City of York Council is consolidating its IT systems for housing services into one.
It is opening the portal for its Capita Open Housing system today, replacing 17 different systems from a range of suppliers including Northgate, SX3 and Civica. It will provide access to data on council housing applications, details of temporary accommodation, resettlement services, housing management and repairs, planned maintenance, minor adaptions and leaseholder services.
The council said the first phase of the implementation will focus on connections between its staff, customers and contractors, with further features to be added later in the year.
Tenants will be able to set up accounts on the system, enabling them to check their rent balances, when payments are due, update customer and household details and check progress of repairs. In a later phase, they will also be able to set up and amend direct debits, and request and schedule repairs.
Staff should be able to find the information to handle any relevant enquiries, and contractors’ jobs will allocated and tracked through the system’s contractor portal.
Customer independence
Cllr Denise Craghill, City of York’s executive member for housing and safer neighbourhoods, said: “It gives customers greater independence as they can self-serve when it suits them.
“With one log-in, they can access more real time information than ever before. This includes detail about their tenancies or their applications for housing in York, which they have told us they want.
“Open Housing will have a phased approach and bring in different features to deliver significant service improvements and efficiencies.”
Image from iStock, sodafish
