‘The opportunities offered by digital transformation are almost endless’
‘The opportunities offered by digital transformation are almost endless’
Why does digital transformation interest you?
Digital is an enabler and shouldn’t be viewed as a solution in itself.
The opportunities offered by digital transformation are almost endless. Our Digital First programme originated from the welfare reform changes. We knew the transition to Universal Credit would be one of the single biggest risks most housing business models have faced for over 30 years. We needed to put a strategy in place to ensure the minimal impact of the measures imposed through UC and other welfare reform changes.
We knew that there were better ways of transacting with customers as well as a myriad of opportunities to automate many processes within our systems. By improving our services and the way in which our customers access our services, we could drive efficiencies across the business and focus on our really vulnerable customers who needed more intensive support from us.
Our Digital First strategy assists customers to gain access to online services and supports them with this. Access to the internet via mobile devices has become integral to how many of us live our lives. Whilst it is second nature to us to use our mobile phones or tablets, often simultaneously, to bank online, research that next holiday, or keep up to date with friends and colleagues on social media sites there are still customers of ours who could have been left behind. By increasing our levels of support to these customers and introducing a range of unique solutions they are able to access the multitude of benefits the internet has to offer.
The path along our Digital First journey has meant we also needed to look at how Halton Housing staff communicate internally. Anyone who knows me will know this is something I’m really passionate about. Since 2014, we have introduced a number of measures to drive change in how employees communicate with each other and reduce the clutter of internal email. The introduction of Microsoft Office 365, with Skype and Yammer has been instrumental to this.
How does digital transformation improve the customer experience?