Apartment Technology & Software Review
Hunger for high-tech
Exclusive Apartment Finance Today survey reveals multifamily owners’ wish lists for software and their favorite vendors.
By John Zipperer
(Apartment Finance Today, May 2005) – The real estate industry has long earned its reputation for being reluctant to adopt new technology. But a new survey of apartment executives suggests that apartment owners are looking for business software that adds capabilities, increases efficiency and gives managers more information for making strategic business decisions.
In January, Apartment Finance Today surveyed 415 multifamily owners, developers and property managers to find out their current and future needs for software. Most of the survey focused on that mission-critical application for multifamily companies, property management software, but we also asked about technology spending plans, compatibility of different software programs, and use of Web technology. The results create a picture of an industry that is losing its fear of new technology and is taking an active interest in its software.
The people answering the survey had a higher level of interest and participation in technology matters than might be expected in an industry that could be considered downright technophobic. For example, more than 40% of the respondents have participated in a Web seminar, in which the Internet is used to transmit audio and video of an educational or promotional session. Respondents were also quite specific about what they liked and disliked in their systems.
Property management software satisfaction
The majority of respondents were happy with their existing property management software. On a scale of one to five, with one being least satisfied and five being the most satisfied, 39% of the 229 respondents answering this question ranked their happiness a three, 38% ranked it a four, and 9% ranked it a five. Only 10% ranked it a two, and 4% ranked it a one.
Happy, yes, but not without hopes for improvements. We asked the readers to tell us in their own words what was the most important limitation or problem with their system. Nearly 150 gave us feedback, most of them urging that their property management software do more and do it faster. From requests for “more detailed reports,” “more flexibility in slicing and dicing information,” or “do everything from A-to-Z with no hassle,” the respondents gave their software vendors food for thought.
One of the most common complaints was that the user’s current program was out-of-date and not compatible with other programs or hardware, such as banking systems or printers. Most of these responses were from users of DOS-based programs who were interested in moving to newer versions of their software based on Windows or the Web.
Stand-alone no good
In the software industry, the days of applications that stand alone and don’t work with other programs are long gone. Of the 189 people who answered a question about what internal or third-party applications needed to integrate with their property management software, 59 named Microsoft Windows applications (such as Word, Excel or Access). QuickBooks, a general business accounting software application, was named by 18 respondents and Timberline, a software for real estate project management and accounting, was named by seven respondents. The remainder named a wide range of applications or services, such as Yardi Systems, Inc.; the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Tenant Rental Assistance Certification System; and PeopleSoft (now part of Oracle Corp.).
About 60% of 229 respondents to a different question indicated that their system included analytical tools that allowed them to drill down to the unit and/or the manager level. But quite a few users responded to the question about their systems’ limitations by complaining about inflexible reporting features, especially with older software programs. Others complained that they needed to go through too many steps to create reports, they didn’t have centralized data that could be pulled for timely reports, or reports lacked sufficient detail.
Good news, bad news
Many companies lack sufficient in-house technology staff to do training and troubleshoot problems. In fact, about 53% of people answering our survey indicated that their company didn’t even have an in-house information technology (IT) staff. No wonder training repeatedly cropped up in respondents’ comments about the limitations of their current property management software.
A number of respondents wanted better tutorials or more intuitive interfaces that would cut down the amount of training their staff needed to use the program. “The system is not user-friendly for our on-site property management staff,” one wrote. “It’s difficult for them to understand, and with the turnover, we need to spend a great deal of money to retrain the staff since they can’t pick it up on their own.” Others called for easier learning curves or simply a more user-friendly experience.
The good news for the software companies is that there were very few complaints about the quality of the software or the support provided by the vendors. Users who were unhappy with older versions of their software generally indicated that they wanted to upgrade to Windows- or Web-based versions, not abandon a specific software firm.
But every silver lining has a cloud, and there were a few specific complaints about balky software, such as “in addition to repeated, unpredictable errors, the system is unforgiving. … The layout of many of the canned reports is simply confusing. Many functions such as check-voiding, security accounts, updating tenant ledgers, correcting information is extraordinarily frustrating.” One complained that its software “provides horrible integration with Windows 2000/XP, to the point where several native options … are completely inaccessible.” Another wrote that “linkages between modules are inconsistent and not even the vendor can explain them.”
Many of those concerns about product limitations could affect the multifamily companies’ next round of purchases, according to answers to another question.
When asked to rate the importance of several factors to their decisions about what software to purchase, the 326 respondents were consistent in rating nearly every item as a priority. Reliability was rated as being very important or most important by 86%, ease of use by 83%, customer service/tech support by 70%, ease of integration with other systems by 63%, total cost by 62%, implementation costs by 61%, IT maintenance costs by 60%, the vendor’s reputation by 52%, and training options by 49%.
The most popular property management software programs currently being used by the respondents were Yardi Voyager, RealPage’s OneSite, AMSI, Tenant Pro, and MRI Residential. They were followed by a range of programs such as Classic Real Estate Systems, Timberline, and Skyline Residential.
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