YASC DC 2015

Annual East Coast Conference

By Leah Etling on May 19, 2015 in News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yardi’s largest ever Advanced Solutions Conference launched Tuesday, May 19 at the Washington Hilton. Nearly 1,500 clients are attending the three-day event, which continues through May 21. Remarks from Yardi founder and CEO Anant Yardi began the day.

“Clients are at the heart of what we do,” Mr. Yardi said. “Our focus is your success. And there are two guiding principles for us: Customer service and innovation.”

Since 1984, California-based Yardi Systems has become a global real estate technology leader, with 36 offices, clients in 80 countries, 10 data centers, and software platforms serving more than a dozen real estate verticals.

“We started in Europe 10 years ago, and that growth has really continued,” said Rob Teel, senior vice president, global solutions. The company will soon add additional data centers in Dubai and Singapore.

Yardi also provides an array of strong ancillary service products, nationwide real estate market data, and real estate focused digital media.

Over a period of strong growth for the company during the last decade, Mr. Yardi has placed the focus on customer service and support. The semi-annual YASC conferences, now expanded beyond the U.S. to include regional events in Australia, the UK, and Singapore, is first and foremost an opportunity for clients to dialogue with Yardi personnel. The  feedback they provide on Yardi products is vital to ongoing upgrades and enhancements to the software.

Mentioning sharing economy successes Airbnb and Uber, Mr. Yardi said that the company’s focus in the coming months and years will be to continue to streamline and simplify its products and platforms.

“You might say, what do (Airbnb and Uber) have to do with real estate? But it’s interesting to note that both of them simplify transactions we do on a daily basis – getting from A to B or renting a room. Our focus for the next five years will be to facilitate, streamline, simplify real estate functions and real estate transactions. A handful of examples: leasing, customer interactions, facilities management, procurement, asset management, acquisitions and dispositions.”

Mr. Yardi’s remarks were followed by a panel discussion on rental payment trends, moderated by Yardi’s vice president of marketing, Brad Setser. Panelists included Doug Bibby, President/CEO of NMHC; Sam Foster, CEO of PRG Real Estate; Kathryn Cleary, VP of Emerging Verticals for Mastercard; and Bill Dobbins, SVP, Head of Business Development for Visa.

The panelists talked about trendlines in renter payment preferences, including the move away from accepting cash and checks to all-electronic payment remittance. Foster’s company no longer offers paper leasing, using the digital platform supplied by Yardi’s RentCafe product, and believes that they can eliminate the acceptance of paper checks within the next five years.

Renters are less interested in paying their bills with credit cards, however, and prefer debit transactions and avoiding interest charges or credit card fees, the panelists said.

YASC  attendees also have the opportunity to improve their knowledge of the Yardi platform, by attending in-depth courses, adopting new products, or troubleshooting any issues unique to their user experience in the computer lab.

YASC attendees and those interested in the event can follow along with conference highlights via Yardi’s corporate social media channels, especially on Twitter and Instagram.

Yardi’s Fall YASC event will be held in Anaheim, Calif., from Oct. 7-9, 2015. Registration will be available shortly after the close of this week’s conference.