{"id":23880,"date":"2020-04-28T06:12:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T13:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=23880"},"modified":"2026-02-22T15:33:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:33:42","slug":"senior-living-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/senior-living-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior Living Q&#038;A"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How can technology help senior living providers overcome their biggest challenges?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24415\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24415\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-24415\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/04\/rsz_rayelliot-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24415\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ray Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To get the answer, Senior Housing News (SHN) recently interviewed our own Ray Elliott, vice president of senior living at Yardi, as part of their <a href=\"https:\/\/seniorhousingnews.com\/2020\/03\/24\/voices-ray-elliott-vice-president-of-senior-living-yardi\/\">Voices series<\/a>. The content program, which we\u2019re a sponsor of, asks executive leaders for their insights on trends, topics and issues that are shaping the industry.<\/p>\n<p>With almost two decades at Yardi, Ray has extensive experience working on software solutions for property management, initially supporting Yardi\u2019s public housing product before taking charge of senior living. He\u2019s seen how technology has grown in both sectors, transforming business as usual in powerful ways.<\/p>\n<p>Read on for an excerpt from Ray\u2019s interview with SHN:<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you see as the most impactful way a property management platform such as Yardi can move the needle for senior living providers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yardi goes beyond just being a property management platform. If you look at our history, that was where the company started, but today we do much more than that. We provide an end-to-end solution that our clients can use from the first engagement with a prospect all the way up through the care of residents.<\/p>\n<p>With the Yardi Senior Living Suite, everything is automated. If you\u2019re using our CRM (customer relationship management), and you enter prospect data, details about that individual will make it through the sales cycle. When they end up in your community, you\u2019re able to see everything in our EHR (electronic health record) product, down to their hobbies and interests.<\/p>\n<p>All that information flows automatically. Nobody has to transcribe it. Nobody has to enter it again. There isn\u2019t a risk of that information being lost. It\u2019s that sort of value-add that helps move the needle for providers. It helps them see the whole picture and provide better service.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is something senior living can learn from one of these other property types that you\u2019ve worked in?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Good question. One lesson I\u2019ve learned is you shouldn\u2019t underestimate the adoption of technology by the consumer or by the residents. In our public housing product, we have portals for people to go online to gather information or submit documents. Oftentimes, there was skepticism as to whether they would take those steps.<\/p>\n<p>We found that to not be true at all. They were using it and adopting it \u2014 and even expecting it. That\u2019s been true in senior living as well. There\u2019s some hesitation: \u201cWould residents adopt technology?\u201d They have and they do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>From a management perspective, what do you see as the biggest challenge for senior living providers in 2020? And what is the best way for providers to combat that challenge?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This one is clear. It\u2019s COVID-19. In a matter of a month, it has turned into a challenge that everyone is focused on. In terms of being able to combat it, we should take it seriously and be diligent about following the advice of experts.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of information out there, but the experts are speaking, and they\u2019re consistent. We\u2019re well advised to follow what they\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n<p>I know for Yardi, this has been an opportunity to reevaluate our own processes, to be innovative in terms of searching for solutions, such as our user conferences that happen twice a year. Unfortunately, we have canceled the in-person event that was taking place in Washington D.C. We\u2019re going to do it instead as a digital conference and use it as a way for us all to gather together and share information.<\/p>\n<p>As for other challenges \u2014 and this probably sounds like a broken record \u2014 but staffing and retention continue to be major challenges that providers are thinking about.<\/p>\n<p>Some simple things they can do are to understand how their peers in senior living and those in other industries are dealing with this and adopt behaviors that have been successful. For instance, the hospitality industry faces these challenges, so it\u2019s good to look at what they\u2019re doing and how they\u2019re addressing it.<\/p>\n<p>Other providers that don\u2019t have such a problem with staffing have good retention. What are the habits that they\u2019re forming? And while it\u2019s always good to look at what others are doing, don\u2019t be afraid to be creative. Try new things and see what might be successful. Even if some don\u2019t work out, some might. See if you can figure out some of those solutions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/seniorhousingnews.com\/2020\/03\/24\/voices-ray-elliott-vice-president-of-senior-living-yardi\/\">Read the entire interview<\/a> on SHN.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can technology help senior living providers overcome their biggest challenges? To get the answer, Senior Housing News (SHN) recently interviewed our own Ray Elliott, vice president of senior living at Yardi, as part of their Voices series. The content program, which we\u2019re a sponsor of, asks executive leaders for their insights on trends, topics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":24415,"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":[5,2952,3354],"tags":[2808,2696,842,2470,2438],"class_list":["post-23880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-senior-living","category-team-yardi","tag-covid-19","tag-senior-housing-news","tag-senior-living","tag-yardi-executive-insight","tag-yardi-senior-living-suite"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Yardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How can technology help senior living providers overcome their biggest challenges? 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