Beyond the Pilot: Why Proven Technology Still has to Prove Itself

A housing association has seen the evidence. They have spoken to existing clients. They know the technology works. And then somebody says: obviously, we’d need to pilot it.

That word — obviously — is where this week’s Social Housing Round Table begins.

In this episode, Matt Goodwin Baird is joined by Benjamin Lambert, Chief Business Development Officer at Alertacall, for a conversation that has been twelve years in the making. Ben has spent his career working with housing providers on resident engagement, early intervention, and housing management. And the question he keeps returning to is this: when a service already has a substantial track record, what does an organisation still genuinely need to find out — and when does a pilot become a way of avoiding a decision rather than reaching one?

The conversation is honest and wide-ranging. Ben shares what Alertacall has learned over two decades of working with pilots — including a pilot that ran for several years without ever moving to wider implementation, and an early deployment where staff reservations were wrongly assumed to be a misunderstanding rather than something worth addressing properly. He makes the case for being specific about what remains uncertain before a pilot begins, agreeing success criteria upfront, and understanding who will make the decision and when.

Ben’s closing message was straightforward: more open conversations, earlier in the process, between suppliers and housing associations — and between both of them and the residents they serve — would solve a lot. Not just in this space.

Big thank you to REACT by CMSG, our sponsor for the Data and Technology Stream and of course to Alertacall Ltd for sponsoring The Social Housing Round Table, without them, none of this would be possible.