Origin Housing

The Customer

Origin Housing is a registered social landlord, managing over 6,500 homes in London and Hertfordshire. It provides affordable housing in its communities as well as related care and support services to the people who live in them.

The Challenge

Origin Housing is a forward-thinking housing association that is embracing digital transformation in order to better serve its residents, and is investing in Microsoft technologies to achieve this. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (formerly known as Microsoft Dynamics CRM) was in use, but not to its full potential. Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and Complaints processes were still being handled by legacy systems, meaning vital information was missing and data was duplicated across the business. Origin Housing decided to migrate its ASB and Complaints processes onto Microsoft Dynamics 365 and looked for a partner to make it happen within a 12 week timeframe.

The Solution

Origin Housing chose Hitachi Solutions’ specialist housing association team to undertake the project. It was impressed with Hitachi Solutions’ strong industry credentials and ability to flex standard methodologies to fit the requirements of Origin Housing. This compact engagement was an ideal ‘test case’ for Origin Housing’s partnership with Hitachi Solutions. Origin Housing is a registered social landlord, managing over 6,500 homes in London and Hertfordshire. It provides affordable housing in its communities as well as related care and support services to the people who live in them.

From the start, Origin Housing recognised that only an agile approach to the project would be able to deliver a go-live date within the 12 week timeframe. This generated a ‘can do’ ethos for the project, and both the Origin Housing team and the Hitachi Solutions team embraced a highly collaborative way of working. In addition to the agile methodology, Hitachi Solutions used their ASB and Complaints Accelerators, specifically configured for Housing Associations, to achieve success in such a short period of time.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Accelerators for Housing

Using our industry knowledge we developed Accelerators for the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 within Housing. The Accelerators used for the Origin Housing implementation included pre-configured processes and tools, familiar to our team through previous implementations, that enabled both the ASB and Complaints processes to go live with minimal effort in the fastest time. However, we understand that every housing association is unique and that one size won’t fit all. This is why we carry out a fit-gap analysis that identifies the customisation we need to undertake to deliver the process that’s exactly right for your housing association.

The Future

The rapid implementation of the ASB and Complaints Accelerators was a highly-visible and highly motivating step towards digital transformation for Origin Housing. The fast process demonstrated to the whole company how IT can be an enabler that supports effective working, rather than a hindrance. Now, Origin Housing has made another huge step towards a 360° view of the customer and their property. Upon completion of the project, ownership of the Accelerators passed to Origin Housing, so it’s free to make further enhancements — perhaps embracing automation — in future releases, without licensing restrictions.

The collaborative working methods used meant that significant knowledge transfer occurred from Hitachi Solutions to the Origin Housing team, up skilling key members in preparation for further transformation. “One of the important components of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is its scalability. Hitachi Solutions has implemented ASB and Complaints for us to explore and extend customer engagement with their housing solution Accelerator.

They also helped and guided us to extend Dynamics 365’s functionality to incorporate Assessment and Financial support which are being used in another system currently. Looking forward to working with Hitachi Solutions experts to incorporate and implement other housing processes into Dynamics 365.” Zahid Khan, Origin Housing.