Finally

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

All things come to an end they sometimes say, some others barely ever get started (as some new sensations don't)!

It nudged my memory last week when hearing that the classic Oracle based Open Housing Management Systems (OHMS) has finally been announced as ‘end of life’ and de-supported after March 2026. If you still have OHMS and many do, particularly smaller local councils, you need to move fast as that end of 2025/26 death-date will soon be upon us.

For anyone new to the OHMS story, it originated as created by Groupe Bull HN, the French ICT company. Not being a brilliant company name for the UK, legend has it that an all day meeting was set up for executives in an office near Slough, to come up with a much better name. No inspiration was coming, and at 7:30pm pizza’s were ordered in, as is traditional. By about nine-ish, everyone felt they had enough and one bloke thinking about his 4 hour drive back to Manchester said, ‘Shall we call it a night’ ?

…and as they say, the rest was history!

Anite was acquired by Northgate (now NEC) around 2008/9, who already had an Oracle based Socialhousing Housing Management System (First Housing, iWorld, anyone remember those?). I have migrated data from those in the distant past, in fact a FirstHousing from a site in Scotland, was my very first back in 1999.

Northgate turned Japanese in 2018, when NEC bought it up.

When larger operators (MRI, Civica, OneAdvanced etc) hoover up smaller solutions, its often more about acquiring new customers, rather than any big masterplan. Now nobody likes to be hoovered up and just be a number in someone’s sales ledger, do they? Even worse, buying up a solution and quickly thinking clients will just roll over and migrate to another product from the group, rarely works (EG OpenHousing/Academy , Saffron/Universal Housing etc).

Northgate did originally put a UK death date on OHMS of 2013, although the stampede of annoyed sites rushing to procure put paid to that quite quickly. 

I helped my first OHMS site go to market and implement successfully back in late 2012. Since then, some have gone to market or decided to look at the other Northgate/NEC products and sometimes undertake an ‘upgrade’ staying with their supplier. Several options are available.

So, what options are available and should some urgency be applied?

Well, considering a legal procurement, even on a CCS framework might take 3-6 months, that means an implementation would start perhaps in Oct 2024. Migration & implementation of a core of Estates/Rents/Repairs from OHMS may take a total of 12-20+ months. Timeline does depend on many factors, including size & expertise of clients team, as well as capacity/bottlenecks/priorities applied by selected preferred bidder supplier. An internal DLO or application waiting lists etc, do add additional complication.

This might just get you live before the OHMS de-support date. So, as contracts often state, “time is of the essence”.

From being involved with a few of these in South West England and South Wales, I know there are also other factors often at work. As these old solutions are generally on-premise, they often sit on old Solaris hardware server kit, great in their day, but expensive now and with fragile old components.

Your ICT Cyber/security team staff might have already identified this hardware as posing security risks or potential vulnerabilities. This might add additional priority.

Having had OHMS for maybe 25 years+ it will have been a while since anyone looked at the marketplace. While there is no integral mobile with OHMS, that is a reality in the modern world. How do you go about that in a structured fashion? Often a suitably experienced Critical Friend who specialises in social housing can be a great addition to your procurement colleagues. That addition can help you navigate the journey of assessing new exciting options and also understanding what a migration path from existing supplier might pan out like.

As a council & socialhousing Critical Friend who has worked with many organisations & local authorities right across the UK and Southern Ireland wanting to move from older or approaching obsolete solutions, I also work to help at implementation time too. Knowledge transfer from other projects provide useful unique insights. For example, while migrating currently from OHMS for a South Wales council, those lessons learned benefit all my NEC based customers.

Whatever route is taken, its essential in my opinion to maintain excellent relations with your current supplier, particularly during migration. Don’t underestimate challenges that even migrating from one of your suppliers products to another might bring. The right Critical Friend can help you there adding value and also setting appropriate expectations for client and supplier.

So, if you are a current OHMS user, don’t dawdle the clock is ticking. April 2026 will race up sooner than anyone realises !

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ *** Join the discussion with Claire & Aiden *** _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

If you are stuck on a legacy SocialHousing systems, reach out

please just get in touch , for a chat over a slice of LDC ☕😋

       Related Post: Does dirt cheap procurement ever work?

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

CeCe Peniston – Finally.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

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