Civica's Housing Management System and Contact Manager software to be used nationwide by Salvation Army Housing Association (SAHA), helping provide housing needs and services for vulnerable people.

LONDON, UK, 27 OCTOBER 2009:- Civica, a market leader in software-based solutions that helps organisations to improve service delivery and efficiency, has signed a major contract with the Salvation Army Housing Association (SAHA) to provide its Housing Management System and Contact Manager software to the housing association.

Civica’s software will be used across SAHA offices nationwide to improve efficiency across the organisation. The software will be also implemented in the SAHA Bolton-based contact centre to manage its 3500 housing properties and communicate more effectively with residents. The aim is to use Civica’s technology to support residents and manage properties more effectively. SAHA has also opted for Civica’s new “Supporting People” module that sits in the Housing Management System and its impressive workflow management; it was a key reason for the housing association choosing Civica.

Civica’s Housing Management System offers SAHA improved functionality and flexibility in managing its housing stock, scheduling maintenance or repairs and financial modelling of costs in meeting Decent Homes’ priorities. The Housing Management System also provides mobile working for frontline staff to answer residents’ questions on the ground while visiting properties, improving response time rates and the level of resident service provision.

Puneet Rajput, Director of Corporate Services, Salvation Army Housing Association, said: “We have outgrown our previous housing management system and all employees were in agreement that we needed improved technology to help us help our residents more efficiently. Civica’s technology was the clear choice for us in terms of the additional functionality it offers and its flexibility for our diverse needs.”

SAHA works with 63 local authorities across the UK and additional partners such as colleges and specialist needs training partners, ensuring that their tenants’ needs are met at any stage in their journey towards sustained independent living, whether for education, mental health or employment advice and help, for example.

Rajput continued: “Civica’s Housing Management System will give all our employees a more detailed profile of each resident whether the resident comes to us through our local authority partners or direct. Everybody in the organisation will see similar information, depending on their level of security or access rights in the password protected system. This will enable us to better capture our residents’ aspirations and tailor our services to meet their needs. The Civica Housing Management System also offers us improved management information so we can identify workflow blockages, set realistic targets for our employees or direct additional resources where they are needed.”

Key benefits of Civica’s Housing Management System are:

Aligned back office operations across the entire organisation

Reduced operating costs

Increased automation, reducing staff administration time on paper work resulting in a greater focus on the end user
Key benefits of Contact Manager are:

Enhanced customer service: each customer request is logged and accessible by any staff member. Residents will always receive a response and staff can track the status of any request quickly and easily

Resolve more calls to the contact centre the first time

The ability to manage workloads and ensure enquiries are allocated evenly across the organisation

A completely aligned organisation – all enquiries are handled in the same manner
The Civica Housing Management System and Contact Manager implementation at SAHA is scheduled to go live nationwide on October 1st 2010.

Keith Bond, Director, Civica, said: “We are proud to be working in partnership with the Salvation Army Housing Association as an organisation with a long heritage of helping vulnerable people in the UK. Civica’s technology is being recognised by organisations like SAHA and Shelter, who we also work with, as offering housing needs’ benefits that simplify the management of social housing, enabling frontline staff to focus on the services that really matter to their residents.”