The project involves designing an adapted software programme for use of a digital tablet, supporting the conduct of condition-of-property inspections in our properties, whilst respecting the billing conditions of the Joint Committee of users of HLM (rent-controlled) housing as well as the procedures in place within our company.

The application was entirely designed and developed in-house by the IT Department team. A three month-long preliminary analysis was performed in order to pinpoint the choice of suitable devices:

- The dimensions and tablet models most suited to the conditions of use of our corporate software whilst on the move.

- The choice of a light printer, with high energy autonomy, allowing the condition-of-property report to be printed out, showing the amount of rental repairs to be collected on-the-spot. The manufacturer monitored the deployment of its devices closely, so as to improve their quality.

Throughout the design phase, particular attention was paid to ergonomics and design in order to optimise use of the touch screen whilst minimising the input of complex information, by prioritising intuitive selection criteria.

The project was conducted using an agile approach. A working group made up of users monitored progress and this allowed the solution to be enhanced at each iteration.

After six months of development and an initial trial phase in real conditions, a group of four other employees contributed to fine-tuning in the field prior to final roll-out.

Training in operating the tablet and application was delivered in-house by the developer himself. In 2015, 36 fully operational caretakers were trained and equipped. The intention of this year's training programme is to equip a further 40 caretakers.

Since then, the same procedure has been applied to the development of another mobile application, this time for inspection of the state of cleanliness of properties by managers.

Thanks to the feedback obtained in the first project, the time for completion of this project was cut in half; it was brought into service in just three months. This application makes it possible to increase the frequency of inspections, in particular in the event of a client complaint, to assess cleanliness objectively and to monitor in real time discrepancies found. It is used to populate a statistics analysis portal to improve supervision of this activity.