Commercial real estate company United Equities Inc. has improved efficiency and tenant service with its newly adopted Yardi Voyager� property management
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF., May 25, 2010 – Commercial real estate company United Equities Inc. has improved efficiency and tenant service with its newly adopted Yardi Voyager™ property management and accounting platform.
Yardi Voyager, which replaced United Equities’ DOS system, will automate common area maintenance expense calculations and recoveries. “The reconciliations took four or five months when we calculated them manually with spreadsheets. By automating the process, Voyager will let us generate the year-end statements much more quickly,” said Bill Corrigan, United Equities’ manager of operations.
United Equities streamlined its purchase order processing by using Yardi Voyager to automate the creation and approval of recurring purchase orders. Previously, property managers who created and routed purchase orders manually waited three to five days for approval; the current turnaround time is one day.
The conversion to Yardi Voyager has also helped United Equities improve client service. “Everyone in the company has access to the centralized database, so any employee needing information to answer a tenant’s question can get it. Before Voyager, the tenant might have waited a day or two until the right person located the relevant information; now, the answer comes immediately. This responsiveness has a direct and positive impact on tenant relations,” Corrigan said.
He added, “Voyager’s accuracy and efficiency will let us focus our resources on achieving strategic goals. We anticipate being able to increase our total square footage by 15 to 20 percent with no increase in our current staffing levels.”
Yardi also provides hosting services to United Equities through its Application Service Provider (ASP). With ASP, Yardi serves and maintains the Voyager application and database for United Equities from its data center. Yardi assumes responsibility for all application updates, network security, hardware, bandwidth and infrastructure, allowing United Equities to focus on its principal business.
The conversion to Yardi Voyager, which is nearly complete, is the product of a partnership between United Equities, Yardi, and software implementation consultant Lupine Partners. “United Equities’ number one issue was converting and preserving data from their old system into Voyager,” said David Wolfe, president of Lupine. “Yardi and Lupine guided them through the process step by step, ensuring that the conversion did not disrupt their operations.”
“The three-way collaboration is a successful formula for giving clients like United Equities reliable support both for their current operations and for their anticipated growth,” said Terri Dowen, Yardi senior vice president of sales. “United Equities will be able to draw from the training, technical support and client service that form the core of Yardi’s customer commitment, and from ongoing business and process consultation with Lupine.”
About United Equities Inc.
United Equities, founded in 1971 and based in Bellaire, Texas, has grown its portfolio to include over three million square feet of retail and office warehouse space. United Equities is a full-service commercial real estate organization providing development, redevelopment, built-to-suit, acquisition, management, and leasing services across Texas. The company has offices in Austin and Dallas and has represented Fiesta Mart Grocery Stores since 1976. For more information, visit www.unitedequities.com.
About Lupine Partners
Lupine Partners, based in Dallas, is a boutique consulting firm with unique expertise in the selection, implementation, and customization of industry-leading real estate and accounting software packages and the systems that support them. Its mission is to provide premier information system solutions and consulting services to the real estate and public housing communities nationwide. For more information, visit www.lupinepartners.com.
About Yardi
Yardi Systems has been committed to the design, development, and support of real estate investment management and property management software for more than 28 years. With its Yardi Multifamily Suite™, Yardi Commercial Suite™, and Yardi Investment Suite™, the Yardi Voyager™ system is the most comprehensive single real estate management platform on the market today. Yardi serves clients around the world from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. More information about Yardi products and services is available at www.yardi.com.
Trade Media Contact: Joel Nelson 805.699-2040, ext. 1255