South Yorkshire Housing Association tracks 6,000 homes with Asset4000 from Real Asset Management

Sheffield-based Housing Association implements Asset4000 from RAM to manage £288M worth of assets at component accounting level

South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA), has become one of thirty Associations this year to select Asset4000 from Real Asset Management (RAM) to manage its stock of over 6,000 homes. Asset4000 provides the Association with a centralised and robust asset register which ensures the detailed level of component accounting required for it to track and value its asset base in accordance with SORP 2010 guidelines.

South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) is a charitable organisation governed by a voluntary board. Founded in 1972, SYHA now manages more than 6,000 homes throughout the Sheffield City Region. As the largest provider of Care and Supported Housing in the region, the support services offered are expansive; reflecting the wide-range of backgrounds and levels of care residents require.

Under new SORP regulations, Housing Associations will be obliged to divide their asset register into components, an obligation that will push SYHA's asset base to 42,000 individual assets. The immediate challenge was to ascertain a fundamental solution to deal with this change. As Beverly Carr, Finance Manager at the Association explains, "It was imperative that we invested in a solution that could ease the transition into component accounting. The solution from RAM was recommended to us by our financial software provider and we were aware of its reputation within the housing industry for delivering solutions fit for purpose."

"RAM's knowledge of the industry is a comfort during this period of transition. It was reassuring to know that it has dealt with an abundance of Housing Associations, and being able to see the end result prior to implementation was a real benefit."

As with all Housing Associations, user accessibility was a key priority when searching for an appropriate solution. As Carr explains, "It was crucial that we implemented a system from which we could generate an audit trail. With the details of component accounting as they are, we required a system that would easily be able to track and depreciate our asset base in accordance with the guidelines set
out by SORP."

Carr continues, "The benefit of the solution from Real Asset Management is that it provides us with added security features. This means we can allocate individual levels of access which will undoubtedly aid us should we wish to roll out the solution further."

Carr concludes, "We selected Asset4000 from RAM as it was the best product on the market for our needs and held a positive reputation within the housing sector. From what we have experienced to date, RAM's industry knowledge will provide us with a strong platform and smooth transition into component accounting."

For further information, please contact:
Karen Conneely (Marketing manager)   
Real Asset Management   
Tel: +44 (0)1689 892100   
Email : solution@realassetmgt.co.uk