SOCIAL HOUSING providers are increasingly seeing the benefits of having interconnected apps and data tools, allowing them to streamline operations and make informed decisions, according to Travis Perkins Managed Services (TPMS).
TPMS is a leading supplier of building products and materials to the social housing sector, supporting housing associations and local authorities across the country. In 2020, TPMS launched TPgo, the first of what would become a suite of products designed to streamline operations for social housing providers, helping to improve efficiencies, ensure repairs can be made first time, and reduce costs.
Users of the suite have been rising steadily, with the largest increase in the pivotal TPgo Data platform, which transforms how customers access back-end information and key performance indicators.
TPgo Data provides a comprehensive and dynamic source of data that gives customers unparalleled visibility of business intelligence data, including ordering and invoicing, and more than 7,750 users from across 82 organisations are now using the system.
Developed originally from a van stock app, the TPgo suite has been built from the ground up to meet the growing and changing needs of its customers. Over the last five years, the platform has continued to evolve into a comprehensive stock management and data analytics platform, and includes a range of applications: from TPgo Data, to a dedicated TPgoOrder and Spares app, and TPgo SelfServe, which provides operatives with 24/7 access to materials and can be set up in convenient locations.
Maria Walding, head of continuous improvement at Travis Perkins Managed Services, said: “Over the last five years, we’ve seen a really significant rise in the number of customers that have onboarded to the TPgo suite.
“Having a suite of interconnected apps means that customers have an unparalleled view of their organisation’s data, from transactional information, to ensuring that vans are fully stocked with everything an operative needs. This helps operatives to save a huge amount of time that would otherwise be spent travelling to branches to pick up materials. In turn, this has a knock-on reduction on emissions and enables operatives to spend more time delivering improvements to tenants’ homes.
“TPgo helps to optimise workforce efficiencies, enabling operatives to deliver a better service to their tenants. The digital suite responds to customers’ needs and transforms the traditional role of a builders merchant, while revolutionising materials management. We’re already looking to the future to determine where we might be able to go in the next five years”.
Beyond the data platform, TPMS has opened dedicated service counters in 18 Travis Perkins branches and launched three managed service hubs for the sole use of TPMS customers.
The company is also rolling out TPgo SelfServe units, which are autonomous, secure materials stores. Operatives use a PIN code to access the units, which can be housed in existing, unused rooms or in stand-alone shipping containers positioned close to sites, which is a particularly useful option for more rural-based organisations.
TPMS has invested in a mobile demonstration unit, the TPgogogo van, which allows the company to showcase the suite to operatives, facilitating adoption and providing tangible space for the team to demonstrate the platform’s benefits directly to operatives.
Maria continued: “It can be really difficult to visualise some of the benefits that can be achieved through the TPgo suite, so we developed the van as a mobile exhibition, allowing us to run frontline operatives through the system and show them first hand the kind of things they can do using the suite.”
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