Welcome to another in the series of our Yardi Living series of videos, and today I'm joined by Matt Smith, um, from Ssop. Uh, Matt, thanks so much for joining me today. Really appreciate it. Looking forward to hearing about your experiences of Yardi and the business. To start off, it'd be nice to know a little bit more about you and the Allsop business. Allsop Le Lettings and Management, uh, have been going over 25 years now. We're part of, uh, Allsop, uh, limited liability partnership. Um, so we're a wholly home subsidiary of the LLP. Yeah. Um, so Allsop Hass been going over a hundred years now. I Know. It's extraordinary. I've been looking at your magazine and seeing all the history Yeah. And the alumni. Yeah, indeed. We've got quite an illustrious, uh, illustrious alumni, shall I say. Yes. Um, so I've been at Allsop seven and a half years now. Uh, I've been CEO for three. And, um, we, and How's that working out? It's tiring. Um, no, it's, uh, it's, it's a challenge. We, we are growing quite quickly. Um, we knew six, seven years ago that we wanted to get into BTR in a, in a serious way. We probably weren't, weren't one of the early movers. No. Um, but we, we sort of strategically planned our sort of entrance to that market and it's, uh, it's been a bit of a transition now from Old World PRS and lease old, and we're now much more focused on built to rent in multi-family terms and in single family housing terms. Yes. So we'll probably finish this financial year on around eight and a half thousand units. Wow. Um, which is, It's extraordinary. Great. Pretty, yeah, it is. It is. Considering, you know, four years ago we were maybe a 2000, two and a half thousand units. So with, with that kind of growth and clients coming to you, you are obviously doing something right. I hope so. Yeah. What, what's the secret sauce? I know you don't wanna give away too much, but it'd be good to get a little bit of insight into, I guess why, why such growth and Yeah. And why clients are coming to Allsop to help with the management of their assets. Yeah. So it's multifaceted really. Um, it's not one thing that's sort of resulted in it. It, I think probably three, three and a half years ago, um, when I took over, I wanted to perhaps reposition the business ever so slightly. Uh, I think we had a solid reputation. Yes. I think we were seen as institutionally robust in terms of our reporting, but it could probably be more detailed and more accessible. And I think there's, um, I wanted to build on what had already sort of gone in terms of establishing ourselves as a solid, uh, customer service based organization. So if you can get the customer service piece right, then your customers are happy, but then you want your clients to be happy as well. And of course, and that was really, uh, we needed to provide them with more data and much more accessible data. Okay. Um, Which kind of leads me nicely into my question. And we, we, we met, I dunno whether it was three years ago maybe, and I was just talking about it being at the Resi awards, I think, um, was I the sober one or was you, I, I don't know. But, um, at the Resi awards and, um, from there we had various conversations and, um, about systems and architecture. And one of the things I think would be really good to understand is before you put in a Yardi system, what, what were the challenges you faced? Because obviously you were, you had a reputation for, you know, as a safe pair of hands for institutional, um, backed real estate. But what were the challenges before you put Yardi in? So I think if you get, you're going to, if you're gonna scale a business, you, um, you need to know truly what your cost base is. Yeah. Um, you need to be able to predict that not for 3000 units, but for 10,000 units. And you need to make it so that it's, uh, the infrastructure that you are creating can sustain it. Yes. So we knew at that time, three years ago, you know, we had ambitions to be a bigger business, and we knew if we were going to be a bigger business, and we needed to appeal to the institutions that were already starting to attract. Yes. So, at the time, our management system was quite desperate in so much as we had property, a property management software solution. Yes. But the, um, the marketing sort of platform that was attached to that was a separate Yes. A separate system. So I wanted the two to talk to each, You have a separate accounting and, Uh, so our accounting function was sat within property management. Yes. Uh, but possibly not as, uh, not as accessible for our clients. Yes. So the, the, the aim, we obviously have a, an aim as much as providing greater detail, greater access to data. At the time it was a closed system. So the, but the front end piece especially, um, I think our CRM system was limited. Yes. Uh, so I think the data we're getting on our potential customers was, as a result of that, was sort of limited. And that, that in turn means we can't be, provide an insight to our clients. That has changed. Now, um, we had our own marketing platform Yes. Which we were having to maintain. Um, and we had servers as a result of property management and, and marketing platform, both required quite expensive servers. Yes. And, and an infrastructure that is harder to, is costly to maintain. Yeah. Um, I imagine the total cost of ownership was quite high. Yeah. All that disparate infrastructure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The cost of ownership and cost of maintenance. Cost of running it. Yes. And, you know, and every time a legislative sort of change is made, are we, you know, we would be going into our system to work out whether or not that you know, what needed to happen. H how do we comply? Yeah. I mean, we are doing that right now with the, you know, the, the, the renter's rights bill. So, yeah. Um, no, it's a, it's a big issue, isn't it? Yeah, it does. And actually at Yardi, we have a, uh, one of the things that's super important, 'cause it's not just the uk it's across the world and the compliance team have a, a full on job of just keeping up to date and keeping the systems up to date. So it's a great point. So that was then Yeah. And they were the challenges. And we've been through an implementation deep breath. Yeah. Um, and, uh, and actually you guys have been fantastic to work with. So, you know, your team has been, I can't say congratulate you enough, how good your team is and some of the really great people you've got, but it'd be great to understand, uh, uh, after the implementation, you know, we are, we are, we are, we're a little away on what, what's the, what's the impact that you've seen on your business? What, what, you know, you mentioned some challenges, but, but what are the positive impacts that you've seen since implementing the Yardi Residential Suite? The primary benefit really has been, I, I'm going into a room with both current and potential clients. Mm-hmm. There's, there's, there is an institutional acceptance of Yardi. Yes. Comfort to that. Yes. I don't have to work very hard to explain what my system architecture is. I don't have to work very hard to sort of give them comfort that I can demonstr, prior to this, I would've demonstrated the financial reports, but now I can do that, and I've got a third party Accreditation because you have access to the data and they're confident that you can give them the data they require. Correct. Correct. And then what we're able to do now is overlay, you know, uh, we've, at the same time as moving to Yardi, we've brought in a Microsoft 3, 6 5 environment. Yeah. So we're completely wedded to that now. Yes. It's a, we are a cloud-based business, so the, the ability to be able to flex and, uh, especially with single family housing where you have remote property managers Yes. Local to regions, uh, not necessarily always office based. Yardi's enabled us to do that. Um, we also have clients who operate on their own instance of Yardi, but want us to hold the pen on it. Got it. We've been able to help them design their Yardi system for the uk. They might operate in another jurisdiction. Actually, that has been one of the things actually, and we've benefited from that because I think you've helped drive their usage of Yardi residential instead of just being the investment suite. So that's something we've seen on the o on the, on the other side. So, yeah. Thank you for that. Sorry. I mean, it's, I think it's led to more innovation as well. I think it's, you know, I, I, I'm not, I came from an asset management background. I want to see data. Yes. Uh, I want to be able to analyze and assess what's going on right now. Um, and I want to be able to judge things on almost down to the unit level or looking at the demographic type. Yes. And I think the flexibility that Yardi has enabled us to do that has, has meant that we can create a USP for our business now. Yes. And, and I think the other thing I would just add to that is I would definitely concur with that, and I've seen that, but I would also add, and a shout out for members of your team who actually, you know, because one thing, having a system there and Yardi is, you know, it is a single source of the truth, but you still need good people around that, right? Yeah. Yeah. You do. And I mean, we, we've, we've spent a lot of time and money investing into two, two key departments. So in my view, um, our asset management and, and our accounting department. Yes. So our asset management department is probably much bigger than a lot of our competitors. And with that, it creates a greater level of scrutiny because you've got per capita, uh, you've got, um, more people per unit. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But Yardi enables us to really get into the details. So you've got one person who's absolutely living and breathing that portfolio for that client. It, it results in a better service. Um, that's correct. We can then overlay it with something like Power bi and you are, yes. You're effectively, uh, upskilling a property management system, but the, the, the detail and the data that we're getting front end is much better now. Yeah. Be, and, and you're right, because yardi's Open, you can just plug that in and Yes, it's better. Um, away you go in terms of creating, and you are in control of your own reporting stack. I had a customer the other day say to me, Justin, it's not about what you give me the reports, it's actually about what my investors' needs and needs are, and I need to know that and deliver it. Oh, agree. But I just need the system to be able to query. Yeah. Our, our guys, they, they're, they're loving the system. Um, they get into grips with it every day's of a learning day at the moment. Yeah, of course. You know, we've had, we've had it online for a number of months. Yes. You know, and we're, we're finessing it all the time. Of course. One of the items we've sort of seen is as the, as the sort of the, uh, the sector changes, you know, we've got the, um, you know, all of the sort of legislative, legislative changes coming in that revolve around, you know, renewals and the open-ended nature of tenancy agreements. We suspect that we'll end up tracking certain tenant propensities for renewals rather than an expiry profile example, for Example. That's interesting. Yes. So the, the, the type of data that, uh, Yardi enables us to capture at CRM level, it tracks right. The way through. Yes. And then we can, and then we can track patterns Yes. Usage patterns. So, you know, having that information at our fingertips has really been hugely valuable. That's great. And that's just using the System. I think you're right on that, because it's gonna be tough to forecast, you know? Um, because as you know, open-ended leases, it's gonna be tough to forecast, so you need other characteristics rather than an end day of a lease. So that's a, I think that's a great point. Um, I, I do have a question. So just knowing a little bit about your implementation and some of the challenges your clients, uh, uh, um, put on you and how you are able to meet their needs is the, the number of websites that you've done on Yardi, which is incredible. I, I, it's, um, fantastic. Yeah. I I I, I was told you there, I think we, I think we've transferred 22 websites. Yes. But I think there's more now. Yeah, There are. Yeah. There's a lot more. Um, yeah, I mean, it's been phenomenal, really. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what I would say is it's, it's created, uh, it's created cheaper websites Yes. For our clients, better performing websites. Yes. When you actually look at the, uh, the algorithms And the analytics, The analytics, um, yeah, it's been amazing, really. Um, I wish I could remember the start in terms of the number of visitors we'd had, but it was in the, I should look that Up too, but I haven't Got it. I think it was in the hundreds of thousands of visitors Yes. Within a six month period. So you can imagine you are, not only are you getting to understand the people who aren't actually gonna rent a property, you're getting, getting to understand the type of people who are Yes. Uh, sorry, who are, and who aren't. So actually there's learnings there as well. Um, but the websites themselves, multiple themes. Obviously, our clients have different personalities. Yes. They have diff they have different desires for their product. Um, so it's been a, that transition of moving websites being very, very easy. Um, or maybe it's been made to look easy by No, but I, I, I think it's worked very well because I think you are so right. Is every client has a different kind, you know, they're very particular about the look and feel, the fact that Yardi has the platform to be able to accommodate that Yeah. And be able to produce those websites quickly Yeah. Means you can, um, you can mobilize a client very quickly, which is, which is great for, for them in terms of lease up. Great. For you in terms of income, Slate Yard's a great example of that. Yes. Um, you know, we, we, our client purchased a, this building from, um, from l and g, and obviously Yeah, you don't port the website. No. Um, and there was a website live and active within 48 hours, which even by my sort of Luddite standards, I know that's quite good. Um, it's very good. And a big shout out to our reach team make that happen too, too. Yeah. They did definitely very good. But, you know, I, I, I think that, I think it's sometimes overlooked that we can create, um, yeah. You know, uh, uh, kick ass websites that are, um, are already optimized. Yeah. Um, to The optimization's been really strong. Yes. So the, the, the detail that we can see behind the performance of Yeah. A website that was already functioning Yeah. Compared to a brand new site. And the brand new site is there on the first page of Google, it's really performing. Um, many of the websites, you know, they've come out of a completely different operating system and then into RentCafe, and then, but the client wouldn't, the client wouldn't be able to tell. No. They've been very happy with it. Um, and, and now for us it's about working out what extra functionality we can drop in. Yeah. And it, and yeah, we're still learning, but what we do find is we find Yardi very engaged in terms of helping us to explore what, what the art of the possible is. No, well, I, I, you know, we, we, we, uh, we love working with you and I think the, the important thing is that the partnership continues to grow and expand and, um, and that, that constantly we are evolving to support this market. And, you know, you know, increasingly with single family homes kind of expanding so fast, um, it's great to see, you know, your progress in that area. Yeah. I mean, we've gone, you know, I think it's 16, 16 sites we've launched over the last 12 months. Wow. Um, we know, we know that's gonna be at least the same probably for the remainder of the year. Yeah. Loading brand new sites into, into yard has been very, very easy. Yeah. You know, the, the, the infrastructure's designed for those ETLs to go in and Yes. To be done very nicely. What, what I've been pleasantly surprised by is the ease with which, uh, sort of analysis team who sit within our asset management department have been able to learn a new skill like that and then transfer a site out of another operator system. It's not even your own, and then drop it into it's our system. Yeah. And, you know, It's quite a skill though, you know, it's quite a skill doing that. It is mobilizing quickly. Yeah. Um, I have, I have a couple more questions. So, so, and we, we may have touched on this, but I'll ask you anyway. Yeah. And it might be a repetition. Um, can you share an example of how, um, Yardi has gone over and above in helping you with a certain situation, the challenge that you've had? Um, I, I think the website has been Yeah. Phenomenal in terms of the assistance. Um, you don't onboard a new operating system overnight. It takes a period of months. Um, and probably to the sort of annoyance of our project team, we were also winning new instructions at the same time. So I seem to remember a call. Yes. Um, um, you know, the project rollout, can we change it? Yeah, yeah, we did. Um, I mean, we, we took a portfolio, uh, in, um, in Wembley at quite short notice on the 1st of January. Um, interesting time of year to take a handover, but you know, it, it worked. It happened. Yes, it did. All of those customers are experiencing a Yardi product now. Yeah. And, uh, and they're benefiting from it. Yeah. So, and, and that includes a new website, but it includes a new app, it includes access to all of the things they used to get, but then additional services, like, okay, you can book your amenity, you can access a video on how to use your washing machine. All those things are available. Yes. Um, and they're all, they're all skinned. So That's right. To be, to be able to do that in such short order, because I, you know, I think there was a three or four week window Yes. There where, um, you didn't know anything about it to me having a conversation with you to, Sorry, Sorry, not, sorry. You know, I've got this problem and then, you know, away we go. And, and this, and you know, I look at the way you guys have sort of helped support us, uh, we needed a lot of support for that 1st of January transfer, but, um, if you look at this sort of the midap April transfer that we made Yeah. Uh, you've effectively helped us train up our own in-house team. Perfect. And again, that's a, you know, if we can do it ourselves with assistance, pick up the phone. How, how do we make this ETL, how do we transfer this in? And great. You know, and effectively there's a thousand units there that we're already operational. All of that existing history, tenant history, immediately booking history have all been hoovered into your system. Yeah. And they're all operating, so, Yeah. So, I mean, you know, it takes two, it takes two to do that. So, yeah. So thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Um, one of the areas I just wanna touch on is, and it's something that in built to rent, single family homes co-living, we talk about his resident experience and investors whilst always looking for the best return. Yeah. Resident experience is still a very important measurement. And, um, we, and I know home the, uh, right. Move have got the home views Yeah. Uh, launch next week. Yeah. Uh, which we are super excited about. Yeah. Um, in terms of what you are seeing with resident experience, having put in Yardi, um, and your home views ratings on some of the assets that you've got. Yeah. Are you able to share what trends you've seen? Um, you mean in terms of sort of the Yardi experience? Yeah. And I guess home views, ratings increasing, I know you've won some awards. Yes. Yeah. I mean, we, yeah. I mean, we're currently single family housing operator of the year. Yeah. And, um, and we have first, second, and third on BTR sites under congratulations unit. Congratulations. So we, I think we know, we know what good customer service looks like. Yeah. Uh, we looked at the RD app and thought that was an upgrade on what we'd been providing. Yes. Um, previously, um, that was a significant decision. Mm-hmm. Um, because we were, we were clearly providing good customer service before. Yeah. Yes. But, but what I wanted to do was to elevate that and Yeah. I don't think you can sit still. No. And I think, uh, the Yardi app will enable us to be able to continue to provide everything that was being done before, but then provide greater detail on risk. And I think, I think that's one of the points that's important, is it's not just a case of having a pretty app. Yeah. That's not resident experience. It's about having the data and the functionality being accurate, being able to get a bill, pay a bill Yeah. Book an amenity straight away and have that updated everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. And so that ultimately your onsite teams can provide an UpToDate experience, I think. Yeah. And we have, we obviously have fairly standard protocols, I suppose. Yes. Yes. We have an allsop way of doing things. Yes. And having a system that is consistent is really important to us. So being able to work with your app, for instance, and been able this tailoring that we can do in and around it. Mm-hmm. But we know that the control mechanisms are there within the app. Yes. Having access to the data Yes. In a much more detailed format, you know mm-hmm. What usage patterns are, when do people use it? Yes. Um, enables us to send push notifications at certain times. Yes. Uh, you know, the I amenity booking and the sort of ancillary services booking process within your app is much better than what we had before. Yeah. And we were, we were pretty limited on that. Yeah. If I'm honest, we could book I amenity, but the payment process was a little clunky. Yes. It's much easier now much more easier. Yes. Because often it has to be done outside of systems And things. Yeah. And, and customers don't wanna see that. No. They want, you know, even if it's a little bit of smoke and mirrors, they want it to feel there's no smoke and mirrors. No, there isn't. No. But people want to feel like it's Yes. It's all there in one place and our clients need to know that as well. Yeah. Because they see it as, obviously it's a, it's a risk. Ultimately there's a data, there's a data integrity piece there. Agree. And, you know, it, this type of thing leads onto ISO accreditation, which is much, much easier to achieve if we are dealing with dealing with the third party software. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's, it's often overlooked slightly. Yeah. By having, you know, a a, a broader stack of technology, things like ISO accreditation compliance with GDPR become a much easier job for your teams to do Yes. Than having many, many different systems. Yeah. Because probably that would be a tough thing to be It's compliant. Yeah, it is. So I mean, we, you know, we, we have to think about this stuff. Our clients are thinking about it. Yeah. So we have to take it very, very seriously and they, you know, we have blue chip names there. They do, they don't take any risks. No. Um, so sort of the security of data is massive for us. Yeah. Yeah. Massive. That's good to know. Um, one, one last question in terms of, um, what, what's next in terms of, uh, the allop world and, and the growth? I know you've got ambitions to scale even more. Yes. Yeah. Uh, but do you have any views on technology in terms of what's next for you? I think we'll, um, I think I'm really interested to see where AI goes next. Yes. Yes. I know you guys are as well. Yes. Um, I think the, the leasing journey in particular, I'm really interested to see how it progresses repairs and maintenance as well. Yes. Um, It's repetitive tasks, really. Yeah. AI will help automate a lot of that. And, uh, we are excited about launching T iq, so we'll be knocking on your door saying, Yeah. And we as a business, we like to, we like to be at the forefront of things. Yes. So we like to be able to innovate. Yes. Our clients are interested in it. We are interested in it. I think anything that drives efficiencies means you're much more likely to make certain schemes stack up. Yes. And if they do, then they get built. And then we've got more management. So I've got a, I've got a vested interest in, in tech for that reason. That's interesting you said that. Yeah. Um, I think I've not Looked at it like That. That's quite an interesting Yeah, no, I'm, I'm purely selfish individual. Yeah. No, I, I I think it's a great point. Yeah. That I, I think that, yeah, I piece, I think bots embedded within websites is interesting. I think looking at how people even move their mouse cursor over the webpage mm-hmm. And where they might dwell and where they might move on, because I think you start to glean an interest in what they're actually interested in Yes. From that. Um, and sometimes people aren't actually able to articulate why they're looking at something. No. You know, why was it interesting there, but we just know it is. Yeah. Well, if there's an inherent sort of, um, appetite to see something, it'd be interesting. Will push that further up the webpage and make your stuff more engaging. Um, I think the integration of smart locks, yes. I think we could see more and more of that. And we are, you know, we are really keen to progress that we, we are doing a lot of smart lock, um, uh, tech on our single family housing especially. So viewings tracking that type of data Yes. They propensity for someone to sign up if they had a remote viewing as opposed to an accompanied viewing. Yes. Um, yeah. The more, the more I can funnel into the same place and then assess it and analyze it, and then help clients make investment decisions. Yeah. Um, and also make my own platform more operationally efficient, the better. Um, yeah. And I'm, I fully expect Yai to be able to help me do that. That's one of the reasons why we, we, we went with you guys was because you've got scale that I will never achieve. Yeah. So your ability to be able to invest in a solution for something is you're gonna get there before I can. So I'd rather influence it and get what I want rather than try to design Oh, absolutely. Welcome. Yeah. It's really welcome. Um, well really, that kind of concludes the questions that I was gonna ask. Is there anything you'd like to ask me? Oh, Good God. Um, other than dropping soft, no. Um, um, I, I think I'm, I'm interested to know when the AI piece might launch. Yeah, yeah. I dunno whether you guys are, is that public knowledge yet, or No, it is absolutely public knowledge. So Yardi has a program called Virtuoso. Yeah. And VIR is, virtuoso is a, um, a name of initiatives that are all AI driven, and they go right across the RD suite from, from chatbots. So in the US we've seen, um, the use of chatbots. It's absolutely extraordinary in terms of the time that it's saved. Yeah. Chatbots being able to a answer, almost 97% of all questions being asked. And then the other element of that is things like, when do people actually ask, um, questions and they do it out of ours. So the ultimate, the ultimately chat bots have a massive role to play, and when they have access to not only, you know, a, a private open AI cloud, but also, um, the data in your database. Yeah. That power is unbelievable in terms of, you know, you, you are Right. You could probably go through and complete a leasing journey Yes. Online if you, you want it. And that will be blended in with a communications hub, which will allow, you know, text, WhatsApp, uh, emails, chat. Yeah. Um, and potentially even voice. So, so we are, we're still looking at the voice bit, but, um, because I think sometimes you do need to speak to someone. Yes. Yeah. Um, so I'm excited about that. There are other areas of AI within the business. So the way you'll use software will ultimately change in Yes. In the, we are seeing it with Microsoft today. We see it with HubSpot, we see it with all the tools, is that there's inbuilt in systems within the software. So TU will have that assistant where you can just ask it to get you the data and it will. So, so I think that that stuff is super exciting. And, um, uh, uh, you know, we, we are looking, uh, for some launches in the UK at the, towards the end of this year, so we'll be knocking on your door when we are kind of ready looking for early adopters, because I think it is over the next five years we are gonna see some major shifts in the way we work. I do think it is about being more human and spend allowing your teams to get better data and spend time on, um, helping residents. Yeah. But, but ultimately it's a tool that will just help you run your business better and streamline many repetitive, um, I think, I Think you're right. I think it'll help you understand. Yeah. It'll help you understand your customer better. Yes. And it'll help you understand the, the unit that you're managing better. Yes. Agree. You know, and if you've, if you've got smart tech coming in on all of your appliances, on your boilers, if you can start to track that through as a, as a AI driven, preemptive maintenance Yeah. And then it raises the job for It. Makes sense. Right. Fantastic. And so there's, you know, on the Yardi suite, there's some really exciting things coming at the end of this year and um, uh, and AI powers much of that, so, um, it's a very exciting time. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I'm excited to see what you come up with actually. So Yeah. I'm pleased you ask. Yeah, Yeah. Well, Matt, um, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure for taking the time and allowing me to ask you lots of probing questions. Um, and I'd just like to say thank you very much for the partnership. We, we really enjoy working with Allsop. We think you are a fantastic team. Thank you. And, um, thank you so much for taking the time. No, Much appreciated. Thank you.