Kingston upon Thames transforms housing services with 300,000 Civica housing system

Council overhauls tenant services with Civicas housing system 29 March 2011, London The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is set to transform its housing department with a 300,000 implementation of Civica Housing (Civicas integrated housing management system) - a market leader in specialist systems and outsourcing services that help organisations to achieve a more cost-efficient way of working. The housing service is being re-organised as part of the One Council, One Kingston strategy of improvement and customer service improvement. As part of this initiative, a corporate ICT Strategy has been developed which recommended the replacement of current Housing IT provision with a fully integrated workflow enabled system. This will deliver process and administrative efficiencies, an improved service for tenants and department-wide operational savings. Civicas Housing solution will be delivered in three phases. The first part, which started in January 2011, will be an upgrade of an existing Civica product that manages homelessness cases, as well as introducing a workflow based housing options service. Once completed, Civicas Housing platform will centralise all housing related operations. Staff will be able to share information securely, empower tenants to access service on-line, while standardised workflow processes will promote consistent good practise. Civicas Housing transaction system incorporates enhanced data recording, automatic recognition of telephone numbers and initiation of repair tasks. It will better manage planned maintenance as well as responsive repairs, rent accounting, arrear recovery and tenancy management. Stephen Corion, IT Housing Project Manager for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, said: Civicas approach is refreshingly different from many other suppliers. Its implementation team have listened carefully to our requirements every step of the way and have provided us with great solutions that will help take the business forward. A fully integrated product will help us to improve the level of service and support we can offer in the traditional areas of housing management and particularly through the prevention of homelessness strategy.

John Hood, managing director of Civicas Housing & Asset Management division, said: Kingston, like other housing providers, faces a massive challenge of improving core services such as maintenance programmes while cutting operating costs. Civicas Housing platform will help them centralise operating processes to support critical projects like repairs, maintenance and homeless support more effectively than ever before.

About Civica The Civica Group (www.civica.co.uk) is an international market leader in specialist IT systems and business process services for the public sector. Through experienced people who understand service delivery, the Group applies software, managed services and outsourcing to help customers streamline their activities. Civica supplies more than 2,000 organisations in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and the USA, including more than 90% of the UKs local authorities.

Press contacts: Mark Walker/Lucy Houghton/Paul Crouch civica@chameleonpr.com 020 7680 5500