Social landlords have a massive opportunity to integrate with the new and amazing housing technologies now available to them, saving the huge expense and time required to change housing management systems.
With emerging technologies such as AI, housing providers are gaining the confidence to reach out and maximise the benefits of systems integration and automation, reducing costs while delivering better services.
Here at Manifest Software Solutions, we are continuing to find new applications for AI from the global technology landscape and we are developing our understanding of how these can most effectively support the UK housing sector.
We are already integrating AI into our powerful integration platform, Universal Adapter, so that AI is available to use in all of our integration solutions. This enables us to scan emails in real-time, translate to and from a customer’s native language, identify satisfaction scores from tenants’ comments and search for important references to problems such as damp and mould. This has opened up a new world of what we can do, but we are just scratching the surface.
We approach successful integrations like any other business project, by defining the problem, identifying solutions, managing risk and implementing a thoroughly tested solution. Our experienced team of housing integration experts adds flexibility and huge value with the lowest possible costs compared with HMS-supplied integration or in-house offerings.
Effective data management
Managing data effectively is a massive challenge for housing providers. Data is often held across multiple platforms, resulting in inefficient data flows impeding the way housing providers work, ultimately impacting customers.
Data can be seamlessly integrated using our Universal Adapter tool which automatically replicates it across all systems. This is compatible with any data source, including forms, flat files, web services and bespoke spreadsheets. At Manifest, we don’t see any limitations and offer to integrate with every housing management system, any database, system or IoT device.
An effective, fully-supported integration layer enables the seamless exchange of data with any other system, simply and easily. Effective systems integration and business process automation are key to delivering 24/7 services, freeing up housing teams to focus on frontline, core business areas.
The integration of IT systems is truly the cornerstone of all housing business activities. Manifest is leading the way in integrating, unifying and simplifying multiple disparate IT systems, providing smarter, more sustainable housing solutions which enhance customer experience, connecting residents more effectively to the range of services offered by their landlords.
Manifest has grown sustainably and now provides integration to more than 100 social landlords and housing businesses across the UK. All of our team know and speak the language of housing; this vast experience enables us to share the cost of integration and speed up delivery, never having to start a project from scratch. It’s this vast experience combined with our wealth of standard connectors (integrating with all the main systems used in housing) that make Manifest the most cost-effective integration solution available.
Mitigating risk
Over the past year, working alongside Home Group, Manifest has developed its Contractor Interface Project, replacing all BizTalk servers for Home Group’s 11 tier-one contractor systems, providing appointment booking for repairs and maintenance using our Universal Adapter, offering a fully supported solution.
Working in partnership with Home Group, this integration has achieved more for less cost; integration has simplified and unified the scheduling of appointment slots across Home Group’s operations, enhancing the service for residents and improving gas and electrical compliance.
Manifest’s integration expertise used our Universal Adapter, which will integrate with any housing management system and any contractor system, enabling job updates to be received in real-time. The reassurance offered by our no-quibble support guarantee provides additional peace of mind that someone is always on hand to help.
Aligning technology and organisational goals
Manifest supports social landlords, helping them to master project delivery by aligning technology with organisational goals, managing risk effectively, boosting security, agility and scalability while enhancing tenant services for customers. Manifest provides a team of experienced housing IT professionals that you can call on whenever you need them.
Early last year, Clanmil Housing in Northern Ireland wanted to engage responsive repairs contractors to cover its seven geographical areas. It decided to commission a bespoke contractor portal, enabling access from multiple contractors and future-proofing Clanmil’s digital services.
The portal was developed to enhance mobile working capabilities, building on our proven integration of Clanmil’s Civica Cx system with Totalmobile’s field service management solution used by Clanmil’s primary contractor CTS. The contractor portal enabled contractors to self-update the progress of repairs and is now providing residents and staff with information in real-time via mobile phones and tablets.
Manifest supported Clanmil’s IT project team, comprising infrastructure, applications support and project management staff, to develop an agile and flexible contractor portal, making significant savings in development time and cost compared to more complex solutions. The new contractor portal, which is securely hosted by Manifest in the cloud, ensured a smoother digital journey, with wider capabilities to track job variations via the portal, including automation of approvals of jobs within thresholds.
The first iteration of this bespoke contractor portal was developed from scratch to meet Clanmil’s exact requirements and delivered in record time. Clanmil is achieving wider visibility across a unified portal for contractors, de-risking the business and providing a platform from which Clanmil’s customer portal ‘Connect’ can now be developed, supplying useful repairs information to registered customers.
We were able to successfully deliver this project within the tight timescales by building the portal on top of our existing integration framework and because all of our technical implementation staff have extensive housing-sector experience.
The best systems integration solutions
Our roots are firmly in social housing, with both owners having worked in-house for housing providers and councils before developing systems integration technology designed to address the problems they encountered.
Coming from social housing makes Manifest different; we understand the pain points which housing providers are going through and are flexible to support the best way to resolve any problems. Our expert team has gained a unique perspective and ultimately is driven to do what is right for our customers. We have a huge respect for social housing, providing housing associations and local authorities with a partner who is on their side.
We are driven to offer the best systems integration solutions, recognising that housing providers are striving to achieve more for less. Transparent pricing on G-Cloud enables housing customers to tap into our huge amount of experience of delivering projects within a strict contract framework, guaranteeing customer satisfaction.
Once projects are completed, customers only pay for support within a simple annual plan. We are so assured of our experience that we offer to support all integrations, regardless of the size of the housing provider, for less than the cost of one member of staff.
Are you ready to take the next step to maximise the benefits of systems integration and automation?
We find one of the best arrangements is for internal IT teams, who understand their organisation’s needs, to partner with us to gain the most from Manifest’s experience. This enables housing providers’ IT teams to do amazing things, quickly and cheaply, while still maintaining complete control of their IT strategies.
Manifest always has the best interests of our customers at heart. We believe that solutions don’t need to be expensive and that anything is possible in terms of integration and automation.
“I don’t know of any other housing provider that has built a contractor portal like this and at such speed. A larger, more complex solution would have priced us out of the market but Manifest found a way, with a quick solution requiring less effort from our IT team. More accurate data is now available to us and we can lift our heads up from spreadsheets and have valuable conversations with customers, suppliers and contractors about repairs.”
Lynsey Grant, Programme & Projects Manager, Clanmil Housing
“This was a real team effort, and Manifest was very proactive, always involved and seeking resolutions. We agreed a scope and Manifest adapted as each contractor went live with the new system. Integrating with Manifest has had a really positive impact. We have standardised processes, reducing the risks to our housing business.”
Rob Walker, Integration Developer, Home Group
Alan Swift is the managing director of Manifest Software Solutions.
