Cloud Adoption within Charities and Housing Associations

Greg Dean, Phoenix Sales Manager for Charities & Housing Associations, takes a look at the progress of cloud within both the Charity and Housing Sectors

“So much has been made of the ‘cloud’ and its features as well as its respective benefits to the modern workplace – with upwards of two-thirds of UK SMEs have adapted it into their businesses. Cloud technology, however, is not the sole preserve of the private sector – it also offers a range of value-adding benefits that would seem perfectly suited to Charities and Housing Associations.

As we know, data is key to any organisation – but managing it is not only timely but costly. The adoption of the cloud within the Charity and Housing sectors has seen many solutions being introduced to the market to support their forward-thinking strategy. Let’s start to look at the sectors in a bit more detail …

Housing Associations – Journey to the Cloud

When I think of cloud technology within in Housing Associations, I think WOW! Yes, WOW! Cloud technology has started to transform the way they provide services.

Innovative home technology such as smart-boilers can recognise a drop-in pressure allowing repair systems to despatch a plumber or electrician to the affected home. Imagine how this could streamline the customer experience, not to mention the time and money it could save!

There’s also been some recent testing within the sector with software like Amazon Alexa, which will be integrated with Windows 10 in the Spring so that users can request things such as outstanding rental balances just by asking for it. The potential is huge and an incredibly exciting time to be involved in this sector!

Charities – Journey to the Cloud

As we know, Charities are under immense pressure; they need to be communicating closely with donors, efficiently and effectively to maintain and grow revenues. This is coupled with the challenges of having the right digital technology so that staff can streamline administrative tasks, to save costs and allow them to invest more time in the people that matter – supporters, members, stakeholders and Volunteers.

The challenge is, how are they going to do this? Well, let’s look at a charity and the cloud solutions it has adopted to release the pressures: