preparing them for life in work or further education.
Training Academies
SmartShare Training Academies established throughout the country not only provide training for our own operatives, apprentices and trainees but also offer DIY taster sessions for our residents. We also provide facilities within our academies for use by local schools, residents and community groups. SmartShare has also developed a 20-day Foundation Training Course that provides a general introduction to trades, both practical and theory, that has led to formal qualifications and employment opportunities for participants.
Imprest Van Stock System
Our automated van stock replenishment system ensures we have the right parts to carry out a Right First Time repair. As materials are used, the operative records their use on their PDA and this information is relayed back to our supply chain partner through an electronic interface. A replenishment box is then prepared and added to by our supply chain partner so that when the operative next visits the merchants, the box is ready and waiting for them.
Retrofit
This is our award winning research and development and pilot projects for Eco Refurbishment or Retrofit solutions. We work hard to find affordable solutions that bring about maximum impact for our client's investment.
Resident Inspectors
Dedicated resident representatives review our complaints and the actions we have taken to resolve them. They work alongside our Customer Care Managers, making joint visits and undertaking random surveys.
Welcome & Thank You Packs
We provide Welcome Packs for new tenants in their homes and Thank You Packs for when they have undergone intrusive work in their home. The selection of gadgets that we can add to our packs ranges from plug pullers to carbon dioxide detectors.
Contact us about how we can help your organisation deliver exceptional customer experience to:
Telephone: 01483 243528
Head of Consulting
SmartShare Group Limited
138, Chremma House,
14 London Road,
Guildford,
Surrey, GU1 2AG