Evolve are a Block and Estate Management company, providing residential leasehold and estate management services in the South of England. They manage a growing portfolio for multiple freehold clients, management companies, RTM companies & share-of-freehold management companies throughout Hampshire, Wiltshire & Dorset.
Business challenge
Eager to increase communication with residents and owners across their portfolio, the team at Evolve went in search of a customer portal which could meet their needs. Not wanting to be restricted in which portal they used, Evolve needed a management system which could support third-party software.
Additionally, there were operational inefficiencies that the team wanted to iron out, including large amounts of time spent on administration and manual processes.
There was also a desire to expand the business’s portfolio by taking on larger estates and developments, but the team were unsure of the current system’s ability to handle bigger and more complex work.
Solution
The team went in search of a solution which could integrate with a third-party portal, could drive efficiencies within the business, and was powerful enough to handle a bigger and more complex portfolio.
After looking at a number of options, the team found a portal which would suit their needs, and were recommended MRI Qube as the management system to power the portal as well as answer their other needs.
“It’s a very powerful system. Lots of agents I know use it, most of my staff have used it and it just seemed like a logical choice. It means we’ve got the back-end system which is of the industry recognised standard and allows the API to link our external portal.”
Ben Hume, Managing Director, Evolve Block Management.
Expansion
With a powerful system managing Evolve’s operations, the company can now start targeting more complex sites, and recently won an estate with just under 500 units.
“If we hadn’t been able to offer this leading, cutting edge portal and MRI Qube solution then we would not have won this site, so for me it’s extremely important to be able to offer this high standard of management in our office…we’re basically set up now to be able to expand. The sky’s the limit.”
Ben Hume, Managing Director, Evolve Block Management.
Automation and resource reallocation
Where previously one member of the Evolve team was spending a lot of time undertaking manual processes and admin, including the inputting of invoices onto the system, this has all been automated and is dealt with by MRI Qube, meaning that staff member can refocus their attentions on providing excellent customer service.
Accounts managers are also able to automate their end of year accounts prep, with a high-quality output produced by the MRI Qube system.
Open and Connected
Because of MRI’s ethos of ensuring all solutions are open and able to integrate with third-party products, Evolve have been able to pair a front-end portal which meets their needs with the powerful MRI Qube back-end system that drive efficiencies and expands operations within the business.
This also means that the system is future-proofed:
“There are lots of 3rd party bolt-ons that work with MRI Qube, which is important for us. If, for example, there’s a compliance platform that can work with MRI Qube in the future, we can just bolt it on using the API.”
Ben Hume, Managing Director, Evolve Block Management.
Accuracy
Ensuring accuracy of data within the system is important for Evolve, as being a RICS regulated firm, they must offer complete compliance against the RICS codes of conduct and service charge guidance.
Thanks to the consolidation of data onto a single system, Evolve can ensure they are meeting their regulations and can prove they have strong, compliant, financial management, with full transparency of information.
A Powerful, Flexible Solution
Evolve have found that with MRI Qube, they can adapt the solution to suit their needs and preferred workflows.
“I would recommend MRI to other agents, it’s a really good solution, it’s a very powerful solution, it provides what you need to provide you can configure it in so many different ways. I don’t think there’s going to be a leasehold management, block management, or estate management client that comes along that the system can’t be configured to work with.”
Ben Hume, Managing Director, Evolve Block Management.
Future Expansion
As Evolve continue to develop and expand, they are looking at other solutions to work with MRI Qube which can further drive efficiencies. To this end, the team are currently looking at MRI’s AI powered Contract Intelligence, which extracts data from documents including leases and contracts.
With the various different types of leases in the property management industry, it’s important that businesses like Evolve are able to fully understand the schedules, restrictions, service charges, and other obligations they have to their clients.
With Contract Intelligence, the team at Evolve can further streamline and automate their processes, helping them to continue on their path to expansion.
