Latest updates on Community Insight

We have just gone live with the next release of Community Insight (v1.3), part of our plans to continuously improve the tool for users. New features added recently include:

  • Report on any area, not just those areas in which you have stock – the most commonly requested feature! Users can now get detailed profiles of any area in the country within minutes, simply by drawing a line on the map, uploading postcodes or selecting standard areas. Critical information for those groups wanting to understand the communities and areas they are considering for investment and development.
  • User-guide updated to include the latest features and functionality. You can search or browse through articles here (this will open the Community Insight knowledge base in a new tab)
  • Want to know who is subscribing to Community Insight? The new client page now shows subscribed housing providers, and we’ll keep updated as providers sign-up to the service
  • Minor tweaks and tidies

Thanks again to all those who came to the user group meeting last week (there’s a summary of the event here). We have an ambitious schedule of new features to be added over the next few months, and the user group feedback has helped us plan and prioritise the next stages of development. We’ll be updating this blog with information on the new features, so check back to see what is new.

And as always, do get in touch with any comments or feedback.

Experiences from the Community Insight user group

Event date: Friday 8th March

A big thank you to all those (Affinity Sutton, Circle Housing Group, Devon and Cornwall Homes, One Housing Group, Orchard, Peabody, Sovereign, Symphony and Tower Hamlets) who came to our first Community Insight user group meet last Friday, and the many others who fed in comments for the event.

It was great to meet with everyone, and have so many users involved in the development of Community Insight over the coming months. The event was a great opportunity to share experiences of using Community Insight so far, and explore how to improve the tool to make it a critical part of targeting and evaluating community investment in your organisations.

Below we have put together a round-up of what went on, and what you can expect from Community Insight over the coming months.

How are you using Community Insight?

Critically, Community Insight is being used to support and evidence the community investment decisions being made by housing providers.

Organisations were using Community Insight to identify changes within their neighbourhood and quickly pull up reports to show and share this information.

Users found that they could quickly break down census data without having to trawl through public sites to find the data, saving time and money.

Importantly, users were able to paint a picture of the ‘external factors and drivers’ within their neighbourhoods and communities.

How has your organisation been using Community Insight? Get in touch here if you have any comments.

What next?

A big focus of the first user group meet-up was to establish what users wanted to get out of the tool. The key functionality that users identified were:

Report on areas without stock: Generate data and report on any area by drawing on the map, not just for those areas where people have stock.

Different stock types: Customise property types (general needs, supported housing, etc.), and turn on/off different types on the map and reports.

Neighbourhood dashboard: Explore and compare data for all stock and neighbourhoods. Select which key indicators you would like to view, and how you would like the data to displayed in order to get the best results.

New functionality will be rolled out every two weeks, and all of the above is in development. So if you don’t see it in the next update (due 15th March), you can expect the new functionality to be rolled out over the coming months. Keep an eye on this blog for changes.

And as always, any feedback or comments? Get in touch!

New features on Community Insight

We have just gone live with a new release of Community Insight, part of our plans to continuously improve the tool for users. New features added recently include:

  • More mapped indicators, and an improvement to the indicator menu (more detailed indicators such as ethnic breakdowns and provider-owned and council-owned stock are now grouped under higher-level ‘super’ indicators)
  • The data tables popup now show associated indicators, to give context to the selected indicators
  • We have updated data with the latest from Census 2011. See here for more details
  • Various minor tweaks and tidies.

We have an ambitious schedule of new features to be added to the tool over the next few months, and will be prioritising with users. We’ll be posting about new features on this blog, so check back for news on updates.

Any comments or feedback? Come along to the Community Insight user group meeting next week and meet the team behind the tool. Book your space here or contact us directly.

Coming soon – Community Insight User Group meet-up

Community Insight subscribers are invited to the first ‘user group’ meeting which will be held next week, Friday 8th March 10.30am-1.00pm. The meeting will be at the HACT offices, close to Old Street underground station.

The event will give users an opportunity to:

  • Feedback on Community Insight and any updates/improvements that they wish to see
  • Find out how different groups are using the tool
  • Help to prioritise product development over the coming months.

Join HACT’s chief executive Matt Leach and OCSI’s Director Tom Smith for this session. Sign up to the event here.

A working lunch will also be provided.

Can’t make it?

Not to worry. Contact us with feedback for us to discuss at the user group meeting.

We will post a summary of the event afterwards here.

Look forward to seeing you there!