SSRS and Power BI Training for Housing Teams

The Challenge

As a relatively small housing provider, South Lakes Housing faced typical challenges around systems, data management, and reporting. Internal teams had limited capacity and expertise in areas like SQL, business intelligence tools, and system integration — making it difficult to fully leverage their data for decision-making. They needed access to external expertise that could deliver solutions and help grow internal capability.

The Solution

Through an ongoing partnership with iStride, South Lakes Housing gained expert guidance on SQL development, reporting, and systems integration. More than just delivering outputs, iStride worked alongside the internal team to build their technical skills — enabling them to generate their own queries, automate processes, and develop dashboards using tools like SSRS and Power BI. The relationship has been intentionally collaborative, positioning iStride as an extension of the internal team available when needed, rather than a traditional supplier.

The Results

The partnership has helped South Lakes Housing achieve major improvements: Substantial cost savings by reducing dependence on external suppliers Upskilled staff are now confident in creating and maintaining their own reports Process automation, replacing previously manual or overlooked tasks Daily business reporting, enabling faster, insight-led decisions The team still calls on iStride for advanced support, but the bulk of reporting is now managed in-house — a transformative shift in capability and autonomy.

We're very proud of the work we've done with South Lakes Housing over the years, but more recently we integrated Cx Feedback (not the Civica one! https://cx-feedback.co.uk/)to Cx to load survey data. This article sets out the importance of getting the questions right before you start.

www.istride.co.uk

The Importance of Forward Planning in Census Data Integration for Cx Housing SystemIntroductionCensus data collection within housing associations is essential for understanding tenant demographics, improving service delivery, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. However, too often, the surveys are collected and passed over to someone to load in to a system with no involvement to data and the task of unravelled the ball of wool begins!Get it wrong, and it leads to data inconsiste

Starting out on your journey? Jump straight to Power BI and Fabric:

www.istride.co.uk

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