HomeMaster Outshines the Competition
Karen Cooper of Penge Churches Housing Association shares her experience of the HomeMaster housing and finance platform.
When lockdown started, Penge Churches Housing Association (PCHA), along with many others, was forced to accelerate its ICT strategy to become a more modern, agile organisation.
After moving to Microsoft 365 and bringing its phone system online to allow for remote working, the natural next step was to review the housing and financial management system. “It became clear that the old system was no longer fit for purpose,” says Karen Cooper, Chief Executive of PCHA. “We completed a market review and some soft market testing and HomeMaster shone far brighter than all of the other systems on the market. This was both in terms of the advantages it would bring us and the cost. It was an easy decision to make.”
Karen Copper continues: “We were impressed by both the level of functionality and the intuitive design HomeMaster offers. It felt clean, modern and easy to use, while giving us all the functions we wanted and more. The team were very excited.”
“Improving customer service is an important driver for us,” adds Karen “and HomeMaster can help us to do this both directly and indirectly. Indirectly through easier access to data, a proper CRM system and better processes, and directly by allowing residents access to information via the portal/app.”
“What has impressed me most is HomeMaster’s willingness to work in partnership with us and their response to any suggestions we have for changes to the system. We have been able to work with HomeMaster to shape the product to help other customers too, and I think that’s very powerful. The reporting function is a good example – we have identified enhancements that will automatically be applied across the board to all customers.”
HomeMaster and PCHA agreed a project plan and timeline that would work for both parties. It was adjusted during the implementation process and the ‘go live’ date was actually brought forward by a month.
Karen Cooper concludes: “HomeMaster was delivered relatively quickly and the Homemaster team did exactly what they said they would do. It’s still early days but the experience has been wholly positive so far. We’re really excited about using HomeMaster and are really confident that it will deliver benefits to our residents.”