"Kypera Housing has grown up" says independent housing consultant

Published by Doug Sarney for Kypera Limited in Housing and also in Communities

The latest release of Kypera’s housing management software – Kypera Housing v2.5 - has moved Kypera from a niche provider to a mainstream player, capable of competing successfully with the current market leaders, according to independent housing consultant Neil Robinson.

Kypera Housing is the first comprehensive housing management system to use the latest Microsoft.NET technology throughout. It is this modern, clean technology that enables Kypera to leap-frog its competitors. Neil Robinson, of Reformed Poacher Ltd., believes that the core strength of Kypera Housing lies in its simplicity and the ability to deliver a comprehensive and powerful system. He states:

“The fact that Kypera Housing has been built from scratch using the latest technology, rather than evolving over many years, makes it much cleaner and easier to use and implement, delivering cost savings that housing providers will find hard to ignore.”

Ease of use

Robinson adds: “The .NET framework makes Kypera Housing fully Microsoft standard throughout, and therefore familiar and simple to use at the end-user (non-technical) level. 

The use of a Microsoft-driven reporting suite is a very powerful and clear benefit.” The familiarity with the interface means that users typically need less training, and it is easier to extract and sort data and simple to run queries.”

Users have various reporting options: they can use Kypera XLR – an Excel add-in for reporting on Kypera systems that refreshes the data each time it is run, they can use the in-built Microsoft reporting tools or they can export the data grid to Excel in exactly the format that they see on the screen.

Letters are driven from within the product using familiar tools to merge data and standard letter content. The letter can be amended after data has been merged so personal notes can be added to individuals when required. The final version is saved on the system to maintain an accurate audit trail.

Another significant benefit is the Document Access System in Kypera Housing which enables any files to be attached to any record. For example, photographs, emails, scanned correspondence and tenancy agreements can be attached to a record, keeping all relevant information in one place, making it easier to access.

In addition, the user-definable home screen, with key elements saved as ‘Favourites’, plus the per user customisable work tray functionality within the standard system provide ‘big system’ functionality at a fraction of the cost of ‘workflow’ for the larger systems on the market.

Kypera also supplies Kypera Financials accounting solution, which means that true integration is available, not interfacing between third party products. This has knock-on benefits for users in terms of removing the need to maintain cumbersome interfaces.

Significant cost savings

It has been estimated that a 3,000-unit housing association will benefit from directly  identifiable savings of in excess of £100,000 over a 5 year period. This is inclusive of implementation, annual maintenance, licence fees and assumes two upgrades during that period.

These savings are achieved because Kypera Housing has been designed and built using modern technology, which allows faster and more efficient deployment. Implementation for a 3,000 unit housing provider typically takes less than 30 days, (of these 10 are training). Data is imported quickly and efficiently, so there are additional benefits of reduced downtime with its associated costs and service disruption for the client. Annual maintenance costs are proportionately lower and upgrades including training are planned to be completed within five days.

At a time when budgets are being squeezed, Kypera Housing represents tangible cost savings. Total contract values are guaranteed to fall below the EU Tender Threshold which is currently £157,000 over a four year period for all housing providers under 5,000 units, freeing housing providers of additional bureaucracy.

Ian Thompson, Chairman of Kypera comments:

“Kypera Housing is a cost-effective, powerful and intuitive Housing Management solution. We firmly believe that the outdated concept that powerful and flexible equals expensive no longer holds true in the modern era.”

Scalability

One of the criticisms levelled at Kypera Housing in the past is that there is no proven scalability. However, New Gorbals Housing Association in Glasgow has expanded to 5,000 units following a stock transfer from GHA. It has been using Kypera Housing since late 2005 and upgraded to version 2.5 in January 2011.

Mary Reilly, Finance Manager at New Gorbals Housing Association comments:

“Our recent expansion has doubled the amount of stock we now manage to over 5,000 units and Kypera Housing has coped with this effortlessly. Furthermore, the upgrade to version 2.5 was completed in five days and the new employees that we took on as part of the transfer were trained from scratch on all aspects of Kypera Housing within that period.”

Customisation

Ian Thompson, adds:

“We believe that by maintaining one standard set of core functionality, Kypera Housing is comprehensive without being too complex and minimises implementation, training and upgrade costs. With the user-configurable ‘favourites’ facility, the optional analysis codes and especially the work tray options, all necessary flexibility is available for housing providers. In addition, integration with Kypera Financials adds greater functionality and saves time on the inputting of data, while reducing the risk of errors.”

Kypera Housing has grown up

Neil Robinson concludes that the traditional view of Kypera Housing as a small player in the housing technology market is set to change. He adds: “By delivering a slick, straight-forward but comprehensive solution based on the latest technology, Kypera Housing has now grown up. Its core functionality delivers the essential requirements very well and offers significant efficiency benefits and cost savings to housing providers. In the current climate, these will be hard to ignore.”

About Kypera

Kypera Limited develops, implements and supports integrated business solutions for a wide range of organisations across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

Since 2002, Kypera has supplied software to the social housing sector in the form of Kypera Financials. This product was augmented in 2006 with Kypera Housing– the first housing management system to use the latest Microsoft.NET technology throughout. Over 60 social housing providers currently use Kypera’s products.

About Neil Robinson

Reformed Poacher has been established to bring some of the tricks of the trade to housing providers in their negotiations with suppliers, especially over full cost of ownership of systems and recurring costs. By adopting a unique savings sharing model, Housing Providers and Local Authorities need pay nothing upfront for a comprehensive system review.