Yardi held three days of educational online programming for clients March 8-10. This year’s digital Global Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) focused on how technology can help meet the needs of today’s real estate industry across multiple verticals. More than 15,000 Yardi clients worldwide attended the three day event, and viewed more than 300 classes covering all aspects of Yardi’s technology offerings. More than 100,000 classes were attended over the the three days. In today’s challenging economy, efforts to automate and improve processes wherever possible can help overcome staffing challenges. Yardi executives showcased the company’s multiple product suites during overview spotlight sessions, which can be of tremendous help for business efficiency. Read on for some of the highlights. Meeting the changing needs of commercial clients Perhaps no real estate sector has experienced more changes during the pandemic than commercial real estate. Many offices have sat dormant for months or more while employees worked from home. The retail and restaurant landscape has been altered greatly. And the industrial and self storage sectors have seen a huge boom in demand. More than two years since the first U.S. lockdowns, impacts are being observed across CRE, said Yardi senior vice president Rob Teel. “I spend a lot of time with our office clients, executives and users of Voyager and our commercial product suite. It is true that vacancy is starting to creep up. Occupancy numbers are hipping a little bit – though not as much as people thought would happen during the pandemic.” As a result, creative owners and managers are exploring alternative uses for office space. They include coworking, either self-managed or working with a partner, which the Yardi Kube suite is perfectly positioned to help manage. Others are turning to mixed use, which opens the...
YASC Global
Fall 2020 event recap
October 20-22, Yardi provided three days of education, training, inspiration and support to clients during the YASC Global conference. The expansion of the online event to attendees worldwide, building on a U.S.-focused event held in May, was well received. Over 20,000 attendees, representing more than 2,500 companies from 58 countries, took 45,000 courses over 72 hours. The event was hosted on the Yardi Aspire learning platform. Anant Yardi, founder and president of Yardi, delivered an introduction to the event and remarked on the rapid adaptations real estate professionals have made worldwide. “Last year we had six different conferences: Washington, D.C., San Diego, London, Dubai, Singapore and Sydney. They were festive occasions where we had the opportunity to meet and greet you. Today, things have changed,” Mr. Yardi said. “We now work from home. We no longer meet face to face, but through digital media. And as all of this is going on, we yearn for those good old days. I don’t know about you, but it sure is nice to meet face to face. And we look forward to the day when we can do that.” But to help deal with the “new normal” that the real estate industry now faces, Yardi has continued to expand its product suites to assist with remote business management, data transparency, social distancing, working from home and much more. These features augment the business and accounting features that have made Yardi the go-to technology provider for real estate over the last 40 years. Product spotlights During YASC Spotlight sessions, clients heard from Yardi executives about the development and progress of product suites, including Affordable Housing, Commercial, Investment Management, Multifamily, Senior Living, and Public Housing. There were also regional updates for international clients from Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Europe and the Middle East. “Through a single connected solution, we remain focused on providing a set of products and services that have a real impact on your property operations and property performance. These products help to create transparency and efficiencies in the interest of reducing risk, reducing expenses, increasing revenues and increasing property values,“ said John Pendergast, senior vice president at Yardi. Products highlighted for multifamily operators were RENTCafé Reach search marketing; Marketing IQ, a new marketing analytics product; RENTCafé Self-Guided Tours, which allows socially distanced property tours; RENTCafé Chat IQ, an automated marketing assistant using AI and machine learning; Maintenance IQ; Asset IQ; and the Procure to Pay suite. “There have been some dramatic changes. Remote working, asset distress, residents and tenants’ ability to pay rent, and a real focus on data have been part of our conversations with clients both big and small, operational or institutional ownership. The challenges are common across the different platforms and client perspectives,” shared Richard Malpica, vice president and general manager, Eastern region for Yardi, in the investment management spotlight. While different commercial real estate sectors have been affected uniquely, data visibility and the ability to access operational data have been especially important to investors and operators alike. The Investment Management product suite provides tools to deliver data transparency, risk exposure analysis and real time reporting that investors are seeking now. “Though we have incredible optimism about the next 18 months, it is important that we acknowledge the hardship that many of you have faced in a personal and professional manner,” said Rob Teel, senior vice president at Yardi, in the commercial product spotlight. “I want to assure you that Yardi has passionately contributed philanthropically and to professional trade organizations to help with a global rebound from this crisis.” Commercial clients learned about the latest updates to the Yardi Commercial Suite, including Yardi Elevate, which sits on top of Yardi Voyager and provides operational tools to drive performance and gain operational visibility. Leasing, forecasting, deals, retail tenants and construction projects all have specialized management modules and reporting oversight within Yardi Elevate. Its real time informational visibility has been especially beneficial...
YASC Global
Strengthens the Client Connection
The Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference began in 1999 with about 200 guests in attendance. YASC eventually encompassed six events on four continents dedicated to giving real estate professionals in-depth training in Yardi property and investment management software. There were always plenty of networking opportunities and fun as well. COVID-19 diminished in-person meetings this year but not the YASC mission. Yardi kept the tradition going in May, hosting a digital version in lieu of gathering in Washington, D.C. More than 16,000 clients around the world completed 107,000 on-demand classes and viewed 50,000 hours of content at YASC Digital. Yardi will build on YASC Digital by combining the year’s five remaining conferences into YASC Global, a presentation of more than 280 on-demand classes Oct. 20-22. Like YASC Digital, YASC Global is free to all clients and features customized, self-paced learning and market-based registration tracks. There’s also live chat support from product specialists, in-depth spotlight sessions, real-time chat with fellow attendees, prizes and giveaways, and social media interaction. Attendance at YASC Global is expected to exceed that of YASC Digital. “We’re gratified that our clients gained so much from YASC Digital. That outcome inspired us to repeat the experience and enhance it with expanded class offerings, panel sessions and exclusive special events,” said Kevin Yardi, the company’s vice president of global solutions. “We look forward to joining industry leaders around the globe in a memorable event.” Learn about the value in store for Yardi clients at YASC...
