Home Connections joins SFHA as sector associate
Home Connections sees 75% tender win rate as a preferred IT provider for Scottish housing associations.
Home Connections has joined SFHA as a sector associate. Home Connections is a non-profit software house and a social enterprise, established in 2001. It is wholly owned and controlled by local authorities and housing associations across the UK.
Eildon, Queens Cross and Link Housing Association and Angus Council are four of the most recent social landlords to turn to Home Connections for IT upgrade in the past year. The social housing providers are most commonly choosing the organisation’s powerful Choice Based Lettings and Housing Register Systems. In some cases, this system upgrade represents moves from a paper-based approach to a digital platform, offering people more choice over where they want to live.
The paper-based approach relies on a lot of staff resource in inputting applications and making necessary referrals. CBL provider, Home Connections helps social landlords to move to away from this approach and in doing so, has, so far, processed over 230,000 bids and let 12,230 properties across its Scottish customer-base. As concluded in Chartered Institute of Housing’s 2019 study, a CBL system offers increased transparency to applicants. It also means staff can focus more time on allocating and letting properties than dealing with people’s queries about their applications. Furthermore, CBL can help identify areas of low demand and, therefore, help with strategic decision-making around stock.
Ninesh Muthiah, CEO, Home Connections, said: “Queens Cross Housing Association and Angus Council belong to a group of landlords that are choosing to move from a paper-based approach to a digital platform to cut out the paper trail, improve document management, speed up the referral process, enjoy faster reporting and much more.
“We work with housing associations and local authorities to build a bespoke system to meet their unique needs to enjoy a smarter allocations system. Our dedicated project management team works closely with customers from the very beginning and ensures that customers are continually supported.”
The associations join a group of over 60 satisfied Home Connections customers such as Wheatley Group, Loreburn, Inverclyde council and Riverclyde Homes.
Angus Council went live with its new Choice Based Lettings system November last year. A representative of Angus Council, Lynne Warburton, described the benefits of implementing an integrated housing suite.
She said: "It provides more transparency and a more efficient application process, increasing choice for applicants. The online process means that staff no longer have to input all our applications, reducing the time taken to process them. Also, the referral process for housing options and occupational therapy is now automatic, so referrals are picked up at the very early stages of the application process.”