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Most people in social housing will have come across Manifest Software Solutions (previously South View for you oldies out there!) at some point, even if they did not always realise it. They tend to be good when systems stop talking to each other and patience is running thin. APIs, flat files, awkward legacy databases, vendor finger pointing etc. Manifest usually find a way through.
Likewise, SAVA will be a familiar name to anyone who has spent time wrestling with EPCs, energy modelling, retrofit evidence, intelligent energy modelling, or the growing pressure to actually understand stock performance rather than just report on it. What far fewer people seem to have clocked is that both of these firms now sit inside the Infoshare+ group , which has been quietly recently building a footprint across local government and social housing.
That quiet bit matters. The sector is used to big, noisy players with glossy launches and confident claims about transformation. InfosharePlus has not done that. Instead from CIPFA in Nov24, it has been steadily assembling capability that sits underneath the surface. Integration that works in the real world rather than the ideal one, and energy and asset intelligence that aligns uncomfortably well with where regulation, funding and scrutiny are heading. It raises an interesting question. Are we watching the early stages of a new MRI, Civica or Aareon style group forming, not by swallowing whole housing management systems in one go, but by slowly stitching together the bits that everyone else struggles to do well?
If that is the ambition, it is not a bad one. Infoshare+ does have the current strapline “Helping local public services create better outcomes for all”, which is positive. Then again, Google adopted “Don’t be evil” as an informal corporate motto in the early 2000s too. I don’t recall that sticking in the end that one!
I don’t think the SocialHousing sector does not really need another monolithic platform promise. What it needs is less friction between systems, better evidence behind asset decisions, and fewer heroic spreadsheets propping up regulatory returns. Starting with integration and energy data is arguably a smarter route than starting with front end functionality. It tackles real pain rather than perceived gaps. But this is also where many previous attempts have sometimes come unstuck.
For this to be genuinely good for the sector, Infoshare+ would need to resist the temptation to simply become another vendor gravity well. Housing organisations already carry too much technical debt and too many overlapping tools. The value here only materialises if integration is used to reduce duplication, not multiply it, and if energy and asset data becomes part of a shared, trusted core rather than another specialist silo. If clients end up with three loosely connected expensive platforms just wearing one pretty badge, nothing has really improved.
They would also need to not forget to lean hard into the social purpose of their client base. Social housing is not just another regulated industry. Decisions about data, evidence and systems have direct consequences for tenants, safety, affordability and trust. Getting this right means prioritising transparency, auditability and resilience over shiny features. It means being honest about what can and cannot be delivered, automated, and designing for the long term reality of stretched teams, ageing stock and political scrutiny. Plenty of larger suppliers talk about this (and AI almost forever these days!). Fewer consistently design for it.
There is also a cultural challenge. The reason original firms like Manifest and SAVA are generally currently respected is that they tend to deal mostly in reality rather than aspiration. They understand messy data, imperfect processes and the compromises that come with legacy estates. Scaling that mindset inside a growing group is not easy. Many acquisitions fail not because the technology is wrong, but because the delivery culture gets diluted or buried under layers of governance and sales pressure. Often in group structures, it might take over 3 months to even get a quote for quite routine work. If Infoshare+ wants to do this better than others have managed, it will need to protect that pragmatism rather than sanding it down.
From my decades of Critical Friend experience, looking at this development as a client or sector observer, I would be less interested in whether Infoshare+ becomes the next big name, and more interested in whether it becomes the most trusted one. Trust in this sector is built by fixing awkward problems without drama, being clear about ownership when things break, and helping organisations simplify rather than accumulate. Charging a perceived reasonable price is appreciated too, less of the £10k staring price for everything maybe? . Quiet growth can be a strength if it stays grounded in respectful reliable delivery and purpose.
There is something potentially interesting forming here. Whether it becomes genuinely positive for social housing will depend on choices made now, before the group gets too big to remember why people valued the individual parts in the first place. As ever, the sector will judge it not on ambition, but on whether life gets materially easier, safer and more defensible for the people who have to live with the outcomes.
More on Infoshare+ Public Sector here and its larger more diverse owner Omni.
Related Post: The right Critical Friend may save you stress, time (and money) ?
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(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009
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