Our property management systems—the critical engines of our business—are expansive, intricate, and customizable. They generally function best as a customized system, so the farther away your software gets from “out of the box,” the more it morphs into something more complicated. With such a robust system allowing you to process many critical tasks, ensuring the software remains optimized is an important goal.

The number of modules you are utilizing (or underutilizing) and other software tools that are integrated into your system offer you greater power to maximize the value of your portfolio. But once you have a complex system, and/or once your employees run out of bandwidth, the effort needed to maintain internal on-demand support is challenging. A properly supported system will allow your team to get the most out of these products.

The issue is not only about the number of staff you need, but the skillset of that team to address both expected and unsuspected issues that arise. Your team also needs to be able to look ahead to continue to maximize the software as new updates and products are launched.

When do you know you need help?

When a user hits a brick wall, when you need that customized report yesterday, when you need real data for a presentation to a principal or investor, when a critical task is delayed because the resource is tied up figuring out a recent update—the cost of delay, frustration, and the inefficient allocation of talented resources is incalculable. In each of the these scenarios, your team is behaving in a reactive state, which means they are more likely to make errors, miss steps in the process, or leave a digital mess to clean up “later.”

So why not just rely even more heavily on the support offered by your software providers? While the support teams at these organizations are certainly available to just answer and address a support ticket, our aim is to become a partner for your team. Sometimes you need the quick-fix answer, but you might walk away with the sinking feeling that the problem will continue to come up. Or your team doesn’t understand the why behind the solution (and thus can’t adapt processes accordingly for smoother future transactions).

Get the help you need

The REdirect Assist team was built to deal with the peaks and valleys of your team’s demands so they can stay focused on strategic initiatives. Our team integrates with yours, so your resources get the help they need when they need it.

When your firm goes through our REdirect Assist on-boarding, we ask a lot of questions. We are trying to understand (and document) your processes, approval paths, and audit trails. As we learn the structure of your organization, we will be able to smooth out the demands on your team. We generally onboard and enroll clients to “go live” with support on the first of the month. And from there, your team will have everything they need to tackle their next software challenge without the significant delays they experienced in the past.

REdirectAssist is not your grandparent’s helpdesk! As a committed partner, we will always seek to get to the root cause of any issue or ticket that is raised. Understanding the inner workings of your organization is the first step. This approach benefits you because we keep documentation and metrics that will:

• Help you when audit time rolls around;
• Enable you to make better decisions about your team’s learning and development, and their weak and strong areas when it comes to working within Yardi or MRI; and
• Identify areas of the software that are underutilized, overutilized, or could benefit greatly from some customization.

Let us deal with the spikes in questions and user needs around month end, budgeting, 1099s, and other periodic or project-related volume, in addition to the minute details of daily tasks.

A few words about our team: At the center of the REdirect Assist team are experienced consultants who have worked both with the software and in the real estate space for an average of 20 years. A team leader is available to discuss big-picture issues with you at any time, and we schedule periodic business reviews. By signing up for the program you also get priority access to the entire global REdirect team.

In my view it really boils down to what is the best use of your operating budget, and the need for your software and your team to better serve your organization’s mission. REdirect Assist provides a means to achieve that goal. It’s easier than you think to get started. Click here to tell us a bit more about your needs.