The work

Remote Housing Maintenance Application

The timeframe

August 2022 – January 2023

The client

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) is a local government council which operates in the Central Desert region of the Northern Territory. Providing services for approximately 4000 residents from 12 communities, the council maintains a head office in Alice Springs and operates over an area of 282,000 square kilometres.

CDRC aims to provide quality services that not only consider the current members of the communities they service, but also improves the lives of future residents. They value building a sustainable workforce and listening to the needs of their communities.

The problem

The Central Desert Regional Council traditionally employed a manual process to manage, maintain, and develop reports for their community housing management reporting requirements. This process has been resource-intensive, time-consuming, and has led to inefficiencies and inconsistencies in reporting. 

In addition, language and literacy barriers among local community staff members made the existing reporting procedures challenging for them to navigate. 

Furthermore, the client’s remote locations and patchy mobile signals necessitated any digital approach needed to suit periods of working offline.

The solution

HutSix set about developing an application that addressed the CDRC's specific needs and would put community based staff first while increasing efficiencies and reducing margin for error. 

The application designed by HutSix enables CDRC staff to create job cards, assign work rates, materials, and contractors for required maintenance tasks. The work flow incorporates an approvals/pending process, allowing for additional edits to job cards as more information becomes available. Another key feature includes offline functionality allowing field staff to report issues and update job cards even in areas with patchy signals. Data then synchronises automatically when a connection is reestablished.

The app interface was designed with the diversity of users in mind, featuring simple drop-downs, customisable information fields, tick-boxes, radio buttons, and file input sections to minimise reliance on heavy text input. Residents and council members can both lodge work requests, enhancing community involvement in housing maintenance.

The results

The Remote Housing Maintenance Application by HutSix has transformed the way the Central Desert Regional Council manages and reports on housing maintenance. CDRC can now easily create and download customised reports, which can be supplied to various funding bodies.

The user-friendly design accommodates a wide range of staff with varying technical, literacy and numeracy skills, making it an inclusive and efficient solution for remote areas. The ability to work offline ensures that critical issues are reported promptly, even in areas with limited connectivity. 

This project demonstrates HutSix's commitment to addressing the unique needs of remote communities and delivering innovative, user-centric solutions as well as CDRC’s dedication to continuous improvement in delivering their services.