{"id":20934,"date":"2018-09-28T05:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=20934"},"modified":"2020-12-25T01:20:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T09:20:16","slug":"20-years-of-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/20-years-of-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Years of Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrating 20 years, Yardi Canada has come a long way. As a leading innovator that delivers technology solutions to move the Canadian real estate industry forward, Yardi Canada focuses on helping clients thrive through every change.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We caught up with a few of Yardi Canada\u2019s leaders to learn more about the company\u2019s evolution. From DOS to Windows to Internet based web apps to mobile apps and now on to artificial intelligence, Yardi has always been there with a solution for its clients. Here are a few technological highlights from the past two decades.<\/p>\n

A Unique Market<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mobility and the cloud might reign now, but it all began with DOS.<\/p>\n

Introducing real estate companies to new technologies to improve business operations has never been an easy task. As Canadians, we tend to be a little more conservative when it comes to change. However, Peter Altobelli<\/a>, general manager and vice president of sales for Yardi Canada, found it was easy to bring Yardi\u2019s three DOS products to market: Yardi Basic, Yardi Deluxe and Yardi Premier.<\/p>\n

\u201cDOS was a great product to implement since it was reliable, simple and easy to use. It was a technology that property managers understood. Plus, it had all these great shortcuts, because we didn\u2019t have a mouse back then,\u201d recalls Altobelli. Altobelli set up Yardi\u2019s first office in Canada in 1998, which started with four people and now has grown to a staff of over 200.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s multitasking generation, accustomed to multiple windows and screens, would feel restricted with a DOS platform. But back then, users could accomplish single functions at a time quickly and efficiently. It was exactly what the industry needed as a catalyst towards more technology and innovation.<\/p>\n

Moving to the Internet <\/strong><\/p>\n

At every innovative milestone, Yardi Canada has been ready for the change. Moving to the internet-based Yardi Voyager brought some growing pains. For starters, not many people were familiar with the Internet yet \u2014 so educating clients and prospects about an internet-based property management system was a challenge, and it was hard for many to wrap their heads around it. But the Yardi team was ready to take on the challenge of educating and growing the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the late 1990s, the Internet wasn\u2019t what it is today. Web pages pushed out information, like electronic brochures. Now, data flows two ways,\u201d Altobelli says.\u00a0 Technology was clearly in the process of becoming more complex for the evolving Canadian real estate market.<\/p>\n

Hosted in the cloud, the Yardi Voyager provides a powerful foundation on which companies can consolidate business-wide operations including consumer-facing services.<\/p>\n

Lynn Topp<\/a>, director of residential services at Yardi Canada, was a Yardi client before joining the company. \u00a0\u201cVoyager\u2019s data accessibility was the reason my former company, which managed 95 condo and several rental properties, purchased the system. With Voyager, we could push work out to our site and share information immediately. Previously, we needed onsite staff \u00a0to manually enter receipts, and all cheques and invoices had to be processed at the head office. Voyager changed all of that,\u201d Topp recalls.<\/p>\n

Online Services and Mobility <\/strong><\/p>\n

With new technology grew the need to be accessible at every point. In the past, the thought of working from your phone was almost unheard of. Now companies are encouraging employees to use mobile apps to enhance and speed up processes. Yardi was focused on innovation and dedicated resources to developing mobility. \u201cIn terms of development, mobility was a real challenge. There was a steep learning curve. Now we are at the point of mastering it. Mobile is the future,\u201d says Dana Samargiu, senior software development engineer at Yardi Canada.<\/p>\n

According to Rob Podlesnik<\/a>, director of PSG, \u201cMobility was not immediately adopted in Canada. Canadian companies are more risk averse.\u201d Teaching clients about the changing marketplace and its undeniable trends, Podlesnik said it was a matter of getting on board or getting left behind. \u201cNow, mobility is expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topp couldn\u2019t agree more. \u201cProperty managers have always had to be mobile, but before they did not have the tools we have today, the paper would just pile up. They would have boxes of paperwork in their cars, and when they got back to their offices they\u2019d be in a panic to try and catch up with things.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Voyager, going paperless is now a reality. Workflows are automated, leasing happens online, payments and invoices are electronic, and reporting happens at the click of a button. \u201cEmployees don\u2019t have to sit in an office anymore to get their jobs done. Mobility has allowed property managers to use their smartphones or tablets to complete tasks and get work done quickly. This has also reduced the amount of paper in this industry, which is really great,\u201d Topp adds.<\/p>\n

But not all tech products were challenging to develop or introduce into the market. In terms of market acceptance and adoption, Yardi Resident Screening<\/a> was an easy solution to adopt. It offers comprehensive background and credit checks and automated rental recommendations, all built into the Voyager leasing workflow. It also provides reporting and analytics. \u201cAs soon as people heard about it, it was so easy to get them to understand that everything they\u2019d been doing manually could be automated,\u201d Topp recalls.<\/p>\n

Topp also recalls introducing RentCafe<\/a> \u2013 Yardi\u2019s marketing, leasing and resident services platform into the Canadian market. \u201cVacancy rates are low in Canada. You don\u2019t have rental specials, you don\u2019t have a lot of competition and unlike the U.S. market, we don\u2019t re-price units on a regular basis,\u201d Topp elaborates. However, the online resident services offered through RENTCaf\u00e9 <\/em>have been a hit. They include online applications, payments and maintenance requests \u2014 all of which can be done at any time of day or night, which satisfies residents and saves companies money through automation.<\/p>\n

Another growing trends for the Canadian market has been the introduction of user portals. With the overwhelming Millennial demand for online and mobile services, no real estate company can avoid providing them if it wants to compete and succeed. \u201cPortals have become essential to property management. Today\u2019s consumers make decisions based on their ability to do things online,\u201d says Louise Steeves, product manager for Canadian development. \u201cThe Millennial generation needs and wants the mobile, full-service approach to all transactions,\u201d says Podlesnik. This isn\u2019t just about access but also customer service.<\/p>\n

Podlesnik explained, \u201cIn the mid-1990s, companies were focused on renting to capacity and maintaining occupancy, not really looking for savings. Now, clients are looking to deliver online services, which not only make residents happy and promote retention, but also reduce operational costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking Forward, Moving Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Yardi has led the industry in technology innovation, it has also been guided by clients. Key to its success and part of the company mission, Yardi maintains an open dialogue and uses client insights and feedback to develop solutions that keeps them ahead of the curve \u2014 and always anticipating what needs to happen next.<\/p>\n

Podlesnik provides insight on client dynamics. \u201cOur clients push us, but sometimes we push our clients. We always strive to help them better understand where the industry is headed,\u201d says Podlesnik. \u201cWe really listen to them and build the technology that takes them where they want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when it comes to development, clients needn\u2019t worry about losing functionality they have become accustomed to in order to make room for the next big thing. \u201cWe understand stability is important to our clients.\u00a0 We take backward compatibility seriously. On the other hand, it is also vital for us and our clients that our products are ready for new technology.\u00a0 As a result, we gradually introduce enhancements and new features on a timely basis through our releases.\u201d says Kwok-Kin Wong, senior technical project leader of programming for Yardi Canada.<\/p>\n

When asked what he sees in the future for real estate in Canada, Podlesnik believes that energy management and integration, along with enhanced customer service including portals for investors and vendors, will be key developments.<\/p>\n

Everyone agrees that tying end-to-end business processes back to Voyager is paramount. Having all operational information in a single database provides the greatest advantage for clients. Data is king, and being connected to it, with advanced business intelligence tools to analyze it to make smarter decisions, is necessary to succeed. It was true 20 years ago, and it\u2019s truer than ever today.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Yardi\u2019s single connected solution for property management<\/a> and discover where it can take your business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrating 20 years, Yardi Canada has come a long way. As a leading innovator that delivers technology solutions to move the Canadian real estate industry forward, Yardi Canada focuses on helping clients thrive through every change. We caught up with a few of Yardi Canada\u2019s leaders to learn more about the company\u2019s evolution. From DOS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":20334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3354,6],"tags":[2440,328,1707,76,40,1699],"class_list":["post-20934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-team-yardi","category-technology","tag-20-years","tag-property-management-software","tag-real-estate-technology","tag-technology-2","tag-yardi","tag-yardi-canada"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Celebrating 20 years, Yardi Canada has come a long way. 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