Radius Housing provides affordable social housing across Northern Ireland and is the largest housing association on the island of Ireland. Committed to continuous improvement and better tenant outcomes, Radius has made digital transformation a key strategic priority. Central to this was the replacement of its legacy Housing Management System (HMS) to move to a cloud-based solution, with improved data integration and quality tools to deliver long-term value for the organisation.
The Challenge: Fragmented Data across Multiple Systems
When Radius Housing made the decision to migrate to a new Housing Management System (HMS), it quickly became clear that success hinged on more than just technology. Before anything could be imported into the new system, the organisation had to face a foundational issue: its data was inconsistent, incomplete, and spread across too many disconnected systems.
“As things often tend to be nowadays, the data resided in multiple different areas and sources,” explains Garth Pelan, Radius’s Senior Head of ICT. “We had data in our HMS, in spreadsheets, in Word documents, and even in people’s heads.”
While the current HMS held reasonably accurate data on active tenants, years of legacy information had built up in formats and with varying levels of quality. This posed a serious risk: migrating that uncleaned data into the new system could introduce errors from day one. That would undermine trust in the new platform and make it impossible for the organisation to rely on it as a single, reliable source of truth - a core part of the business case for the migration.
Another key driver behind improving data quality was Radius’s ambition to introduce a tenancy portal - giving tenants access to their own records, services, and account information online. The implications of poor data accuracy becomes even more critical in this context. “It’s bad enough if your data isn’t right internally,” Radius’s ICT lead Garth explained. “But if you take that data and present it to a tenant, that can be even more damaging.” Ensuring the integrity of customer-facing data was essential, not only to build trust with tenants but also to support the wider digital transformation strategy.
The Solution: A Structured Data Cleanup Powered by 3C Data Logic
To address the problem, Radius partnered with 3C, an IT and data consultancy. Using 3C Data Logic, 3C’s powerful data management platform, the team were able to run a full audit of their existing data sources. Working through structured workshops, the Radius and 3C teams identified all the data needed for migration, regardless of where it lived.
“The 3C team helped us break the data into subsets,” Garth explains. “We worked out where that data was being held and pulled it together - even if it came from multiple sources - into one master dataset. That gave us the ability to do proper gap analysis and see what needed fixing.”
The platform’s ability to consolidate, cleanse and validate data in one place proved critical. It flagged up errors that previous internal processes hadn’t identified and created a clear, actionable roadmap for improvement.
“From the outset, we were advised the data was in good shape,” he recalls. “But once we ran it through 3C Data Logic, it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t the case - especially for legacy information. It wasn’t in the shape or format it needed to be.”
Rather than relying on individual staff knowledge or gut instinct, the 3C Data Logic platform delivered clear, evidence-based insights. “It’s one thing for someone to say ‘I don’t think that’s right’ – and then move on. It’s another to have a tool that shows you exactly where the problems are and gives you a way to fix it.”
The Benefits: Clean Data, Stronger Decisions, and Confidence Across the Business
Radius now has much greater confidence in the quality and consistency of its data. For staff, it means fewer manual workarounds and better visibility. For management, it means more accurate reporting and performance measurement.
“We’ve seen a marked, sustainable improvement in data accuracy, which leads to greater confidence in the system,” Garth explains. “Our customer service team can look up tenancy details, jobs, or account data and be reasonably sure what they’re seeing is correct - without having to cross-check with spreadsheets.”
That confidence extends to regulatory reporting and business performance tracking. “We feel confident in the KPIs we’re reporting because we know we’re extracting reliable data straight from the system, instead of pulling things together manually in Excel”
3C Data Logic’s flexibility also helped solve the problems in preparing files for transfer between different HMS platforms, which often have incompatible data formats.
Garth noted “The data formatting requirements weren’t the same between our old and new systems. But with 3C Data Logic, we could extract, transform and convert the data as needed. Even simple things like changing decimal points - the platform did that conversion so the files were in the exact format required.”
Looking Ahead: From Migration to Integration
For now, the main focus is getting ready for Radius’s go-live date with their new HMS in September. But the long-term vision is much bigger. With multiple systems across Housing Management, HR, and attendance, Radius plans to use 3C Data Logic as an integration and data quality hub that spans its entire digital estate.
“We brought in 3C Data Logic because it doesn’t mind where the data comes from,” says Garth. “The vision is to have all our systems at a base level, with 3C Data Logic sitting above them, hooked into each one,” he explains. “That way we can get a clear, strong picture from all of those platforms.”
With 3C Data Logic providing a single version of the truth across different repositories, Radius can make business decisions faster, and with confidence.
Shared Problems, Shared Solutions
The problems Radius faced with their data migration are in no way unique. Across the sector, housing associations are grappling with fragmented data, poor visibility, and manual reporting.
“One of the benefits of working with 3C is that they understand what others in the sector are facing,” Garth reflects. “They might not be able to name names, but they’ve seen it before. And they’ll say - you’re not alone, we’ve solved this before, and we can help you solve it too.”
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