Realcomm recently announced the winners of the 2013 Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation Awards (AKA the “Digies”), including an award for Best Real Estate Technology Innovation, which was won by Yardi’s Commercial Leasing Pad. Additionally, numerous Yardi clients using the company’s products to automate and improve their companies’ digital efficiency were honored. This year, one of the main Digie categories was Best Use of Automation, described by Realcomm as “for companies that have significantly automated traditional business processes or impacted their industry segments.” Yardi Commercial Leasing Pad is a trendsetter when it comes to use of mobile solutions for the property management industry. Realcomm singled out the application as an “intuitive mobile tool for managing the lead to lease process,” noting that it “takes advantage of full integration with Orion and the Voyager platform.” Leasing professionals are able to use Commercial Leasing Pad to aid them in the leasing process anywhere, whether touring a building with a prospect or meeting with them over lunch down the street. Real-time data is provided from Yardi Voyager, meaning agents are never without the information they need to answer a question or make a sale. The entire leasing workflow is accessible and the product is intuitive and easy to use. Simply sign in with your Voyager login and get started. This is Yardi’s fifth Digie in eight years, following citations in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012. In addition to Leasing Pad’s Digie Award, numerous other Yardi clients, and one consultant were recognized by Realcomm for their automation efforts, digital impact and intelligent building development. Among the projects honored for Best Use of Automation, Commercial Real Estate was Prologis’ consolidation of its entire portfolio of 4,000 properties into single technology platform, using Yardi. The effort was deemed “a real...

It’s the time of year to make resolutions, and Steven Rea of Roscoe Properties tells us that the Austin, Texas property management firm has set some ambitious property management technology goals for 2013. “This is still very much an analog business,” observes Rea, who has been in the industry for ten years and worked his way up to Vice President of Administration after starting at Roscoe as a site level property manager. “My goal for our company, and a way our company set itself apart, is as a digital company in an analog world.” With that goal in mind, Rea and Roscoe Properties owner Jason Berkowitz are using technology best practices to make the properties they manage operate efficiently, for their employees and residents alike. Two of their goals for the year are ambitious by industry norms, but attainable given the progress they’ve pushed forward so far. “I want to be able to say that we have 95 percent of our residents pay electronically and we have a 100 percent paperless office by January 2014,” Rea said confidently. Currently, 65 percent of the Roscoe portfolio submits monthly rents electronically; up from 10 percent two years ago, with some portfolios the company manages boasting over 80 percent electronic remissions. In January 2013, Roscoe Properties will manage 3,000 rental units, the majority in Austin, with 700 units in San Antonio. “I’ve got my accounting department almost paperless, just making use of the technologies we already have. It used to be that accounting departments would have file cabinets and banker boxes full of invoices. We still have those file cabinets, but they’re all empty,” Rea said. A last remaining barrier to an all-digital office has been the historic need for paper records. Though Roscoe now rarely executes...

New and newly upgraded Yardi mobile applications will be front and center this week at YASC SB. When we talk to Yardi clients about ways to improve their real estate-based businesses, and how technology can help, they never fail to mention the desire for new mobile applications that will let employees work more efficiently and businesses run more smoothly. Mobile technology has transformed how we run our personal lives. Shouldn’t it change our businesses, too? Here’s a quick users guide to the various mobile apps now available from Yardi Systems: Leasing Pad – If you are anxious to use Yardi Voyager in a tablet-optimized environment, then Leasing Pad is for you. Users will be able to access contact, lead, lease, resident, and property data in Voyager using Leasing Pad, so leasing agents and managers can work on the go or anywhere on the property using a tablet device.  Leasing Pad also offers the full functionality of the Yardi PopCard CRM, property marketing portals, and online leasing.  Access Voyager dashboards with leasing and operations info, as well as residential analytics, all from your iPad or tablet. Leasing Pad is browser agnostic. Yardi CRM Mobile – During the leasing process, every day a unit sits empty costs you money. Yardi CRM Mobile will help streamline leasing by automating the process. Prospect and customer contact information and history are tracked in Voyager and synced with Outlook throughout the leasing process, from first contact to final signing. Access to crucial data is always within reach when it is on the mobile device that never leaves your side. Lease abstracts can also be run from Yardi CRM Mobile, available for iPhone and iPad. Yardi Inspection Mobile – When you’re in the field inspecting properties, the last thing you want...