What did this project involve?

North Star – Project Endeavour’s objectives included simplifying processes through the introduction of a new technology system for managing all essential business processes, creating a database encompassing all resident and property related data, increasing remote and mobile working capability for colleagues. Its aims included enhancing customer journeys, reducing admin tasks for frontline staff so they can focus on residents. North Star was struggling to get good reporting for compliance and asset management, which was outsourced to different contractors with disparate processes and systems.

What is innovative about and what was achieved with this project?

North Star – Over the last year, Infinity Group replaced legacy resident and property asset systems with Microsoft Dynamics modules as part of a phased approach, providing deeper, analytical business intelligence capabilities. The housing provider is committed to placing the resident at the heart of its new system, enabling a single, data rich view of every customer so they receive enhanced asset management services for repairs and maintenance, voids, and compliance. The AI is scanning certification to bring out which remedial measures are required, for example, in Fire Risk Assessments. It retrieves each detailed recommendation, allocating the priority and deadline for it to be reviewed by property services. This process is working with all compliance checks - Gas certification, Commercial gas certification, EICR (resulting minor works and major work certificates), Fire maintenance, including fire alarms, emergency lighting and partition doors, PAT Testing, Lift and LOLER tests, and Legionella.

What are the measurable benefits to the client, the contractor, the resident, and the neighbourhood?

North Star has just over 4,000 properties with a Compliance team consisting of a manager, surveyor and two administrators. The legacy system required manual uploading, checking, and logging of all compliance items (21-26 hours/week/member). While compliance is a key business risk for North Star, the Microsoft Dynamics compliance module using AI provides assurance and automates the process. It reduced the time spent to 8-10 hours/week, saving between two and three days/week across the team. More tasks can be completed away from the office using the system’s mobile technology, speeding up processes. Visits can now be logged on mobile phones rather than adding diary entries at the office. All reporting is in real time, giving wider visibility for each compliance area to show if a property is compliant, non-compliant or reaching non-compliance. The system has automated job ticket generation, contractor coordination, certificate uploads to SharePoint, AI-assured checks for validity and automatic updates to Microsoft Dynamics. The HMS Endeavour Steering Group and Project Team were able to access data from the Business Intelligence dashboard that provided a wider view and metrics, such as numbers of complaints and how many service desk jobs have been logged. North Star can communicate more effectively with residents, utilising AI to generate letters automatically and sending pdf documents en-masse to residents within Dynamics instead of via mail merges. The team can refocus on compliance areas they did not have time for; work has started on a new tree management programme for a forest on one of its estates, that can now be managed in-house. Also, the Compliance team now has capacity to be responsible for a new damp, mould and condensation (DMC) module built into Microsoft Dynamics, enabling an extra level of assurance to the monitoring and reporting of damp, mould, and condensation rather than repairs team.

What are the financial costs and measurable cashable benefits over a defined time period?

North Star – Microsoft Dynamics’ AI-powered compliance module has reduced labour costs and created significant cashable benefits for North Star’s compliance operations. Saving 2-3 days/week for the Compliance team is equivalent to £22,500 saving last year and this time saving has enabled the team to take on additional responsibilities, such as an in-house tree management program and a new DMC monitoring initiative (initially requiring external consultancy). Automation reduces financial dependence on external compliance consultants for specialised projects and reduces overtime and staff costs for manual compliance tasks. Compliance risks mitigated by real-time, AI-verified certification flagging certificates needing attention. This translates into both operational savings and improved risk management. The total capital budget for project Endeavour was £485,000. There are further cost savings by having one system, with the legacy platform turned off in April 2025.

How relevant is this as an example that might be followed by other organisations?

North Star – Microsoft Dynamics’ AI-powered compliance module has reduced staff costs in compliance operations and enabled the team to take on additional responsibilities without external consultancy. AI-verified certification has ensured compliance effort is focused.