Within social housing, information management systems play a huge part in the overall satisfaction of both employees and tenants. From property repairs and maintenance to rent accounts, the systems that manage this data are absolutely fundamental, particularly housing management systems.
However, the main housing management system (HMS) chosen across the company doesn’t have to manage every single part of the housing provider’s operations, and more often than not, it doesn’t. And while having multiple platforms or systems isn’t out of the ordinary in our sector, having an integrated, joined-up view of tenants across all systems definitely is.
“We already have an HMS…”
Throughout 2021, Crimson held bi-monthly ‘housing breakfast’ webinars to cover key problems and solutions with some of the UK’s top social housing providers. Across these webinars, we often discussed the customer engagement benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365, at which point we were often told, “but we already have a housing management system”.
What makes Dynamics 365 special is that it’s customer-centric and intelligent with prevalent examples of modern technologies such as AI that aren’t usually enabled in most housing providers’ existing systems. Even better than this, it has great API availability so it can hook up/into a number of different aspects of your HMS such as ASB, complaints or neighbourhoods. This means housing providers can enjoy small, medium or large portions of Microsoft’s CRM capabilities, regardless of your incumbent HMS situation.
Fast-track integration
Crimson’s Enterprise Integration Platform for housing providers fast-tracks the integration of business and data systems within the cloud with its prebuilt connectors and data-mapping experience across contacts, rents, cases and much more. Not only is this an easy process to manage, but it also standardises your future integrations. A centralised integration portal also helps to identify and solve problems and promotes scalability.
The ability to integrate with a variety of HMS platforms (such as Capita, Civica, MIS, MRI [Orchard] and NEC [Northgate]) gives housing providers a joined-up view of their tenants. A hybrid approach offers the best of both worlds for managers, while keeping their options open for future connectivity opportunities.
Furthermore, Microsoft’s in-built integration capabilities (such as Azure Service Bus, Logic Apps, Data Factory and API Wrappers) provide an enterprise-class integration layer to your existing systems, which makes adding or removing systems in the future even easier.
Future evolution
Modern, cloud-based integration from Microsoft can unlock opportunities for business and customer engagement solutions with a hybrid model, allowing housing providers to adapt over time. By complementing existing solutions, the change-over period is faster and easier, with a lower level of risk.
Our next housing breakfast webinar answers one of our most common questions; learn more about integrating Dynamics 365 with your HMS at the event via crimson.co.uk/it-solutions/industries/housing.
Jordan Wheat is a new business consultant at Crimson.
