The Challenge
First Choice Homes Oldham manage over 11,000 properties from individual homes to low rise and tower blocks. In previous years they have operated an old communal door access system that required at least 24 hours for a new fob to be added. As a result of this process, First Choice Homes Oldham knew that they were not achieving high levels of service and, customer satisfaction was also low. In addition, having had the system for over a decade, there were a considerable number of repairs needed on an ongoing basis, all leading to additional costs.
The Requirement
The old system First Choice Homes Oldham had in place relied on dial up technology, this meant time delays and more time from the Neighbourhood and service teams when issuing fobs or carrying out repairs. First Choice Homes Oldham knew they needed to change their approach and began looking for a new system and possibly a new partner.
One of the primary requirements for First Choice Homes Oldham was to find a “cloud based” communal door access solution that would allow instant access to the system from anywhere using web enable devices. This would then lead to a reduction in the time required to manage the system and ultimately lower costs.
The Solution
First Choice Homes Oldham identified four possible providers and invited these companies with KMS being one, to present their company and products, for the project to update all First Choice Homes Oldham communal door access systems. As well as requiring a cloudbased system, First Choice Homes Oldham were also concerned that the transition needed to be smooth with minimum disruption to their customers. CAME KMS were selected and within six months had completed the upgrade at 290 blocks.
The Results
CAME KMS’ SimpleKey Web has now been installed across all blocks managed by First Choice Homes Oldham which require access control. The result of the upgrade has exceeded all expectations and has had a significant impact in relation to time saving for First Choice Homes Oldham. There are also many other benefits including:
- A reduction in fob queries
- Reduction in time on the phone for the admin team
- Reduction in time spent on fob renewals
In addition, the support provided by CAME KMS throughout the process has meant that where there were any queries or issues, they were overcome immediately.
Ron Williams - First Choice Homes Oldham: “Since selecting KMS, we have known this was the right decision so much so that many of our teams have been saying ‘How good is this, why has it taken so long to find them.’ Their support has been fantastic since the project started and the system, Simpleykey Web is extremely easy to use. The results have meant we have saved considerable time and money not to mention improving the satisfaction levels of our customers.”
