Multifamily Goes Paperless

Transcription

1 Multifamily Goes Paperless Securing the Competitive and Financial Advantages of Digital Document Management and Workflow Processing in the Multi-Housing Industry. A Discussion About What You Need To Know About Building A Holistic Approach to Paperless Operations 1

2 Multi Housing Goes Paperless This document provides an overview of the driving forces behind the ever-increasing need for document management solutions for the Multi-Housing industry. The goal of this document is to provide a framework to understand the numerous operational efficiencies and cost reductions that can be achieved through implementing the document management solution provided by SyndicIT: DocumenIT. This knowledge guide to adoption seeks to inform you of the dramatic benefits that can be gained for your property operations and management by taking advantage of secure, cloudbased SaaS document management. By understanding the forces driving the need for a document management solution that is tailored exclusively for property operations and management, it will become apparent that the DocumenIT solution is smart, simple, and it s where the multi-housing industry is headed. The document is divided into the following sections: Adopting technology solutions now is key to your future success The current status-quo and what could be achieved Background on the driving forces behind the need for content management solutions in Multi-Housing Brief history on the need for state of technology within the Multi-Housing industry Description of the DocumenIT solution What DocumenIT can do for your property operations The Bottom Line Powering-Up Property Performance Detailed capabilities of DocumenIT Business Process Automation with DocumenIT Calculating the ROI Today, property management IS technology. If you look closely, you can see that today s caterpillar is legacy property management software. Tomorrow s butterfly is property automation. -Michael D. Radice 2009 National Multi Housing Technology Conference Phoenix, Arizona 2

3 What you really should know and why knowing it is critical to your future success: 3

4 IT-savvy companies make information technology a strategic asset They use their technology not only to reduce costs today by digitizing their core processes IT-savvy companies use their digital platform to collaborate with other companies customers and suppliers It s about the whole company thinking digitally The IT-savvy companies are 21% more profitable For the IT savvy business: There are two sources of their greater profitability: lower costs for running existing business processes, and faster innovation. It turns out the top performing companies make the decision about which business processes will be standardized and integrated throughout the business. Getting an Edge from IT Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2009 Interview: Dr. Peter Weill, MIT Sloan School of Management s Center for Information Systems Research What if Your firm had the lowest cost and most effective property operations? 4

5 Your on-site property staff could regain significant amounts of their time? Your prospect and resident interactions were driven by technologies that enhanced closing new leases and increased retention rates because of their views on being green and technologically advanced? Your owners for whom you manage properties could have immediate and easy, direct real time access to information about their assets, and the information that they constantly seek? We built DocumenIT to achieve these goals but we didn t stop there What if Your property operations were completely paperless? Your property forms, contracts, and lease packages, for example, were fully digitized? Your business processes and workflows were fully integrated to act and interact as a smooth, unified system-from day one? Your entire staff was thrilled and energized with their systems, which they now want to use? You can actually secure theses positive benefits and more, with DocumenIT powered by SyndicIT Services. As you will learn, what if with DocumenIT has become now you can! Let s now take a look at where the apartment industry is headed and what will be required for you to stay truly competitive. A Little Bit of Background In general and up to now, the apartment industry has been a slow adopter of technology when compared to other industries. But that is rapidly changing, and at an ever-increasing rate. 5

6 Shortly, property management, fee management, and the entire resident experience and relationship will become entirely technology driven. The technology power curves that are driving this change are moving fast, aggressively, and are well under way. These changes will not replace personal interaction, they will enhance it! In the space of the next 36 months, digitized documents will motivate a transformation of today s property office to be virtually unrecognizable to the on-site community manager of today. This transformation will be driven by many factors, including: The digital nature of the world we live in The digital culture sought by the residents who will define tomorrow s leasing demographics The ever expanding government regulatory and record keeping environments Simply stated, the world of property operations will become touch screen driven, digital, and paperless. The convergence of technologies will increase. Look around you today. Computers, the Internet, resident portal websites, smarter mobile phones, ubiquitous wireless communications, and electronic payment systems are just to cite a few. The office system that can create, transport, process and manage smart documents is next. This new world will come crashing into your plans and define the need for advances in property office operations in order to compete and to attract and retain tomorrow s employees, investors, strategic partners, and customers. Most likely you are already awash in technologies that peripherally surround the property operations experience: property management software; websites; portals; ; voic ; corporate accounting systems; Excel spreadsheets; internet listing services; outsourced utility billing; electronic payments; asset management systems; accounts payable systems; bookkeeping; general ledger systems; service orders; vendors systems; local advertising already are pressing in on you. And here comes even more: social networking; Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, 3-D virtual tours. The fact is that no one has struck at the underlying cause of the real inefficiencies, the cost, and the trouble It s the paper and the paper storm! A Little Bit of History Let s pause for a moment and reflect on the history of technology in the apartment industry. The real estate industry in the U.S. is one of the country s largest industries and it is simultaneously 6

7 one of its most fragmented. Companies serving up technologies to this industry are also extremely fragmented in response. As a result the challenge of selecting providers remains a very difficult process. Providers litter tradeshow floors; representatives of these companies take very myopic views to the holistic challenges you face which drives the need for multiple contracts, unbalanced value in pricing, lack of service level commitments, costly integration and constant problem resolution arguments amongst suppliers, all contribute to an ineffective overall solution. Astonishingly, no one has yet truly tackled the heart of property operations the paper and the files! Where the apartment industry is headed for the top performing companies is driving NOI from the new epicenter of successful value creation eliminating the paper and its actual and associated cost. Costs of printing, storing, handling, and transporting all that paper, conservatively estimated at over 400 million pieces of it each year. The multiplier gained from multiple properties reducing costs and contributing to increases in Net Operating Income (NOI) will be significant. You choose your favorite CAP rate and calculate the increase in value these savings will bring! For these reasons and for others are exactly why the apartment industry will now aggressively turn to paperless property operations. The matter of time is too often treated as non-critical when in fact the ultimate denominator of productivity is being able to do more and or do it better with less staff. Time is the one thing you can t make more of, you can only increase the productivity of that time by doing more with less people or the same people doing more. Analysts and industry reports now cite that 30-40% of the office work time of your staff is allocated to simply handling paper. Gaining time for on-site property staff has its own powerful yield. More time for resident matters; more time with prospects; more time for carrying out local duties at the property and in the community; more time for continuing education for example. What would reduced turnover due to property friendly systems mean to your expense profile and your ability to attract and retain top-flight staff? Yes it s smart! Yes, it s about time. And now, yes, it s simple to do! So, It Has All Now Come Together With DocumenIT the solution is ready. The NOI benefits are clear. The strategy is clear. 7

8 But the issue has been that no one before SyndicIT has offered a comprehensive and holistic strategy for doing it. DocumenIT delivers a truly comprehensive and integrated platform for paperless property operations that enables you to gain the immediate benefits, and make what if right now! So, What is DocumenIT For starters, it is as green as green gets. Green as in conservation: paperless operations means you are environmentally-friendly and showing a commitment to reducing waste. Also, green as is the color of money : paperless operations means you are benefiting from significant cost and time savings. Everything you need to optimize property performance is right here. DocumenIT delivers breakthrough business process improvement by providing a comprehensive system for utilizing digital document management and smart document processing. It is a fast, simple, and a proven system that reduces time, cost, complexity associated with handling, managing, filing, indexing, securing, storing, and communicating the paper currently at the center of the paper storm of property operations and management. DocumenIT delivers: Network based scanning. Today s new low cost network based scanners provide high speed intelligent scanning of all documents. These scanning devices are small footprint devices (smaller than a personal printer) that sit on a desk and will auto connect to your office computers and your office network. It is even small enough to pack it up and take it with you! Touch screen, one touch controls. Advances in touch screen controls provide unlimited custom options for defining what you want to do with a document and where you want it to go. For example: This is an invoice, do this and send it there. One button, one touch does it all, accurately and consistently. One touch can send a document by , or by fax, or to a file storage server and to your local office computer! Done! Document Management Software/Workflow Processing. Tailored for multifamily property operations. Capture the document, capture the data on the document for other processing purposes, consistently index each document, file it, search for it, retrieve IT locally or remotely and power your unique workflow process. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) data capture. Reduce or in many cases even eliminate much of the need for manual data capture with advances in OCR data capture from 8

9 the repetitive invoices and work flow processing forms that you are now scanning and capturing. Increase speed and reduce errors. Multi-function Printers (MFPs). You can now chose to drive your paperless office system with MFP technology that combines network based scanning and work flow process systems with an office unit that not only delivers document scanning but also replaces your office copier for meeting your copying, printing, document finishing needs which are now also have been dramatically reduced contributing to significant savings in paper and ink toner costs. What can DocumenIT do for you? Fast and easily scan all documents automatically indexed and filed for use and later access - always correct and always consistent, always easy to find. Provide three levels of redundancy with a Triple Digital Document Repository yours locally, yours remotely or stored with us or choose all three for absolute security and remote back up. No more lost records due to storms, disasters, fires, theft or mismanagement. Eliminate staff inefficiencies experts estimate that 30-40% of your staff s time is spent dealing with documents, paper copies and files. What would 30% more staff time spent on a local property services, prospects or resident relations mean to your lease-ups and renewals? Network ready easily and seamlessly integrate your digital forms and documents in to your own custom workflow for processing and operational control. Enable one touch capture and distribution to all those who need to approve, review or store documents of any type: leases; invoices; contracts, PO s; work orders; employment forms any forms. With advances in electronic digital signatures the future of complete digital work flow processing for all forms and not just lease packages will drive the demand for more efficient document processing systems throughout the organization. Make the documents smart capture and read essential data for your processing applications right off the form automatically. Digital Resident Leasing that s right the final lease form and addendums and digital signature - assembled in a digital USB takeaway pack with your property logo on it and with all the welcome materials how green is that! Bottom Line: 9

10 Increase operational efficiency Increase NOI and asset value Lower IT expense Get your staff focused back on the business Move from reactive to proactive management Stay at the industry s leading edge Go green! Powering-Up Property Performance DocumenIT is designed to deliver breakthrough business process improvement with a comprehensive system for digital document management and smart document processing in multifamily. Real time property audits without the time and expense of travel Ensure compliance with policies and regulations Monitory property performance Remove the risk of turnover Assemble asset documentation sets with one click Increase staff time to accomplish the real objectives at the property-leasing, renewals, and resident satisfaction At first glance you might think this is all about technology. It is not. It is first about gaining a significant operational and compliance advantage in property office management and operational integrity. Truthfully, just how diligent and complete have you been in meeting your required obligations to audit each of your properties? How much time and expense can you commit to ensuring that each property office is operating according to law, policy, standards and regulations? Would you survive a rigorous review from lenders and regulatory authorities and can you assemble without great cost and time the necessary information needed to affect required governmental reporting or a sale or re-financing? How compliant and comfortable are you with the onerous responsibilities expressed in SAS-70 and Sarbanes-Oxly legal regulations and controls? With DocumenIT you can gain immediate and instant control and assurance that your compliance and policy obligations are being met. And, you gain immediate office efficiencies that translate into lower expenses and increased attention to the real property office objectives more time on leasing and stronger renewals. Now you can do property audits remotely. How? Easy, you have all the documents and records wherever you are. No travel for lease audits. 10

11 What about turnover? What do you find when a property manager unexpectedly departs? No need to worry, you have secured all the documents and information, along the way, all the time - every day. What about property performance? You will see each day s transactions fully documented. And oh yes, what about all the work, time, effort and expense that goes into finding files, copying and shipping documents and invoices to business partners, lenders, owners and the accounting and legal departments? No more. 11

12 Detailed DocumenIT Capabilities and Benefits: Custom filing structure Consistent document naming and indexing Administrative and defined user security authorities Instant access to any document Multiple access organization wide Document sharing throughout the organization Document sharing with external users defined, as you want Import and store any PDF file without scanning Pass data back and forth with your property management software Link forms, documents and invoices to specific general ledger entries Full text retrieval to discover any document Ease of document communications , fax, FTP briefcase packs to USB Auto routing of documents to multiple locations with one touch control Multiple back up storage locations Batch document entry and indexing Store Microsoft Office electronic files in their native format, including Outlook and Excel Export reports directly to Microsoft Excel Eliminate cost and exposure to lost documents Detailed audit trail Barcodes Burn to CD Automatic document versioning Sticky notes Content hiding with redaction User inbox and inbox reporting System use reports 12

13 Business Process Automation (BPA) with DocumenIT Automating repetitive business processes that involve the movement of documents or files can significantly improve efficiency and return on investment. However, these repetitive routine business processes can be complex, with multiple touch points where new information enters a process and decisions need to be made. It is rarely as simple as just accepting or rejecting a document. Therefore the BPA function of the DocumenIT system is flexible and powerful enough to mirror your existing processes. The system will allow you to create and edit your own workflows without the need of a programmer. BPA workflow essentials: A simple, intuitive point-and-click user interface for building workflows without the need for programmers or technical expertise Optional and message notifications A clear hierarchy for decisions making, including departmental and individual authorizations Designation of how exceptions to standard processes should be handled Transactions within processes that are fully searchable and instantly auditable when immediate answers are required 13

14 Calculating the ROI: Take a moment and estimate the below costs: Paper costs: Ink and toner cartridge and printing equipment costs: Storage equipment and file folder costs: On-site storage space costs: Offsite storage costs: Cost of printing, copying, or faxing of multiple versions of one document: Shipping costs (mail, FedEx, UPS): Labor costs (Executives spend 150 hours annually looking for documents): Labor costs (30-40% of staff time is document handling): Lost document costs: Travel costs for compliance and audits: Estimate of paper volume growth increasing cost over the next five years: Total estimated three year costs: A note on metrics based on industry averages: An average business process document is copied more than 9 times-electronically or physically. Locating a lost document costs more than $100 each. Physical filing of a document costs more than $15. The average office/admin worker spends an average of 14 hours a week handling documents. Documents stored in an unstructured electronic environment create their own problems and costs in security, access, searching, and storing. 14

15 A Few Final but Critical Thoughts The DocumenIT solution from SyndicIT: Offers ease of integration with current external paper driven processes like AP, collections, legal support and evictions. In cases like these-time is money. Increases security in an environment of growing concerns and liabilities over privacy violations and personal identity theft by removing all paper documents from the local office. Offers the core, central system for interfacing with all of your service and software providers. DocumenIT offers an agnostic foundation for operating in a truly paperless business process environment. DocumenIT is the place to start. Creating a platform that gets everyone from customers to suppliers, internal users to external business and strategic partners all on board with a complete system that does one thing-creates and manages all your documents. Remember the what if we began discussing at the start of this paper? Well, it is right here, right now with Provided by: 15

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