19th December 2023, Manchester:
Leading Northwest housing association Onward Homes has announced today that it is launching OptusApp’s powerful tenant self-serve mobile app. The native mobile app, with biometric login, will allow tenants to view and report repairs, view rent history, and make rent payments, and exchange private 2-way messages. Additional app features are scheduled to be rolled-out by Onward in 2024.
Andrew Kidds, Director of Customer Experience & Digital, said:
“Launching our customer app is an important milestone on our digital journey where we will use new technologies to improve our customers’ experiences of our services. The app gives our customers more choice about how they want to contact us and is a quick and convenient way to manage their home.
“We have gone live with a small group of customers so that we can refine key features before rolling out more widely. We are delighted to be working with OptusApp and look forward to seeing the benefits that the new app will bring for our customers.”
“Today is an initial soft-launch of the OptusApp solution, with a gradual ramp-up of both availability and feature-set as we progress through 2024. There is no doubt that native mobile apps are the way to go for self-serve, and we’re very excited to bring leading edge solutions like this to our customers. The OptusApp team have been very supportive right through the integration process”, Andrew continued.
The Government’s Charter for Social Housing Residents, and the introduction of mandatory Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) is nudging many landlords with legacy tenant portals to consider more powerful and flexible alternatives for self-serve. OptusApp are specialists in this area and are unique with their feature-rich SaaS offering.
OptusApp and their integration partners, Manifest Software Solutions (Manifest), have worked with Onward over recent months to perfect a seamless integration to both their housing management system (HMS), and their payment gateway partner.
“The beauty of OptusApp is that their API driven solution is system agnostic” commented Alan Swift, Director at Manifest. “So, via our Universal Adaptor, OptusApp can integrate with any HMS or CRM in the wider social housing landscape. The team at OptusApp really have put a lot of thought behind their platform.”
Gerry Kelly, CEO at OptusApp also commented that “Onward are just one of the many progressive social landlords who appreciate that tenant self-serve needs to be customer centric, rather than just a system add-on. OptusApp is unique and we’re blazing a trail in social housing channel-shift. We’re delighted to be working with like-minded people at Onward.”
About Onward Homes:
Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the North West, owning and managing 35,000 homes across Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire & Greater Manchester, including 500 in Murdishaw.
Onward has G1 (governance) and V2 (financial) ratings from the Regulator of Social Housing and has a credit rating of A1 (Stable) from Moodys.
Our experience and presence across the region enables us to actively engage with residents and we are passionate about making a real, positive impact on their quality of life. For more information about Onward, visit: www.onward.co.uk.
About OptusApp:
OptusApp is a specialist self-serve solution provider for the social housing sector. The OptusApp product is a unique genuine native mobile app, provided as a SaaS model for landlords of all sizes. For details please contact: Gerry Kelly, gerry@optusapp.com or 0777 5816163
About Manifest Software Solutions:
Manifest specialise in providing fully managed integration and automation solutions to UK social housing providers, they provide integration with every housing management system. The housing team at Manifest love a challenge and firmly believe that anything can be integrated. For details please contact: Alan Swift, alan@manifest-software.co.uk or 020 3941 0200.
