I know it’s only a formatter, but honestly, I’m far more excited than I probably should be. After years of untangling messy SQL across countless systems, this feels like SSMS has given me a little gift. One right click, and suddenly the chaos becomes readable. Simple, practical, brilliant.

Recent Civica Cx 25.x schema changes replacing ContactAssociate.AssociationTypeId with AssociationTypeIds are causing reports and ETL processes to fail unexpectedly. This article explains what changed, why your contact reports may have stopped working, and how to update your SQL using string_split() to handle the new CSV-based structure. It also explores the wider issue of schema stability, undocumented changes, and the downstream impact on integrations and reporting.

In previous posts we looked at how to retrieve repair works orders and then pull back full works order details from Civica Cx. If you have not already seen that post, I suggest you read that first. That’s great, but only a piece of the whole picture. Typically Cx is the client system, and a 3rd party contractor is using their own in house, or off the shelf software. I refer to this as the external system. Once the external system has received a works order and started d

With Scottish draft regulations mirroring the intent of Awaab’s Law, housing associations can’t afford to wait until reporting deadlines arrive to think about data. Early decisions on how damp and mould information is captured, structured and flowed through Civica Housing Cx will determine whether future reporting is meaningful or misleading. This piece explores why early thinking matters, how Scottish and English approaches differ, and five practical, data-first steps Cx tea

We previously explored retrieving lists of work orders using Cx Repair Contractor web services. While that approach suits queues and dashboards, real integrations often need to interrogate a single work order in detail. Cx provides several closely related SOAP methods for this purpose, all accepting the same identifiers but returning different levels of detail depending on intent and audience. Understanding their differences, prerequisites, and security behaviour is key to ch

Picking up where the token post left off, this article moves on to something genuinely useful: retrieving repair work orders from Cx using the SOAP web services. Despite newer versions and endless documentation, WSRepairContractorService is still doing real-world heavy lifting. This post walks through a working GetRepairWorkOrders call, highlights common gotchas, and explains exactly what data you’ll get back.

Missed warranties quietly drain budgets. With Cx Asset Management, you can surface real-time warranty checks at the exact moment a repair is logged. A simple stored procedure and conditional alert can stop unnecessary jobs, direct staff to the right contractor, and let your data do the shouting—automatically.

Find out about the July 2025 ARC Changes coming in to force from April 2025. Read now and don’t be caught off guard!

Databases have a habit of growing quietly in the background until, one day, they’re suddenly everyone’s problem. Storage might feel cheap, but the ripple effects of an oversized database are anything but. Longer nightly ETL runs, sluggish reporting, bloated backups, and clogged networks all trace back to unchecked growth. The result? Your business loses precious time and flexibility, especially when jobs that should finish in an hour creep into the early morning. This post i

With SQL Server 2025, Microsoft is officially retiring SSRS — a major shift that signals Power BI's reign as the go-to reporting tool. Here's what it means for your organisation.