Two years ago, 48 per cent of property companies said resistance to change was their biggest barrier to adopting new technologies. That resistance has evaporated in 2020, says Yardi Systems’ regional director Bernie Devine.
“When we last surveyed the market, 24 per cent of property leaders believed cost was the biggest obstacle to adopting new technologies. Many of those leaders are now counting the cost of not investing.”
Real estate companies with a single connected system, backed by best practice process, have weathered the COVID-19 storm better than most, Devine says.
Yardi clients made the switch to virtual operations overnight, Devine says, with additional free training helping teams work productively, efficiently and securely in a remote environment.
But a bigger challenge was ahead for landlords that needed to assess, approve and implement rent abatement requests from their tenants.
“We saw a surge in enquiries after property companies put their processes – many of which were still based on spreadsheets – to the test,” Devine says.
“When a lot of data is being moved between systems, especially in response to rent abatement requests, a lot of that detail is lost. Companies without an integrated system discovered this the hard way.”
“We quickly put together a simple package that included online training so our clients could make some simple changes to their chart of accounts and reporting,” Devine explains.
“Asset managers had real time access to the deal pipeline and were able to assess the impact of all the abatement and deferral requests they were receiving to understand the impact on net operating income, asset value and loan covenants.”
With immediate insights into the impact of each rent deferral or abatement asset managers could prioritise counter offers and make approvals.
Clients using Yardi’s tenant portal solution have also managed all their tenant interactions online, Devine adds. “Communications have been easy and changes to billings have been transparent.”
Yardi’s platform connects leasing, customer relationship management and forecasting so that leasing and asset management teams have one set of real time data that includes deals, forecasts and incentives that can be compared to markets, budgets and previous deals.
“Automated processes allow teams to complete their tasks consistently and efficiently from anywhere and there is no reliance on spreadsheets to track processes or collect data. It’s all automatic, reliable and consistent. The result of that is that our solutions boost revenue through seamless process automation.
“We have multiple examples of clients who have improved their business by using our tools during the COVID-19 crisis. We are a global technology company with over 15 years of supporting clients across Australia.” Devine concludes.
Established in 1984, Yardi develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of real estate companies. To learn more about Lease Manager, our newest solution dedicated to supporting leasing agents manage and minimise tenant risk, collections, deferrals, abatements and communications – please click here.