Warrington Housing Association

Case Study

Warrington Housing Association - HomeMaster

After a competitive tender process, WHA became one of the earliest adopters of HomeMaster housing management system.

After a brief and smooth implementation process, the Warrington has transformed how it serves its tenants, as well as realising a compelling ROI.

Saving £22,000 per annum

HomeMaster's Income Maximisation module has replaced the cost of RentSense. Income Management Officers are now able to identify potential issues before they become a problem for the customer and then support can be put in place to prevent the customer getting into large rent arrears.

Saved 20% of time

Through the system automation of compliance inspection schedules, Asset Coordination have saved 20% of their time.

Better allocation of resources

More accurate information held in HomeMaster is providing Warrington Housing Association with better insights, that allow is to target resource allocation more effectively i.e. properties who have not reported a repair in 3 years receive a property inspection to ensure they are fit for habitation.

Improved budgeting

Budget information is live in the system, and managers are better able to view current and forecast future spending.

"We can’t sing HomeMaster’s praises enough.

It stood out over any other housing system we saw. It’s clever, intuitive, and works incredibly well."

Fiona Evans

Head of Corporate Services

Business Challenge

Before HomeMaster, WHA was using a Housing Management system from one of the UK’s leading providers. But over time, they found the system had become overcomplicated and user-unfriendly. It was also suffering as a legacy system – having been an installed system that had evolved to have a few web modules, but poor integration between web and core.

As a result, this meant a lot of data duplication and delays, as well as a regular challenge for the IT team to keep the system upgraded to its latest version.

At the same time, WHA faced sector-wide pressures:

Increased compliance management challenges across gas servicing, health & safety, damp/mould, Decent Homes Standard.
The need for a single source of truth for customer and property data.
Increasing demand for accurate reporting and insights to inform resource allocation.

Why HomeMaster?

Realising the need for a modern Housing Management system WHA went through a procurement process that allowed for all the UK’s leading Housing Management systems to tender, and explored 6 supplier options. HomeMaster was a new product, with less features, and had greater risk. But it stood out because it offered:

Intuitive, modern design – easy for staff to navigate and learn.
Fully integrated live data – eliminating duplication and delays.
Streamlined CRM – giving staff a complete view of each customer and property in a single record, which improved staff productivity and reduced time to serve tenants.
Clever technology – a clean and simple front-end for users, that used system automations to insulate them from complex processes

“We had to discuss with the organisation board why we should take a chance on a new product they hadn’t heard of, instead of a ‘safer’ and, or well known legacy platform.

Even though it had less functionality at that time of our procurement, HomeMaster was the clear choice for us. And our faith has paid off as the team have delivered everything they promised us. It’s been an incredible experience and partnership.”
– Fiona Evans

Smooth Implementation

WHA signed with HomeMaster just days before the first COVID lockdown, meaning the entire implementation was delivered remotely. This unexpected challenge actually sharpened focus and accelerated decision-making.

“System implementations can be incredibly hard – but with HomeMaster we had the best times of our life! We literally signed the contract and two days later went into lockdown, so we had to do everything remotely amongst our team and theirs.

A lot of housing associations think it’s an IT project – it isn’t. You need people who understand the day job to set the system up in a way that works. We had that, and so did HomeMaster - it was incredible teamwork and beat every expectation we had.”
– Fiona Evans

Incredible Outcomes

Since going live, WHA has:

Saved £22k as the Income Maximisation module has replaced the cost of RentSense. Income Management Officers are now able to identify potential issues before they become a problem for the customer and then support can be put in place to prevent the customer getting into large rent arrears.
Saved 20% of time in Asset Coordination, through the system automation of compliance inspection schedules
Better allocation of resources – More accurate information held in HomeMaster is providing Warrington Housing Association with better insights, that allow is to target resource allocation more effectively i.e. properties who have not reported a repair in 3 years receive a property inspection to ensure they are fit for habitation.
Improved budgeting takes places as budget information is live in the system, and managers are better able to view current and forecast future spending.