The maturation of the market is prompting property management companies, which have eyed the technology for years, to begin implementing it in earnest. AvalonBay Communities, which successfully uses Avalon Access resident portals at different property sites to automate various functions including maintenance, was reluctant to commit to a solution until the products and the companies that sell them were more stable.
“If a technology is not mature or stable, it can be a blessing or a curse,” says Leo Horey, executive vice president of property operations at AvalonBay, a public REIT based in Alexandria, Va. He notes that AvalonBay has piloted a number of solutions at select properties and expects the company to roll out a maintenance automation system within the next 12 months.
AvalonBay has waited to make its move until the automated systems sported a number of features—such as centralized management and tracking, more sophisticated reporting and integration into other systems—and were easy to use for both residents and staff.
Integration was critical to Archstone-Smith, which is rolling out MRI residential software to all of its properties. “The integration aspect is very important,” says Archstone-Smith CIO Dan Amedro. “If we can get everything from one vendor, that’s better.”
While the company’s project began as a way to automate leasing, Amedro notes that the work order function has caught on. “I’m amazed that the adoption on the work order side is 100 percent,” he says. Archstone property managers were eager to replace the manual process for dealing with work orders and extend the capabilities offered through the company’s resident portal. “The paper-based system was just reactionary,” says Amedro. Now management can prioritize their responsibilities and respond quickly to requests.
The Lane Co. also reports significant improvements in maintenance efficiency and time saved generating reports after implementing RealPage’s OneSite Facilities product. Creating and tracking work orders by hand, on paper, “led to lost requests, delayed service, and disorganization. But now, everything is automated, and nothing falls through the cracks,” says Elizabeth Pickworth, director of project management at Lane.
Clearly, automating the maintenance order process offers clear benefits, from more efficient operations to better customer service. Indeed, improved maintenance may offer apartment firms one of their best opportunities to serve their residents and keep them for longer.
“Once residents live with you, [their] relationship is more with maintenance than with management,” says AvalonBay’s Horey.
Finally, don’t forget that the next generation of tenants will expect to handle much of their renting issues online, at hours convenient to them. The echo boomers have grown up doing their shopping and banking over the Internet, so as they grow up and become renters, many multifamily leaders expect to employ technology to augment their company’s workforce and offer resident services around the clock.
–Teri Robinson is a freelance writer in New York.