Our journey to fully integrate our systems
The merger of Optivo and Southern Housing Group into Southern Housing in December 2022 has brought many opportunities and challenges. An important task has been the integration of our systems, ensuring we take the ‘best of both’. This has been a complex journey and whilst we’re making great strides, there is more to do.
In autumn 2024 we delivered a vital part of this work by integrating our main backend systems that support our resident services (this includes the platforms that manage repairs and our housing management data). With this work now done, we’re in a great position to deliver a fully integrated resident contact centre later in 2025.
We’re confident that this work will lead to significant improvements for our residents, including:
- More efficient service: Our advisers will have better tools, with faster access to information, allowing them to focus on your needs.
- Shorter wait times: Automation will help reduce call times, making service faster and more efficient.
- Improved call resolution: Advisors will be able to handle calls more effectively, ensuring issues are resolved promptly.
We’ve been consulting with residents regularly throughout the project to capture feedback on what you’d like from our new contact centre. You can read more about this here.
What next?
There’s still work to be done before we’re where we want to be, but we’ve made great progress.
In early 2025, we’ll be making further back-office changes to our systems. This will allow us to:
- integrate our data system: enabling us to offer our residents a more efficient and effective service when you contact us
- start communicating out using our new central email address (hello@southernhousing.org.uk). Messages sent to our old address will be forwarded on instantly, so please don't send your emails to both new and old addresses! Read more here.
- offer an improved online chat option from our website
- handle resident enquiries more effectively from our Southern Housing social media channels on Facebook, X and Instagram.
The work we’re doing isn’t a quick-fix and we want to be transparent. We apologise in advance for any service interruptions this may cause you over the next few months. Some of the systems you currently use may be temporarily taken down so we can make these vital changes behind the scenes. However, we’ll make sure you have advanced notice of any disruptions.
Later in the year we’ll be looking to launch our new central contact centre alongside our new phone number. We’ll also be looking to go live with a centralised online service and App for our residents. We’ll communicate further about these developments closer to the time.
Need assistance?
If you need support during this time you'll find a wide range of information and guidance available here on our website.
If you'd like to contact us, we’re still here to support as normal but please be aware that if you call us we may be a little slower than usual while the teams get used to new systems.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete this essential work, and we’re committed to keeping you updated on our progress.
For more details, read our blog by Lily Monk, Director of Customer Transactions, where she shares more about this journey.