Client Spotlight

Joe Biddle, ABR Capital Partners

By Joel Nelson on Oct 4, 2023 in People

What’s the best way for a real estate investment management firm to give clients the information they want when they want it? We asked Joe Biddle, director of information technology for Yardi client ABR Capital Partners, about ABR’s experience with the Yardi Investment Suite.

Joe, can you tell us a little about ABR?

We’re based in Baltimore and co-invest with clients and joint venture partners in properties across the U.S. Our portfolio consists of 7 million square feet of commercial space and 557 million square feet of multifamily units that comprise $1 billion of assets under management.

What issues did you encounter with your previous accounting systems?

We used a basic accounting package for property management and a homegrown investment management system. A major problem was the repeated manual data entry needed to transfer information between them. This labor became a drag on our limited staff resources. And clients seeking information on their investments had to request it from us via phone or email and wait for a response. Our clients and team needed, and deserved, a new software solution for accessing information.

So, you adopted the Yardi Investment Suite. How did it remedy these problems?

The Yardi Investment Suite replaced multiple manually executed operations – performance return calculations, joint venture partner reports, capital tracking, and information delivery to clients and employees – with a single connected automation solution that saves us substantial staff time and effort.

Please explain how integrating accounting and investment management within the Yardi Investment Suite improves your customer service.

With accounting data seamlessly flowing to the investment system, we can immediately communicate new opportunities to investors and prospects, customize investor reporting, and automate capital calls and distributions. This process is much faster and more accurate than using spreadsheets or other manual data entry systems. Our clients don’t have to request reports from us – they can easily get them online whenever and wherever they need to find or provide information.

Is that also the case for your internal accountants and fund managers?

Yes – our team doesn’t have to involve themselves in ensuring data gets transferred correctly, which lets them focus their energies on higher value tasks, collaboration and client service. Furthermore, we can expand our accounting and investment operations as our portfolio grows without added staff.

What’s the connection between the Yardi Investment Suite and your business strategy?

As a fund and investment manager, we always seek to do more with our existing resources. The Investment Suite helps us do that. It creates an efficiency that makes us better at what we do. Providing information to investors, auditors and regulators is virtually effortless, and our company now functions as a virtually paperless operation.

What would you say about the Yardi Investment Suite to the real estate investment community?

If you’re involved in fund management and investment management, consider the Investment Suite because of the value that comes from integrating the two operations for corporate as well as fund activities.

Learn more about how ABR Capital Partners manages its real estate assets to optimize value creation.