PIMSS4Communities data exchange management overview

PIMSS4Communities - part of the PIMSS Data Systems product suite – is a leading independent asset management system for social housing providers, offering centralised storage of asset data that is used to inform decisions around ongoing stock viability, cyclical maintenance responsibilities and condition survey results. Civica Cx Housing supports the dynamic data exchange of all relevant asset management information to and from PIMSS4Communities that will be used to steer activities around planned maintenance and regular servicing to equipment, with two distinct design benefits: (1) The data is reflected consistently across the complementary systems, and (2) There is no duplication of effort in maintaining these data records. To uphold record integrity across the two systems, data exchange protocols match against each asset's UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) only. The specific information shared through this integration link is categorised into four elements:

• Core Property Data - Existing asset records held in Civica Cx Housing can be transferred via a data export mechanism.
• Completed Works Data - All concluded property repairs that are held in Civica Cx Housing can be transferred via a data export mechanism.
• Asbestos Data - Housing providers have a duty of care towards their tenants and others in respect of the presence of asbestos in dwellings, with a responsibility to ensure that any contractors, staff and tenants are informed. The information stored against each asset record provides a full asbestos register, including the type of asbestos, the area where it is located, etc. All records held in PIMSS4Communities can be transferred to Civica Cx Housing via a data import mechanism.
• Equipment Servicing Data - All items of equipment linked to an asset record that need to be serviced on a regular basis can be transferred from PIMSS4Communities into Civica Cx Housing via a data import mechanism, including the make, model, serial number, location and warranty information of each piece of equipment.

The Data Import and Data Export Frameworks available within Civica Cx Housing facilitate the transfer of these records using a series of prescribed XML file structures. For Core Property and Completed Works Data, the end user is able to control which specific records are to be exported, along with the range of asset fields; for Asbestos and Equipment Servicing data, custom asset characteristics must be created within Civica Cx Housing that will then map to the imported fields. Specifically, four new asset characteristics are required: (1) A custom field to store the concatenated ‘Floor’, ‘Room’ and ‘Article’ descriptions captured for each asbestos instance, (2) A custom field to store the type of asset equipment on which a service was conducted, (3) A custom field to store the date on which these checks were conducted, and (4) A corresponding field to store the name of the accredited supplier who conducted the service. Once created, these custom characteristic types should then be mapped to the corresponding system parameters, reserved specifically for this integration solution, specifically PIMSS Asbestos Characteristic, PIMSS Service Type, PIMSS Service Date and PIMSS Service Supplier. The successful import of ‘Asbestos’ and ‘Equipment Servicing’ data extracted from PIMSS4Communities is managed separately through the creation of two file import templates, configured to handle the prescribed XML structure of each file type.

Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of PIMSS4Communities data exchange management, including:

• To create a new PIMSS4Communities data extract definition
• To configure the field components of a PIMSS4Communities data extract definition
• To apply criteria filters to a PIMSS4Communities data extract definition
• To manually generate the PIMSS4Communities data extract
• To create a new PIMSS4Communities data import template
• To create a new PIMSS4Communities data import batch

In addition, separate help articles focus on the prerequisite configuration components required to import asset-centric data, specifically:

• To define the asset characteristic types
• To define a system preference value