YASC DC Day One

News and insight

By Leah Etling on May 22, 2012 in News | 5 Comments

Welcome to YASC DC 2012. We’re here at the Washington Hilton in our nation’s capital, where warm spring rain showers and lightning greeted YASC attendees as they arrived from all over the country to attend this exciting conference.

10 a.m. – This morning’s general session in the International Ballroom got today’s classes off to a fantastic start with insight into the latest developments at Yardi, and several dynamic demos.

Anant Yardi, Yardi founder and president, reflected on the last 30 years of Yardi history. When he started the company, Yardi said, he thought it might take a year or so to write the perfect property management software. Eliciting a chuckle from the crowd, he noted that three decades later that goal is still the same. Today, Yardi is a global company, with 25 offices around the world, 2,500 employees and over 10,000 clients using one or more Yardi products.

In 2012, Yardi has acquired three new companies: ALMSA, which focuses on the senior housing market; Lead Tracking Solutions, client relationship management experts; and ista Utility Billing, which focuses on utility billing and utility expense management.

Noting that trends in technology sales that have gravitated towards tablets and mobile devices, and away from desktop computers, Yardi explained that the focus of Yardi Systems and its employees is increasingly focused on this technology. Social media’s phenomenal growth has also changed the landscape of online user habits. Yardi confessed that he’s not an avid Facebooker – but he does keep up with what’s trending on social media, even checking on the latest Lady Gaga video to stay “in the know.”

How does what’s trending on Twitter, Facebook, Google + or LinkedIn relate to property management?

“The message in all of this is that we all need a web presence. That’s why we are focused on Sharepoint and focused on the Cafe products,” Yardi said. Yardi’s comprehensive technology offerings for all verticals aim to help our clients with operations, marketing, business intelligence, customer service, web design, mobility, utility billing, and much more.

Though things may have changed drastically over the last 30 years, one thing remains the same:

“Our goal and our focus in client satisfaction. That’s what it has been for the last 30 years, and that’s what it will continue to be,” Yardi said.

Other highlights from Tuesday’s General Session included:

John Pendergast, Senior Vice President, Client Services, shared the latest developments in the multifamily sector, where a host of Yardi products and services offer comprehensive business solutions. Orion for Sharepoint is being adopted by many multifamily clients, as it provides the optimal solution collaboration and business intelligence. Orion’s fast and easy to use functionality makes assessing KPIs, reporting, micro-level data analysis, and sharing between multiple users a snap.

Pendergast also shared the exciting new Yardi leasing cycle offering, LeasingPad, a browser program that draws together a host of guest applicant and resident management functions, optimized for the tablet, but also available on a desktop. LeasingPad is browser agnostic, so you can use it on any browser you wish.

With some assistance from Yardi employeees Stephen Comer and Tamara Berndt, a prospect searching for an apartment in Houston found a good looking apartment on the RentCafe website, called the property, and was assisted by Yardi’s Call Center. Stephen’s information was simultaneously provided to the property management team via the Yardi PopCard, enabling them to follow up with the prospect, contact them for a property viewing, and begin the online application process. That application can be completed online from anywhere, either onsite at the property or at the prospect’s home. Once submitted,  Yardi Resident Screening powered by RentGrow vetted and approved the tenant for move in, and an online lease was nearly instantly ready for the prospect to electronically sign.

Rob Teel, Vice President, Yardi Global Solutions, showcased the opportunities for commercial clients via Yardi Orion for Sharepoint in a live demo that highlighted Orion’s business intelligence capabilities. Teel also shared the phenomenal growth that Yardi’s commercial and investment team has seen in the last year – a 25 percent increase in the number of commercial clients adopting Voyager to manage their assets over the last 12 months.

Mark Livanec, Vice President of Affordable Housing and PHA Sales, updated us on the affordable and public housing markets. User group meetings on Monday provided valuable feedback from user group members, and  Livanec shared that Orion is in development for these clients. A strong contingent of YASC DC’s nearly 1000 attendees are from the affordable and public housing sectors, so getting their feedback and input is invaluable to our team here.

As the session began, attendees got some great advice from YASC veteran and Vice President of Government Projects, Bryant Shoemaker. “Everyone here should try to meet at least 10 people and find out what they do and how they do it,” Shoemaker urged. Great advice! We’re going to try to greatly surpass that goal and tell you about some of the super people we meet right here on The Balance Sheet.

We’ve already met a number of wonderful Yardi clients from the residential, commercial, military and affordable sectors. All told us they’re excited to be here to learn about their software, provide us with feedback, and get personalized solutions to their business challenges. And they might check out a few of our national monuments or D.C.’s great restaurants if they can get a spare hour or two.

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11 a.m. – Sitting in on a great session on Lifecycle Strategies for Visionary Marketing during our first round of classes here at YASC DC. Thre’s great insight from multifamily managers here – what are the marketing issues that they are most concerned about?

-That tenant who moved out three years ago but is still posting negative reviews about a community online.

-A comment on Yelp – true or not – stating that your property has had a bed bug infestation.

-How to get your community from page 17 in Google search results to page 1.

-Ways to encourage tenants to share their positive experiences on apartment rating and review sites and contributing content to your blog and social media pages.

More multifamily housing providers are moving toward hiring staff members specifically for online marketing, social media management, and reputation maintenance, the marketers in this session say. And just because things have moved online, don’t lose sight of the value of curb appeal. Having that positive first impression of your community is still a vital component of attracting and retaining prospects.

Once that vital first contact with a prospect is made, do you know how they prefer for you to follow up? Increasingly, it’s not emails or phone calls. Over 60 percent of one major multifamily company’s prospects say they prefer to be texted – the same may be true for your prospects and residents.

“They don’t want an email, they don’t want a notice on their door, they just want a text,” said one Yardi client. Asking your residents and prospects how they prefer to communicate with you can be a great way to enhance your customer service. And speaking of texting, how are you equipping your leasing agents and site managers to respond to and communicate with tenants and prospects? Many multifamily companies are moving to company-paid smartphones and 4G equipped tablets to follow-up and manage their daily workflow.

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12 p.m. – Time for lunch! There’s terrific energy in the hallways at YASC today. Clients are excited about learning more about Orion, with in-depth demonstrations scheduled today focusing on CTI, Residential, and Commercial. There’s also great buzz around the roundtable discussions, especially one focusing on mobile technology that’s scheduled for this afternoon. Lunch is a don’t miss, not only for the tasty food that will be served, but the networking and conversation opportunities with Yardi staff and industry peers. We’re hearing conversations about custom analytics and reporting tools,  the growth and development of multifamily firms across the country, and compliance issues for our public housing clients. Lots of great information is being exchanged.

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1 p.m. – Yardi staff experts on Orion for Sharepoint briefed a packed meeting of clients interested in the possibilities offered by this exciting new product, answering questions about the capabilities of the platform and how it might revolutionize your day to day business.

Micah Pence, Sean Minehart, Tamara Berndt and Mike Remorenko led the overview. Yardi clients are now live on Orion for Residential. A version two release is planned for later this year.

Presentation of the product’s out-of-the-box dashboards focused on the opportunities for better business intelligence. Using the attributes that you’ve selected in Yardi Voyager, Orion can form a hierarchy of data that helps you make better business decisions. Orion utilizes both Voyager and a client-specific proprietary OLAP data cube. Users seeking dynamic business intelligence will be able to draw their company data out of the cube in as broad or limited a fashion as they wish. Comprehensive annual reports or subsets of facts and dimensions for regional managers or on-site managers will be at your fingertips.

For example, a sample Orion data set took the results of resident screening and apply them to delinquency trends. If a resident has a low credit score, did they end up being a high or low delinquency resident? Should the property tweak or modify their screening policy to account for these trending results? Orion provides that business intelligence.

Great question from the session: We want to put all our property information since 1970 into the system – we want it all in once place. What’s the best way to do that?

Answer: Using Voyager and Yardi Orion for Sharepoint, you can have a comprehensive library of all your vital business documents. Have data that predates your use of Yardi Voyager? It can be uploaded directly into Sharepoint.

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2: 30 p.m. – Overheard after Orion Residential session – why do CEOs like this platform? One reason: it frees up the IT department’s time from having to run custom reports frequently, and they can focus on other tasks. Instead, mid-level managers within the company can analyze  the data they’re responsible for, answer questions and identify problems or trends specific to their department, and make solid business decisions. However, it might take more time for management to analyze the wealth of data they’re now able to access.

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2:45 p.m. – Snack time! With all this learning going on, how do YASC attendees keep their brains sharp and focused? By grabbing a quick snack, of course. In just five minutes at break I saw folks munching on cookies, protein bars, an apple, a pear, and – most impressive – a Haagen Daazs popsicle. Now back to class.

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3 p.m. A key part of YASC is collecting feedback from our clients. The Mobile Solutions roundtable is collecting input on what new and improved features clients would like to see on Yardi Maintenance Mobile and Yardi Inspection Mobile. These on-the-go apps allow your on-site staff to seamlessly integrate their workflow with your resident maintenance requests and property data in Yardi Voyager. Over in the leasing tips and techniques roundtable there’s an additional exchange of information going on, regarding personnel. What are some of your best hiring practices?

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4 p.m. – As we’re heading into our final sessions for YASC’s eventful first day, what takeaways are on your mind? Do you have questions you need answered or insight you’re still looking to gain from this week’s event? We’d be delighted to hear your feedback on the conference so far. Looking forward to meeting many of our terrific attendees at tonight’s reception. Did you know that two Yardi clients in attendance, Jody Bankston and Montie Rouze, have been profiled on the Balance Sheet? How about Yardi employees Craig Flugel, from Atlanta, and Isabella Mitchell, from New York?

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4:30 p.m. – All of today’s Orion for Sharepoint sessions have been packed. Right now four “early adopter” clients who are currently live in production in Orion are sharing their experiences. The platform is fairly new for all of the forum participants. Most have been operating for just a few weeks. Those in the room are listening very intently to their descriptions of the experience so far and Rob Teel’s explanation of the implementation roll out process. Not a single person in the room is distracted by their phone.

“The implementations themselves are fairly quick,” Teel said. “There’s not a lot of configuration decisions to be made.” Laramar Group’s John Homer said that the platform has been “Laramarized” – using the Laramar logo, adding the company’s Facebook and Twitter feed, customizing employee spotlight content, and generally giving the platform a more personal feel. Yardi’s Micah Pence, who guided the implementation, said an on-site visit helped aid in the understanding of Laramar’s specific desires for their platform and how it would best suit their users.

A major focus of the discussion centers around the difference between reports and business intelligence. John Pendergast summarized the concept: “Reports are about data and operations. BI is about analysis.” Adding and subtracting data, using the capabilities of the data cube mentioned above (1 p.m. update), can provide a clearer overall vision of what is happening to company performance, based on the KPIs that are important to you.

A client in the audience adds; “It’s not just drill down, but drill around.” Tired of reading numbers or having trouble getting your employees to focus on reports? “The graphs and charts (from Orion) will tell you where you are,” another implemented client added. “It’s easier, and it’s more robust.”

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6 p.m. – Just got some great feedback on conference so far from Kerry James of RRHA. “This is the best Yardi conference I’ve ever been too!” James said enthusiastically. “It’s different – lighter somehow. Yardi definitely knows how to have fun.” Thanks, Kerry!

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What a great first day at YASC DC 2012. The energy level is incredibly productive, positive and contagious. It feels like the Washington Hilton is the epicenter of real estate technology excitement and insight right now. Not in attendance? You’re missing out, but not to worry, YASC SB 2012 is just five months away..

Check back again tomorow for updates from YASC. And if you’re here in Washington D.C. with us,  tag all your tweets, posts, questions, pictures, and check-ins with #YASCDC. Have a great observation from the conference you’d like to share or a question to ask? Leave a comment and we’ll respond ASAP.