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Antonine Housing Association, a Scottish provider of quality housing and housing services has selected Asset4000 from Real Asset Management (RAM) to manage its £12 million asset base, in line with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP).
 With impending deadlines forcing associations to act sooner rather than later, RAM has seen numerous housing associations sign up to using its software since January 2011, a third of which are based in Scotland.
Established in 2000, Antonine works closely with owner-occupiers, tenants and local councils to provide quality services that contribute to the well-being of the communities they serve. In addition to providing repairs and maintenance to all communal areas, Antonine provides a ‘Care & Repair' service - a free and confidential home-based service that assists clients to maintain, improve or adapt their homes enabling them to remain in comfort and safety in their own community.
From April 2012, housing associations will be obliged to break their assets down into individual components. Anything that is currently deemed replaceable, for example a roof or bathroom, will be considered an individual asset under the new rulings. With 340 houses under its management, Antonine's asset register will rise to over 2300 items under the new guidelines. This increase highlighted the need for a robust asset register that would provide the component level accounting detail required to meet the new SORP guidelines.
Michael Devlin, Director at Antonine Housing, realised that the excel spreadsheet system he was once reliant upon was becoming redundant and that it was time to invest in IT. He comments:
"One of the attractions of RAM's Asset4000 system was the ability for it to be integrated with our current software. Our software provider demonstrated the services available in Asset4000 and we were impressed at how easy we could transfer information from the old system over to the new system. The software's potential will inevitably provide us with useful management information for the future."
Commenting on the appeal of Asset4000, Devlin explains:
"The layout and the ease of access to the various components of the software will enable us to hold all our information in one place, consequently meaning that there will be some -significant time and efficiency savings to be made compared to the previous spreadsheet-based system."
Speaking about the relationship with RAM, Devlin recalls:
"I couldn't speak highly enough about the service. It has been very good. RAM goes above and beyond what's needed and takes the time to advise and to keep in frequent contact with us."
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