- 02 | 12 | 2025
“Getting knowledge and information management (KIM) right is ‘the closest thing the sector could get to a silver bullet’, according to the Housing Ombudsman’s introduction to [the] Spotlight report,” states a recent Housing Quality Network briefing document.”
What does good knowledge and information management look like in the housing sector? Why is it important enough to be practically ‘a silver bullet’? And how, with their scarcity of time and resource, can housing associations improve it?
Setting a new data standard
Knowledge and information management is more complex than just record-keeping. It relates not just to how documents are stored, but to how the data they contain is shared, protected, managed and used.
Around 6 million people in the UK live in properties managed by housing associations. That’s a lot of housing but even more data. Repair requests, tenancy agreements, court packs, proof of identity and income documents. Vast lakes of information in hard and soft copy, from the trivial to the highly sensitive.
Following the UK’s Grenfell Tower tragedy, the government adopted recommendations requiring a ‘golden thread’ of digital information to be maintained throughout the lifecycle of a building, with an accountable person “ensuring it is accurate and accessible. And when they can’t find this information, they need to justify why.”
Correct management of data has an impact on the highest of profile cases, like Grenfell, but also touches every part of a housing association’s activities, from its ability to quickly respond to customer enquiries, to making well-informed decisions, to the identification of risks to tenants’ health.
Data management requirements mandated by legislation such as the Building Safety Act, and via the Housing Ombudsman, are laudable but enacting them can be tough.
Anyone responsible for records management or IT within a housing association will recognise challenges like these:
Data and files are scattered everywhere
Information is missing or incomplete
Some information goes back decades, so trying to track it down is a full-time job
Preparing for inspections adds stress for busy team members
Tenants get frustrated with slow responses or incomplete information
Implementing additional systems and databases adds work
6 million
Around 6 million people in the UK live in properties managed by housing associations
The reality is, regulation has tightened, but housing association budgets and staff levels haven’t necessarily increased in proportion to the increased administrative demand. Organisations in this sector need to find even more creative ways of managing their resources in order to stay on top of legislative requirements.
Because in spite of the difficulties, the work to improve records and information management is non-negotiable. The golden thread legislation could see directors of housing associations fined or even imprisoned for not keeping “prescribed documents in accordance with prescribed standards”4 – meaning the need to get one’s document management house in order has never been greater.
Get in touch
While the first step is to get housing association data into a state where it’s compliant, accessible and easy to search, that’s only the beginning. Clean, well-organised information opens up opportunities to predict and prevent problems by connecting data sources to reveal patterns and trends.
As the UK government’s Regulator of Social Housing notes, “Being proactive is important – for example one landlord reported using data from stock condition surveys to identify homes which are prone to damp and mould, supporting further specific work in these properties.”5
So how can housing associations tame chaotic data landscapes, to meet regulations and provide a platform for more proactive operations, cost-effectively, and without massive disruption for tenants and employees?
Get in touch
Most public sector organisations in the UK use Microsoft 365 products like SharePoint Online. In which case, it makes sense to use the power, security and existing investment in Microsoft, rather than commissioning expensive, third-party electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS).
Our enterprise-grade Microsoft 365 add-on, OASIS FileSmart, is being adopted by housing associations that need to get control, quickly, over their full document and data estate.
FileSmart converts SharePoint Online into a powerful system to organise, categorise, view and manage all an organisation’s documents in one place.
It offers visibility across the full document estate – paper and digital. Our team of document management experts can digitise paper documents (both archive and new) and upload them to FileSmart. The system also connects via API to other Microsoft tools such as Power Automate and Teams, plus third-party platforms like housing management and customer relationship management systems.
The system is built using roughly 80% SharePoint and 20% FileSmart technology. That final 20% is where the customisation happens, to support both tenant and corporate records.
Typical features used by housing associations include:
Briefcase for SARs (subject access requests) and court packs with redaction
Search functionality designed for tenants, properties and assets
Automated document retention in line with National Housing Federation standards
Microsoft Outlook add-in
Automation of document metadata and filing
Relationships (tenants & properties)
Configurability for all corporate departments
Data remains in in the organisation’s environment, meaning IT teams avoid data sovereignty issues, and the system scales with the housing association’s own cloud storage.
In fact, overall, FileSmart costs a lot less than a standalone document management system. On average, organisations using FileSmart save 50% on licensing costs compared with third-party EDRMS alternatives.
Because FileSmart is built on housing associations’ existing SharePoint systems, it doesn’t come with any of the disruption of learning and implementing a separate document management platform. Plus, here at OASIS, we can handle every part of a modernisation programme, from document digitisation to storage to secure destruction. FileSmart is fully integrated into the process with no additional project management on the part of internal housing association teams.
For a straightforward, cost-effective way to improve your housing association’s knowledge and information management, get in touch.
Get in touch
