Technology around resident support and communication needs to be at the top of any digital agenda. After all, tenants want to feel safe, secure, and supported by their housing provider.

In recent years, housing providers have increasingly adopted self-service portals in their homes as part of resident support and to combat any communication challenges. The tool allows tenants to submit information easily through a tablet or mobile app, which is then received and processed by the social housing provider.

However, housing associations often fall short when it comes to self service portals by not taking into account the wraparound technology required to ensure success. Legacy systems and poor technology have the power to disrupt the resident experience, by stopping tenants from interacting easily with their housing provider, reporting repairs or paying rent through portals. In turn, this can lead to frustrated tenants, as well as increased workloads for employees.

When it comes to self-service portals, three areas should always be considered.

Connectivity

Are the right connectivity solutions in place to support increased network traffic from self-service portals? During high peak times, reliable and flexible connectivity is vital for avoiding downtime and allowing portals to work to their best capacity. Wide Area Network solutions, such as SD-WAN and PWAN, are beneficial in that they help to streamline high data usage by selecting the best path for network traffic. Cloud systems are also invaluable, as the infrastructure can scale up and down based on tenant demand.

Productivity

While connectivity solutions can support the flow of information, the right productive solutions need to be place so employees can process data shared and manage their next steps. A flexible telephony solution stores data from portals which contact centre staff can easily follow up on in response, making the time to resolution process quicker and more efficient. Microsoft 365 also enables users to access, share and edit files securely from an office desktop, tablet or mobile, so a tenant’s query is easier to handle, even if employees are not working in the office.

Security

When tenants supply information via the self-service portals, they need to know that their personal and confidential data is secure with the social housing provider. IT solution providers can provide additional protection through firewalls and managed security applications. Full service MSPs, like Timico, have a Network Operations Centre with experts on hand monitoring infrastructure and potential threats 24/7, helping to keep tenant data safe and GDPR compliant at all times.

A guide to resident support solutions

At Timico, we want to help you support residents in the best way possible. That is why we have created a resident support guide which delves deeper into the benefits of connected, productive and secure solutions for self-service portals, with additional expertise and advice from our social housing specialists. Download the resident support guide here.