St George Community Housing
TechnologyOne's OneHousing solution has helped SGCH reduce their receipt processing time by two thirds, now taking less than 15 seconds
Case study highlights
- Simplified business processes
- Time saved with automation of accounts
- Improved
efficiencies
Challenge
Similar to the majority of Australian community housing providers, SGCH is experiencing rapid growth due to funding following the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan and property transfers from the State Government. Employee numbers increased by over 200 per cent in the last 24 months. SGCH identified that it needed an IT solution to support the growth, which is forecast to continue.
The organisation previously relied on a system spread across standalone platforms, spreadsheets and basic accounting and tenancy management software. It was clear that the solution being used would no longer cope with the volume of properties it was managing and the silos of information that were being created.
SGCH realised it needed a system that could provide an accurate enterprise-wide view of the organisation, reduce data duplication and manual handling of information, and offer sophisticated reporting capabilities, specific to the unique needs of the social housing sector.
Solution
SGCH became the first customer to purchase TechnologyOne’s new pre-configured solution – OneHousing – designed specifically for the community housing sector.
OneHousing has provided SGCH with a proven practice solution, integrating all operations from applications to inspections, tenancy management, property development, acquisition and maintenance, finance and human resources and payroll.
Outcome
Since the implementation of OneHousing, around 60 employees are using the system to manage day-to-day operations more efficiently. They now have a clearer picture of how each property is performing and can undertake better long-term planning.
To be able to purchase a solution that was tailored specifically to meet the complex needs of the community housing sector was a huge advantage and meant we had access to proven industry practices.
Perspective
Mr Wetmore said since the implementation of OneHousing, SGCH had identified opportunities to improve efficiency through use of the software and the simplification of processes.
“Many processes, such as posting of receipts to tenant accounts are now automated, which cuts down considerably the time taken to complete this task.
“Month-end reporting and month-end reconciliation are now more streamlined processes as information is collated automatically from one single source of truth as opposed to disparate systems.”
Mr Wetmore said another major business benefit is the functionality of the TechnologyOne platform, and SGCH is already considering the advantages of implementing further modules to the OneHousing system such as electronic document storage and webforms.
To be able to purchase a solution that was tailored specifically to meet the complex needs of the community housing sector was a huge advantage and meant we had access to proven industry practices,” Mr Wetmore said.
Spotlight
SGCH recently acquired 1200 new properties, representing a 25 per cent growth rate for the organisation. This growth is expected to continue into the future, particularly as Housing NSW–one of the largest providers of social housing in the world– evolves more properties to community housing organisations.
SGCH’s General Manager–Corporate Services, Trevor Wetmore said the organisation’s previous outdated IT system fostered duplicate data, required a lot of manual input and simply couldn’t handle the volume of information required.
“The new TechnologyOne solution has allowed us to achieve a single view of the organisation from one central platform, which was an important factor in choosing a technology provider,” Mr Wetmore said.
“TechnologyOne already offered most of the systems we needed, such as HR and Payroll, Financials and Asset Management, but its willingness to tailor its Customer Relationship Management offering to enable us to manage tenancies was a big plus.”
The in-depth level of integration offered by the new solution means information is more accurate, streamlined and detailed, allowing employees to make more informed strategic decisions.
“Using Business Intelligence dashboards, Housing Managers can quickly and easily identify problems in the portfolio, track vacant properties and follow up tenants who are behind with their rent payments,” Mr Wetmore said.
The dashboards allow employees to drill down into organisational data and quickly conduct analysis and enquiries.
As a result of the Federal Government’s National Rental Affordability Scheme, SGCH is responsible for managing the development and construction of more than 400 new properties by 2016. This is the first time SGCH has developed its own properties and it is using OneHousing’s property development solution to manage and track the development projects.
About St George Community Housing
St George Community Housing (SGCH) provides community, social and affordable housing across 23 local government areas in the Sydney Metropolitan area. Operating for more than 25 years, SGCH is the largest community housing organisation in New South Wales with over 4000 properties under management and provides services to more than 8500 individuals.
The organisation operates three main areas of housing products – Community Housing, Supported Housing and Affordable Housing. In addition, it provides a range of initiatives to improve the lives of tenants such as training, education, employment and community engagement.
