Warrington Borough Council’s Catalyst Choices care provider is now using Housing Support Pro’s software to streamline its support services.
Although it is a newly-formed community interest company (CIC), Catalyst Choices inherited from the council a traditional business structure in need of modernisation and with fixed resource patterns.
David Osborne, CEO, Catalyst Choices, said, “I knew we had to look at our employment practices, skills sets and support services including HR, financial services, payroll, administrative systems, productivity, performance information and technology base.”
Housing Support Pro was chosen to transform Catalyst’s existing IT infrastructure and systems, reduce operating costs, and identify and implement innovative business solutions. Housing Support Pro began by carrying out a review of the existing IT infrastructure, as the basis for reducing support service costs, creating a platform for engaging remote sites and employees, and establishing a new business partnership model.
Housing Support Pro provided Catalyst with a fully managed IT service, covering software, hardware and support. Using its procurement expertise, Housing Support Pro also identified systems that met Catalysts requirements and would make financial savings.
Housing Support Pro helped Catalyst migrate its payroll and HR from the council’s previous systems to a new Sage HR and CRM system. The software provider also enabled the internal sharing of documents to become more effective by introducing a SharePoint intranet integrated with Office 365.
Following the introduction of these new IT systems, Catalyst has brought a number of services in-house. For example, absenteeism can be reported to the board and the business development director now has more detail to provide a more commercial approach to customer enquiries.
Osborne said, “Our IT plan with Housing Support Pro has been about taking back control from Warrington Borough Council and making our IT systems work better to match our aims.
“Housing Support Pro’s solutions offer tangible financial benefits; the biggest saving has been in improved systems, productivity and effectiveness as we no longer have to go through a third party to resolve any issues.”
