Burrington Estates has recently appointed Derek Hudson in the newly created role, Head of Digital Transformation, as the housebuilder focuses on exploiting new technologies to improve its product, customer experience and internal business processes.
It is the vision of the company’s co-founder Mark Edworthy to grow the Exeter-based housebuilder into the ‘Tesla of housebuilding’ by maximising digital technology across all areas of the business.
Derek joins Burrington Estates having previously established his own web design and digital consultancy, during which he helped Burrington with several tech-focused projects. His career in the digital sector followed more than thirty years as an army officer.
The scope of Derek’s new role will include developing a new online customer journey, improving the sales process and allowing home buyers to see the progress of their home being built in real time. In the future purchasers will be able to choose their fixtures and fittings online and eventually be able to configure their new homes through realistic 3D graphics. Derek will also be responsible for overseeing a new website and improved digital marketing capability to give customers a more immersive experience, as well as using technology to improve the company’s efficiency.
Another part of Derek’s remit will be to oversee the continued improvement of the smart technology available in the homes Burrington builds. It is an area the company is already strongly invested in, offering opportunities to improve environmental standards and energy efficiency via features such as smart lighting and heating controls. Moving forwards that will also encompass the way technology is harnessed to build homes more efficiently and make better use of available land, using artificial intelligence to optimise plans and support the planning process.
Derek said: “Technology has a huge role to play in the future of housebuilding, so I’m really excited about joining Burrington Estates and making sure we are genuinely harnessing new technology to make things better. There are many ways we can use online capabilities to improve the whole customer experience, making the sales process smoother and using data and analytics to better understand what our customers want, so that we can deliver a more individually tailored product based on real needs. It’s refreshing to be part of a dynamic and forward-looking business with a passion to innovate in order to provide a better product.”
Mark Edworthy, Co-founder of Burrington Estates comments: “When I say that my vision is for Burrington Estates to become the Tesla of the housing market, I’m thinking of the opportunities to use brand new technology to deliver a slick, design-led product with leading standards of environmental efficiency. Buying a house is a very human thing and we are not aiming to remove the personal customer service, but the potential to use sophisticated technology to help customers visualise their new home, make choices and track their purchase has really exciting scope for the future. We are pleased to welcome Derek to the team, with his strong ability to plan, coordinate and lead change that will stand him in good stead in establishing this important new role for the future of the business.”
