risual have been working with an independent housing company on an exciting new project. The engagements will consist of several long-term projects on solution and business transformation.

They currently have sector specific CRM systems, all of which look after an individual sector (Social Housing, Sheltered Housing, Alerts and response, spreadsheets by department, etc.). These systems don’t communicate with each other well, which can often result in problems. They’re looking to provide a single view of their customers, so they can see their circumstances individually, to offer better service and to be better placed to react to any issues they may encounter.

risual conducted workshops with the organisation owner, where they sat down and discussed what they wanted to achieve from the project. This conversation was high level and not ‘too techy’, focusing on the organisation and software needed to do to provide value. risual then put together an architecture document, based on what the housing company’s four-year plan should be, which includes recommendations on what technologies support this transformation. These documents outline why they should do it and what the benefits will be.

The housing company will be building a brand new, landmark facility that will have a GP surgery, pharmacy, cafe and library and some other amenities. There will be three floors of sheltered housing above, to make sure people who need some help, can stay in the centre of the community. risual will be supporting digital systems for the facility, which will include kiosk PC’s, smart IP phones and apps on phones that will allow those living there to book a haircut and order dinner, among other things.

Some of these organisation applications will be supported using CRM and SharePoint. Pilot projects are being carried out as agile projects. The solutions are built and developed by risual, before testing and eventual roll-out and handover.

The pilot system will be built on a public a cloud platform. risual are working with the housing company to help them understand how they can benefit from this, using analytics and saving throughout the financial process.

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