Our latest Yardi leadership series profile comes from Amsterdam, which is home for Richard Gerritsen, Yardi’s regional director for Europe. He gave us an update on Yardi’s presence and progress in the region. Q: Richard, what is Yardi’s presence in Europe? A: We started with offices in London and Amsterdam in 2002 and now serve clients on the European continent who hold properties in 26 countries—from Norway to Spain, and as far east as Poland and Romania. We subsequently added offices in Mainz, Germany, and Cluj, Romania. Q: What are some key characteristics of the European real estate market? A: Property management has a distinct international component here: A portfolio might be owned in one country, operate in another country and report to investors in yet another one, or more. Each party most likely has its own currency and tax requirements. Even many locally focused property managers are increasingly serving clients from the U.S. and Asia. They all need a sophisticated software platform to provide a high level of efficiency, transparency and compliance for their clients, which is why Yardi Investment Management accounts for a sizeable portion of our sales on the continent. Being able to report on multinational holdings from one platform is a huge advantage. Q: So investment management is the primary focus? A: Yardi is heavily focused on asset and fund management in Europe because so many holdings are multinational. Our property management client base is smaller than Yardi’s share in the U.S., but we are well established among European commercial property managers and we anticipate some of our strongest growth to come from the residential market. Q: What has been key to Yardi’s growth and prominence in the market? A: We provide technology and support to meet the international requirements...

Said Haider, regional director of Middle East sales for Yardi, spoke to us from his office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an update on the region’s rapidly growing real estate market. Q: Said, what are your principal responsibilities and how Yardi is performing in the Middle East? A: I manage our sales and business development efforts in the region. When we started our operations back in 2012, we had handful of clients; now we work with more than 80 clients in the Middle East and North Africa regions, mainly in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Without a doubt, it’s one of our fastest growing markets. Most of our clients have varied real estate portfolios and almost 90% of retail space in the UAE is managed with Yardi software. Q: When did Yardi enter the market and what was the impact? A: We launched Yardi Voyager there in 2012 and almost immediately saw high demand across multiple vertical markets. We were able to replace customized solutions with a Software as a Service platform that fulfills virtually all business operations requirements out of the box. This allowed companies to focus more on their business and worry less about the tools. As we continue to grow, we are introducing the Yardi Elevate Suite, the most comprehensive set of commercial asset management solutions available on the market. Q: What are some key trends in the region? A: The commercial, retail and residential sectors are growing fast. The real estate investment trust and shared office space concepts are also gaining footholds. Q: What’s our approach to the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular? A: Customer experience is the key to competing in this market and that’s how Yardi made its mark. We offer a single integrated solution...

Patrick Hennessey, Vice President and General Manager at Yardi, joined the team in 2010 as an expert in screening software. He found Yardi’s small company feel and large company resources appealing.  “We have a great team of people, cutting edge technology, and the efficiencies that a company the size of Yardi are able to attain with support teams on both coasts and flexible hours for our clients,” says Hennessey. Hennessey leads the Yardi Resident Screening team in honing and refining online screening software for multifamily clients. The team introduced the product to Canadian markets earlier this year. Benefits of Yardi Resident Screening Hennessey’s focus, Yardi Resident Screening, helps leasing agents select and retain low-risk residents. The system facilitates: comprehensive reports reliable data automated recommendations insights into applicant traffic applicant and resident performance reporting improved efficiencies Hennessey explains, “We do a few key things to help our clients through Resident Screening. First, we help our clients make the best possible leasing decisions. We do that by helping them find more high quality applicants and fewer low quality applicants. Thus we help them maximize revenue by minimizing unwarranted financial risks.” He continues, “Additionally, we limit their legal exposure by using a neutral third party for their screening process. That ensure that the applicants’ rights are protected and that they are given a fair opportunity in the leasing process.” In addition to increased consistency in the selection process of their residents, property managers who adopt Yardi Resident Screening can expect cost savings as a result of improved efficiencies in the leasing office. Rather than requesting a credit report and scoring it by hand, users execute tasks online. Added Security The efficiency and convenience of online leasing has directly influenced the demand for resident screening tools. With Resident...

Currently serving as Yardi Vice President of PHA and Affordable Housing Sales, Boone Atkins also spent decades as a Yardi user. With more than 22 years of experience in the real estate industry, Yardi gained a valuable asset when Boone shifted from a client into a leadership position in December 2014. “I met Anant Yardi in the early 90’s when I began working as a consultant and in executive positions for companies using Yardi software. From a client and employee perspective, my impression of the Yardi company has never changed. Yardi is truly dedicated to the mission of helping clients and employees succeed and grow,” said Boone. Atkins sees trends in the affordable housing and PHA industry as similar to market rate multifamily housing. “Our affordable and PHA clients want technology to help them become more efficient. No matter the industry vertical, it is all about getting the biggest bang for their buck.” Read on for more insight from Boone Atkins in our latest installment of the Yardi Leadership Series. When did you join the Yardi team? Atkins: My shift from Yardi client to employee happened in December 2012. In total, have more than 22 years of experience in the real estate industry. My current base of operations is Denver, but I’m on the road a lot with clients and staff. Did your impression of Yardi change once you became an employee? Absolutely not! This company is dedicated to the mission of helping clients and employees succeed and grow, and that’s never wavered in all my years associated with Yardi. How does Yardi help affordable and PHA clients become more efficient through technology? Atkins: We’re delivering on that expectation by automating and streamlining workflows for affordable housing compliance, ad hoc reporting, dashboard analytics, business...

Jay Shobe, Vice President, Technology at Yardi, has spent his entire life around technology. He grew up using an early incarnation of a PC that ran on a Burroughs operating system, connected to ARPANET (pre-internet) via an acoustic coupler (pre-modem).  “So yeah, I go back a ways,” he says casually. Tech is in his blood. It’s with this full breadth of knowledge and experience that Shobe proudly transitioned into his role with Yardi Cloud Services nearly two years ago. “I was in development for 20 years before I transferred to Cloud Services,” begins Shobe. “This group is dedicated to making sure that the vast environment—12 data centers across the world, 5,000 clients in the cloud and millions of people connecting on a daily basis—and all the different data that we keep in that environment is safe, secure, and performing properly.” The dedication of Shobe and his team is what makes Yardi Cloud Services one of the most trusted and relied upon cloud service providers in the industry. Cloud services play a vital role in the growth and viability of Yardi as more businesses transition to remote networks. The cloud allows clients to transfer IT infrastructure, support services, and data security into the capable hands of specialists. This transition is an integral part of today’s corporate growth strategies: when combined with big data, reports indicate that businesses experience 53 percent greater growth than their self-hosted peers. Client data is stored in a cost-effective and scalable software management solution that is secured offsite under the care of Shobe and the Cloud Services team. They are the unsung heroes of many growing enterprises. “The cloud today is viewed similar to electricity or plumbing; you expect that it’s going to be working. You don’t say a little thanks...

By now, you likely know that collaboration between marketing and sales is necessary to achieve and exceed growth goals.  What you might not know is that without that unified approach, companies can lose 10 percent of revenue each year. For most businesses, the challenge is figuring out how to make interdepartmental teamwork effective. Organizations must begin with an equal playing field, where sales and marketing both receive support from upper management. Currently, that is not the case in many organizations. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Business Marketing Association surveyed 237 B2B marketers for greater insights on workplace conditions. Only 42 percent of marketing respondents are consistently included at the senior management table. An eye-opening 37 percent expressed that senior management offered a “strong endorsement” of their efforts. Marketing and sales share a symbiotic relationship. Once leadership acknowledges their interdependence, both departments can work together to bolster growth. Esther Bonardi, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing at Yardi, offers these insights into bringing sales and marketing into a blissful and productive union: Partnership drives growth. “The goal of marketing is ultimately to drive qualified leads that are ‘sales ready,’” begins Bonardi (pictured, right). “Accomplishing this requires a lot of communication between sales and marketing.  All too often, it can be hard for one group to gain the attention of the other in order to effectively work together on a strategic plan.  A lack of meaningful communication is the greatest obstacle to this success.” The key to purposeful communication is exchanging resources and insights, sharing the same objectives, and consistency. “It is important for sales leaders to put time on their calendars to plan and strategize with their marketing counterparts, and to keep these appointments as if they were appointments with a key client,” says Bonardi....

After nearly 20 years as a Yardi employee, Becky Sanvictores has a deep perspective on how we can best serve the many types of clients who use Yardi software daily. “We earn trusted relationships with our clients by focusing on their needs. Our goal is always to establish a positive environment where Yardi employees can work with clients to implement innovative solutions,” said Sanvictores, who serves as a vice president in Yardi’s Client Services Division, with a focus on the multifamily product suite. “We never rest in enhancing and broadening the solution to help our clients grow and gain efficiency. We work to be partners in their strategy to be successful and grow their business.” In the late 1990’s, Sanvictores started at Yardi as an account manager.  Her job during college was at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska, where she worked on preventative maintenance, focusing on building systems. She is a renaissance woman: a published poet, she loves hands on projects and grew up dismantling engines in the garage with her dad. Like most long-time employees, her journey at Yardi has taken many paths. They have all touched on customer support, about which she is passionate. As a company, Yardi places a focus on supporting its clients of all sizes around the globe. “We are committed to excellent service – understanding and being responsive to our clients’ diverse needs,” Sanvictores said. One of the changes she has observed at Yardi in her time at the company is the development of multiple ways that clients can connect with support resources. In addition to traditional in-person trainings, there are now a full deck of digital and on-demand options. “We provide innovative and quality training to our clients. We have multiple options – on-line training...

Many commercial property managers seek to abbreviate the leasing process, expedite reporting, and improve overall efficiency and accuracy. Unfortunately, it is a struggle to compile and interpret data from multiple software programs within their organizations. Robert Teel, Senior VP G&A at Yardi, and his team are redefining the way that user groups interact through software. As a former financial accounting systems consultant, Teel is familiar with the challenges that property managers and analysts face when their software is not fully integrated: long process lifecycles and crippling inefficiencies. “With a single stack, you can shorten nearly every business process lifecycle. In essence, our vision is that our clients can create an ecoysytem on the single stack to connect their front office with back office, and even extend participation to external users,” says Teel. Deloitte Consulting LLP reports that single stack solutions are the new standard for cloud, digital, and analytics. Projects can experience gains through “faster environment readiness, the ability to engineer advanced scalability, and the elimination of power/connectivity constraints.” A single stack solution can remove limitations and promote intelligent growth. Teel observes that self-contained ecosystems allow users to minimize redundancies, capitalize upon a more efficient use of resources, and create consistent and accurate processes that add value to users. For example, Yardi client Prologis (a $20B US REIT with over 4,000 properties) has reduced their quarterly property reforecasting process by months.  “We went from a six-month quarterly forecast process to an eight-week process, and our accuracy is vastly improved,” according to Arthur Nelson, Vice President of Global Business Systems, Prologis. Such results are possible due to the single stack’s ability to track a process from start to finish, offering automated operations and consistent reporting. Teel offers the leasing process as an example, “The prospect—a...

Kevin Yardi admits that his path to employment at Yardi Systems was probably a bit different than most. As the son of Yardi founder Anant Yardi, he spent a good portion of his childhood summer vacations around the then-fledgling company. “My first stint at Yardi was when I was 6 years old, and that was in the shipping department on Reddick Street in Santa Barbara. I have fond memories of the MLS books we used to print. That was a big part of our business in the late 1980s,” says Kevin. His older brother, Jason, is also a Yardi employee. As Kevin grew up, the company was growing, too. During his high school years, he completed a summer internship in the marketing department. His duties were to call clients and gauge potential interest in a customized website created for their business. “Sixteen years later we have a successful product in RentCafe and the Yardi Marketing Suite, but I can take zero credit for it,” he joked. “What’s truly interesting to me is that Anant (Yardi) was thinking about things like client websites so long ago.” Though he had always envisioned joining the family business as part of his future, Kevin did not come straight back to Santa Barbara after graduating from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.  Instead, he forged his own path as a Washington, D.C.-based technology consultant, working first for IBM and then for Deloitte. “I was a functional consultant, implementing accounting systems for Fortune 500 companies. For ten years, I was on a plane every Monday morning and home again on Thursday night,” Kevin says. “It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world.” In 2013, Kevin decided that the time was right for him to leave the East Coast and...

John Pendergast first learned the importance of persistence and attention to detail as a musician. The avid guitarist plays music from a wide range of genres, honing in on the nuance within each piece. “There is a great attention to detail in playing music and different instruments,” explains Pendergast, Senior Vice President, CSD at Yardi. “There is so much detail in how to intonate and emphasize particular notes in a sequence with the right timing. You have to practice often to get it right, but you always keep learning.” “Both of those things are very relevant at Yardi. The need to do things over and over again until you get good at them is a key piece. There is also great importance in exercising attention to detail and making sure that we do the right things for our clients. ” As the needs of clients change, Yardi software and services develop accordingly. Pendergast and his team take the time to understand the details of the user experience. The team then creates and supports software that makes the user experience practical and seamless. Transaction processing through Yardi is one such example. The expectations of today’s renters and tenants are vastly different than just a few years ago, triggering a focus on online and mobile payments. To meet these demands, Yardi created a robust suite of payment processing options for clients: Yardi Online Payments™, Walk-in Payment System (WIPS®), Yardi CHECKscan™, and RentCafe® TextPay™ integrate with Yardi Voyager® and Genesis 2 to streamline rent collection, cut operational costs, and reduce processing errors. Residents can conveniently pay rent online, via text, or at participating retailers. Clients can also quickly bulk scan and digitize rent payments made with checks and money orders. Services are available for residential and commercial clients. Pendergast says:...