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Affinity Sutton selects Hitachi Solutions as Enterprise Resource Planning partner for its Future Foundations Programme

Affinity Sutton is delighted to announce that it has selected Hitachi Solutions Europe to deploy a Microsoft Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution across the whole of its business. The selection of Hitachi Solutions is the result of a robust selection process which started in 2014. ERP systems are used widely in the corporate sector and provide an integrated solution for core business processes; often in real-time, maintained by a single database management system. The applications that make up the system share data across all the departments and functions in a company.

Mark Washer, Group Finance Director said “this is a hugely exciting appointment and marks what we hope will be the start of a long and successful partnership with Hitachi Solutions to deliver state of the art, fully integrated systems for the benefit of our customers and staff. We are making this investment because our current systems have come to the end of their useful lives and we want to deliver much more of our services on line and in our residents’ homes. The expectations of our customers are changing and the business needs to keep pace.”

Affinity Sutton launched its business transformation programme, Future Foundations, in 2013. The Programme will transform the way the Group does business. New ways of working and a multi-channel approach to working with our customers will be facilitated by world class CRM and ERP solutions from Microsoft. Staff will interact with a single, seamless IT solution rather than the multitude of different systems currently common in the sector. Customers will be able to enquire and report via a new range of self-service on-line, digital channels enabling much faster resolution of issues no matter which communications channel the customer chooses. It will also benefit staff by providing unified data and a “single version of the truth”.

The solution, which comprises Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Dynamics AX and Hitachi Solutions’ own Field Service Automation software, is a long term investment in the business and will provide a flexible, sustainable platform from which to improve customer services, streamline processes, reduce complexity and support future growth. Making working practices and processes more effective will create a more efficient organisation, delivering better value for money which ultimately means Affinity Sutton will have more capacity to build new homes and invest in its social purpose.

“I am excited that Hitachi Solutions has won this project to fundamentally improve the core processes across the business for Affinity Sutton. Housing Associations are a key market for us and during the bid process we were able to showcase our knowledge of their business and demonstrate how Microsoft technologies can improve customer service whilst reducing costs,” adds Steven French, Executive Vice President, Hitachi Solutions Europe.