What we are finding more and more nowadays is the executives and managers desire to get ahead of the spend, to have visibility into the spend, to see what they\u2019re buying, how frequently they\u2019re buying it, and why they\u2019re buying it.<\/p>\n
Whereas in the old days a product manager might have walked down to the local hardware store and bought a case of light bulbs, nowadays a purchase order will be raised, that purchase order will be checked against a budget and then approved, and the products will be purchased against the contracted price.<\/p>\n
The trend is to analyze the spend, compare it to budgets, and cut out what we call \u201cmaverick spend,\u201d which is spending outside of agreed contracts, and to generally provide a more efficient process that includes budget checking and approvals, purchasing at contracted prices and invoice presentment and payment all in one seamless efficient platform.<\/p>\n
Can you give us an update on Procure-to-Pay?<\/strong> What is the technology that makes this work, and is it mobile?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a single platform, a single database, and the budget variance analysis is performed in real time against the current general ledger. It is built into Yardi Voyager, which is the book of record for the property manager, therefore there are no data interfaces needed . The approval process is built into Yardi Voyager also, and purchase orders and invoices can be viewed and approved on mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Android.<\/p>\n Property managers spend outwards of $5 per square foot on service providers \u2013 like landscaping, and cleaning crews.\u00a0 These contracts with these service providers can be managed and put out for bid in a very efficient way and vendors can be invited to bid through a portal.\u00a0 Bids can be compared and awarded through this platform. It\u2019s a place where clients and vendors meet, where they can exchange insurance information, provide invoice information and status to each other and they can participate in a bidding process for services. That\u2019s something exciting that\u2019s underway right now.<\/p>\n When will that service provider platform be available for customer use?<\/strong><\/p>\n Second quarter of 2012.<\/p>\n Anything else you\u2019d like to share with us?<\/strong><\/p>\n We at SiteStuff have extensive knowledge of the variety of sustainable products in our catalog, which are highlighted for ease of use. We also feature suggested shopping lists that contain only sustainable products so, say \u00a0you wanted to \u2018green\u2019 your building, we can suggest purchases. Customers are very intrigued by this offering and are motivated to implement sustainable purchasing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Real estate procurement may not be the most glamorous aspect of the business, but it\u2019s an essential ingredient of well-run properties and managing it well is essential to seamless budget planning for any property management firm. Yardi Systems subsidiary SiteStuff, based in Austin, Texas and\u00a0 headed up by Vice President and General Manager Nick Davis, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":1151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,55],"class_list":["post-802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-procurement","tag-sitestuff"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nOur clients have come to us and said: We would like the Procurement process and the \u00a0Payment process to be one combined process on a single platform and with a single database that\u2019s streamlined and automated, and provides the ability to manage the spend and the approval process. We\u2019re bringing the SiteStuff procurement solution to the Yardi Payment Solutions together to provide this end to end procure to pay application.<\/p>\n![\"Factory](\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2012\/03\/factory-300x200.jpg\" "\\"Warehouse\\"")
Is there anything in the works for Service Providers?<\/strong><\/p>\n