{"id":16797,"date":"2016-11-15T05:00:54","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=16797"},"modified":"2020-12-24T10:24:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T18:24:31","slug":"an-awesome-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/an-awesome-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"An Awesome Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cUpgrade Like a Rock Star\u201d series highlights insider tips and tricks for a smoo\"willnewton\"th transition to Voyager 7S<\/a>, Yardi\u2019s newest and most robust property management platform.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Getting Started <\/strong><\/p>\n

Newton and his team began by promoting employee buy-in. Newton and a Yardi consultant visited each of Avesta\u2019s four regions to drum up curiosity and excitement about the new software.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe basically did a little tour around each of the regions and got everybody pumped up about it,\u201d begins Newton. \u201cSo, just kind of a quick, \u2018here\u2019s all the new functionality that you\u2019re going to see. It\u2019s much prettier and easier. You\u2019re going to like it!\u2019 That kind of got everyone excited about using it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testing and Implementation<\/strong><\/p>\n

To make testing fun, Avesta turned the process into a competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a pretty competitive company,\u201d laughs Newton. \u201cI had a little scoreboard thing going. I\u2019d run queries on how many lines of code you did, how many update statements occurred, and other stuff that was more tangible for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

These competitions helped the staff systematically sift through each of Avesta\u2019s custom menus. Staff confirmed that pages and links functioned properly, and that pages appeared identical on various browsers.<\/p>\n

To avoid burn out and maintain regular workloads, staff limited tests to one hour per day.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Regional subject matter experts, or SMEs, demonstrated specific, commonly used functionalities in a test environment. They also answered user-specific questions. Once the onsite trainings ended, SMEs continued to support Avesta staff members.<\/p>\n

Internal webinars and Client Central training videos supplemented the on-site training sessions. Newton integrated links to the digital training materials directly into the main menu of 7S, making it easy for staff to access information as needed.<\/p>\n

Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

The merge of employee and user tables required additional attention. Avesta worked closely with Yardi technical account managers to quickly correct the issue.<\/p>\n

Newton also found that it was helpful to have the integration team and any other third party support on hand \u201cin case anything crazy happens because there are schema changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Avesta\u2019s thorough preliminary testing limited the craziness.<\/p>\n

Favorite New Features <\/strong><\/p>\n

Predictive search topped the list of Newton\u2019s favorite new features in 7S, followed by mobile-friendly accessibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a pinch, users can just grab their cell phone,\u201d says Newton. \u201cI\u2019ve sometimes had somebody on the road with 4G. They can go [into Voyager 7S] if they have to make a quick approval on something,\u201d says Newton.<\/p>\n

Newton also appreciates that 7S notifies users of potential discrepancies, a helpful tool to fix data entry errors before they become complex problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe warnings are great. The little box will come down at the top if you\u2019ve put in something that\u2019s an invalid entry or something like that. Instead of looking around on the screen and trying to figure out what you did wrong, it\u2019ll tell you up top,\u201d say Newton.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Voyager 7S and its new features, register<\/a> for an upcoming webinar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cUpgrade Like a Rock Star\u201d series highlights insider tips and tricks for a smooth transition to Voyager 7S, Yardi\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":440,"featured_media":16799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3354],"tags":[1745,702,116],"class_list":["post-16797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-team-yardi","tag-avesta-homes","tag-voyager-7s","tag-yardi-client-profile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The \u201cUpgrade Like a Rock Star\u201d series highlights insider tips and tricks for a smooth transition to Voyager 7S, Yardi\u2019s newest and most robust property\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Awesome Upgrade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The \u201cUpgrade Like a Rock Star\u201d series highlights insider tips and tricks for a smooth transition to Voyager 7S, Yardi\u2019s newest and most robust property\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/an-awesome-upgrade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yardi Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-15T13:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-24T18:24:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/11\/WillNewton.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"546\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"642\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erica Rasc\u00f3n\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erica Rasc\u00f3n\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/an-awesome-upgrade\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/an-awesome-upgrade\/\",\"name\":\"An Awesome Upgrade - 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