Reflecting on the Past Year: Embracing Change and Accelerating Innovation in Housing
Embracing Change and Accelerating Innovation: How Housing Associations Adapted to the ‘New Normal’
Looking back on the past twelve months, the world faced emotional and physical challenges, and time seemed to stand still. Despite these obstacles, my team and I at Origin Housing embraced the opportunity to reimagine and accelerate new service development in 2020.
A year ago, I was tasked with leading a new team at Origin Housing. The Technology Solutions team was created to focus on Data, Dynamics 365, and innovation. Our role was to manage and develop Dynamics 365 environments, accelerate development across core Microsoft technologies, and build a modern data warehouse.
Rethinking Our Services
The coronavirus pandemic highlighted our increased need for online connections for work, learning, and socializing. This digital reliance led to rapid growth in the technology economy, a trend that was evident at Origin Housing as well.
Within days of the first lockdown announcement, we had to reevaluate and redesign our services to continue supporting our residents. The team focused on delivering business value promptly and iteratively through incremental changes. Rapid development using Microsoft platforms enabled us to quickly respond to the organization’s needs throughout the pandemic.
Key Results
Midway through the year, I was invited to a Microsoft-hosted event for Housing Associations. There, I shared our vision and roadmap. At that time, we had already delivered half of our key results. Here’s a summary of our accomplishments throughout the year:
- Introduced new contact methods for residents, including social media channels, WhatsApp for Business, a chatbot on our website, and a live chat service.
- Launched an online booking service for residents to schedule appointments with our Income and Neighbourhood teams.
- Initiated a discovery phase for the Internet of Things (IoT) and ran proof-of-concepts for smart building management and maintenance.
- Migrated our Sales and Marketing team to a new Sales CRM built with Dynamics 365 and launched a new Sales website.
- Designed and implemented a new modern cloud data stack.
If you are interested in watching the Microsoft Housing Association Event I have posted a link below.
Reflection
In hindsight, my team and I achieved more than we could have ever imagined at the beginning of the pandemic while adapting to new ways of working and living. Change presented an opportunity for growth, and we embraced the disruption, applying it to our strategy, leadership, and culture. As we continue to navigate the ever-changing landscape, we’ve learned that to succeed in these times, we must adopt disruption internally as part of our values to adapt to the post-Covid era. Uncertainty transformed into agility, future-proofing our services to thrive.
