When Grubb Properties decided to upgrade its Yardi Voyager property management and accounting platform to the latest version, the company knew it would meet a little resistance from its staff. Iris Esguerra, Grubb’s Information Technology Business Analyst and Yardi Project Manager, says, “While Grubb embraced the benefits of moving to 7S, our Voyager power users were a little nervous about the potential disruption an upgrade can cause. With a change management strategy that included a lot of communication and documentation through the testing process to go live, Grubb experienced a successful transition.” Our Upgrade Like a Rock Star series shares insider tips for the move to Yardi Voyager 7S. In this installment, Esguerra tells how Grubb made the conversion for its 4,448 multifamily units and 28 commercial properties. Testing and Training The upgrade process began in the fourth quarter of 2016 with a target to go live in late March 2017. Grubb relied heavily on its Yardi Consulting Practices contact, Tricia Wyatt, to stay on track and achieve a smooth transition to 7S. Esguerra says that Wyatt was instrumental in helping Grubb through the upgrade by supplying testing materials and guideline documents for each Yardi module. Relevant documents were distributed to keep testers focused. Since the upgrade would greatly impact the look and feel of the platform, the documents provided a clear breakdown of functionality which users tested and became familiar with in the stage database. Esguerra explains the process, “As the project manager for Grubb and single point of contact for the implementation upgrade, I was provided a project plan and testing checklist workbook. The workbook showed a timeline of goals to hit each week prior to the go-live date, testing results for each module, a list of Yardi root menu sets to...
Upgrade Like a Rock Star
Fairfield Residential Embraces 7S
Our “Upgrade Like a Rock Star” series provides insider tips for a seamless transition to Yardi Voyager® 7S. In this segment, Senior Business Analyst Melanie Moyers shares how Fairfield Residential made the conversion across 50,000 units of multifamily and affordable properties. First, Fairfield Residential shifted from self-hosted to hosted on Voyager 6. Yardi Subject Matter Experts assisted Moyers and her team through an extensive series of test scripts. The joint effort made the transition effortless. Moyers says, “We really didn’t have anything come up during testing whatsoever just going to hosted so that was very quick!” After the two-month transition from self-hosted to hosted, the company began the conversion to Voyager 7S property management platform. Testing and Training Moyers explains the process: “For 7S, we did a more extensive testing. We made sure we had two users from every single permission group. We have a lot of user groups and permissions do change, like little hidden permissions in 7S, so it was very helpful to do that.” She continues, “It was extensive on the testing part but we tried to limit it as far as what people actually tested so they were only doing things that they really know about. In IT, we took the bulk of running through a huge script to make sure everything was covered.” Originally, the three-person IT team planned for three months of testing. They decided to request the support of three additional application support technicians. Then they extended the testing phase to four months in order to accommodate changing permissions. “We went ahead and added an extra month just so we would do a second round of testing with all those same people. We got a clean script from every single one of them,” says Moyers. Fairfield Residential’s education department for property management facilitated training for onsite personnel. The group assessed software changes that would affect most of the group, then educated the staff via webinar. Perhaps more importantly, the training department garnered excitement for the new software. “The training was more about building excitement for them, to not be scared that something new was coming out,” says Moyers. Moyers led training for the corporate staff. She broke the general sessions into hour-long increments then hosted additional 30-minute sessions for accountants and those with changing roles. After four months of testing, the team was ready to go live. The IT department braced itself for a flood of help desk request. The group was pleasantly surprised. “We anticipated that there was going to be a big uptick of help desk requests. There wasn’t actually that much but we had the whole team geared up for it, so we were pulling all those tickets right away. But later in analyzing the data we actually only had about three weeks of increase and then it completely went back to normal,” recalls Moyers. Challenges One of the only problems that Moyers encountered came with users’ perception of speed. Voyager 7S added a load bar, a visual that alarmed some employees. “I think because people saw the load bar, people were like, ‘Oh, it’s slower. It’s slower!’” laughs Moyers. “We had our old Voyager 6 environment available still. We would actually get on a GoToMeeting and show them it was faster in the new environment. That helped a lot because it was just a mental thing to them and there were a few hanging onto that.” Favorite New Features Among the upgraded features, five have received notable praise from the Fairfield Residential staff. The new menu search tops the list of favorites. It allows users to enter a query directly on the main dashboard. AJAX auto-fill search makes exploring 7S resources faster and easier. Users enter a word, phrase, or partial word in the Search box. Voyager 7S quickly retrieves matching menu items. There is no need for exact client IDs or even complete phrases. Improved lease proposal...
An Awesome Upgrade
For Avesta Homes
The “Upgrade Like a Rock Star” series highlights insider tips and tricks for a smooth transition to Voyager 7S, Yardi’s newest and most robust property management platform. For this installment, Yardi caught up with Will Newton, Director of Support Systems at Avesta Homes. His team converted from Voyager 6 to 7S more than two years ago. The transition took about four months. Getting Started Newton and his team began by promoting employee buy-in. Newton and a Yardi consultant visited each of Avesta’s four regions to drum up curiosity and excitement about the new software. “We basically did a little tour around each of the regions and got everybody pumped up about it,” begins Newton. “So, just kind of a quick, ‘here’s all the new functionality that you’re going to see. It’s much prettier and easier. You’re going to like it!’ That kind of got everyone excited about using it.” Testing and Implementation To make testing fun, Avesta turned the process into a competition. “We’re a pretty competitive company,” laughs Newton. “I had a little scoreboard thing going. I’d run queries on how many lines of code you did, how many update statements occurred, and other stuff that was more tangible for people.” These competitions helped the staff systematically sift through each of Avesta’s custom menus. Staff confirmed that pages and links functioned properly, and that pages appeared identical on various browsers. To avoid burn out and maintain regular workloads, staff limited tests to one hour per day. Avesta then hosted six on-site trainings, one for each region and two at the central office. During each occurrence, the offices shut down for a few hours so that all of the staff could be present. Regional subject matter experts, or SMEs, demonstrated specific, commonly used functionalities...
New Milestone
Yardi Voyager 7S
The impact of Yardi Voyager® 7S on public, private and nonprofit real estate organizations continues to grow. The number of clients using the most advanced property management and accounting platform from Yardi® now tops 2,500, nearly double the total at the beginning of 2015. Clients report gaining flexibility, productivity and scalability from Yardi Voyager 7S, which is mobile-enabled and accessible from all Internet browsers. “Now we can perform all of our major business operations from one platform with any browser and mobile device. Voyager 7S helps us achieve our top priority—adding value and maximizing return on investment for our property owners and investors,” said Rich Stayner, CEO for Bridge Property and Asset Management. “Voyager 7S allows us to focus on the meaning of our data rather than how to get it,” said Brenda Hartson, director of IT for L&B Realty Advisors LLP. “Voyager 7S has improved our workflows. Our property managers seem to be getting things done in a much more timely fashion. It’s easy to find things and complete tasks more quickly and smoothly,” said Carol Vandenberghe, an accountant with Brindley & Associates Inc. “Voyager gives us the freedom to utilize many different Internet browsers and become portable with mobile solutions. Our greatest savings has come in staff time. Working more efficiently allows us to focus on important areas, such as compliance,” said Tina Hoffart, finance director for Grand Forks Housing Authority. All new Yardi clients are implementing Yardi Voyager 7S. The company continues to work with clients using previous versions of Yardi Voyager and other Yardi platforms to establish migration timetables. The platform was introduced to the marketplace in 2013. About Bridge Property and Asset Management Bridge Property and Asset Management, based in Murray, Utah, provides a range of property management and...
Clarity in the Cloud
Wilson Blanchard Management Inc.
Moving to Yardi’s cloud-based Voyager 7S platform was a big leap for Wilson Blanchard Management Inc., a Canadian condominium overseer. With responsibility for nearly 37,000 units in the Toronto and Golden Horseshoe area and offices in Toronto, Hamilton and Cambridge, the company is one of the largest and most respected condominium management firms in Canada. The company’s transition to the 7S platform was a big deal because not only were they moving away from a self-hosted software solution, but they jumped from a much earlier version of Voyager, Voyager 5, to the vastly improved and more intuitive 7S. “That was a big challenge, both from our standpoint and I think from Yardi’s standpoint also,” said Jeff Lack, manager of financial reporting for Wilson Blanchard. But moving to the cloud turned out to be one of the best technology decisions that Wilson Blanchard had ever made since the company began 20 years ago. Not only did it produce nearly immediate cost savings, but it saved time, enhanced productivity, and generated peace of mind. “The cost of being self-hosted, both the cost from a hardware standpoint and a maintenance standpoint, just wasn’t worth it anymore. It didn’t make sense to continue putting out that amount of money for servers, maintenance, software upgrades, and server upgrades,” Lack said. Transferring the responsibility for those items to Yardi created a streamlined system for troubleshooting and eliminated miscommunication between software provider, client and a third party IT provider. But there haven’t been many issues to troubleshoot, Lack relayed. “We really haven’t had any cloud specific issues, at all. There has been no downtime, no data issues,” Lack said. Among the efficiencies generated by Voyager 7S that Wilson Blanchard has appreciated are fast report generation using SSRS reporting. “It’s almost instant....
Growing with Yardi
Capital Asset Management
For Phoenix-based Capital Asset Management, use of Yardi software has been a key aspect of coming of age as a company. “Yardi has been one of our selling points,” says Aaron Strole, owner and founder of the company along with his wife, Rachelle. “When we talk to our current or prospective clients, we tell them that we use state of the art software – the best in the industry.” A full service firm that provides due diligence, underwriting, brokerage and property management services, the Stroles started their business in the depths of the recession. A client was looking for a reliable property manager for an asset that was on the market but not moving, and Capital Asset Management was born. Seven years later, the property management arm of the Capital Companies looks after 40 properties, and is now expanding its leasing operations. Assets are located in Arizona, California, and Nevada. “The maturation of our company has been key,” Strole said. “We aren’t just doing property management on the side, we’ve become a full service firm and what we’re doing for our clients is really good.” While growing their portfolio and span of operations, Capital Asset Management has evolved its software platform as well. The company moved quickly from Yardi Genesis to Voyager 6, and then upgraded to the Yardi Commercial Suite and a full cloud-based platform in 2014. “7S is a true cloud version of Voyager. We don’t have to ask for the updates, they are rolled out for us. Everything is available wherever you need it. I carry around my iPad now, all the time, because I don’t want to carry around my laptop. And I can get access to everything in Voyager that I need,” Strole said. A former IBM Management Consultant, Strole is working to make his company as paperless as possible. He moved his corporate email to a cloud-based server and eliminated any need for in-house technical support. The result, he says, is peace of mind. “What I like about it is that when everything is hosted in the cloud, things tend to not break. We were having our on-site server go down and we once lost all of our server data. It took three days to get the backup replication up and running. You don’t want to have tell your clients that you can’t send them the report they need. Now, if it does break, I call Yardi or Microsoft,” Strole said. He next plans to look into paperless invoice remittance via ACH transfer. Another aspect of the Voyager 7S platform that Capital Asset Management is happy with is the Report Scheduler functionality. “One of our biggest clients, a national company, told us that they asked every one of their property managers around the country to use the same report package that we had been creating for them in Yardi,” said Strole. For more information on The Capital Companies, visit http://thecapitalcos.com/ For more information on Yardi, visit...
1,650 Clients Strong
Yardi Voyager 7S
Adoption of Yardi Voyager® 7S has reached more than 1,650 clients and reports of enhanced security, efficiency and cost benefits with Yardi’s most advanced property management and accounting software continue rolling in. “The mobility of Voyager 7S makes being out of the office a lot easier,” said Matt Evert, chief financial officer for Versa Development. “If I have to look up something for one of our owners, I can pull up my phone and respond within minutes. It’s definitely more efficient than having to go back to my computer.” For Rachel Garrett, director of community operations for master-planned community Issaquah Highlands, upgrading to Yardi Voyager 7S allowed her staff to focus on their core business and innovation; not on system maintenance, data security, and hardware. “We run a large, complex community with a relatively small team. Voyager 7S is so intuitive that it’s easy to train users,” she said, adding, “It has also been a cost savings tool for us. There are the obvious savings in not having to purchase, protect and replace hardware, but what we’ve really recognized is the opportunity cost—what our staff is able to do and accomplish because they’re not having to manage those other pieces.” “Our staff no longer has to contact information systems to find reports or reverse charge functions. They simply type the word ‘charge,’ and every function pops up. Being able to use Voyager 7S across browsers is also really nice,” said Leslie Dabi, business systems director for nonprofit housing development and management organization EAH Housing. About Versa Development Versa Development, based in Southfield, Mich., is a national real estate firm that acquires and develops retail, industrial, office and medical office properties throughout the United States. The company manages all aspects of project preparation, deal flow...
Digie Awards
Honor for Voyager 7S
Realcomm recently announced the winners of the 2014 Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation Awards (AKA the “Digies”), including an award for Best Real Estate Technology Innovation, which was won by Yardi Voyager 7S. The latest and most advanced version of Voyager, Yardi’s flagship property management and accounting software, is used by thousands of clients to manage millions of apartments, commercial rentals and other property around the world, was lauded for: Comprehensive ERP incorporating both front and back office Extensive cloud-based architecture Incorporates comprehensive suite of mobile applications Yardi Voyager 7S works with all Internet browsers and is tablet compatible. In the following video, Rob Teel, Senior Vice President, Global Solutions, talks about integrating the front and back office with the power of Voyager 7S. Teel, who accepted the award for Yardi at Realcomm’s recent conference, commented: “We are thrilled to be recognized by Realcomm for our innovation with Voyager 7S. We live in a mobile world, and it was really important to our clients that our flagship Voyager product line be available on the go through tablets and multiple Web browsers. We would also like to congratulate the 1,000+ clients that have already upgraded to Voyager 7S.” In addition to Yardi’s Digie Award, a number of clients were also recognized at Realcomm and IBCon for exemplary accomplishments involving use of technology, automation and innovation. They included: Best Use of Automation – Commercial Services CBRE – Los Angeles Office Development of leading-edge open space design concept Digitization of all documents to enable mobile environment Collaborated with Google to create Liquid Galaxy experience Best Use of Automation – Property Management Arcadia Management Group Highly automated tenant maintenance, mobile inspections and procure to pay Consistent willingness to take risks with new technologies Commitment to educate and share knowledge and experience with the industry Most Intelligent Building Projects – Office Portfolio Detroit Portfolio – Bedrock Developed a comprehensive portfolio-wide smart building strategy Integrated an extraordinary number of disparate systems Willingness to share successes and failures with the industry Best Use of Automation – Real Estate Investment Management Deutsche Bank Wealth & Asset Management Created a comprehensive integrated platform for investment management Demonstrates strong project management and execution of large-scale technology implementations Continual improvement and automation of complex business processes Best Use of Automation – Retail KIMCO Realty Development of advanced leasing, budgeting/forecasting and business intelligence applications Continual willingness to interact with peers and take leadership role Implemented advanced web-enabled lighting solution Most Intelligent Building Projects – Office Building Pennzoil Place – Transwestern Developed complete and comprehensive vision for a smart building Design concept blended a balanced integration of both IT and BAS Created a revenue stream by selling broadband back to tenants Most Intelligent Building Projects – Retail Taubman Implementation of broadband network throughout retail mall portfolio Continually striving to find new and innovative ways to enhance the customer experience Created new revenue stream by providing broadband services to tenants Realcomm has been awarding Digie honors since 1999. Yardi has earned many of the awards, including one in 2013 – also for Digital Technology Innovation – for Yardi Leasing Pad, the mobile leasing application. For a full list of the 2014 award winners, see: http://realcomm.com/advisory/advisory.asp?AdvisoryID=643 Congratulations to all of the...
1,000 Clients Strong
Yardi Voyager 7S
Foundation for full-business real estate management platform features complete mobile capability and portfolio-wide business intelligence SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (June 4, 2014) – In less than a year, more than 1,000 companies have adopted Yardi Voyager® 7S, the latest and most advanced version of Yardi’s property management and accounting software. Yardi Voyager 7S works with all Internet browsers and is tablet compatible. Yardi Voyager 7S is fully integrated with many popular Yardi modules, including: Yardi Procure to Pay™ Yardi Orion™ Business Intelligence Yardi LeasingPad CRM™ and Yardi Commercial Leasing Pad™ RENTCafé™ and COMMERCIALCafé™ “The response to Voyager 7S and its companion modules has been very positive because they offer unprecedented functionality in a comprehensive and fully integrated suite of products,” said Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi. For most clients, the transition to Yardi Voyager 7S requires only a few days of training for their staff. “We have really enjoyed the increased efficiency we have experienced with Voyager 7S, including specific hotkey capabilities and auto-fill features,” said Rebecca Hill, chief financial officer for commercial and residential real estate developer Briarcliff Development Co. “The upgrade of our database to 7S was a seamless, literally overnight process.” “The navigation features are very efficient, so we instantly get property and resident information without going through a dozen steps. We also like the efficiency of customizable screens that restrict access to display types to users who need them,” said Larry Busgeon, controller for multifamily property manager Landmark Realty. “The system’s mobile capability and full integration with products such as RentCafe and Yardi Maintenance™ enhance both our resident service and staff efficiency. Residents can make payments online, including recurring ones, and our maintenance staff can manage work orders in the field without returning to the office.” “Landmark...
One Stop Solution
Setser talks Yardi Voyager 7S
The following interview by Nisha Randhava appeared on the All Property Management blog, an industry resource on property management technology. In this digital world, where information can be accessed quickly and at any time, managing your online reputation as a property management company is critical. Learning how to access this information and keep it updated in a timely manner however, can be difficult if you do not know where to begin. The property management software Yardi Voyager, provides a reputation management feature. In addition, property managers can utilize the online leasing and resident services and property marketing sites. We spoke with Brad Setser, VP of Marketing, to learn more. APM: Please describe the product and its function. Brad: Yardi Voyager is our flagship property management and accounting platform. Voyager, plus a suite of complementary products, creates a full real estate management solution-operations, accounting and ancillary processes and services with portfolio-wide business intelligence and platform-wide mobility-for all types of real estate. We recently launched the latest version of Yardi Voyager, called Yardi Voyager 7S. One of the most significant aspects of 7S is that it’s browser-agnostic, which means the entire program can be run from any mobile device as easily as from a desktop. All new Voyager clients adopt 7S and we’re upgrading our existing clients. APM: What made you develop your product? Brad: We know that many people conduct much of their business, personal as well as work-related, on the go.We responded by developing Voyager 7S to help our clients meet the mobile expectations of their residents, tenants and investors. We wanted to make Voyager a one-stop solution where users can conduct all marketing, leasing and property maintenance operations from any mobile device. This accessibility helps our clients attract tenants and residents, retain them...
500 Strong
Yardi Voyager 7S rollout
Over the past five months, more than 500 Yardi Voyager® clients—with the number growing daily—have adopted the browser-agnostic, mobile-enabled Yardi Voyager® 7S, the latest, most advanced version of Yardi’s core software-as-a-service (SaaS) real estate management platform. Yardi Voyager 7S is compatible with all major Internet browsers, offering real estate investment and property management clients access to Yardi Voyager 7S from any mobile device. Users of Yardi Voyager 7S also can add new products such as Yardi Leasing Pad™, RentCafe™, Yardi Orion™ Business Intelligence and a host of other ancillary and front office products and services that together create a full business platform. “I like the improved search functionality and the fact that we can access information instantly, without having to open new screens. Also, as mobile access begins playing a larger role in our business, Voyager 7S will easily accommodate the mobile applications of new products that we’ll soon deploy, such as Yardi PAYscan™,” said Sandra Johnson, property accountant for real estate developer and manager Lake Washington Partners. Voyager 7S is deployed as software-as-a-service with three options: SaaS, in which updates are automatically applied; SaaS Select, in which the client determines when to apply updates; and Private Cloud, in which clients have their own dedicated network. “I am very satisfied with Voyager 7S. I believe the new format is a significant improvement in screen layout, accounting functionality and user-friendliness,” said Robert B. Sher Jr., president of Sher Properties Inc. “Our conversion to Voyager 7S went very smoothly, and the SaaS hosting is virtually indistinguishable from working on a local server.” All new clients who licensed Yardi Voyager after July 1, 2013 implemented Voyager 7S, and Yardi continues to work with existing Yardi Voyager clients to establish migration timetables. “As Yardi continues in our fourth...
