United Residents Housing
	"We need to provide a ‘one stop service’ area for our tenants by setting up a ‘joint’ website linking the services of all four RMO areas"

“We were looking for web designers that would give us a real presence on the web as well as impress inspectors during a government assessment of our housing services.  We found CES staff very flexible to work with. They have alot of experience in the housing field and therefore they understand what residents’ expectations are and they really work with you to achieve this. They were happy to come down from Edinburgh to meet with staff to deliver some training. The overall cost of the project was very competitive hence the reason why they was the preferred provider” - Clara Odamo, United Residents Housing

The client:

United Residents Housing is an arms length management organisation for four resident-managed estates in the London Borough of Lambeth (Blenheim Gardens RMO, Loughborough EMB, Roupell Park RMC and Waltham RMO). Together with the local resident management organisations they are responsible for over 2,500 dwellings many of which are in need of investment. Their aim is to improve the housing management and repairs services to residents, and to achieve at least two stars in Audit Commission inspection. By demonstrating they can work together as a larger unit than any of the individual Resident Management Organisations (RMOs) individually they will then be able to draw down additional funds allocated by Government to invest in Decent Homes and Decent Estates.

The challenge:

United Residents Housing had an aim to improve the housing management and repairs service to residents, and demonstrate that the individually managed estates work well together under their larger organisation. To achieve this goal CES were engaged to provide United Residents Housing (URH) with a corporate website, to combine the separate websites of the four resident estates under one branded website.

The technology:

CES's Podium product utilising IBM Domino was used to create the site which also incorporates Browsealoud, Secure Documents Areas and Newsletters.

The solution:

CES developed a Podium website, to act as a "one stop service area" for all tenants, where tenants can report repairs, pay their rent and give feedback to URH on their service level. Podium is CES's own website content management system, which in this case was built to include a Newsletter and Secure Documents Area, to provide a secure document transfer facility for URH staff. To make the website accessible to all tenants we incorporated Browsealoud functionality, therefore the website content is audible for those who find reading difficult. The setting up of a joint website linking the services of all four Resident Managed Organisations (RMOs) was important to show a unified team.

The website provides a flexible environment where each RMO can retain their own identity and provide local services to their tenants whilst at the same time functioning under the joint United Residents Housing management organisation.