Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal
ORHT First in Canada to Offer Online Hearing Scheduling with Microsoft .Net Connection Software
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Company Overview
Dealing with a nosy landlord or unruly tenant can be frustrating, particularly if outside help is needed to resolve the situation. In Ontario, landlords and tenants turn to the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal (ORHT) for help.
Designed to resolve disputes between residential landlords and tenants, the ORHT receives 75,000 applications, conducts 34,000 hearings, produces 78,000 orders, and fields 800,000 calls every year. With a staff of 280, the mandate of the ORHT is to provide education, mediation and adjudication services in a fair and timely manner.
Business Challenge
To settle disputes, applications must be filed for a hearing in person, via fax or by mail, which can be time consuming. To fulfill the ORHT’s ongoing mission to provide fast and efficient customer service, IT executives realized that technology could play a primary role by automating the filing and scheduling processes.
“The goal is to open the application process to the Internet, so tenants and landlords can save time,” says Vincent Mathias, team leader, Technology & Information Management Unit, at the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal.
The customer service challenge ORHT faced was changing a complex procedure to a simple, intuitive process that a first-time user could understand without assistance. Technically, the new solution has to integrate with existing case management systems and be built on a scaleable platform for future initiatives.
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Solution
To build an online e-filing and scheduling application, ORHT turned to Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, Cyberplex and Systemgroup. Together, they helped to consult and mentor ORHT developers throughout the project, and assisted in the development of the architecture and design.
At the time, most government organizations were moving towards J2EE, however, within ORHT, the developers were most experienced in Microsoft Visual Basic® 6 development system.
“They investigated J2EE, but determined that given their existing skill set, it would be more cost efficient and made more business sense to go with Microsoft .NET software,” says Tom Kubik, director of the Microsoft Solutions Practice, Cyberplex.
Cyberplex and Systemgroup developers handled the primary coding, key difficult pieces and review. The actual implementation is being managed by ORHT staff, which according to Mathias, probably could not happen had they chosen J2EE.
“We knew it would be better to go to with .NET because we can transition more smoothly once the project is completed. We won’t have to rely on as much outside help which will help cut down on potential future costs,” says Mathias.
The development team built the new solution on the Microsoft .NET Framework using Visual Studio .NET and ASP.NET for the front end. To connect the front end to the existing Oracle 9i database backend, they are using Web services. Web services also acts as the communicator with the credit card processing application, which was developed internally by the Ontario Government.
“We used Web services extensively. In fact it's the underpinning of the whole solution architecture. This project is a clear demonstration of how easy and seamless it is to integrate with Web services regardless of language, due to Microsoft .NET software,” says Ed Musters, chief technology officer, Systemgroup.
The new solution also includes the ability to save a partially completed application, should clients get interrupted in the process of filing. The XML file is saved on their local computer for future use. Additionally, frequent filers such as condominium owners have the option of saving an application profile to eliminate entering the same data multiple times.
Business Benefits
With the help of Cyberplex and Systemgroup, ORHT will be able to deliver a comprehensive e-filing and scheduling solution. ORHT clients will be able to go online 24/7 to file applications, choose a hearing date and have payments processed within minutes. Built on the .NET Framework using Visual Studio .NET, the new solution offers clients a user friendly interface for filing and scheduling hearings – a first for judicial agencies in Canada.
Improved Customer Service
ORHT estimates that the new e-filing system will lead to an average time savings of 20 minutes per application. Additionally, because the validation of application data occurs in real-time, ORHT employees don’t have to go back to manually verify data, resulting in faster resolutions for the client. Landlords and tenants in remote areas or overseas also benefit by not having to physically travel to an ORHT office.
“We take our mission to deliver mediation and adjudication services in a fair and timely manner seriously. With our new e-filing and scheduling application, we are doing just that,” says Mathias.
.NET Cuts Development Time and Boosts Cost Savings
Visual Studio .NET helps developers to write up to 40 percent less code compared to other tools. As a result, ORHT and Cyberplex developers were able to build and debug the application faster. Additionally, they were able to deploy a sophisticated multi-language engine to handle the English-French versions – made possible due to the way that Microsoft .NET can accommodate this feature.
ORHT was also able to capitalize on existing skills with Microsoft-based developer tools and avoid the steep learning curve of choosing J2EE, which had an impact on the project budget and timeline. In addition, Mathias cites the major benefit of choosing Microsoft .NET over J2EE as reduced development time and easier deployment.
“Many of the building blocks we needed were readily available from Microsoft through the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), which meant we could just go and pull them out and put them to work. We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel,” says Mathias.
Kubik agrees. “There are so many technical features built right into the Microsoft .NET-based environment that simply weren't available before. Taking advantage of those features cuts the development process by a substantial amount and has helped us to be much more productive,” he says.
Into the Future
With the success of this project’s use of Microsoft .NET-based Web services, ORHT will be able to extend its services through direct connection with larger clients.
“This application will eventually allow us to go to a completely business to business system,” says Mathias. “The XML file we developed for this profiling process will allow our larger customers, such as condominium owners, to file their applications within their own system, without having to go onto the ORHT Web site.”
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
The Microsoft .NET Framework is an integral Windows(r) component for building and running the next generation of applications and XML Web services. http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is the rapid application development (RAD) tool for building next-generation Web applications and XML Web services. Visual Studio .NET empowers developers to rapidly design broad-reach Web applications for any device and any platform. In addition, Visual Studio .NET is fully integrated with the Microsoft .NET Framework, providing support for multiple programming languages and automatically handling many common programming tasks, freeing developers to rapidly create Web applications using their language of choice. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio
Acquire Visual Studio .NET: http://shop.microsoft.com/devtools/default.asp
MSDN(r) Subscriptions: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/subscriptions/default.aspx
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about Cyberplex products and services, call 1-888-597-8889 or visit the Web site at: www.cyberplex.com and for more information about Systemgroup, call (905) 278-7700 or visit the Web site at: www.systemgroupinc.com
For more information about Ontario Housing Rental Tribunal products and services, call 1-888-332-3234 or visit the Web site at: http://www.orht.gov.on.ca/
