As 2016 comes to a close, we look back in reflection on a successful year. Here are a few of our favorite Yardi moments from 2016: The Balance Sheet, Yardi’s corporate blog, celebrated its fourth anniversary! In February, Yardi launched a new data centre in Dubai to meet the data security and infrastructure needs of a growing client base in the Middle East. Yardi welcomed iMS Immobilien Management System GmbH to the Yardi family! iMS GmbH is a German developer of commercial property management software. CSU Channel Islands and Pacific Coast Business Times honored Yardi Systems and CEO Anant Yardi. Anant Yardi was named Business Leader of the Year by the Business & Technology Partnership at California State University, Channel Islands. Mr. Yardi was also inducted into the Pacific Coast Business Times Business Hall of Fame in recognition of his contributions to the software industry. Yardi aided displaced Fort McMurray fire evacuees. Mobilizing teams in four different time zones, Yardi created a centralized housing registry connecting local landlords and residents in need of housing. Yardi acquired Proliphix, a leading provider of energy control solutions. We welcomed its clients and staff to the Yardi family! Gordon Morrell was named Executive of the Year at the South Coast Business & Technology Awards. “I’m honored to receive this award, but it really is not for me,” Morrell said. “It is for the entire global team at Yardi. The reason for our success is the exceptional collaboration of everyone at the company, rather than the efforts of one individual.” Yardi won a NREI/IMN Commercial Real Estate Award in recognition of the Yardi®Smart Energy Suite. Multi-Housing News earned Gold for best website at NAREE’s fiftieth conference. In August, we celebrated 5,000 Yardi employees strong worldwide! Yardi released Yardi Genesis2for Affordable Housing. Yardi welcomed two new Marketing Geniuses. Meet Mia...
YASC Europe
Inspired by innovation
London, United Kingdom will host the annual Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) on 15-16 November, 2016. The conference will be held at the Park Plaza Riverbank London hotel, located on the south bank of the River Thames overlooking the Houses of Parliament. This year, YASC will bring together an estimated 250 clients and 80 staff for two days of learning and networking with real estate professionals within the European commercial, residential and investment sectors. The conference focuses on advanced software training, product updates and exploring important industry topics. YASC will offer clients 84 unique classes and panels tailored for executives, product users and technology professionals. Attendees can look forward to a General Session with Yardi leadership on Tuesday, interactive client and expert panels throughout the conference, networking receptions, prize draws and the highly anticipated YASC Gala. New to 2016, the conference has been enhanced for expanded client learning and networking: Connect with the YASC App. Attendees can access conference information, maps, social networking and in-app messaging on the YASC App. Use the YASC App to view your daily schedule, explore YASC social media activity and to complete session evaluations. The YASC App is available for download at the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Get social and win! This year, we are hosting Europe’s first YASC social media scavenger hunt. Complete all six tasks to be entered to win prizes during Wednesday’s Closing Remarks. Learn more about the scavenger hunt in your conference brochure. Connect and share your YASC experience on your favourite social network using our event hashtag, #YASC2016. Get hands-on experience from the experts. Reinforce newly acquired skills with hands-on experience in our on-site lab. Our expert account managers and technical staff will be on hand to walk you through advanced techniques and to answer your...
YASC Asia
Client training in Singapore
The Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) heads to Singapore on November 10, 2016. YASC offers comprehensive training and networking opportunities tailored for our clients in Asia. This year, over 100 clients and 30 staff will join us at the Amara Sanctuary Resort on Sentosa Island during the 1-day conference. The conference offers 20+ educational sessions, discussion panels, hands-on product training and a networking reception for clients within the commercial, investment and residential markets. Attendees can look forward to courses and panels tailored to the experience of product users, IT professionals, managers and executives. Throughout the conference, clients can meet one-on-one with Yardi product experts. The hands-on experience offered in the YASC Computer Lab will help reinforce newly acquired skills and offers assistance with all products, SQL scripting and reporting. In addition, YASC is hosting experts from Yardi’s Cloud Services team. Cloud Services will offer insight into the latest innovations in the Yardi Cloud environment and what we’re doing to keep your data protected. For Computer Lab and Cloud Services hours, refer to the conference overview. After classes conclude, clients can enjoy an evening of networking at YASC. The cocktail reception will be hosted in the Ballroom Foyer of the Amara Sanctuary from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Inspired by La Dolce Vita, the reception will feature traditional Italian and international cuisine, live music, prize giveaways, an Instagram printer to capture your conference memories, and more! The reception will allow guests to escape the busy city life to mix and mingle in our Italian-themed island oasis. For the first year, YASC will feature an interactive social media scavenger hunt. Learn more about the scavenger hunt and how you can win big at the YASC General Session. Attendees can stay updated on conference news and share their experience on social...
YASC ANZ
Join Yardi in Sydney
In less than one week, the 2016 Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) kicks-off in Sydney, Australia. The annual user conference will be hosted on 25-26 October, 2016 at the Pier One Sydney Harbour Hotel, located near the picturesque Sydney Harbour Bridge. This year’s event has grown by 30 per cent, bringing together over 170 clients and 50 staff members to explore product training and topics facing the real estate sector in Australia and New Zealand. YASC will feature 40+ unique courses, modules and discussion groups tailored for commercial, investment, and residential portfolios. For the second year, YASC is hosting experts from Yardi’s Cloud Services team. Cloud Services will offer insight into the latest innovations in the Yardi Cloud environment and what we’re doing to keep your data protected. In addition, the Computer Lab is your opportunity to speak one-on-one with our product experts. The Lab is a great place to get hands-on experience with Yardi software and learn how to apply what was discussed in courses. Guests will be able to enjoy scheduled entertainment and networking at the YASC cocktail reception on Tuesday, 25th October. Inspired by Fellini’s iconic La Dolce Vita, the reception will feature traditional Italian and international cuisine, live music from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, internationally renowned magician Liam Power, an Instagram printer to capture your conference memories, and more! The reception will be sure to amaze and delight YASC attendees – you won’t want to miss it! A YASC first in Sydney, the conference will feature an interactive social media scavenger hunt. Learn more about the scavenger hunt and how you can win big here. YASC attendees can stay connected with conference news and share their experience on social media using the event hashtag,...
Roscoe Properties
Solutions for Growth + Efficiency
The semi-annual Yardi Advanced Solutions Conferences (YASC) take place on the West and East Coasts, providing clients with the opportunity to attend an event close to home. Each conference offers specialized courses on product features, networking opportunities, and one-on-one consultations with Yardi representatives. At YASC in Washington, D.C., Yardi sat down with Mariana Estrada, VP of Operations at Roscoe Properties. The company has had the opportunity to explore several products since joining the Yardi network in 2008. Estrada updated Yardi on her experiences with the software. Estrada began with Yardi Procure to Pay (P2P), a centralized platform that offers complete spend visibility, streamlined invoice processing, centralized MRO purchasing and vendor onboarding. “The concept of P2P is exactly what we believe in – a paperless, time-saving option. We have a decentralized payables process so our onsite teams are responsible for processing payables and expense management at the site level. The time they used to spend filing and processing paper invoices is now time they can spend serving current residents and attracting new residents,” says Estrada. “And now with the Marketplace, we’re gaining even more time savings and streamlining our purchasing process even further. We just implemented one of our major vendors and Yardi was able to create an online catalog for us.” Yardi Marketplace furnishes access to more than 1 million MRO products and building materials. The program also delivers the best available discounts from nationally recognized suppliers. “The Marketplace has an Amazon-like interface everyone knows how to use,” Estrada explains, “so there are virtually no issues with training our maintenance and site teams. A few mouse clicks and the PO is created and the order placed. Since the users don’t need to re-populate line item details, they are able to move invoices through the processing...
YASC Anaheim 2016
Learning, Networking & Fun
The Fall 2016 Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) is heading to Anaheim, Calif. September 21-23, 2016. For the third time, Yardi’s West Coast annual user conference will be hosted at the Hilton Anaheim, located in Orange County near the Anaheim Convention Center and Disneyland. This year’s event will bring together an estimated 1,500 clients and 400 staff to explore advanced software training, product updates, and important industry topics. YASC will feature 300+ unique courses, panels, peer roundtables, and networking sessions tailored for IT professionals, executives, property managers, property owners, office staff, and trainers. “This year’s YASC in Anaheim has been re-imagined to offer more learning and networking opportunities for our clients. We’ve streamlined the conference format to offer more unique training sessions on the topics most important to attendees. Throughout the conference, we have added interactive networking activities meant to help clients meet peers and experts within their respective markets.” shares Tim Hoover, Manager of Creative Services and Client Conferences at Yardi. New to 2016, the conference schedule has been enhanced for expanded client learning and networking: Stay connected with the YASC App. Attendees can access conference information, maps, social networking, and in-app messaging on the YASC App. Custom tailor your daily schedule with up to 16 classes, demos, panels, and roundtables with the convenient in-app scheduling feature. The YASC App is available for download at the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. A desktop version is also available here. Get hands-on help at the Computer Lab. Stations tailored to each vertical market will be set up for you to explore Yardi’s latest technology. Our experts will be on hand to walk you through advanced techniques and to answer your questions one-on-one. Shorter lunch lines and more learning. To improve your conference experience and reduce the wait time during lunches, lunch periods will be split into two sittings. Certain morning courses will be offered again during these lunch periods so you can get in one extra class! Find your fit at the Networking Lounge. The re-imagined Networking Lounge is a place for you to connect with industry peers in your area of interest. Visit this interactive space to get your social media questions answered, network with peers, and learn about our social media VIP experience and scavenger hunt. Connect and share on your favorite social network using our event hashtag, #YASC2016. Network with industry peers. During lunch sittings, look for table markers corresponding to your market or area of interest. Connect with fellow attendees to discuss the topics that interest you most. New to networking or need a refresher? Get started with the basics and set your action plan for success. Unwind over desserts and late-night eats at Thursday’s after-party. After dinner, enjoy time with colleagues and new friends in an atmosphere that matches your tempo. A variety of entertainment, including appetizers, drinks, music, and an open air photo booth, will keep the fun going all night. Whether you’re drawn to a lounge-style soiree or a pumped-up party, we’ve got something for everyone! Along with the YASC courses, general session, and scheduled entertainment, we wanted to share a few local attractions that may interest clients visiting Orange County. Whether this is your first visit to the West Coast, or your tenth, we hope these opportunities will enrich your experience while at YASC. For a full list of local attractions and points of interest, explore the Points of Interest tab in the YASC App. Disneyland Park and Disney’s California Adventure Park Disneyland Park is celebrating 61 years of Disney magic. Fall is the perfect time to visit, as parts of the park will be in festive fall spirit. Explore a galaxy far, far away in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, featuring re-imagined Star Wars rides. Rediscover classic Disney favorites, like It’s a Small World and Jungle Cruise, and enjoy season-inspired rides (our favorite is Haunted Mansion Holiday). Disney’s California Adventure Park offers the attractions, dining, shopping, and...
YASC DC 2016
A look inside the event
Ever wondered why Yardi clients flock to the company’s two major user conferences each year? There are the obvious reasons, like the specialized courses on product features, the chance to network with other clients, and who doesn’t like to get out of the office for a few days? But a closer look at today’s YASC event in Washington DC demonstrates the true value this conference provides. Three sample sessions We started our morning with the Orion BI Experience: A User Perspective panel. Three clients, each representing a different real estate vertical, talked to a packed room about the exceptional functionality that Orion BI has brought to their businesses. While each client introduced Orion BI for different reasons, the results they have experienced were very similar: enhanced visibility into their own data, insight on key performance indicators, happier top-level executives and reduced time preparing for regular reporting meetings. Lisa Kolb, consultant/senior systems analyst for A.J. Dwoskin, said that her mixed portfolio client adopted Orion has part of a transition to a paperless office, but soon realized many additional benefits, including the fact that it greatly reduced “analysis paralysis.” Reports were created based on the KPI’s that the company truly wanted to hone in on. “It became part of our initiative to focus on KPI’s, and the drill down capabilities helped us focus on what really mattered,” Kolb said. Norma Soria, Management Systems Director for the Cesar Chavez Foundation, a California affordable housing provider, spoke enthusiastically about the time her team saved as a result of implementing Orion. “We have a weekly meeting with regional managers, and it had typically been four hours long. With Orion BI, it went down to two, and the time to prepare for it was also cut in half,” Soria said. ** Next up, we headed to a client round table called Developing Your Workforce: Creating a Culture of Learning, led by Yardi’s Manager of eLearning, Patty Evans. Training is a very hot topic with Yardi users and property management executives. Nearly 40 people joined the session to learn what best practices Patty had to share. Separated into small groups, clients had the chance to share their training challenges, which included dealing with employee turnover, how to motivate employees who aren’t interested in advancing their careers, ways to incorporate training into busy schedules, and how to take advantage of cutting edge digital training options. Motivating employees to train might take many different forms, Evans pointed out. Some may want to do it to advance their careers or earn a raise, others may need a more mandatory approach. But allowing staff to have some choices in their training programming can be empowering, she explained, especially for younger employees. “This is a new generation, a new learner. We need to trust how they problem solve,” Evans said. Clients closed out the session by brainstorming some ways to address training challenges and sharing their ideas with each other. Many were attending all of the classes in the Yardi eLearning programming track, a popular offering this spring. ** Next it was time for another client panel, this one focused on implementing Yardi Voyager 7S. Four clients, representing multifamily market rate housing, affordable housing, office and mixed-use, shared their thoughts. One of the major transitions made by many Yardi clients moving to Voyager 7S has been the switch to being hosted by Yardi rather than self-hosted. Heather Ferlin of Investco talked about that change. “Really, the biggest difference we have experienced was that now we have many less technical issues than when we were self-hosted,” Ferlin said, adding that her phone rings far less often now with complaints about server issues. “Our company is growing. We are building more units, and getting more (Yardi) users. We didn’t have the capacity to stay self-hosted.” Jeffrey Callan, CIO of major multifamily firm Morgan Properties, was another panel participant. He stressed the importance of...
YASC DC 2016
General session recap
In a speech focused on goals and giving back, Yardi CEO and founder Anant Yardi addressed the 1300 attendees of the 2016 Spring Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference in Washington, DC on Wednesday morning. Speaking to the clients across a variety of real estate verticals, Mr. Yardi talked about the company’s focus for the future: app-based technology that will enhance ease of use and push real estate software toward a model similar to Uber and Airbnb. “Our focus from here onwards will be mobile apps,” Mr. Yardi said. He demonstrated how apps already play a significant role for Yardi multifamily clients. Renters using the RentCafe Resident app have submitted thousands of work orders, which are processed using Yardi Maintenance mobile apps for property and maintenance managers. Additional apps for leasing, facilities management, and electronic health care record-keeping are already in use by Yardi clients. Mr. Yardi forecast that in the near future, apps will allow users to quickly and easily interface with their cloud-based Voyager platforms. 95 percent of Yardi clients are now cloud-hosted, he said. “That’s one of our goals – just one segment of our next pentathlon,” Mr. Yardi said. The general session opened with a video showcasing the marketing genius of pentathlete Mia Wentworth, Director of Marketing and Training at Monarch Investment and Management. Her focus on creating a “culture of achievement” at her company inspired Yardi’s remarks on bringing value to clients and breaking new ground. For the first time, Mr. Yardi also publicly acknowledged the company’s efforts to give back to the communities where the company has offices via corporate philanthropy and service. “In the past, we haven’t talked about it,” he said. “The thought was that if you talk about your giving, somehow it diminishes the essence of what...
