In the era of the coronavirus, companies are being challenged like never before to find better ways to streamline operations, while maintaining the same high quality of products and services. In the real estate industry, this sense of urgency has been felt across the value chain, from landlords and property managers down to the homeowners and tenants.
On the bright side, the current situation has allowed proptech solutions to shine, as interest in technology that empowers real estate stakeholders to simplify processes and speed up a return to the ‘new normal’ has been at an all-time high. Yardi®, which designs, develops and supports software solutions for real estate owners and managers, has seen this trend across its digital platforms, which have enjoyed a surge in deployment from companies eager to seize new opportunities in the market.
“Yardi provides complete real estate management solutions for property managers in accounting, marketing, leasing, property management, procurement and much more in large multinational enterprises, as well as small and mid-size holdings,” says Said Haider, Regional Sales Director, Middle East at Yardi.
Bringing all marketing, leasing and residential services under one platform, Yardi helps companies to go fully paperless with end-to-end solutions catering to every stakeholder in the industry. The ultimate goal, according to Haider, is to increase efficiency and reduce operational costs for its global client base, which includes public, private and non-profit organisations.
“Yardi’s technical tools help in paperless transactions as well as to remain contactless in keeping with coronavirus precautionary measures,” said Haider. “Yardi works across different markets – commercial and retail, residential, student housing, airports, coworking and more, – and invests heavily in different proptech solutions.”
RENTCafé
With more than six million residential units using the app, RENTCafé has been an invaluable tool for hassle-free online transactions. The app allows landlords to tap into a powerful property marketing platform with easy-to-use features to create their own dynamic marketing websites, maintain convenient self-service options and access smart multichannel marketing tools.
“This solution increases online visibility of clients, providing features such creating their own website. Yardi also supports with search engine optimisation [SEO] and search engine marketing [SEM] to improve visibility,” says Haider. “RENTCafé also supports online leasing, which is key in minimising vacancies, and supports property managers with a full suite of tools to work remotely.”
For tenants, RENTCafé provides a secure, app-based solution to make payments, submit maintenance requests and manage smart home features in ways that work for them.
Procure to Pay
Used to manage millions of transactions worth billions of dollars, Procure to Pay empowers businesses to go fully paperless and reduce manual tasks with a suite of end-to-end procure-to-pay solutions.
“It reduces invoice processing cost and uses smart tools and analytics to capture invoice missing information,” notes Haider. “The entire process is paperless with little to no manual intervention.”
The Procure to Pay suite combines Yardi PayScan and VendorCafe to support the procure-to-pay workflow. It covers purchase requisition, workflow approval and issuance of purchase order, which are then allocated to the VendorCafe portal.
Procure to Pay consolidates building services procurement and helps streamline invoice processing and simplify vendor management into a single connected solution. To further streamline the process, Procure to Pay comes with a mobile app – PayScan – that scans the invoice. It also offers MRO support, spend, paper storage and shipping.
“It helps streamline purchasing and purchase orders and helps approve invoices faster,” says Haider.
VendorCafe
Designed as a one-stop shop vendor management solution, VendorCafe centralises product and service vendor information in a single system of record, with a 360-degree view of vendors and property associations.
“It improves efficiency and helps significantly reduce paper usage and waste,” says Haider.
Part of the Yardi Procure to Pay suite, the tool also helps businesses proactively assess vendor risk and ensure that only approved vendors are added to their accounting system. VendorCafe also promotes vendor compliance and safe properties with automated searches of government watch lists and other verification sources.
Yardi Aspire
Providing businesses, a cost-effective training solution, Aspire is Yardi’s flexible learning management platform that offers various options to suit any company’s preferred learning style, schedule and budget. It provides both classroom and online webinar training sessions, designed to help businesses gain critical knowledge of Yardi’s powerful software solutions.
“Aspire allows organisations of all types and sizes to manage staff development through an online dashboard from any device with internet access,” says Haider. “Aspire users can participate in webinars, communicate with managers, complete career development plans and more.”
Coworking spaces
Driven by its cost benefits and networking opportunities, the coworking space has attracted a new wave of businesses and start-ups from various industries, particularly in underserved markets. According to Haider, this is an area that strongly complements Yardi’s focus on end-to-end business solutions that empower companies to work efficiently and cost-effectively.
“The demand for coworking or shared spaces may have been temporarily affected, but in the long term the demand will be there,” says Haider.
Underlining its support to this rising segment, Yardi will be launching a new product catering to coworking and shared office spaces in 2021.
“This will be an important step to nurturing a thriving community of start-ups, who will serve as the backbone of innovation hubs around the world,” says Haider.
