Award-winning Microsoft partner TSG is supporting South Yorkshire Housing in its plans to go ‘Microsoft first’ throughout its operations.
Taking a Microsoft-first approach, the housing provider is using numerous modules from the Microsoft Office 365 suite including OneDrive, Teams, Power Apps, Power Automate (previously Flow) and a new enterprise-wide SharePoint EDRM platform. Office 365 and its associated modules will be integrated with South Yorkshire Housing’s existing Civica CX and Keystone Asset Management systems.
Sonya Payne, project coordinator and Office 365 product owner, South Yorkshire Housing, said, “I first saw the scale of features Office 365 offered and how they could be used in the housing sector during TSG’s presentation at the Housing Technology 2017 conference and I was impressed by how the platform could be used in social housing.”
Fast-forward to 2019, and TSG and South Yorkshire Housing are now planning to embed Office 365 throughout the organisation, and the deployment of an EDRM solution linking to its core Civica and Keystone business applications is underway.
Like many housing providers, South Yorkshire Housing had previously bought its Microsoft licences simply because they were due for renewal and was unclear of Office 365’s potential.
Payne said, “Our team is always asking if its strategic goals can be achieved with Office 365 before implementing any additional systems; the answer is usually yes.”
South Yorkshire Housing also wanted a modern, compliant and user-friendly EDRM system. TSG’s solution embraces the security, retention and compliance features of Office 365; this provides peace of mind and quality assurance for documentation relating to the five main areas of electrical, gas, fire, water and asbestos compliance.
Payne said, “The TSG team has a fantastic understanding of Office 365, its capabilities and how we can maximise our use of it. What we like about working with TSG is that they work with us at our pace while taking account of our other ‘big-ticket’ priorities.
“The TSG team will constantly share their knowledge, such as Office 365’s integration with other systems – they really know their stuff. Overall, TSG has already added so much value as a vital ‘critical friend’, not forgetting all of TSG’s Microsoft Gold accreditations.”
