Investing to strengthen communities
We chatted to Kay Aston, our Head of Product about the latest NEC Housing release and the launch of NEC Engage, the new community engagement platform and what this means to housing providers and their customers.
The NEC Housing team have been working hard over the last few months on advanced technologies included in the latest housing release which went live recently. Along with user driven enhancements to streamline the overall experience for our housing providers, this latest release saw the introduction of our brand-new community engagement platform, NEC Engage.
Building on key themes from the Social Housing White Paper, NEC Engage empowers residents to manage their homes efficiently with access to a range of tools such as booking and tracking a repair or paying their rent. However, the most exciting aspect to come from NEC Engage will see residents building connections within their communities.
Residents, with similar interests or not, will be able to strengthen their relationships within their neighbourhoods. This can be through resident groups, forums or events. With the ability to now go beyond just their housing needs, there’s the potential for residents using NEC Engage to touch on and combat wider social factors, such as the often-hidden issue of loneliness.
From the initial design phase through to delivery, the residents voice has been the focal element of development. “The team’s unwavering dedication to this project is quite notable”, says Kay Aston, Head of Product for housing, when we caught up with her shortly after the latest roll-out.
Touching on the topic of keeping pace with the needs of the evolving landscape within housing, Kay commends all those involved within the NEC team, “seeing the delivery of our latest release on time has been fantastic” she adds “especially with the launch of NEC Engage”.
Each year, over £6 million is invested into NEC Housing to ensure our housing providers can effectively deliver services to their residents with ease. The culmination of the latest round of investment has seen enhancements across a range of our housing solutions (which, for our current housing providers, the full details can be accessed through the Customer Portal).
Speaking on the recent investment, Kay comments “For those of us within NEC Housing, the allocation of this investment signifies our commitment to driving innovation across the whole housing platform in a way which works best for both housing providers and their residents”.
In combination with the recently launched NEC Engage, the purpose of this investment can be seen in the form of enhancements in other areas of the platform too, such as Account Analytics.
Account analytics is a sophisticated tool which identifies patterns and anomalies across all kinds of revenue accounts. Notifying providers where there’s a potential for arrears risk.
The reality of these latest developments and enhancements for both our housing providers and their residents demonstrates our commitment to listening and responding to the needs of our customers and the demands of the market, to pre-emptively adapt where required whilst constantly innovating.
Want to learn more about how our range of solutions, including those from our latest update, can help you work smarter and deliver great results? Get in touch via the form below:
