When the River Wansbeck burst its banks during the Morpeth floods last year, it affected many Castle Morpeth Housing residents. Unfortunately, Castle Morpeth Housing’s corporate head office at Isos Housing Group in Newcastle upon Tyne was also severely flooded; most of the IT equipment was under half a metre of water rendering, among other things, all of the group’s web sites inaccessible.
During the floods, Castle Morpeth Housing needed to provide its residents with timely and accurate information through a variety of channels, including the web site which is relied on by both residents and staff.
Tagish, the software specialists who developed and host the Isos web sites, were fortunately there to lend a helping hand. Andrew Fisk, managing director, Tagish, said, “As we’re based nearby in Alnwick, we knew how severe the flooding was and also how fast we needed to react. Having worked with Isos Housing Group on the implementation of our iSite content management system, we were able to regain control over the web sites quickly, to relay all the information we were receiving from Isos to inform tenants about what was happening and what support was available to them.”
Tagish staff continued to work around the clock on the web site updates until Isos managed to get its IT systems working again, allowing Isos and Castle Morpeth Housing staff to concentrate on dealing with their tenants’ immediate concerns.
Tagish itself suffered a major setback three years ago when a fire destroyed its head office in Alnwick. Within days the company was up and running and only one year later, the company was back on track in new offices. Only two years since the fire, Tagish are making inroads into the European market, having recently secured a major contract with online travel company Expedia.
