Effective tenant communication starts with centralized document creation

Housing agencies communicate daily with tenants, prospective tenants, suppliers, and supply chain partners through a wide variety of documents, Marco begins: “Many agencies still rely on solutions that were set up years ago and are primarily based on Word templates and mail merge functionality. That works fine for individual letters, but becomes increasingly difficult as communication becomes more personalized, more extensive, and more digital. In addition, we see that document creation is often spread across different departments, applications, and workflows. As a result, there is a lack of central oversight regarding brand guidelines, quality, accessibility, and compliance. The challenge is to organize communication more efficiently without losing the personal touch with tenants.”

According to Marco, many traditional solutions were originally developed for creating individual documents or small print runs: “When housing associations want to send large numbers of letters, reminders, rent increase notices, or project communications, limitations often arise in terms of performance, management, and flexibility. Many of these solutions are also heavily dependent on a single specific ERP or CRM application. This makes it difficult to adapt communication processes when systems change. Modern output management solutions, on the other hand, are specifically designed to handle large document flows, allowing thousands of documents to be produced and distributed efficiently, in a controlled manner, and through various channels.”

In addition to good tools, effective document creation starts with reliable data, Marco explains: “The quality of a document depends on the quality of the data available from the ERP or CRM system. Furthermore, centrally managed templates are important for ensuring consistency in communication. A practical example is a mailing regarding scheduled maintenance. Using a user-friendly web interface, employees select the appropriate target group based on data from the housing association’s system, such as complex, housing type, or ZIP code area. The correct data is then automatically combined with the appropriate template. As a result, every tenant receives a personalized letter containing information relevant to them, while the housing association only needs to manage a single process.”

“However, document creation becomes fragmented when each department starts managing its own templates, documents, and processes. This often leads to different versions of the same letter, inconsistencies in corporate style, and additional administrative work. By centralizing document creation within a single output management platform, housing associations can manage templates, processes, and communication channels in a uniform manner. This reduces errors, shortens the turnaround time for changes, and ensures that communication always meets the desired quality standards. The costs of fragmentation are often greater than anticipated. Employees spend more time searching for the right documents, changes must be implemented in multiple places, and the risk of errors increases. In addition, it becomes more difficult to consistently implement new laws, regulations, or accessibility requirements.”

To support housing associations in this effort, OneXillium has developed an application based on housing association data. Marco: “Our approach combines powerful output management with a user-friendly web interface that is specifically tailored to the processes of housing associations. By running a query on data from the ERP or CRM system, employees can easily select the right target group—such as tenants of a specific complex, residents in a renovation project, or contacts with a specific status. The user doesn’t need any technical knowledge to do this. The selection is made via the web interface, after which the correct document and data are automatically combined. Another key advantage is the solution’s independence from underlying systems. It isn’t tied to a single ERP or CRM vendor. As a result, the document environment remains intact even if a housing association decides to replace its primary applications.”

For tenants, this way of communicating means, above all, better communication: “They receive the right information more quickly,” Marco explains. “Employees also benefit from simpler processes, fewer manual tasks, and a lower risk of errors. Drafting a letter or mailing thus becomes a controlled process rather than an individual manual activity. For the organization, this leads to lower administrative costs, greater consistency in communication, and more flexibility when applications or business processes change. Furthermore, communication can be scaled up much more easily when large numbers of documents are required.”

Communication will become increasingly data-driven, personalized, and channel-independent in the coming years, Marco concludes: “Tenants expect the same user experience they’re used to from commercial organizations. That’s why we also work closely with customer communication platforms such as Postex. This provides the housing association with a powerful management and creation environment and allows it to leverage existing solutions specifically designed for this industry to handle customer communications. At the same time, requirements regarding accessibility, privacy, and compliance continue to grow. Housing associations therefore need solutions that not only generate documents but also centrally support quality, accessibility, and governance. Those who want to stay ahead of these trends would be wise to choose a centralized output management platform. This creates a flexible foundation that scales with future developments, regardless of which ERP or CRM solution is used.” Source: CorporatieGids