Odyssey Interactive launches Intranet solution designed specifically for Housing Associations

05 September, 2005 - Odyssey Interactive has launched an updated version of Interact Housing Association Edition, an Intranet solution designed specifically to meet the needs of housing organisations. Interact HE is delivering proven and measurable benefits to leading housing associations across the UK, saving 1000’s of man hours, improving efficiency and saving organisations hundreds of thousands of pounds each year.

Many Housing Associations are faced with an endless stream of papers, forms and emails. Each year thousands of man hours are wasted requesting and searching for company data, contact details and the latest policies, which reduces efficiency and puts additional pressure on HR and management.

Interact HE addresses these problems by providing an easily accessible central database. This gives staff instant access to all basic company information such as the latest Health and Safety reports, housing policies, colleagues’ contact details and an illustrated catalogue of the housing stock, saving valuable time and resources.

A key advantage of Interact HE is that it is a self-managed system. Interact’s simple interface allows for decentralised content management, meaning that business managers and field staff take control of the content, ensuring it is relevant and up-to-date and simultaneously reducing the burden on IT staff. Decentralised management means that relevant information is communicated effectively to staff, improving accountability and efficiency of the organization.

Tailor-made to meet common housing association needs, Interact HE features a photo image library, enabling associations to create an intranet based photo database of housing stock. This can be linked to housing management software, so that when a tenant calls the maintenance team get a clearer idea of the property type and requirements.

Interact HE’s IT Support Desk module also helps to streamline IT administration, by automatically logging and monitoring any problems and forwarding enquiries to relevant departments. Interact HE also helps with compliance issues, ensuring staff are up-to-date and aware of the latest housing developments and have read important documents, such as the Health and Safety policy.

Additional Interact HE features include the SMS module - an important way to communicate key messages with users who are not office based, such as landlords, community workers and maintenance teams. The Forms Management module can further streamline administration, with staff storing forms relating to new properties, tenants and maintenance issues, saving time and resources and reducing the paper trail.

Nigel Danson, Director of Odyssey Interactive said: "Many organisations still distribute and share their information using paper-based reports that very often don't get read or rapidly become obsolete -- leading to a disorganised administrative and knowledge system. The most efficient way to solve these problems is to create an Intranet, which will provide many benefits, both in terms of increased efficiency and reduced costs.

Gallions Housing Association, which manages over 5000 homes in South-East London, now saves over 360 man hours and £12,000 each month thanks to Interact, which has reduced administration and processing costs, delivered key organisational information to staff and increased overall business efficiency. Information is now shared effectively between staff and relevant documents are easy to locate. Gallions is benefiting from greater efficiency and reduced paper and print resources resulting in annual cost savings of over £150,000.

Odyssey Interactive has designed and installed Intranets for a number of leading housing associations such as Thames Valley Housing Association, Mosscare Housing, Accord Housing, Calico Housing, Chester & District Housing Association, Gallions Housing Association and East Midlands Housing.