When one thinks of real estate management, it conjures up images of complex layers of transactions, from leasing and rent cycles to resident and tenant services, complaint handling, facilities management (FM), maintenance and much more. Managing properties effectively requires synergy between the various stakeholders — from property owners and FM providers to property management companies, suppliers involved in servicing the real estate as well as the customers using the property. Only through a seamless integration of managing the physical aspects of a property, optimising the financial health of the asset and delivering its service components can real estate operators and owners hope to achieve continued customer satisfaction and optimised bottom lines.
Technology to the rescue
While there are several proprietary and generic technology solutions that can be customised to client needs, a key challenge is to simplify the labyrinthine real estate processes, while remaining configurable and scalable. This is where Yardi Systems comes in. Established in Santa Barbara, California, in 1984, Yardi has been focused on investment and property management technology solutions for real estate for more than three decades, spanning both commercial and residential spaces.
In simple terms, Yardi is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for real estate. “We help our clients collect rent,” explains Kevin Yardi, vice-president of global solutions and son of Anant Yardi, the founder and president of Yardi Systems, on the sidelines of the recent Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Dubai.
Expanding on Yardi’s functionalities, he adds, “Our backbone is an accounting platform. Typically, buildings have expenses, and then there is revenue from the buildings. So our platform is an accounting system that helps our clients understand the expenses and the rent and whether the building is financially sound.”
While the comprehensive solution encompasses the entire spectrum of real estate transactions, it consists of three key components. The backbone of Yardi’s signature Voyager solution is the accounting platform that helps property operators and owners manage their leasing and billing cycles effectively. A dedicated module for facilities management further facilitates maintenance, both break and fix, as well as preventive.
The Yardi suite also includes the Café product range, which in essence is a web portal, a consumer-facing interface, that allows clients, operators and real estate companies to customise and market their properties better by creating a brand for their properties. It allows users to upload pictures and offer a walk-through to detailed specification updates. The functionality also extends all the way down to downloadable apps for mobiles with a dedicated interface for the different stakeholders such as vendors, maintenance technicians, tenants or owners.
Explaining the objective behind these role-based apps, Kevin Yardi says, “We want to simplify, streamline and facilitate real estate transactions, whether it is buying a building, managing a building, leasing a property, making sure that it is maintained, [and taking care of] the accounting, budgeting and forecasting. We want to in a sense ‘uberfy’ those; we want to help our clients manage those transactions. We have different tools available for different users and so the user experience that we expose to a prospect looking for space is tailored to them, the user experience that we expose to an owner or an investor is geared towards them and so on.”
USPs
So what can property operators and owners hope to gain from the Yardi property management solution?
“It’s quite a broad spectrum, from core accounting systems and FM systems all the way to modern websites and self-service mechanisms, to make it easier for tenants, residents, owners and operators to manage their properties,” says Neal Gemassmer, vice-president, international.
The solution features, strengths and benefits can broadly be divided as:
* Focus on real estate. Yardi’s core strength lies in its dedicated focus on the real estate sector for 35 years, versus other software companies creating generic ERP or accounting software targeting several industries. Years of experience in real estate across geographical territories and market segments have given Yardi a keen understanding of the changing needs of clients, as well as the varied regulatory requirements of the real estate industry in different parts of the world.
* Flexible and scalable. Yardi solutions are flexible, scalable and configurable to real estate variables such as a client’s expansion plans, tax implications, changing real estate rules, etc.
* Suitability. The solution is suitable for a wide range of clients, from small to large real estate firms to individual owners and operators of single homes and entire communities and office buildings, to big retail operators, property management companies and investors.
* End-to-end solution. Yardi is a comprehensive stack for end-to-end real estate management, ranging from back-end billing and maintenance to the front-end marketing and resident management. Operators can service all their real estate needs at one window.
* Resident management portal and app. Managing residents or tenants and providing them with an enriched experience and access to services is a key differentiator, impacting why one would choose a particular property over another. A key USP of Yardi’s solution is the seamless and comprehensive access to services that it offers residents and tenants, whether registering air-conditioning complaints or checking on post-dated cheque due dates.
* Real estate in the cloud. Kevin Yardi says provisioning their software through the cloud helps Yardi to become an extension of a client’s IT infrastructure, while being secure, scalable and cost-effective. This leaves clients free to focus on building and managing assets, instead of worrying about adding mobility capabilities or server or storage capacity or managing software upgrades.
Start-up mentality
While Yardi is a privately held company, it has enjoyed significant success owing to its start-up mentality and agility, says Kevin Yardi. Gemassmer adds that a multinational culture, while being a family-run business, along with innovation and an entrepreneurial vision, are other reasons for the continued growth of the company, which employs more than 5,000 people.
Yardi has enjoyed an annual growth rate of 50 per cent, with a significant portfolio across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. Kevin and Neal feel educational and awareness initiatives, word-of-mouth marketing and an ability to service and support the expansion of their existing clients are the reasons for the company’s growing success in the region.
Yardi’s client base ranges from property consultancy firms such as JLL and Better Homes, to several individual owners of multiple properties and individual retail owners such as Dalma Mall and Deerfield, extending to some of the largest operators and owners of retail in the region, such as Majid Al Futtaim, Emaar and now Arabian Centres in Saudi Arabia.
The company says it will continue its aggressive regional growth plan, while operators can expect to benefit from Yardi’s foray into the internet of things (IoT) and energy-saving solutions.
