The introduction of the 1988 Housing Act Managing reshaped the housing sector. Many associations grew quickly and were unprepared for the requirements of business planning, private finance and risk management.
The need to produce accurate financial and performance data has generated a dependence on technology, which is essential to organisational effectiveness and service delivery.
There are four key principles outlined in the e-government strategic framework document for Housing associations:
Technical innovation within the Housing sector is usually geared towards information management or rationalisation more forward thinking organisations are developing e-strategies and using the potential of IT to enhance their effectiveness in achieving accountability and empowering residents.
The use of computer systems for processing routine operational tasks is pretty much universal amongst larger more innovative housing associations, a number of which have developed customer contact centres as the main interface between tenants and landlord. Some are extending this interface to the Internet thus delivering a range of services electronically, most common of which is repair reporting.
We have provided a number of associations with solutions that integrate their IT and service objectives and in these organisations IT is seen as a powerful and flexible medium for communication and service delivery.
