Solution Benefits

  • Reduced time spent saving and searching for key files
  • Greater control over document storage
  • Improved visibility for audits
  • Simplified data structure
  • Improved retention policy for various departments
  • Reduced document duplication
  • Improved document scanning processes

Customer Profile

  • Independent community-focused organisation
  • Midlands

About Bournville Village Trust

Founded in 1900 by George Cadbury, Bournville are one of the largest and most respected housing trusts in the country.

As a highly respected housing trust and one of the oldest in the country, Bournville Village Trust (BVT) is focused on quality customer service and improving communities in which people choose to live. For BVT, looking ahead and remaining on top of public sector trends is paramount for reinforcing its reputation in delivering customer focused housing, maintenance and estate management services while strengthening its processes with partner agencies to develop successful and sustainable communities.

Over the last few years the residential footprint of BVT has grown to cover some 25,000 residents over 1,000 acres. As more residents become technology-savvy and access services via a number of mediums, BVT needed to ensure it had a suitable IT solution to meet the demand from residents. The trust wanted to ensure its residents received quality and speedy responses to any communication with the trust. In order to do that, BVT recognised the need to upgrade its electronic Document Management (eDM) solution and implement smooth workflows between all departments.

“The pivotal role Agilico played providing a professional service with excellent support has enabled us to streamline our internal processes across BVT.”

Our ongoing investment in the Agilico solution, along with the professional services they can provide has enabled our business to continue our rapid response times for residents, contractors and suppliers, all the while improving efficiency.

Carl FowlerBournville Village Trust

Upgrading Solutions

As part of the overhaul, BVT turned to us to upgrade its eDM solution so that it could strengthen its reputation in customer service excellence and build on its ongoing success.

The trust deals with many contractors and suppliers across its housing network, so it was critical all employees were able to record data correctly. To create smooth workflows between internal departments, Carl Fowler and James Hoare (IT Networking Manager) both played key roles in upgrading to the latest Invu eDM solution, while working closely with the Agilico support team. The process saw hundreds of thousands of documents, including tenancy agreements, invoices, internal repayments, architectural drawings and scanned information transferred in just one week – transforming efficiency and providing rapid access to information for both administrative and client facing activity.

“Upgrading our eDM solution added to our own vision of sustaining a highly reputable level of quality and to ensure we are changing with the times.”

Trusted Housing

An eDM solution from Agilico was first introduced to the company ten years ago and it is the professional manner in which we have worked with BVT over this time that has reinforced a strong working ethos. Our technical advisers were on hand to ensure the necessary upgrade was carried out smoothly and hassle-free. The team provided intuitive training to 180 BVT employees, educating them on how to maximise the new solution.

“The decision to choose to work with Agilico was clear cut because the team knows and understands our business structure in great detail and were on-board from day one with what we were looking to achieve with an eDM,” explains Carl Fowler. “Previously to using Agilico we filed everything away manually.”

“When we came to review our systems we knew that we wanted to remain working with Agilico. After working with us for a decade, the company is a trusted supplier that intuitively knows what we need to do to improve our processes in the future. They are always thinking ahead to future proof technology and incorporate the latest technological developments. However, they get the balance right because we are never pressurised to adopt new systems early. Technically, we feel very comfortable because of the fast support we receive.”

Reinforcing Relationships

The positive working relationship between Agilico’s professional services team, along with an easy to use interface and familiarity with the solution, were key considerations in retaining Agilico’s solution. Not to mention the improved workflow patterns available in the latest update of the Agilico eDM solution.

James Hoare adds, “We liked the fact that we could work with Agilico to design our own processes, set our own rules and have greater search capabilities with no extra bolt-on costs for bespoke requirements.”

“Agilico involved end-users from the very start, which has made user adoption far easier to implement. This ease of use and speed of retrieval, combined with excellent scalability, is critical to how our business performs.”

Streamline Success

BVT employees are now using the new solution on a daily basis and cutting their time to save and search important files by many hours per month. The solution upgrade has enabled greater control over how documents are stored, better visibility for audits, improved retention policy for different departments and a simplified data structure. It has also reduced the number of duplicated documents, streamlined the saving process, improved the process of scanning new documents and made it easier for customers and suppliers to follow company policies, without suffering from misfiling problems.

Carl Fowler concludes, “The pivotal role Agilico played providing a professional service with excellent support has enabled us to streamline our internal processes across BVT giving staff an easy to use system with excellent search facilities allowing access to information quickly and efficiently. This underpins and strengthens our highly regarded award winning services supplied to our residents.”