Barcud (formerly Tai Ceredigion Cyf and Mid Wales Housing) went live with its new ActiveH housing management system from MIS-AMS in July 2020 despite the challenges of the lockdown.
Alongside ActiveH, Barcud has also opted for the software provider’s mobile working, asset management and contractor modules.
Gavin Harvey, assistant director of ICT and business improvement, Barcud, said, “MIS-AMS allocated a dedicated team to our implementation, including one-to-one support. We genuinely felt as if they were working as a part of our team – which is pretty unique in our sector. I’ve worked with various housing software vendors over the years and none match the service delivered by the team at MIS-AMS.
“At the start of the project, we had to make some difficult decisions about how to migrate our data, which was spread across disparate systems. Although we were leaning towards the standard approach of taking static time-shots, the team at AMS suggested we take a ‘live extraction’ approach.
“We were sceptical owing to the time and resource implications. Progress was initially slower than we had hoped, but the live extraction paid huge dividends on the day we went live, with the migration completed seamlessly.”
Barcud’s project began before the coronavirus lockdown but both teams were able to carry on while working remotely, with the only exception being end-user training.
Harvey said, “We decided to deliver training via video and it’s been a real success. Our users can now access training on demand, enabling them to solve problems independently if they forget how to do something. We’re now keen to use video training on other implementation projects, regardless of whether the team are working remotely or in the office – it’s just worked so well.”
Following the successful completion of the first phase of the implementation, Barcud and MIS-AMS are deploying the mobile surveyor and planned maintenance modules as well as a customer portal. After that, they will move onto the final phase and shift the combined team’s focus onto transferring the new housing stock acquired during the Tai Ceredigion Cyf and Mid Wales Housing merger into ActiveH.
Sharon Tatton, implementation manager, MIS-AMS, said, “The team at Barcud has been a joy to work with. The project has been managed extremely professionally, but we’ve also had a lot of fun getting through the various complexities that have been thrown our way.”
