The Company
Wallick owns and manages affordable housing and senior living properties across the Midwest. More than 20,000 residents live in Wallick units. Wallick has worked with HUD tax credit programs for more than four decades, and has even been ranked first in the nation in affordable housing preservation.
The Challenge
Adopting Technology for Now and the Future
Growth is central to the mission of Wallick. As a national leader in affordable housing and senior living management, Wallick continues to add new units, properties and community services. That activity requires oversight through technology. Wallick sought to identify a software platform that could fulfill its current needs and meet future demands as the company grows over time.
The Solution
Yardi Voyager Senior Living
Power your business with comprehensive senior housing management software. Unify property management, finance and business oversight for improved efficiency, reduced costs and responsive resident services. Keep your data safe with one secure database and the industry’s most trusted cloud provider.
The Story
The Benefits of Connected Software
Wallick used multiple pieces of software prior to adopting the single, connected Yardi solution. The prior software setup caused Wallick to spend excessive time and resources bridging data gaps. It also created confusion for new associates because of the need to learn several platforms for daily activities. Wallick saw savings in time and resources as soon as they implemented the Yardi software platform.
“Because Yardi software can scale in scope, we have found that we can roll out new company initiatives without adding staff hours. The efficiency gained with a comprehensive Yardi software has helped us redefine associate roles to better focus on areas of opportunity within the business,” said Brandon Carter, director of information technology for Wallick.
Accommodating an Aggressive Growth Plan
Wallick credits the centralized Yardi Voyager software platform with making their company nimble and adaptive to change. “Having only one software to manage (Yardi) makes us quickly scalable. The Yardi platform allows us to focus on our associates and residents as we grow, instead of worrying about bringing on new technology.
Painless Payables
The first Yardi product Wallick implemented was Yardi PayScan, which automated its accounts payable processes. They saw benefits very quickly as they average approximately 20,000 payables a month which require more than 12,000 checks and ACH payments. “Having all of this data on one software platform means we can quickly pull reports and see exactly where each property is financially. Before the transition to Yardi, we’d spend several days pulling data from several pieces of software,” said Carter.
Retooling Senior Living
For its senior living communities, Wallick uses Yardi Voyager Senior Living for operations, Yardi EHR for healthcare services, RentCafe Senior Living and Senior CRM for marketing, leasing and client-facing services. Having the entire company within the Yardi software umbrella creates efficiencies throughout accounting, operations, marketing and IT. “At any point of the tenant lifecycle our staff can see upcoming move-ins and make the necessary preparations, instead of not knowing and just reacting as leads or residents make plans for residency,” says Carter.
Yardi Senior CRM helps Wallick to understand where leads and referrals come from, which is an important component to the marketing plans of senior living providers. With Yardi Senior CRM, Wallick has gained an understanding of yearly trends in applicant submission. It also provides Wallick with reporting tools for insight on current residents. These are new functionalities which Carter says are keys to the future of Wallick’s business strategy.
Leveraging Technology in Health Care
Health care is a common component of our senior living communities. With Yardi EHR, Wallick is able to provide staff with streamlined assessment processes. “Yardi EHR helps ensure that we do not have fundamental breakdowns where residents are re-assessed, and billing not changed or updated. This type of automation allows our nursing team to focus on patient care instead of data entry,” says Carter.
Yardi EHR also facilitates automated communication with pharmacies through its built in Yardi eMAR feature set. “Pharmacy integration has been a huge win for the Wallick team. It’s given our nurses time more time to focus on patients. With that time, they’ve changed their day-to-day routines to streamline care processes outside of the Yardi system. We’ve also reduced time spent on manual entry of orders, phone calls, and faxes sent back and forth with the pharmacy,” says Carter.
Solutions for Every Need
Wallick takes advantage of the variety of solutions Yardi offers to fit is expansive business functions. “Whatever the need, we can almost always find a Yardi product to help us fulfill it. We trust that Yardi is continuously working to develop new and exciting products to help us fulfill our responsibilities towards owners, staff and residents,” said Carter.
