Below is a selection of our Local Authority data solutions, Apply4.Online®, Syx, Unity, Pathway, Hive and AIM.
For more information on our data solutions, please click on the links below
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General
Claire Woodcock, Service Assurance Operations Manager: Revenues and Benefits
Working across Horsham, Milton Keynes and Northampton
"I must admit when I was first handed test and trace I was concerned about the tight turnaround times the government had set for us to establish a process and a system to administer the scheme.
Then I was introduced to Ascendant and the solution they offered. My worries lifted overnight.
I found the team extremely helpful every step of the way.
The portal does everything that is required for the scheme – mass amount of reports at the tip of our fingers.
If we have asked for something to be added or some support we get it and quickly.
I would 100% recommend Ascendant Solutions and will always think of them in the future."
Apply4.Online®
Darren Smith, Finance Manager: Revenues & Benefits
London Borough of Barnet
"Ascendant via their Apply4.Online® software have revolutionised the way Local Authorities have been able to deliver Business Support Grants, ensuring support is provided to businesses across the country at the earliest possible opportunity.
Nothing is too much trouble for Darren and every single member of his team in what has been an incredibly challenging 15 months.
Apply4.Online® is easy to use and incredibly agile and I couldn’t recommend it enough. I look forward to seeing what other offerings Ascendant have as we work to recover from the pandemic."
Pathway
Mark Fearn
Walsall Council
“Ascendant Solutions have created a real-time bespoke solution through significant advances in data sourcing and analytics to understand customers in much greater depth than ever before. With this insight, you can ensure customers are being treated fairly in line with what the data is saying and not the single route of old. The correct level of support can be put in place before the customer becomes financially distressed.”
Apply4.Online®
Phil Black, Revenues Manager
Kate Limna, Corporate Treasurer
City of London
"We have been incredibly impressed and completely satisfied with the service we have received from Ascendant which has proved excellent value for money.
The local grant scheme we implemented was quite bespoke but the application solution has met our requirements perfectly and we were able to implement it within weeks of the scheme design.
The Ascendant Team have been excellent from start to finish and delivered easy to understand training as well as being on hand and available to assist us whenever help was needed."
Apply4.Online® with ERD
Gaven Downton - Head of Council Tax, Business Rates and Housing Benefit Overpayment Recovery
Christopher Hay - Business Rates Officer
London Borough of Richmond and Wandsworth Councils
“The Apply4.Online® portal revolutionised the way in which LB Richmond and LB Wandsworth were able to process grant applications. It is a flexible, efficient, well thought out product which allows the Local Authority to manage an end to end claim process knowing the logic is failsafe.
Enabling selected businesses for access to each scheme meant claimants found the system easy to navigate despite the complicated nature of the Local Restriction Support Grants.
Being able to create bespoke forms gives scope for relief application / review forms, etc and we have used this facility to devise our own ‘opt in / out’ Expanded Retail Discount declaration, accessed via the portal.”
General
Nick Ducatel, Functional Lead Growth and Prosperity
Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough Councils
"We are pleased to have extended our collaborative working relationship with Ascendant Solutions for a further year.
Ascendant have proved to be a forward thinking and innovative data company who have provided intelligent data solutions and products such as Apply4.Online® and consumer debt profiling and collection techniques to support our collections.
We have been able to administer and pay business grants quickly and efficiently, saving Eastbourne and Lewes Councils considerable resource and cost savings in the past year.
Ascendant took the time to understand the challenges we have faced before and throughout the pandemic and have worked hard to develop data and IT solutions in a fast moving and agile way always seeking to proactively meet our requirements as well as providing exceptional customer service."
Apply4.Online®
Louise Freeth - Head of Revenues, Benefits, Library and Resident Services
Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead
“I have to say that the experience with Ascendant to date has been exemplary. Without the solution offered by Ascendant, it is difficult to see how we would have coped with the administration of so many grants for businesses running in parallel. The fact that the system is self-contained has meant that we are able to ring fence this work and separate it from the day to day administration of business rates. Of particular benefit are the pre-built applications for national schemes and the fact that Ascendant have engaged directly with BEIS to remove some of the headaches associated with the ever increasing reporting demands.”
AIM
Paul White
Leeds City Council
“I can’t rate it highly enough, it’s now my first “go to” when I need to check if someone has occupied a property or are still resident, where they may have moved to, if we suspect a partner or lodger, etc is resident and not declared, or if we are looking at charging orders on properties and need to check if it’s for sale, where a property has been sold or let out to see who it was sold/let through so we can try and trace where former owners have moved to.”
Apply4.Online® with ERD
Kevin Stewart, Business Unit Leader, Revenues & Benefits
Mid Sussex District Council
"There are huge issues with an increasing number businesses overclaiming in grants when considering state aid and subsidy allowance. I believe it is very dangerous to just award the 66% discount without a verification process taking place to particularly check the new cash caps. A simple online claim form such as this protects the authority and the public purse."
Apply4.Online®
Robin Bates - Head of LGSS Revenues and Benefits
“The LGSS Revenues and Benefits Partnership have engaged Ascendant Solutions, at short notice on both the Business Grants process and the recent Test and Trace payments. Working with them as a partner in delivering these time-restricted support schemes has minimised the impact on our officers in terms of much of our thinking being supported by the development of form portals. Flexibility and a can do attitude where our requirements differ across our partner organisations has also been a massive benefit.”
Apply4.Online®
Kevin Stewart, Business Unit Leader, Revenues & Benefits
Mid Sussex District Council
"As a Council we have given out nearly £42m in over 6,000 grants in the last 13 months and without the flexibility and impact of Apply4.Online® has been vital to us as a Council to vitally help local businesses in their greatest need in a hundred years.”
Hive
Phillip Mawson
Leeds City Council
"Following an exercise to review all 100% Small Business Rates Relief cases using Hive, it was determined that in a significant number of instances companies that had been either dissolved or liquidated continuing to be billed, in some cases as far back as four to five years. Further enquiries will now be made to establish the current occupier or the property owner will be billed for the empty property rates."
Pathway
Mark Fearn
Walsall Council
"We were looking to improve our Council Tax collection processes especially in the area of vulnerability and ensuring that recovery action is taken in the most appropriate manner. Our profiling of customers has been developed with Ascendant Solutions from October 2019 and felt the use of the VRS data allows us to identify the most vulnerable at an early stage and tailor the communication strategy to the best outcome for both sides."
Apply4.Online®
Tim Whelan - Director of Service Delivery
Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough Councils
“With the pressure to deliver grant aid to businesses, at pace, many authorities collected the data required on a web form and then manually processed the applications. By using Apply4.Online® an automated system by Ascendant Solutions we significantly reduced the staff resource required, prevented fraudulent applications and got the payments to most businesses within four working days of an application, supporting our local economy.”
Apply4.Online®
James Skeldon - Revenues Manager
Dudley Metropolitan District Council
“Dudley MBC started using Ascendant Solutions for the administration of Business Rates Grants from the national lockdown period commencing in November 2020. The Apply4.Online® system streamlines the application process, allowing confident and efficient checking of applications, resulting in businesses receiving payments in a timely manner. The technical team are always on hand to assist with the setup of new schemes or making amendments to existing ones, providing a step by step walk throughs to ensure comprehensive understanding of the product and its capabilities”
AIM
Gurdish Kaur
Walsall Council
"With the help of Ascendant, we were able to prove a customer had been creating fake tenants in an attempt to defraud the council of tax over the space of 5 years. The customer was changing their name by deed poll multiple times to create the credit a footprint of a customer that never existed. The customer has now accepted liability for £6,000 in council tax, paying a large upfront sum with an arrangement set up for the remainder. Without Ascendant’s services, we would still be investigating today."
AIM
Stephanie Barrance - Revenues Inspector
Runnymede Borough Council.
"Using AIM, means I no longer have to visit a property I am investigating, as I know exactly what is there and often send the advert to the valuation office for their review when making our reports.
The information is brilliant as it lists the address, it also has filtered everything and has historical listings, something we would not be able to find without the AIM platform.
Occasionally I get sent queries from customer services asking if I can check whether a property is furnished or not, obviously this is not always easy as properties are not always accessible.
With properties that have been listed for rent/sale I can find the advert which will list whether the property is furnished or not. If it’s not clear AIM will list the estate agent that we then contact directly to make enquiries.
Our Recovery department use AIM when investigating properties in our borough. We can use the information to match the dates that occupants have vacated.
AIM is really helpful to my role and saves me time investigating annexes and empty, unfurnished properties."
Apply4.Online®
Geraldine Goodwin - Revenues Manager
Mark Scanes - Systems & Technical Manager
North Hertfordshire District Council
"Mark and I would like to extend our thanks for the superbly efficient service that we at NHDC, have received from you and the Team, with regard to the Ascendant product particularly in relation to Business Grants. The system does exactly what we need it too and the support that we have had from Ascendant has been exceptional. Nothing is too much trouble and you are very quick to call individual meetings to rectify any queries.”
Apply4.Online®
Liane Tew - Local Taxation & Benefits Manager
Wealden District Council
“Having administered the small business and retail, hospitality and leisure grants manually, using Ascendant for the discretionary grants was a welcomed solution that made them so simple. All the information we needed was there at the click of a few buttons. The portal was easy to use and made the administration and payment of the grants quick and easy once a decision had been made. The flexibility we had when building the discretionary schemes was extremely useful as we were in control of what we wanted to ask and what information we needed. The Ascendant team are extremely helpful and any questions are quickly answered and any changes needed are made seamlessly. For me, there was no question who we would look to when the Test & Trace payments scheme came out. Again, excellent product and service.”
Apply4.Online®
Miriam Nicholls - Business Development Manager
Arun District Council
Apply4.Online® has been a life saver for us. The pressure to administer grants, particularly Discretionary Grants, was immense and the system provided us with a solution that not only safeguarded public funds but allowed us to assess grants in the shortest possible time and support our local businesses when they most needed it. Many businesses contacted us to thank us for the swift way in which their applications were dealt with and that’s down to great team work with Apply4.Online®.
We are now pleased to be working with Ascendant Solutions to find other ways in which such a powerful tool can be used. As always, they are receptive to ideas and agile – what more could we ask for.
General
Jonathan Woodward - Head of Revenues
Birmingham City Council
“We have been incredibly impressed with Ascendant. They have revolutionised the way we have been able to deliver grants to those in need and provided us with really good technical support along the way. The Apply4.Online® product was excellent in terms of value for money and we found the team extremely helpful throughout the project. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend in the future.”
General
Noora Hassan - Relationship Manager
Buckinghamshire Council
“Ascendant is one of the most efficient and helpful company I have worked with in my 32 years of employment.”
Syx
Liane Tew - Local Taxation & Benefits Manager
Wealden District Council
“The Visiting function in authorities is often forgotten when it comes to innovation and digital transformation, but the Ascendant Visiting software is just the solution we were looking for to assist us with reducing the endless reams of paper, prioritising our workloads and pinpointing service efficiencies.”
General
Richard Charters IRRV (Hons) - Recovery Manager
Buckinghamshire Council
“There is no other way to say it, The Ascendant Team saved us when it came to delivering the council tax £150 energy rebate scheme. Through their excellent software package, easily accessible secure portal and the amazing client relationship they provided to us we were able to pay the correct eligible parties in an efficient and time effective manner. This was also whilst having the peace of mind that through their verification procedures that fraudulent claims were not entering the payment system.”