Sovereign Housing, one of the largest housing associations in the UK, has launched an accessible online portal for its 130,000 customers, the first step in a complete digital transformation for the organisation.

Designed, developed and delivered by MMT Digital, the portal, called MySovereign, gives customers the freedom to manage their own account from any device, enabling them to report any repairs needed, pay rent and access information regarding their account.

Sovereign required a scalable portal with a refreshed customer experience and the technical infrastructure to effectively manage large amounts of complex data. A merger with Spectrum Housing Group meant that two existing customer portals, both with extensive customer data, needed to be combined onto a single platform and integrated with various payment systems to streamline the transactional element to the portal.

An additional requirement was to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities, with the ultimate goal of achieving AA compliance. Sovereign and MMT Digital worked with accessibility services provider Shaw Trust to ensure this was successfully achieved.

Sam Dart, business change project manager at Sovereign, commented: “Our new customer portal is a big part of our digital transformation and an important step to becoming a modern, connected business. The new mobile-friendly MySovereign portal allows residents to self-serve anywhere and anytime, giving them 24-7 access and more ways to manage their tenancy.

“Built around the needs of our customers, the solution delivered by MMT Digital is both personalised and fully accessible, achieving AA compliance. However, this is just the first step and we’re excited about how MySovereign will evolve to continue providing a great customer experience for our residents.”

Ian Stanton, client services director, MMT Digital, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Sovereign Housing to transform its digital presence and the customer portal is an excellent first step towards this. Today’s digitally empowered customer expects to be able to manage everything online and Sovereign has responded to this.

“Not only does the portal offer an excellent customer experience, but it also has the technical infrastructure to scale as demand increases. Our ongoing work on this project is a beacon of collaborative client-agency work and something that we greatly value.”