1st Touch (www.1sttouch.com), the UK’s leading system innovator for the social housing sector, has unveiled details of its upcoming V6 Digital and Mobile Platform. Hailed as a major sea-change, the new version which is due out across Europe from Q4 2017, represents a multimillion-pound development investment by parent company Aareon. The new product is expected to drive market growth and to establish 1st Touch as the digital development platform of the group. The launch will be supported by a dynamic marketing and social media campaign.
The new V6 system will excel by delivering a complete digital transformation and mobile workforce ecosystem for the housing sector. With full SAAS (Software As A Service) functionality, V6 will allow social landlords of all sizes to access commonly used modules and forms in the Cloud. This will allow all the very latest best-practice modules and apps to be shared with subscribers and customers. More importantly it will also provide a marketplace for users, partners and third party vendors to trade and exchange relevant apps.
To position itself in preparation for the launch and greater European growth, 1st Touch is also aligning itself more closely within the Aareon Group structure. This much tighter internal integration reflects customer demand to have a single unified contact centre and administrative organisation. Focussing exclusively on digital and mobile development, 1st Touch will remain a separate legal entity within the group, whilst sharing a joint board strengthened by new executive appointments with Aareon UK from July 1st 2017.
As a result of the new alignment, clients will also now be able to plug in a range of digital solutions from the Aareon Group including: CRM, Contractor systems, ASB and Asset Management, whilst integrating just once with their Housing Management System. This will significantly reduce IT administration and maintenance for joint customers, whilst delivering further efficiencies through the digital solutions offered by the Group.
For his part, 1st Touch’s Greg Johns believes that upcoming V6 launch and the new administrative alignment are both a tremendous opportunity to build on success and to drive growth. In his view, “Version 6 is an exciting development for both companies, as it recognises the tremendous market momentum of the 1st Touch brand to date and also provides a catalyst for sharing a strong management team going forwards. It also gives us access to highly skilled resources and significant facilities of the incredibly well funded Aareon organisation, part of Aareal Bank.
“Version 6 is far and above anything the market has seen to date and I am confident that it will soon establish itself as the de facto digital and mobile platform across the UK and Europe as a whole. I look forward to building on our success and seeing the brand go from strength to strength within the group.”
For his part Aareon’s MD Steve Makin noted, “1st Touch is widely acclaimed as the market leading brand in the UK’s digital and mobile social housing sector. Version 6 will reinforce this market leading position and establish the brand across the wider market and Europe. By integrating more closely with Aareon, 1st Touch is able to access considerably greater resources, share a winning management team and benefit from a new & efficient unified customer interface. By this means, we are combining a winning product with the very best support and resources available. I look forward to seeing the first fruits of this fusion from July the 1st onwards.”
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