SWSG: Mobile Cockpit Takes It Up a Gear

Stuttgart is on a roll. The thriving center of business and technology is drawing new residents in droves. Stuttgart-based companies are bringing new employees to the Baden-Württemberg state capital, while long-time inhabitants don’t want to leave. And this is happening against a background of fast demographic change and growing mobility.

As a major municipal housing association – one of Baden-Württemberg’s largest, with over 18,000 residential units – SWSG makes an essential contribution to the provision of housing in Stuttgart. To effectively meet the demands of its clientele, the company keeps a close eye on the quality and efficiency of its business processes. Its employees are already using mobile applications from Datatrain to take care of a range of tasks, such as registering tenant concerns and damage reports, and processing them on site. With the My Inspections & Turnovers app, SWSG has also redefined its apartment inspection and turnover process.

Until recently, SWSG building managers produced apartment inspection and handover reports on paper. Seeking a way out of this thicket of forms, the company turned to the digital-mobile initiative.

Lars Hoffmann, SWSG’s Authorized Representative and Inventory Management Director, describes the company’s chief objective in the project with Datatrain: “We wanted to clearly structure the responsibilities and coordinating processes, as well as shorten and smooth out the overall activity chain. What we expected from the mobile solution was the convenient management of walkthroughs and a uniform, legally secure procedure.”

The fact that SWSG was already operating a large part of Mobile Cockpit played an important role in the decision to introduce My Inspections & Turnovers. The new app struck the project participants as coherent and comfortable to use. One especially attractive feature was its interface with technical building management: even during an apartment inspection, the user can commission contractors for maintenance work, and data on any recorded damage can be relayed immediately. What ultimately won the team over to the Datatrain solution was its many options for initiating follow-up activities.

At other levels, too, SWSG is taking further steps to unify and streamline internal and external processes. To establish overarching standards, it created the new internal position of Project Management Coordinator. Nicole Ressel gives the project managers guidelines and tools by which to standardize company procedures. Not surprisingly, the initial stage of the collaboration was well organized: “We spent quite a bit of time in the coordination process,” Ressel says, “and as a result, the implementation went smoothly and fairly quickly.”

The first workshop took place just two weeks after the start of the project. In developing the concept for it, the SWSG team and Datatrain incorporated diverse requirements and wishes. After the workshop as well, they took the time needed to define amenity and condition characteristics for the selection catalogs, and to work out the desired follow-up processes in detail.

This comprehensive planning is paying off: My Inspections & Turnovers supports all procedures, from the departing resident giving notice, right through to the turnover to the new tenant. After an apartment walkthrough, the report can be emailed directly to the tenant and any other addressees. If the recipient can’t or doesn’t want to receive emails, the building manager simply activates a message prompting the responsible employee to send a printout of the report by post. For the return of the security deposit, too, the system prompts the designated employee so that he or she can give it immediate attention. Extensive additional emailing options built into the app allow seamless coordination with suppliers and service providers, resulting in unusually high process integration.

The project head, customer account manager Oliver Burkert, describes the introduction of the solution: The building managers and customer account managers were brought together for thorough training in the new procedures and their incorporation of the new application. Datatrain then introduced the product itself, and the procedures were played through in detail. In this test run, the users practiced on the “live” module, quickly learning its functions.

SWSG launched the application on December 1, 2015, after the training of the first key users. Since then, this group has been working in the field, bringing less-experienced users up to speed and answering any open questions. This strikes Ressel as a motor of creativity that is bringing new possibilities to light.

The mobile application ensures structured, convenient on-site documentation of all walkthroughs and their central storage in the ERP system, where they are available at any time. The process is the same for all apartments, and responsibilities are clearly assigned.

That goes down well with tenants. The building manager completes the inspection or handover report in the presence of the tenant, enabling both parties to sign it without delay. The clearly legible report is automatically emailed to the specified recipients. Through the module’s interconnection with existing applications as well as with suppliers and service providers, follow-up processes can be activated seamlessly, without transmission failures. The direct transfer to the archive additionally benefits the sales department, which can immediately utilize the data in advertising the apartment.

SWSG maintains close contact with Datatrain. “The relationship with the IT firm that introduced the solution plays an essential role,” says Nicole Ressel. “It isn’t so much about buying and selling, but rather lives from our mutual exchange and coordination as partners.” Just as important as the IT support, she explains, were the accompanying measures, which accounted for at least 50 percent of the project’s success. “Open points that are only now arising make for a lively give and take, which is sure to continue for some time.”

From the project team’s feedback, Lars Hoffmann has already identified new potential. Though it is yet too early to discuss details, the Authorized Representative says: “We’re gathering ideas and looking at the bigger picture to see whether and how they could be implemented. We can see possible follow-up projects on the horizon.”

Stuttgarter Wohnungs- und Städtebaugesellschaft mbH (SWSG), with a portfolio of around 18,000 rental units, is among the largest and economically strongest municipal housing associations in Baden-Württemberg. SWSG is commissioned by the government of the state capital, Stuttgart, to provide livable, affordable residential space to the city’s population. Its mission is to preserve and enhance the attractiveness of Stuttgart as a place to live. SWSG’s approximately 160 employees have a wealth of experience not only in inventory management, but also in the realization of new construction projects and in renovation and urban development. Social management is an important additional area of company activity.

Further information: www.swsg.de