The social housing environment

As a specialist provider,  Vericon systems have spent time and energy investigating the social housing environment to understand actual needs. With this knowledge Vericon have created the Connect platform and Ecosystem specifically to support clients within the sector.

Vericon’s mantra is Monitor, Manage, and Maintain. With Connect and the Ecosystem they enable clients to carry out all three elements remotely reducing cost, person to person contact and carbon whilst improving efficiencies and remaining fully complaint.

The Ecosystem comprises of sensors that are deployed in the housing stock, system interfaces and tenant facing applications.

Connect is the core of the Ecosystem. It is a secure, scalable cloud-based platform where data from sensors is collated, interrogated and reviewed by machine learning algorithms.

Although the information can be viewed and reported on, by property or complete portfolio, at any time Connect has been designed to report by exception. This means that the Connect platform is intelligent enough to understand when an action is required and will notify you accordingly. Who needs to be told there is nothing wrong!

API integrations, along with scalability and security, is one of the building blocks to the Connect platform architecture so, when the time is right, alerts, notifications and preventative maintenance guidance can be pushed to your existing systems.

Airi is an automated help desk that uses SMS to communicate directly with the tenant. The Connect platform will integrate information from the sensors housed within a property and determine if a fault has or is likely to occur. Connects algorithms will then determine if this is something the tenant can manage, for instance resetting the boiler after the gas meter has been topped up. It will then send the appropriate message to the tenant depending upon their boiler type and associated tags.  If the issue is more serious Airi can notify the tenant you are aware of the issue and an engineer will call them shortly, improving communications and tenant satisfactions statistics. Other than the automated elements of Airi the system can also be used, in conjunction with your existing systems, to keep the tenant updated, for instance, the engineer is on their way , freeing up the tenant to continue with normal activities instead of having to wait all afternoon for the engineer to arrive.

Our sensor devices are designed to be retrofitted into your existing housing infrastructure reducing capital expenditure, allowing the systems to be implemented and the benefits released as quickly as possible. Connectivity of the Ecosystem is cellular so does not require access to the tenant’s Wi-fi. They are typically focussed in one of two areas, either compliance within a building’s common areas, such as EmeRed, or monitoring the environment with in a property, based around BCM.

EmeRed is a device that retrofits into your existing emergency lights and will remotely carry out all your statutory tests, without leaving a building at risk. The Connect platform will then identify emergency lights that need attend attention now or in the near future and collate all of your compliance reports. All of this happens across your complete housing stock whilst you sit at your desk.

BCM,( Boiler Control Module), is a cellular device that will connect to any bus enabled boiler irrespective of the manufacturer and model ensuring that your complete boiler stock can be monitored and managed from the same Connect platform. BCM will send real time fault notifications, with manufacturers fault codes, performance related telemetry, trigger access aids amongst many other functions and features. BCM is also the in-property gateway and uses an isolated hidden Zigbee network to communicate with other devices from the Ecosystem.

These ancillary devices may include Autofill, MultiDot, Universal thermostat and so on.

The Autofill is an intelligent device that will mitigate all future under pressure callouts. It understands the difference between a burst pipe and normal pressure fluctuations and will decide to top up the system or not. After every action the activity is registered on the Connect platform and registered as an emergency call out required, preventative maintenance required or just audited for future reference.

MultiDot is a battery operated temperature and humidity sensor that can be placed around a property to highlight potential risks allowing clients to carry out or a tenant education program to be implemented before the issue escalates. Once the solution has been implemented these devices can be reassigned to an alternative property ensuring the capital expenditure continues to gain benefits.

Vericon’s universal thermostat is a single thermostat that can load compensate any boiler connected to the BCM. The signal device will simplify van stock and helpdesk support training whilst affording the tenants improved gas efficiency.

Within the Connect platform and Ecosystem there is a significant roadmap of products, features and functionality as well as other existing devices and systems that can support our clients today.

HACT's view

The holistic approach taken by Vericon is refreshing and new to the sector. Their understanding of the market is evident by their creation of Ecosystem which is focused on supporting housing associations and facilities management providers to improve efficiency, maintain high tenant satisfaction levels and ultimately save money.

The Ecosystem covers all aspects of remote monitoring, from the environment within a property to compliance testing in the common areas, and with Connect, Vericon’s cloud processing hub, allows remote management, predictive maintenance and user definable alerts and notifications.

The introduction of API integration and Airi, an autonomous helpdesk, is a further demonstration of Vericon’s relevance and commitment to working with and for the sector.

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