Wythenshawe Community Housing Group was the winner of the Digital Transformation award at the Housing Technology 2025 Awards. Kenny Kristiansen explains more about the housing provider’s award-winning project.
Addressing digital transformation can sometimes feel more suited to a team of superheroes than a housing provider, but every good origin story starts with a challenge. For us, it was realising that our systems were holding us back and our people deserved better tools to do their jobs.
We knew this wasn’t just a technology project. It was a mission to completely rewire how we serve our communities. Ultimately, we needed to deliver something that made life better for both our colleagues and our customers. And with the need to build a strong, empowered team and deliver change across multiple phases, you’d be forgiven for thinking it came straight from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Our villain – legacy complexity
Before the first phase of transformation, customer service was being held back by fragmented systems, clunky handovers and generally poor processes. Customers felt the frustration – being passed from one team to another, chasing answers and often waiting longer than they should. A lot of this stemmed from the limits of our traditional housing management systems.
Behind the scenes, our ‘customer hub’ team worked heroically despite the technology. Processes were complex, data was stored in multiple places and the tools didn’t offer the full picture. As one colleague said, “We want to help, but we’re spending too much time looking for the right information.”
When we needed a beacon of hope, our legacy systems were more Tin Man than Ironman – unpredictable, unhelpful and definitely not working in harmony.
Our saviour – introducing Pulse
Enter Pulse, our internal name for our bespoke Salesforce implementation. But Pulse isn’t just a CRM. It’s the central nervous system of our new way of working. It brings together data, systems and services into one place, giving our teams the tools they need, when they need them.
Choosing Salesforce over a traditional housing management system wasn’t the safe or obvious choice but it was the right one. We wanted something flexible and future-proof, built around people, not processes; Pulse gives us that. It also opens up how we develop and support it, without needing to rely on overstretched consultants and support teams tied to traditional systems.
We integrated Pulse with our core platforms such as Orchard, 8×8 and M3, and built custom dashboards and journeys shaped around real users’ needs. Whether it’s managing a service request, checking a customer’s communication preferences or pulling up a repair history – everything is faster, smarter and clearer. Everything is now in one place.
This wasn’t just a system upgrade, it was a culture shift.
Our heroes – one team
We knew Salesforce wouldn’t be rolled out in one big bang. This was always going to be gradual – mapping out what was needed and moving from one way of working to another. We took a ‘one team’ approach, forming cross-functional groups from across the organisation. They led process mapping, testing and training, and making sure the new system reflected how we should be working, not just what we’d always done.
If the members of the project team were the Avengers, then our in-house trainer was definitely our Hawkeye – delivering targeted training with precision. From video content to in-person sessions, we brought everyone on the journey and gave ourselves the best shot at a successful launch.
We also set up strong early-life support. Project managers, subject matter experts and our implementation partners at Alscient were on-site during the go-live to support teams in real time – they were our very own Guardians of the Galaxy.
Along the way, we learned 35 key lessons, covering everything from deployment planning to better communication. These are already being used to shape our future phases.
Our results – making an impact
Within three months of Pulse’s launch, we saw a positive shift. Customer satisfaction rose from 87 per cent to 89 per cent and our customer hub team’s satisfaction with technology jumped from 4.9 to 6.7 – the biggest improvement across the organisation. While these might sound like small steps, these were achieved during what’s usually a fairly bumpy period of adjustment, making that progress even more meaningful.
Duplicated tasks are down, training new staff is easier and updates can be made remotely. This is making us more efficient, cutting travel time and reducing our carbon impact. It might not be saving the world but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
Most importantly, our colleagues now have a clearer view of our customers. That means they can understand someone’s situation before picking up the phone, and not after logging into four different systems and navigating the multiverse for answers.
Our future – the endgame
The customer hub was only phase one. We’re now expanding Pulse across our housing teams, giving them the same clarity and tools. We’re also integrating our Living Well service, which includes support such as safeguarding, and launching a new customer portal and app so residents have more control and convenience.
After that, we’ll be tackling assets and repairs – bringing everything under Pulse, phasing out our outdated systems and creating a seamless experience from end to end; in short, we’re just getting started!
Kenny Kristiansen is the director of ICT, data and digital at Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. The housing provider was the winner of our Digital Transformation award at the Housing Technology 2025 Awards.
