Salford housing association Salix Homes has scooped a national award in recognition of its digital customer portal.
Salix Homes, which own and manages around 8,000 homes across Salford, was been named Digital Landlord of the Year at the UK Housing Awards 2020.
The housing association picked up the prestigious accolade thanks to its innovative online services platform – MySalix.
The new and improved MySalix digital portal was launched in October 2019, and enables customers to easily manage their tenancy at the click of a button or tap of a phone.
It includes an innovative chat-bot and webchat which means that tenants can save time booking repairs.
The launch of MySalix followed a transformation of the organisation’s IT infrastructure to allow the housing provider to meet the demands of the modern world.
Lee Sugden, chief executive at Salix Homes, said: “This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication that went into developing MySalix and the fundamental rethink of our IT environment to enable it and I’m incredibly proud of this achievement.
“In our latest corporate plan, Our Future, we’ve set out our commitment to delivering a truly digital service for our customers, so that that they can have more control over their tenancy.
“The technology we have used is a first for the housing sector and is something we are continually developing to improve our digital services.
“The foundations and organisational culture that helped us develop this kind of platform for our customers, are the very same that has helped us adapt quickly as a business during the COVID-19 pandemic, embracing and deploying new tech and systems pretty much overnight.”
The UK Housing Awards are the most prestigious awards in the sector and celebrate the very best teams and individuals in the UK housing sector.
The first ever virtual UK Housing Awards were held on Thursday, 3 December and were hosted by comedian Rory Bremner.