Clanmil Housing – Contractor Portal – Manifest Software Solutions

Connecting every contractor, streamlining repairs, and improving resident experience

Clanmil Housing provides more than 5,900 homes across Northern Ireland, supported by over 300 colleagues dedicated to delivering quality homes and services.

With seven geographical areas serviced by multiple small-to-medium contractors, each using different systems, Clanmil’s responsive repairs process had become fragmented.

Updates from the contractors arrived through phone calls and spreadsheets, leading to duplicated effort, slow data entry, and limited visibility for contact centre teams.

Clanmil needed a simpler, more connected way to manage its contractors – one that would bring everyone, regardless of IT capability, into the same digital process.

“I don’t know any other housing associations that have built a contractor portal like this, at such speed. This is a game changer for Clanmil, a completely different approach; Clanmil is small and needed the heavy lifting to be done by our trusted partner Manifest.”

Lyndsey Grant, Program & Projects Manager

The Challenge

Traditional contractor integrations were costly, complex, and only practical for larger contractors with established IT systems. Clanmil wanted to expand its contractor base, especially across rural areas, but without increasing the workload for its small IT team.

The question : How do you deliver full digital participation for every contractor- large or small – without creating multiple bespoke integrations?

The Solution

Clanmil partnered with integration specialists Manifest Software Solutions to design and deliver the Contractor Portal – a digital platform connecting the Housing Management System with multiple responsive repairs contractors. Using Manifest’s proven integration framework, the project followed an agile, co-design approach:

Rapid prototyping: Initial build completed in just four months, allowing early feedback and refinement.
Co-creation: Engineers tested mobile workflows in real environments, ensuring usability and real-world impact.
Iterative improvement: Feedback loops between engineers, contact centre teams, and IT staff shaped each release.
Inclusive design: Built as a web app accessible on any device, ensuring every SME contractor could participate.

Unlike traditional one-to-one integrations, the Contractor Portal provides a single platform and licence for all suppliers, regardless of their IT systems.

Clanmil can now manage all contractors consistently, share updates in real time, and maintain full visibility across every responsive repair, without extra admin or complexity.

The Results

The Contractor Portal is already live with Clanmil’s primary contractors and direct labour engineers, with plans to extend to more suppliers.
Early adoption has been strong, with engineers reporting greater flexibility and ownership of jobs.

Real outcomes include:

1 day per week saved for the four-person back-office team – no more manual rekeying of contractor updates.
Fewer phone calls between contractors and Clanmil’s contact centre, freeing staff to focus on residents.
Faster KPI reporting and more accurate data for contractor accountability.
Better customer communication – residents receive quicker, more reliable updates, including automated text messages when repairs are booked.

The Contractor Portal delivers a faster, more transparent service that benefits staff, contractors, and residents alike. It’s a flexible system that can work as a hybrid setup – if a contractor already uses an electronic interface, it can plug straight in too meaning housing providers can use a single solution for all contractors.

Future Ready

Beyond immediate efficiencies, the Contractor Portal has become the foundation for Clanmil’s wider digital transformation project.
It now underpins the development of the “Connect” customer portal, which extends live repair status updates directly to tenants.

With Manifest’s integration framework, Clanmil has gained a scalable platform that supports today’s needs and is ready for tomorrow’s growth.

Digital transformation doesn’t have to be expensive or exclusive, it just has to connect the right people.

Find out more about the Manifest Contractor Portal.

Discover how Manifest’s Contractor Portal is helping housing providers like Clanmil streamline repairs, improve contractor collaboration, and deliver better service to tenants.

Passionate – Dedicated – Professional