Our Solutions

All of our IT solutions are web based and fully hosted by us and are based upon award winning leading edge Microsoft Technology. You purchase the service not the system, which means you have no hardware, operating software or IT infrastructure costs. All you pay is a simple fixed setup cost with an annual service support charge.

Solutions

Responsive Website Development

With the growth of the use of mobile technologies, it is becoming increasingly important for an organisations web presence to operate effectively on all devices. Whilst many websites can be adapted to provide an adequate mobile environment, a truly responsive website, engineered from the ground up to be fully responsive can provide a whole new customer journey.

Sector have been creating new responsive websites and applying responsive designs their client sites for a number of years now. With the added expertise of following GDS design guidelines Sector are uniquely poised to re-engineer your site.

Application Development

Constantly evolving technology means that organisations need to continuously review and adapt their business systems. All of our applications are based upon industry leading Microsoft technology, with ASPX web pages providing the principal user interface and SQL server databases the storage solution – along with Java and Ajax to improve the user experience.

All of our systems are completely web based. We provide a complete turnkey solution - we develop the application with you,to your specifications. We will host the application on our industrial strength Microsoft Cloud servers, and then support and develop the application as your requirements change.

Mobile App Development

For many customers their first thought to carry out business transactions is to install an App on their phone. Increasingly they will visit the Google or Apple stores and search for a tool to carry out their business. If they find one they are likely to become a customer.

Whilst the creation of Apps has traditionally been extremely expensive, the Sector framework now means that having a native App in both the Apple and Google stores is within most organisations grasp

Microsoft Cloud Migration (Azure)

Cloud computing, whereby organisations effectively outsource the management of their server infrastructure and associated internet connectivity is set to grow exponentially over the coming years. Whilst Cloud computing can make both financial and operational sense, the actual process of getting systems transferred is extremely technical, requiring detailed knowledge of the way the target cloud environment operates. Sector has chosen the Microsoft Cloud as their cloud environment.

Microsoft was chosen for a variety of reasons, primarily because our developments are carried out within Microsoft technology, and that Microsoft have the broadest range of security and resilience accreditations. However, navigating the various Microsoft hardware options, software configurations and then applying the labyrinthine pricing structures to your chosen solution can only be achieved via experience.

Sector have this experience, and can help you make this transformation.

Choice Based Lettings

Choice Manager is the flexible way to deliver choice based letting to those in housing need. Choice Manager has been chosen by over fifty local authorities, managing 230,000 people seeking housing and 10,000 lets each year

Choice Manager will be delivered as your scheme, with your branding, your publications and your website. It implements your housing allocation policy the way you want. Your customers can use Choice Manager through the web, by post, using text-messaging or by phone. A complete reporting solution enables you to target your resources at your vulnerable customers. Choice Manager is designed to complement your current housing IT systems. Our clients use all the main housing management IT systems. Our aim - and achievement - is zero impact on clients' IT resources.

Choice Based Lettings explained Click here for a more detailed explanation of how Choice Based Lettings can help your organisation

Choice Based Lettings report Click here to read a report on the motivations behind the UK Government implementing Choice Based Lettings. This is based on findings from Pilot schemes held in the UK.

Homeless Prevention & Advice (HPA)

The HPA solution is a full homelessness management system, which assists staff in giving both housing advice and homelessness prevention information, as well as tracking and managing Homeless Applications.

All the information captured can be reported on using our inbuilt reporting tools. So for example, demographic analysis of the homeless population by criteria such as such as age and ethnicity is possible. On a case by case basis, officers can view what advice has already been delivered, and can be prompted as to appropriate advice that should be considered. From a overall service provision viewpoint it is easy to assess which types of advice are having an impact and which are not.

The system captures ALL of the information required for the P1E. As such the returns which can take weeks or longer to complete, are produced in just seconds. There is also an option to have a public facing version, which allows the applicant to access to all the advice they have received to date, providing the needed level of transparency and clarity.

Online Form Builder

Our online register is based upon the deployment and configuration of our Form Generator solution. The Form Generator solution allows for the rapid production and deployment of online forms containing business logic to route applicants through only the appropriate screens they require.

For example, there is no need to present an applicant with a screen requiring them to enter medical details if they have specifically said they have no medical conditions.

Our online form product is now completely responsive meaning it will function perfeclty on mobile, tablet or PC's as well as supporting the current Government styling guidelines (GDS).

Allocations / Property Pool

Coming soon...

Low Cost Home Ownership

The UK Government has identified the need to provide affordable housing to key public sector employees who cannot afford to buy a home in which they work. To address this, the government is providing substantial funds for affordable housing developments.

However it is extremely difficult and time consuming to identify appropriate key workers to inform them of new developments. This is because there is no central database of key workers who have expressed an interest in buying the homes built in the various developments.

Affordable housing manager was developed by us to aid in the process of marketing and selling affordable housing properties. Affordable housing manager allows you to build up and maintain a list of key workers in your community so that affordable housing can be marketed to the right people. It allows marketing staff to publish marketing material on to the web, letting the public know about the available and forthcoming developments. It is simple to use and no technical knowledge is necessary.

Private Landlords

With the growing demands on social housing stock, a large number of local authorities are looking to interacting and interfacing with private landlords to help meet the demands of the market. There are a number of different models relating to working with private landlords which authorities are adopting in order to help satisfy the demand. Our solution can be configured in a variety of ways to support the various models of social housing – private sector landlord interaction.

Configuration types include:

1) Open House Model – the local authority provides a stand alone website allowing Private Landlords to advertise properties and then encourages applicants on its waiting list to use the service to contact the landlord and obtain housing directly.

2) Choice Based Lettings (CBL) Integrated Model – the local authority brokers the service, creating adverts on behalf of the landlords and encouraging “bids” on the private properties alongside the social landlord properties. If a bidding limit is imposed, bids on private properties can be configured not to count to the applicant’s cyclical quota.

3) Mixed Model – anywhere in between the Open House and CBL integrated models, for example, the private properties could be advertised within the CBL framework, but “bidding” is handled directly between the landlord and applicant.

For more information please on how our Private landlords module could work in your organisation please contact us.

Housing register

Our Online application solution can of course be extended to provide complete Housing Register functionality. Increasingly our customers are looking to make savings in their corporate IT costs, and replacing costly and expensive housing application systems is a simple and effective way of doing so.

In essence the Customer database becomes the Housing Register. All automatic registrations and permissible updates to the register are provided by the Online application. The system can be configured to allow certain pieces of information to be automatically updated in the customers record, (such as mobile phone details etc.), or set to a pending status requiring an officer to vet the change (such as the addition of a family member) from the web site. Quick capture interfaces can be created to allow paper application forms to be rapidly entered. The systems inbuilt workflow processing can be configured to carry out the housing register maintenance functions via a number of channels.

For example re-registration can be carried out by automatically emailing customers and asking them to confirm or update their details. As with all of our solutions, the Housing Register is fully hosted and managed by us in our secure data centres. As such you do not need to purchase hardware or any operating software, all backup and management and upgrades are taken care of by us, leading to substantial cost savings for our customers.

Supported Services & Referrals

The Supported Services module allows customers to self-refer themselves to the council to apply for any number of supported services which are on offer by providers. Customers apply using an online application form which is a copy of the current paper forms being used, this online form can be completed by the customer or by a referral agency on behalf of the customer. The customer is able to see all schemes on offer by the various providers on the public site and can apply for a particular scheme or for a type of support.

Officers will receive all pending applications on the backoffice and with each case, invite the customer for an interview or accept their application in order for it to be referred onto an appropriate provider. Once accepted by the local authority the officer is then able to select the appropriate scheme - run by the providers - and refer this customer. This customer would then appear on the scheme waiting list and will need to be dealt with by the provider. They can invite the customer for a further interview, accept or reject them from the waiting list. Upon rejection as valid rejection reason will need to be provided. When accepted a support start date and a case officer is provided and the customer is removed from the waiting list.

The central customer record which is stored can be easily exported to Choice Based Lettings and managed from the same Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) screen used currently in the backoffice with additional tabs for their Supported Services application and scheme memberships.