When the pandemic struck two years ago, almost overnight, office workers switched to remote working and PropTech made the mainstream press, quickly becoming a business imperative. Once the real estate industry overcame the initial disruption and became comfortable mobilising teams to work remotely, attention turned to mitigating future costs and driving efficiencies, with the main objective to work smarter and drive profit.

Senior stakeholders across workplace, operations, and real estate management required a significant shift in how they effectively managed their teams. They began leaving their office doors ajar, encouraging regular feedback from their staff, with the entire workforce striving to come together as a unit with less focus on titles and hierarchy. “Do or die” was the attitude, and it brought about a positive culture, leaving everyone committed to the same cause.

Mission accomplished? Not quite. Whilst everyone may now be focussed on the same goals, the general technology behind these efforts is still not up to speed. Technology continues to move forward at a pace we have all grown used to (Facebook did not exist 20 years ago and now is closing in on two billion active users each day), so why should we as a real estate community not demand the same innovations?

The expectation of having the freedom of choice in ensuring your technology strategy stays aligned with your fluid real estate priorities is being met already, but it is key that your software provider works around you.

Business priorities change constantly – how can my workplace management solution be more flexible?

MRI Software have redefined the traditional IWMS concept to improve long-term, strategic property and portfolio management.

XWMS, our interoperable cloud-based ecosystem, gives you the power to decide how to optimise your business across operations, workplace, and real estate management, and to leverage certain functions or specific solutions suited to your needs.

Take control of your real estate portfolio with technology that enables you to incorporate third-party and partner solutions to create an ecosystem that scales as the business evolves.

Hybrid workforce is key – How do I build a strategy through the adoption of XWMS?

Planning and modifying your hybrid workspaces based on current compliance and trends is business critical, but how well do each of your business units communicate and have oversight on the process?

The XWMS approach provides an ecosystem for your space planners, finance team, and business leads to deliver.

• Space Planners understand the true cost of employees across various locations, considering utilisation of spaces.
• Finance have the ability to perform portfolio benchmarking across your real estate footprint with space utilisation metrics.
• Business leads are able to identify new opportunities to repurpose and sublet space to drive additional revenue streams for the business.

ESG planning is here to stay, but I don’t know where to start – Can XWMS help me?

There is a renewed focus on energy and resource allocation for safety and price control – we all have our part to play.

• Facilities Managers have a focus on sustainability and want to effortlessly collect and analyse key performance metrics (i.e., LEED, GRESP) to help with evaluating and maintaining certification levels.
• Lease Accounting teams are targeting cost savings and want to mitigate the likely growth of energy prices by having oversight on usage and diversifying energy types consumed.
• Business leads crave the strong position to review investment total cost of ownership and overall corporate positioning to determine ROI and access levels to different capital.

Can XWMS support the increased oversight into financial compliance?

New updates to lease compliance standards lead to increased need for coordination. Finance teams and C-suite members have IFRS 16 and ASC 842 fresh in their mind, and there are solutions to help them address that burden.

• Use AI-driven automation of data/onboarding entry processes​ to store critical leasing information for financial compliance.
• Find and correct inaccuracies and meet your obligations, including new lease accounting standards​ utilising the expertise from your software partner of choice.
• Business owners can then rely on the infrastructure in place to identify inaccurate costs of your leases through AI data validation, keeping your landlord accountable to the contract, often saving costs.

2022: Evolving technology and the year XWMS goes mainstream

With 5G networks still being deployed around the world and many areas of the globe still using 4G and even 3G networks, it seems a bit early to throw around the term 6G when considering technology, but it is not too soon to insist on an open and connected infrastructure that reduces your real estate cost and provides an environment for your organisation to drive profit.

By leveraging an interoperable cloud-based solution, your team can better serve the increasingly sophisticated and unique needs of corporate real estate, accounting, workplace and facilities workstreams.

Take control of the technology that manages your real estate portfolio by leveraging MRI’s suite of products, our dedicated partner solutions, or third-party products, and create an ecosystem that scales with your growing business. By taking a fluid approach to your lease, workplace, and operations management, you can use comprehensive technology solutions to make critical decisions for your real estate portfolio. Learn more about XWMS in this webinar.

The post What is the future of your real estate ecosystem? appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Resilience is a term that is frequently used, even more so following the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sometimes it is used to refer to the character traits that enable individuals to cope and respond to external threats – weathering the storm in spite of everything that happens around them. HACT’s research focusing on the resilience of residents has found that it is important to consider resilience as a dynamic process rather than a fixed trait.

However, focussing solely on the self misses the ways in which an individual’s resilience is very much rooted in communities and other formal and informal networks. What makes us resilient is not just innate qualities, it’s also the social and community infrastructure that we rely on in times of stress.

That makes it much harder to define and measure, but it also opens the door for organisations invested in people and places (such as social housing providers) to play a role in building resilience. To get to that point, we need to improve our understanding of where the scope of social housing providers’ overlaps with the factors that build community resilience.

This aligns with HACT’s work on resilience where we have been focussing on what we mean when we talk about the resilience of individuals, how we can measure changes in resilience levels and the extent to how resident resilience insight can be used to drive transformative change for residents and communities.

Therefore, we were delighted to support MRI Software on the second Resident Voice Index  survey on Community Support and Life after Lockdown. In particular, we worked with the team to input into the questions relating to community resilience.

Reflections on resilience as a shared experience

The networked nature of resilience really came through in survey. For example, in response to the question “What things help your community to withstand shocks (e.g.a lockdown) and help it to thrive?”, responses such as “Talking to each other so we can get to know each other’s needs and support” were indicative of a broader sentiment that residents relied on their neighbours, friends and family.

It does raise the question of how different resilience looks in the face of different shocks. Covid-19 has been (to an extent) a levelling, shared experience, at least through the early lockdown period. Indeed, the report notes that there was a high incidence of “lockdown’ being quoted as a trigger for increased resilience.

Other shocks are very personal, such as unemployment, or divided along socio-economic lines, such as the energy price rise which disproportionately impacts low-income households. In contrast, these experiences can heighten feelings of injustice and stigma, and the feeling of being left behind.

Funding

Sustaining the necessary funding and investment for essential services and support also came up as a key factor. Working through the Centre for Excellence in Community Investment, we saw up close how many housing providers stepped in to support residents both directly and through partner organisations in welfare calls and supporting food banks. In the long term, many housing providers have been exploring how to transition to a more sustainable, long-term response to both the pandemic and other system issues such as fuel poverty, decarbonisation and building safety.

We’ve also seen how rising energy costs are pushing many more households into fuel poverty, through the Energy Hardship Fund. MRI Software and more than 60 other housing providers and corporate donors have contributed to the fund, supporting residents with their energy costs this winter.

This is an example of a vital short-term response, but one that doesn’t necessarily enable the sort of long-term resilience needed to cope with further fluctuations in both temperature and the cost of energy. This is mirrored in the Community Support and Life after Lockdown report which calls for “housing providers, policy makers, service providers and wider society’s need to shift from a reactive crisis mode towards more long-term planning and investment.”.

Designing services with resilience in mind

Housing providers can also look at how their core services are designed with resilience in mind. That means understanding the resident experience through rent payment and arrears, or repairs and maintenance, and then adapting the services to accommodate for the types of personal and collective stresses that people face.

One example might be flexible rent payment. HACT have been working with organisations including Optivo Housing Association to trial a service which enables residents to flex their rent payments around high-cost periods in the year, such as winter when energy costs rise. The same amount of rent is still collected, but it gives a little extra leeway at pinch points.

Takeaways

Here at HACT we want to support the sector to understand better how people’s wellbeing can be supported, through homes and the provision of services. That’s why we are supporting MRI’s Resident Voice Index to delve into hard questions such as what makes a community resilient, and to take away those learnings and incorporate them into service design and decision making.

To find out more about HACT’s work on resilience head to https://hact.org.uk/nextinnovations/resilience/ or contact HACT Head of Research, Frances Harkin frances.harkin@hact.org.uk

Contributed content from Billy Holt, Market Insights Lead at HACT.

The post Housing Association’s Charitable Trust (HACT) discuss Community Resilience and thoughts on the latest Resident Voice Index™ findings appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Welcome back to our series of IFRS 16 ‘101’ blogs, aimed at guiding you through the preparation required to successfully transition to a IFRS 16 lease accounting solution in time for 1st April 2022.    

Now that you have collated all your lease data and put it into a suitable format you now need to procure an appropriate system. To do this, there are a few key elements that need to be considered and that is what we are going to be focusing on here in the second blog post.    

Understanding your complexities and requirements

Here at MRI, we understand that there is a vast array of solutions in the market that can assist with the IFRS 16 transition and so deciding which vendor to go for can become quite a lengthy and challenging process. However, it is only when we start to dig deeper into the nuances of the portfolio and requirements that we can begin to understand which system will be the most suitable not only for the immediate transition on April 1st but also continuing for the years to come.   

Some key areas to think about are:   

• IFRS 16 audit reporting – the ability to audit your disclosure reporting is a requirement.  
• Index leases  
• Intra-UK Government Agreements – where there is not a legally enforceable agreement, but it is defined under IFRS 16 for the public sector. 
• Peppercorn leases – leases for which the consideration paid is nil or nominal. 
• Non-standard financial periods – anything other than calendar month.  
• Complex payment frequencies – English and Scottish quarters.  
• Master lease agreements – for vehicles and equipment leases.  
• Sub-lease accounting  

These may not be things you have thought about so beginning to understand these early in the process is key as it shapes how you approach this process. 

What this will look like for your organisation

Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is the functions that are involved. Of course, the finance team will be influential in running the IFRS 16 calculations but what about other departments? The property team, for example, may not seem like a necessary party to bring in here but what needs to be remembered is that the data needed for IFRS 16 reporting comes directly from this team.    

From our years of experience handling hundreds of IFRS 16 transitions in both the private and the public sector we have seen first-hand how important it is to have cross-departmental collaboration throughout the entire process. A trend we have noticed is that those that continue to adopt a siloed approach have difficulties when it comes to reporting due to delays and inaccuracies in the data.   

Having an IFRS 16 software system that can facilitate this will put you in a great position to maintain compliance with the new lease accounting standards. The data on which the finance team is reporting is the exact same data that the property/estates/asset team(s) have been inputting, tracking, and managing on a daily basis, meaning you can be confident that the calculations are accurate and reliable for IFRS 16 reporting.     

Whichever solution you pick needs to be able to handle all the complexities your portfolio may have. as well as allow for streamlined collaboration across the organisation – only then can you be fully prepared for the upcoming transition.    

To learn more about how technology can help you prepare for the IFRS 16 lease accounting transition, watch the webinar here.  

The post Finding the right lease accounting solution for the transition appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The concept of ‘reinvention’ seems to be on everyone’s lips across many disciplines, many sectors, and many organisations, due to the global economy and business landscape evolving. Global challenges pile pressure on organisations to become more innovative and find ways to create and sustain success. ‘Reinventing the workplace’, ‘reinventing real estate’, and are we now firmly in the midst of the ‘reinvention of retail’?   

Thus, retail real estate shouldn’t be any different. We aren’t just seeing the reinvention of retail from a customer experience perspective; we are also seeing it through new store designs as well as increased footfall. The future of the high street and shopping centres has been under the spotlight for quite some time, especially now that the pandemic has further impacted buying behaviours. This has piled the pressure on retailers and retail landlords to accelerate strategies and consider new and unforeseen scenarios.   

Here are three key trends that are driving the reinvention of retail real estate.   

Changing dynamics of lease terms

Long-term leases have been a staple of retail space in real estate for decades. Longer-term commitment in exchange for lower base rents, alongside more opportunities to review and negotiate costs across the lifecycle of the lease have been implemented through open market rent reviews. However, this seems to have become a thing of the past. At MRI Software, we’ve seen the average lease term for retail clients decrease rapidly to around five- or six-years with three-year renewals – terms that landlords might not have considered before the pandemic. This puts more importance on the initial lease contract negotiation with what is becoming a lifecycle. With little-to-no open market reviews, negotiation opportunities arrive only at the point of the renewal or break option. 

New requirements for rent models   

Turnover (sales or percentage) rents have been present in retail portfolios for many years, but the conversation with senior stakeholders within retailers has transitioned from “we try to avoid them” to now having a very defined strategy to push for all leases to be turnover based. Today, many C-suite executives at MRI retail clients are reluctant to execute lease contracts that do not include a turnover element. The market already seems more balanced in such a short space of time across larger portfolios where the split between turnover-based rent models and conventional rent models is becoming more aligned to 50/50, with the strategy to tip the turnover scales even further through effective negotiations. This seems to be an acceleration from the impact of the pandemic, with pressure on coverage during uncertainty. There also seems to be an increase in all-inclusive turnover rent models with business rates and service charge, from what more conventionally used to be base rent plus top-up, or pure turnover rent. Whilst all this can inevitably benefit both the landlord and occupier from a sustainability and successful partnership standpoint, it creates more work and strain on resources when it comes to producing accurate payment and collection schedules.  

Increasing complexity of leases  

The challenges of the last two years have significantly impacted real estate occupancy and utilisation, and as a result, we are now seeing pandemic provisions being built into agreements across the board. For retailers, we are seeing provisions covering potential store closures with examples such as the ability to claim up to three months’ rent back per year, or a 50/50 liability split during such a period. It’s also worth noting the language around suspension of payments which was a common theme in the early stages of 2020. If we rewind to those very first unprecedented national and global lockdowns, much of this became a power struggle between landlords and occupiers, with occupiers suspending payments indefinitely, whilst others struck temporary agreements for rent free periods and smoothing rents over smaller periods (i.e., UK quarterly temporarily moving to monthly). We also found occupiers and retailers acting into their own hands to preserve their business during such a difficult economic period. Another area of interest is how lease contracts, along with landlord and occupier relationships play out when the occupier is an essential retailer, who inevitably keeps their store doors open throughout lockdowns. Despite having their stores open to serve the communities, there will naturally be a huge drop in footfall and a potential drop in revenue, yet the clauses in typical pandemic provisions don’t necessarily cater out of the box to these retailers. As such, negotiated and compromised positions to cover these eventualities are key, given little to zero negotiation power in existing leases would potentially have a huge impact on the organisation’s long-term sustainability. 

Reinventing the future of retail real estate through PropTech   

The evolving nature of retail real estate continues to create more questions, more opportunity, along with a potential power shift, which presents one question: ”Is the occupier now holding the cards?” 

One thing is for sure – retail’s unique position in the world of real estate continues to develop its own nuances and complexities across the board, and reinvention is paramount. More frequent renewals, more frequent expiries, more obligations, and more provisions that once didn’t exist now need to be tracked, managed, and negotiated. Stronger relationships and communication channels between landlords, local authorities, and occupiers are pivotal. Real estate certainly has secured its seat at the executive table in retail organisations, and now it requires the right technology tools to address these new challenges.  

We have seen the acceleration of the real estate industry’s digital transformation, and delaying the adoption of technology and innovation is no longer an option. Successful retail occupiers will leverage a defined strategy together with flexible PropTech solutions to take on the future.  

The post The changing landscape of retail real estate appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

For nearly two decades, organisations have aspired to bring all their facilities, workplace, and real estate management functions into a single IWMS solution. While this concept is a great idea, in reality, very few companies have been able to achieve it.

The challenges are many – internal structures and alignment, outsourcing of major functions, and acquisitions that bring in new technologies to name a few. But the need for connected workplace management solutions has never been greater. Today’s workplace is more dynamic than at any other point in history, and achieving success hinges on having the right set of solutions in place to manage your real estate portfolio.

Fragmented tech stacks and bolted-on applications are no longer capable of adapting to new demands. Let’s take a look at three ways your workplace management solution might be falling short of today’s requirements.

1. Managing hybrid work

The pandemic was a catalyst for many organisations to implement hybrid work arrangements, marking a generational shift in the workplace. As companies adapt to managing a hybrid workplace, decisions regarding facilities and space have been elevated to a strategic level, which means workplace data and energy usage will be a significant consideration. Companies will require a more flexible workplace management solution to schedule and monitor space, track energy usage, and integrate the data together as part of a long-term corporate strategy.

2. Oversight into total portfolio costs

Today’s real estate organisations have a more urgent need to understand the cost of occupation, the demand for leased space, and how it impacts the broader business strategy. The amount of change that these departments are going through shouldn’t be underestimated.

As organisations shift to the hybrid workplace, they often find that they have excess capacity in their office portfolio. This excess capacity creates tremendous opportunity for cost savings, but how can you access and unlock those savings?

Real estate teams have been faced with transitioning to new lease accounting standards and adapting to the increased strategic importance of leases. Today, they are also tasked with collecting and assessing usage data and productivity insights from both the physical footprint and financial leases to quickly inform strategic decisions regarding the optimal size of leased portfolios and productivity goals.

Business has evolved, but many workplace management solutions have not. Traditional IWMS solutions were not designed to handle the shorter-term planning cycles that are taking place in the market today, and real estate and facilities teams require more flexible technology to meet business demands and manage leases at the portfolio level.

3. Employee health and safety

When Gartner created the term “IWMS” almost 20 years ago, the definition focused on meeting the needs of corporate IT, facilities, and real estate departments in a single database with little consideration if any for the employee experience. Today, employee health and safety are an integral part of workplace management, yet most IWMS solutions don’t offer the flexibility to integrate with presence management applications that can provide accountability and peace of mind.

Businesses are redefining the workplace, and it’s time to also redefine the solutions that help them manage it. Workplace management systems need to be scalable and able to integrate with emerging technologies and third-party providers.

XWMS: an open ecosystem for workplace management

To allow organisations to choose the tools that align best with the unique needs of their industry, MRI has coined the phrase “XWMS”: an extensible workplace management solution. We define it as an open ecosystem that enables integration with best-in-class technologies so organisations can strategically plan, manage and optimise real estate, facility and leasing portfolios – without limits.

The redefined XWMS offers an open and connected approach to help businesses accelerate digital transformation and adapt to new market demands through an extensive partner ecosystem and integration capabilities.

XWMS is the new IWMS

Today’s real estate and facilities management teams deserve a redefined approach to workplace management technology.

The post Beyond IWMS: 3 reasons you need an extensible workplace management solution appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

In a very short space of time businesses globally have had to deal with a number of significant events which have changed the way the workplace operates and have each presented their own unique challenges.

One notable change is the forced shift to home working which began as a seemingly temporary measure during the height of the pandemic. This has now been permanently adopted by many employers and based on several studies, a hybrid working model is an expectation from a large percentage of employees.

More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents to the Advanced Annual Trends Survey said one of the legacies of the pandemic will be for organisations to shift to a digital first mindset, with this figure increasing to 90% for digital natives (18-24 year olds).

With that in mind, 70% of finance professionals asked have limitations in their current tech which holds them back when working remotely – with 59% of finance professionals also saying they believe the most important attributes for a business leader today, is ensuring staff have the tools to be productive.

There is still a place for on-premise solutions but businesses, SME’s through to Enterprise level, are becoming more aware of the major benefits cloud solutions presents.

Google says, “the promise of cloud computing represents more than just a faster, more efficient version of everything we did before – it’s an entirely new way of thinking and working across any environment”.

As well as overcoming technical limitations for efficient remote working, finance leaders are placing more emphasis on areas such as better reporting with timely and comprehensive data provided as a single view of the truth – using this real time data to aid with strategic decision making, better collaboration with non-finance people, security and are also expected to monitor multiple entities across a range of currencies and regulatory frameworks.

A cloud finance system can provide a single source solution to all of this (and more) and although 32% of business leaders say the cloud is their biggest spending priority over the next 12 months*, the fear of perceived cost and disruption of change prevents business leaders from embarking on the change. This fear has been created by technology vendors who put together complex pricing models, lengthy implementation processes and disruption to the current ways of working.

Advanced Housing recently made the move from the on-premise system they had been using for decades as it had become “unfit for purpose”, becoming reliant on bolting add-ons to try and combat this but coupled with insufficient reporting, it became difficult to get a “single view of the truth” and lacked the added functionalities required for this stage in their growth.

MRI’s senior solutions principal Ivan Blythe recently commented:

Cloud projects can be a financial shock, but clients are seeing that the level of security assurance in the cloud, plus the provision of ongoing technical support and system stability makes a big difference.

Whilst a move to the cloud can alleviate access, technical and IT frustrations, finance leaders also need greater levels of reporting that are accurate and can be delivered at speed. A big frustration is inconsistencies in reporting, which can damage strategic decision making and conviction in numbers. Finance Management Systems that have all reports in one place allows for easier reporting to boards, providing a single view of the truth.

MRI Social Housing in partnership with Advanced already offer MRI Finance Enterprise (otherwise known as Open Accounts) to the sector, with over 60 social housing clients successfully using the solution. And more recently, we have welcomed additional clients to the MRI family thanks to our leading support provisions and user-group community, allowing finance teams across the sector to get together and share best practise.

MRI Cloud Financials is the latest solution added to the comprehensive suite of finance solutions at MRI. So whether you are an existing user of the solution on premise, or are thinking of upgrading your finance systems into a cloud environment, MRI Software together with Advanced can provide the right options at your pace.

For more information on Cloud Financials or Open Account, please contact us to arrange an initial discussion or a demo

*Advanced Annual Trends Survey

The post How finance leaders can benefit from graduating to the cloud appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Housing stock in the UK is amongst the oldest and most fuel-inefficient in Europe. The risks that arise from these ageing, inefficient homes have multiple impacts for organisations, the planet and most importantly, those who live in these homes.

Homes with unfit insulation, problems with damp and mould and sustained underheating can cause long-term issues for housing stock. This is a financial risk where long-term solutions are needed as opposed to costly ‘band-aid’ repairs for fuel-inefficient homes.

Encouragingly, social homes are leading the pack, 64.3% of housing association homes are EPC rated C or above, in comparison to 38% in privately rented homes and 36% in owner-occupied homes. In 2019, over 100,000 social homes were improved to an EPC rating of C or above. These actions are having real effects on residents’ lives and between 2010-2019, fuel poverty experienced by social housing residents halved.

For providers, technology solutions can establish a deep understanding of an organisation’s housing stock and is a great place to start in identifying the properties that can be improved.

Achieving Net Zero
Carbon neutral targets have been a great driver for the sector to address fuel-inefficient homes. Presently, most housing providers are taking a ‘fabric-first approach’, meaning that if it’s possible to better insulate a property, they’ll act.

There is much work to be done, with a recent report from the UK Committee on Climate Change explaining that “minimal progress” had been made around insulating buildings adequately and moving towards low-carbon heating. At current estimates, the move to low-carbon heating in homes will take around 700 years to achieve.

Resident wellbeing

In 2019, there were an estimated 3.18 million people living in fuel poverty in England alone; 15% of those were thought to be social housing residents. Poorly insulated homes leave residents at risk of experiencing fuel poverty, exacerbated by rises in energy prices, cuts to Universal Credit and the Cost of Living Crisis.

There is also a demonstratable link between fuel and food poverty. A 2021 report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that 37% of the social housing residents polled had experienced a reduction in their income since the beginning of the pandemic and had subsequently reduced their expenditure on food.

Housing providers have found themselves at the coalface of these issues and are adopting multiple strategies to protect their residents. In the short term, many are providing crisis funding to households in need through schemes such as HACT’s Energy Hardship Fund, which we are proud to support.

For some, long-term proactive and preventative strategies are being deployed. These include fabric-first approaches that improve homes and utilising analytical and predictive technologies that assist them in identifying households at risk and supporting homes before crisis actions are necessary.

By John Buckland, Solutions Principal at MRI Software

The post Poor insulation and food poverty: A risk to assets, achieving net-zero and resident wellbeing appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Two years into the pandemic, businesses across North America are in various stages of returning to the office, but employees are still expressing reticence when it comes to working full time in a traditional office environment.

Considering that a recent survey indicated 52% of North American workers have health concerns about reporting to the physical office space and 78% voiced a preference for some remote work, a hybrid work model would seem to be the best option. But with so many varied preferences, how can employers provide flexibility while also ensuring workplace safety and security for employees?

When it comes to hybrid ways of working, there are five main types of hybrid work models that your business could choose from:

• Remote-centric
• Office-centric
• Split week
• Week by week
• Choose your own hybrid

Remote-centric: The hybrid work schedule for go-getters

A remote-centric hybrid work schedule is one where employees are remote-first with the option to come into the office at their own discretion. For organizations whose workers might have gotten used to the fully remote days of the pandemic, corporate occupiers can stick with this schedule to give employees more freedom when it comes to choosing which environment they find most productive.

This schedule caters best to workforces that prefer remote options, but in order to keep a physical workplace open for those who want it, employers may need to reassess their space usage on an ongoing basis. With the right technology, managing and tracking space requirements can help businesses save money on utilities and provide an office environment that changes alongside the business.

Office-centric: The model for collaborators

An office-centric hybrid work schedule is one where employees commit to working in the physical office for most of the time, with some remote options available. This setup works well for businesses that occupy smaller workspaces and whose employee base expresses a great desire to work in-office on most days.

While this model of hybrid work looks closest to the traditional workplace people left behind in 2020, visitor management solutions and hotdesking tools can enable occupiers to meet the needs of employees who want to return in full while still remaining compliant with any local health requirements.

Split week: For the teams that work best together

The split week model of working involves scheduling different teams to gather in-office on different days of the week. Implementing this model is a good way to bring each individual department back into one collaborative space while still supporting remote work options.

In order to make this transition work best, occupiers can empower employees to coordinate with one another and schedule in-office time together by leveraging desk reservation technology. Employers can also take advantage of the reduced space usage to assess their utility needs and make informed decisions when it comes to their in-office requirements.

Week by week: For the business that needs occasional catch-ups

In this hybrid work schedule, employees come into the office for one week to perform certain duties that are best done in-person and then return to remote work for another few weeks. Implementing this schedule allows employers and their workforces to “sync up” on important tasks on a monthly basis while still empowering employees to work in the environment that suits them best 90% of the time.

Enabling this type of hybrid work will help foster a sense of community that can drive productivity in a workforce while still cutting down on utility usage. For occupiers, space scheduling and space management software solutions can go a long way in making this model feasible.

Choose your own hybrid: To meet the needs of all

While the previous schedules rely on internal feedback from a business’s employee base, a “choose your own hybrid” work schedule is one in which employers provide a menu of hybrid options to their employees and allow them to choose which one they find most efficient.

Enabling employees to work in a hybrid environment at their discretion may seem like a hands-off approach, but for bigger organizations with large workforces, this model could be exactly what the business needs to thrive. With the help of presence management tools, employers can still always maintain control over their workspace by monitoring who’s on site.

As hybrid work schedules remain a hot topic, it can be easy to forget that each decision an occupier makes can have an impact on the lives of their employees, and by extension, the productivity of their organization. By taking the time to properly assess each possible hybrid work model, gather feedback from employees, and consider the software solutions that could help you enact each model, your business can make informed decisions and prepare for the future of the workplace. Learn how a suite of workplace management solutions like MRI Workplace Central can enable your business to implement the best hybrid work model for your needs.

The post 5 types of hybrid work schedules for your business appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The core output of any finance system is reporting, with the aim of answering the key organisational questions of: Where do we spend? And why did we spend it? As well as accurately highlighting where this could change. A finance system that truly works for a housing organisation is one that frees up capital from processes to services.

The provision of housing costs money and providers spend an absolute fortune. In my time, I have found that whilst organisations manage their income well, they often don’t manage their spend with as much control. A core aim of ours at MRI Software is to help housing providers manage their spend better and gain back time and money. Below, I’ll attempt to outline the key elements of a good finance system.

Organisational backbone

Finance teams are sometimes seen as a back-office overhead and even at times, an afterthought to the delivery of homes. In reality, a vast majority of the data that is ever produced and acquired represents pounds and pence and making good sense of that is the remit of finance teams and the systems they use.

Finance teams are a core part of how each department can achieve its goals. Successful housing providers of the future will protect their viability by engaging finance teams as they build out their services.

Compliance

A huge part of a finance team’s role is to assure organisational compliance while staying abreast of emerging legislation. There is the potential for disastrous consequences with HMRC, which can even lead to criminal action against Finance Directors.

It’s the sort of thing that keeps them awake at night – and the kind of thing that a competent finance system should cover; getting those figures out of the system, doing adjustments and assisting with the big challenges. For example, those around making tax digital and assisting with an ‘Audit Ready Everyday’ way of working.

One single system

To understand what makes a great finance system, it’s worth defining some of the elements of a bad finance system. The chief mistake is to still be working offline on spreadsheets. Not having a single version of the truth can lead to the increased likelihood of errors. I’ve seen instances where housing finance teams have lists of disputed invoices recorded offline, where they are parked outside of the general finance reporting, and where they might get lost, float or raise questions for auditors.

In MRI solutions, a user can dispute any invoice on the system, meaning that it won’t be allowed to be processed. Nothing will be paid that hasn’t been properly approved. With this system, the risk of errors gets taken away and there’s always an audit trail of who approved what and why.

Worse than spreadsheets, there are still organisations out there that take a physical approach for payables invoicing, printing them off and writing approvals, as opposed to having them electronically stamped amid workflows. A physical approach just adds extra steps, limiting efficiency, leaving more room for error, and wasting resources (and in the end money!)

Integration

MRI systems for finance can work alone, but also can be integrated across our own product suites as well as third-party systems. This trend from MRI Software is only set to continue, with us delivering fully connected organisations for our customers. What we do here is different to other suppliers within social housing – and that is using ‘best of breed’ products.

Our finance systems stand on their own and that gives us a depth of functionality that’s unique in the sector. For example, our finance solutions are not just a set of modules that complement a repair (or other) system. The key to making that work is integration; a core competency that our Services Team are deeply experienced in.

An example of this in action could be to include rent information coming into the finance system or repairs information being passed between the finance system and repairs for approvals. MRI finance systems can do that with any other repair system. This means the least amount of disruption for teams as housing providers change their processes and solutions.

Information organised well

A good financial system also assists in presenting complex financial information in ways that can be read by different audiences who may not be as data or finance savvy as finance teams. In the near future, our systems will allow a Chief Executive, for example, to drill into financial KPIs and see reports via different organisational personas.

Evidence for action

The last function of a great finance system is evidence. I once visited an organisation serving a deprived area of a UK city. The organisation was dealing with a lot of broken windows. They needed to report on this and address the issue in the quickest and most cost-effective way possible. The outcome was the housing provider partnering with a contractor rather than dealing with reactive costs, such as boarding up windows before replacements were arranged. This ultimately saved them a huge amount of money.

A great finance system allows us to do that kind of reporting, to consolidate and facilitate saving money. If that money is saved at the back-office point, what could that provide elsewhere in the organisation for residents? Could that mean extra repairs? Or some boilers being replaced and families being warmer in the winter? Or helping an organisation on their road to achieving net zero?

So, what does a good supplier look like and what should you be looking for? In my view, your supplier should understand what needs to be derived from that system, then provide day-to-day support – helping your team get the best out of the system in a reactive and personal way. Lastly, and something that is unique to MRI Software, would be holding user sessions. The groups we run have a peer-to-peer network with over 200 participants, enabling us to build better finance systems together.

If you would like to hear more about the functionalities and the support infrastructure of our solutions, please contact: socialhousing@mrisoftware.com

Article by Ivan Blythe, Senior Solutions Architect, MRI Software

The post What does a good finance system look like? appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The provision of affordable housing is an issue facing nations globally. At MRI, every day we see the potential for data and insight to help address problems faced by those who provide housing. Ashley Close, one of the Solutions Architects in our London offices offers a global perspective of the Resident Voice Index Neighbourhoods & Communities report.

For the past eight years, I have been based in the United States, working for MRI Software’s affordable and public housing division. Moving from Cleveland, Ohio to London during a pandemic has been an adventure, to say the least. One of the reasons that I chose to make this move was the opportunity that it provided to learn how different parts of the world provide housing assistance.

A company with the depth of resources that MRI has, has the potential to access data from around the globe – and use this data to help solve some of the sector’s biggest problems, such as food and fuel poverty and the need for safe and affordable housing.

My job has been to know how compliance and property management works, so that we can help housing providers improve their processes to achieve a better understanding of the challenges housing providers face.

Having served as the VP of the Board for the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH), I have been given insights into the struggles people face due to the lack of available affordable housing. As a newcomer to social housing in the UK, I’d like to share my initial thoughts on the sector, as well as provide my reaction to and analysis of the Resident Voice Index Neighbourhoods & Communities report.

Using the data that we have globally, if we can compare different approaches and outcomes around housing, we can find the best solutions. At MRI we have the voice, the experience and the access to residents to help gather more information from multiple stakeholders, as evidenced in the Neighbourhoods & Communities report. Data can give us the power to change how the world addresses housing and the challenges that arise within this sector.

UK social housing and US affordable housing: the differences

The UK and US share the same goal of providing affordable housing, however there are some differences between how the two nations have approached this. Housing regulation has often been impacted by events and lessons learned in each country. The UK Grenfell tragedy led to heavy regulation around building safety and questions being asked about listening to the voice of the resident in the sector. Looking to the US and the Surfside Condominium collapse, this may be the beginning of a similar movement in US regulation.

The Right to Buy scheme, allowing tenants to buy homes at a discounted price changed many lives in the UK and drastically affected the amount of social housing available. While the US does offer some home ownership programmes, these are not common and they do not erode affordable housing stock numbers.

Both countries face a shortage of affordable housing, and both continue to struggle with the issue but in my opinion, the UK shortage is somewhat self-inflicted. In the UK, a social home is for life, not just for crisis; in 2019-20, nearly ¾ of new social tenures awarded were lifetime tenancies.

The US by comparison, has a needs-based approach, doing annual recertifications of all its residents in order to find out if they are still eligible for housing assistance and if the amount of assistance needs to change based on their financial situation.

While this prevents people from living in affordable housing when they don’t necessarily need the help anymore, this places a greater burden on the housing providers and residents to maintain accurate compliance records. The amount of paperwork that needs to be maintained in order to qualify for affordable or public housing in the US is excessive and often, painful.

Creating a sense of community

The insights provided in the Resident Voice Index Neighbourhoods & Communities report have proven to be some of the most influential thought leadership pieces to be released by MRI Software. Up until now, this report has only been released in the UK, but it will also launch in the US and Australia.

I found the statistical data regarding the impact of the current actions of housing providers on residents’ sense of community to be disconcerting. Only 16% of residents felt that the current actions of their housing provider increased their sense of community. While this may not be overly surprising, it’s certainly a definitive datapoint that has initiated a dialogue for many housing providers. Should housing providers be responsible for creating a sense of community amongst their residents? If so, how do they go about doing this?

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unique challenges for housing providers in both the US and the UK, not least around maintaining their communities. How do you create a sense of community, while upholding the necessary social distancing? The second Resident Voice Index report, which will be released next month, addresses themes pertinent to this question, having asked survey respondents about community support and life after lockdown.

Shared challenges, differing solutions

The challenges facing housing providers, residents and communities are, for the most part, similar in the UK to those faced in the US, with some notable exceptions. Safety has been a significant challenge everywhere, but the issue of gun violence for example, is more prominent in the US due to the lack of gun control legislation. These specific challenges are vastly different in the UK.

The four most prevalent suggestions offered by respondents in the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey to make their neighbourhoods feel safer were, increased police presence, improved lighting, tackling drug-related crime and ASB, and increased surveillance. The final suggestion is an interesting one as a point for how responses might differ between the UK and the US. London is one of the leading cities in the world for the number of surveillance cameras and it can, therefore be suggested that the presence of them has become normalised for many UK residents. Americans by contrast, often believe that surveillance conflicts with the right to privacy and so it is likely that US residents would have very different suggestions for improving neighbourhood safety.

Food deserts

In the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey, respondents were also asked to name what was Important for them to have access to within 15 minutes of their home. Healthy, affordable food shopping came out as the third most important amenity but only the seventh most prevalent within existing neighbourhood structures. The report states that, “As of 2018, over 1 million people in the UK were estimated to live in ‘food deserts’. These are neighbourhoods of 5,000-15,000 residents with access to two or fewer big supermarkets.”

Food deserts are an issue in the US as well, especially in high-poverty areas; they also disproportionately affect minority communities. Due to the size of the country, this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Eating healthily can be more expensive in America and the time needed to prepare healthy food is not something that many low-income families have, which is a universal problem.

The Resident Voice Index: delivering actionable insights

In the UK, those in the position of planning new housing and neighbourhoods, can use the findings of the Neighbourhoods & Communities report to improve the availability of healthy, affordable food, knowing that it is of great importance to communities. I look forward to seeing the rollout of surveys in the US and uncovering powerful insights such as these, that can improve how housing is provisioned.

MRI Software has proven that the best approach to solving these challenges is in sharing information. We have made the Neighbourhoods & Communities report available to residents, colleagues, competitors and policy makers. Maintaining an open dialogue between all parties is the only way to ‘level up’, as the UK would say!

The second Resident Voice Index report, Community Support & Life After Lockdown, will be released in February.

Article by Ashley Close, Solutions Architect, MRI Software

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In the social housing sector, 2021 presented us all with many challenges. Whether it was navigating through a ‘new normal’ of hybrid working or accelerating digital transformation; technology has played a significant role helping social housing providers to achieve their vision.

With new regulations and changing demands of residents to contend with, MRI Social Housing has been on hand to support the sector to realise it’s full potential through intelligent data management, ground-breaking research to help improve the lives of residents and creating safe and secure homes and communities.

In 2022, we expect to see these themes become more prevalent and they continue to be major talking points with our clients, as we look to optimise the solutions already in place and make them work smarter. We are excited to bring new technologies to the sector,  to achieve compliance and energy efficiencies, elevate customer service at every touchpoint and ensure a resident-first approach.

Looking back on 2021, we’ve rounded some of the highlights of the work we have done with the sector to help our customers transform ways of working, through the innovations, resources and initiatives we have.

Achieving customer vision for workplace agility:

• Returning to work safely with Beyond Housing
• Soho Housing build resilience into their business  cloud hosting services
• Watford Community Housing streamline their housing management system and facilitate a better remote working experience

Achieving customer vision for safer communities and prioritising residents:

• East Ayrshire Council – co-creating housing allocations to help residents find the right homes
• Horsham District Council  – reducing homelessness
• Poplar HARCA – safeguarding communities
• MSV Housing – using income analytics to support early intervention, through food and fuel poverty risk management

Achieving customer vision for strengthened income and finance processes

• Midland Heart – improving efficiency & productivity in the finance department
• Hafod Housing & Dacorum Borough Council – using tenancy analytics to tackle arrears an fraud

Latest resources and new solutions:

• Revolutionising service charges – built with the sector for the sector
• Helping to deliver safe and secure communities – a digital guide to our solutions
• The data revolution, our solutions for data-handling in social housing
• Our e-book guide to taking a strategic view of your housing stock with asset management

Ground-breaking research initiative, the Resident Voice Index:

We are helping the sector to capture the sentiment of residents across the UK in order to turn their feedback in to actionable insights that can enhance and transform resident lives.

As the social housing white paper has gone into consultation to release tenant satisfaction measures, our first report released last year explored resident perspectives on their surrounding neighbourhood and communities, safety concerns and access to amenities.

You can find out more and explore the results from our first survey here. In 2022, we look forward to sharing results of our second survey – tackling resident perspectives on Community Support and Life after Lockdown.

What’s next?

As we continue to work closely alongside the sector and our clients, we are looking to bring further innovations from our proptech portfolio to the social housing sector, to help improve energy efficiency, manage all properties across your portfolios and harness AI for property management.

With a vast portfolio of solutions across Housing and Community, Repairs and Asset management, Finance, Digital and Data, we look forward to serving the sector in 2022, building on the great solutions we already have in place, ensuring they continue to work smart for our clients. With a constant eye on future regulatory changes across building safety, the net-zero agenda and resident satisfaction, our product and development teams are constantly evolving our solutions to ensure our technology solutions keep pace with the changes in our sector’s landscape.

Our vision is simple, it’s to help our clients realise their vision, with the power of technology. We look forward to sharing more success stories and continue to play our part in helping to transform resident services and make a positive impact on communities.

The post Social Housing round up, reflecting on 2021 appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Welcome to the first in our series of IFRS 16 ‘101’ blogs, aimed at guiding you through the preparation required to successfully transition to IFRS 16 lease accounting in time for 1^st April 2022.

In this blog, we focus on the importance of extracting, collating, and analysing your lease data and how this initial step in the process will set you up for success.

Knowing where your data is

The first thing to consider, and what is often the biggest burden when preparing for IFRS 16, is knowing where your lease data resides. Reliable lease data is essential in meeting IFRS 16 reporting requirements and without it you will simply not be able to comply.

It can often take weeks, or potentially months to collate, so it is vital to know where your leases are located as early as possible to build the foundations of a successful transition. In our experience, MRI has found that lease data is typically dispersed, whether that be across departments and entities or simply from a location perspective i.e., Stored in various software applications or in filing cabinets in a physical office.

Having worked with several organisations, the reality can be somewhat different to initial expectations. As an example, a recent client believed that its IFRS 16 transition would be quick and easy, only having to convert a couple of dozen leases. However, when it started to uncover its leases, it quickly realised that its portfolio was a lot more complex, with embedded leases, high volumes of equipment and the need to account for subleases. It then began to categorise and proactively collate based on asset class with lease types such as property leases, land leases, equipment leases, vehicle leases to name a few, which transpired in bringing hundreds of leases onto the balance sheet to comply with the new IFRS 16 standard.

Quality of data

Finding out where your lease data is located is only the start. The next step is assessing the quality of the data both in terms of completeness and accuracy. In our experience, lease data quality is often poor when held in high-risk, non-auditable applications such as spreadsheets. Organisations frequently believe themselves to be ahead of the curve and in an advantageous position, however when digging into the data, information gaps and inaccuracies can become apparent and so begins a lengthy exercise to cleanse the data, reverting right back to the lease documentation.

Having comprehensive information is crucial. We find so often that organisations are focused completely on rent values and payment frequency for example, but then must search, find, and enrich the data to include any lease incentives (capital contributions) or costs (Ie: legal fees).

Getting the data in a suitable format

Once the data has been located, assessed, and cleansed, the next stage of ‘knowing your leases’ is getting the lease data in the correct format to maximise the accuracy of the accounting calculations and ready to produce the lease accounting schedules necessary for compliance reporting.

Whichever technology platform your organisation chooses, it needs to be robust, it needs to be able to handle the ever growing and evolving nature of your portfolio requirements, and it needs to facilitate cross departmental collaboration as the property and lease managers liaise with the lease accounting and finance teams. This is not just a standard that impacts finance, this is a fundamental change to the way your organisation manages and treats leases. Therefore, it is crucial that you have all lease data at a click of a button, accurate and in a suitable format to produce these outputs.

The post IFRS 16: Knowing your leases 101 appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, almost overnight, office workers switched to remote working and PropTech quickly became a business imperative. To manage the fallout of the crisis, landlords, property managers, and occupiers embraced tools that enabled COVID-safe digital interaction such as virtual tours, electronic rent payments, visitor management systems, and automated lease abstraction. When 2021 arrived, it ushered in a different scenario, which emphasised accommodating the ‘new normal’ and preparing companies for long-term hybrid working. The ‘new normal’ was simply becoming ‘normal’.

2021 was also the year that PropTech attracted attention beyond the usual real estate insiders and technology investors. This specialised technology was on the broader business community’s radar. Senior decision-makers across a breadth of industries began to acknowledge the close links between workplace and workforce, recognising that this relationship plays an essential role in the success of the hybrid model. It wasn’t just the real estate team and sometimes the finance department interested in how PropTech could be leveraged – human resources and the C-suite were now in on the action.

As we look to 2022, many businesses are still trying to define which hybrid model will work best for their organisation in the long run. As a result, PropTech will be pushed further into mainstream strategic business conversations and inspire developments in three key areas:

Greater collaboration between HR and real estate

Regardless of which hybrid model businesses choose, their office space will need to be optimised to balance health and wellness with employee performance. HR’s overarching role is to ensure employees feel safe and motivated when they’re in the office. Facility managers can ensure these objectives are fulfilled by planning appropriate layouts, selecting desk-reservation apps, and analysing new space requirements while monitoring attendance, indoor air quality, and access. Silos between departments must be broken down to facilitate true collaboration and create a safe and engaging environment.

AI moves beyond lease abstraction

Uptake of artificial intelligence (AI) driven real estate technologies that help give investors, owners, and occupiers a quick and detailed picture of what is going on with their property and lease portfolios will continue through 2022. Once the true impact of the pandemic on retail spaces, offices, and other workplaces became clear, landlords and tenants needed accurate information that provided fast answers in areas such as Force Majeure clauses across their lease portfolios and other sections relating to their rights, responsibilities, and options. Nobody had the time to manually sift through endless pages of lease agreements to determine who needs to pay rent when offices are unoccupied or partially occupied, or who does and does not have the right to renegotiate or terminate leases.

AI proved invaluable in the lease abstraction process because it could quickly pinpoint the relevant information for landlords and tenants. As a result, businesses are now turning to AI for tasks beyond lease abstraction, including using it to digitalise contracts and other legal documents along with automation and the elimination of dashboards – all of which support the collaborative efforts of real estate, finance teams, and management as they make strategic decisions about lease obligations.

Improved energy efficiency

One of the major advantages of the hybrid office model is that when managed smartly and efficiently, it can help reduce costs – but there are other ways to streamline operations when rethinking the workplace set-up. It also presents an opportunity to evaluate energy usage based on space utilisation. Sustainability is, quite rightly, an important topic, and businesses will need to become more conscious about their carbon footprint and look for ways to reduce it. By using PropTech tools, companies can reduce energy bills and support sustainability, now a common goal for environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes. Data can be sourced from IoT sensors, badge swipes, and employee and visitor check-ins to better understand actual usage for utilities such as air conditioning and lighting.

If fewer employees are occupying an office because of hybrid work arrangements, it may be possible to reduce utility usage. Such considerations are no longer the sole purview of real estate departments: Employees and investors are demanding that companies meet high standards of energy efficiency. Addressing these demands – along with the urgent environmental need to reduce carbon footprints – requires attention and action from all decision makers involved in developing long-term strategy. To make informed and astute strategic decisions, multiple departments and stakeholders need data and insights from across the organisation.

2022: The year PropTech goes mainstream

For companies planning and implementing a hybrid work model, it has become clear that real estate management has a major influence on corporate culture – from employee satisfaction to recruitment to ESG. Consequently, businesses are realising that PropTech doesn’t just support real estate organisations – it has a wider impact on the business and helps meet both immediate and long-term strategic objectives. While PropTech may not be part of every organisation’s mainstream business and technology conversations yet, 2022 will further elevate it as business leaders realise how it will underpin deeper relationships between workforce and workplace.

Download the ebook to learn more about how PropTech can help your business prepare for the workspace of the future and ensure that your workforce remains safe and engaged.

The post PropTech in 2022: 3 key trends to watch appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

In the current climate of uncertainty, it can be challenging for property managers to know how best to manage building safety and compliance. With a raft of changes in legislation incoming, many with crucial details still to be confirmed, managers need to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to change.

In this guide, we’ll introduce the key pillars of an effective building safety and compliance strategy, and explain how building managers can implement this in a way that allows for agile responses to changing legislation, as well as empathetic communication with residents and leaseholders.

We’ll also include insights from industry leaders on the steps they’re taking to manage their own building safety strategies.

What’s changing in building safety?

Since the publication of Dame Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety three years ago, there have been ongoing legislative changes relating to building safety. Even with many details still to be clarified, it’s clear that in the coming years there’ll be a requirement for transformative change across the industry.

Key areas that property managers need to be aware of include:

The Cladding Crisis

Fallout from the cladding crisis is ongoing, with property managers finding themselves in the middle of a highly emotionally-charged situation as leaseholders find themselves liable for the costs of remedial cladding works which could put them in severe financial jeopardy.

For property managers, the ability to support leaseholders with not only the implementation of remediation work, but to provide transparent information on the associated costs and any available funding or financial support with empathy and sensitivity is key.

Industry insights: Lorna Kassoul, Systems and Projects Manager at Fexco Property Services

“We’ve been doing everything we can to keep our leaseholders in the loop with the legislation as it comes. We’ve had meetings with management company directors on sites over 18 metres high and have produced an information pack for people to read at their leisure, as well as setting up meetings to start looking into funding.

It’s difficult from our customers’ point of view because we’ve heard horror stories on the news about people going bankrupt and we wouldn’t want that to happen to any of our customers. We’re doing everything we can to keep our customers in the loop on costs that are coming down the pipe to them.”

The Building Safety Bill

The Building Safety Bill designed to address issues identified in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy is still in the process of being fully scoped, but one clear implication is the birth of the Building Safety Manager.

The definition of this role, as well as the implementation of the processes and tools to enable them to fulfil their responsibilities, will require a large-scale shift in how residential blocks are managed.

Industry insights: Benjamin Hume, Managing Director at Evolve Block Management.

“Industry and regulatory framework is expanding at lightning speed. There are so many areas to cover to make sure we keep our leaseholders safe.

We’ve employed a compliance manager in our business this year. Because of the way things are going and the complexity of some of our large estates, we thought it was best to bring in an expert to manage the operational compliance within our portfolio, so our property managers can do what they do which is relationships with our clients, residents and tenants.

Joining up the dots and binging everything together is the holy grail of information management for our blocks. Everything talks to each other, and there’s no chance of things getting lost.”

Fire Safety

Fire safety is an obvious priority as the fallout from Grenfell continues. In particular, the requirements for owners and landlords to actively listen to tenant concerns, and the concept of the “resident voice” will be transformational.

With a requirement for every building to have a resident engagement strategy, there are far-reaching implications for how property managers engage and communicate with residents.

Industry insights: Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank

“There’s a quantum leap forward we’re going to have to make in a number of areas, and resident engagement is one key area. Going forward, the engagement we foresee is entirely different. We’ll be expected to disseminate information to tenants so they understand their responsibility to contribute to our management of the safety of the building. That’s going to be a huge change from what we normally do.”

The Golden Thread

Many of the new areas of legislation being introduced rely on a strong foundation of data being available for every building. The concept of the Golden Thread aims to make this possible, ensuring that key information is collected, maintained and shared throughout the life of a residential development, from design and construction through to ongoing management.

The division of responsibility for collecting and storing this data and the specific requirements are still to be fully defined, but it’s clear that block managers will need to update their processes to effectively handle Golden Thread information.

Industry insights: Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank

“Very few buildings have this information. Many developers protect their position by taking charge of the management for a number of years post-completion, and it’s not in their interest to hand over information gained in these early years as it could be used to pursue a warranty claim or defects liability action.

This legislation will make it compulsory for developers to deliver this key information, and some buildings will have to create that information. That will be very expensive on existing leaseholders, but is absolutely critical. You can’t do your management job, particularly in health and safety, unless you have that Golden Thread of information.”

What does a successful safety and compliance strategy look like?

With so many anticipated changes to stay on top of, and so many details still to be confirmed, it’s not immediately clear what processes and systems will look like in practice. Instead of making concrete process changes, it’s instead necessary to build in agility and transparency at every stage possible, making it as straightforward as possible to manage not only the anticipated changes but future legislative developments too.

Industry experts are united in their agreement that a few key pillars are critical in building the foundation on which block managers can quickly and effectively respond to new building safety legislation:

Efficient information management

The collection and management of a huge range of data is likely to be necessary to maintain compliance with the Building Safety Act, from inspections of fire doors through to maintaining an audit trail proving that issues identified in inspections were promptly resolved.

Putting in place the required data collection to prepare for legislative changes such as the Golden Thread, and to ensure that Building Safety Managers have the appropriate information at their fingertips, requires a robust management platform. Reducing reliance on paper or manual processes will be key, as well reducing data silos or duplication across multiple systems to reach a single point of truth across all information relating to a residential development.

Automation of key processes

With an ever-increasing number of critical responsibilities for block managers to take action based on reports from residents or the outcome of inspections, it’s essential that robust processes are put in place to ensure that nothing is missed.

Automation plays a key role in ensuring that data collected during inspections is actioned, and that a clear audit trail is maintained. Setting up workflows to automatically manage task creation and monitor outcomes not only saves valuable time and resource, but helps block managers ensure that processes are fool proof, reducing the risk on noncompliance.

“Integration is key. If you have reports with a workflow right through to an action to raise a purchase order and monitor that action, the integration between reporting and property management is critical.”

Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank

Visibility for customers throughout

Transparent communication with customers is set to become a legislative requirement with the advent of resident engagement strategies. However, visibility and transparency also impacts several other areas, from cladding remediation works to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents.

As residents and leaseholders are themselves face uncertain and frightening changes, it’s crucial that block managers have not only the right information but are also able to communicate with empathy and understanding, ensuring the best outcomes for their customers. This means implementing robust processes and maintaining high quality data, whilst freeing up resource within their teams to focus on the human aspect of building safety.

“Over the past few years people suddenly find that they are living in a home that, they once felt secure in, but that now feels significantly less secure. There’s a huge amount of uncertainly, loneliness, stress and isolation and a lot of confusion, and we have a responsibility to solve some of that.

We need to choose the right partners and the right employees with the right values. It’s not all about cost, but about other things too.”

Nygel Scourfield, Executive Director at ReSI Property Management.

Collaboration between stakeholders

With so many anticipated changes, it’s not surprising that block managers are anticipating a complex and uncertain period of process and systems transformation. Every organisation has its own unique challenges, which means that even as details of legislative changes are confirmed, the precise actions needed to ensure compliance will be different for every business.

During uncertain times it’s vital to have strong partnerships with stakeholders, and an open an honest relationship based on a shared vision of success. By working proactively to engage and collaborate with partners across all aspects of their businesses, block managers can ensure they’re primed to respond quickly to changing requirements and to offer the most appropriate support and solutions for their business’ individual circumstances.

“We’ve been delighted by the way that MRI has worked with us and some of our critical issues by getting under the skin of what Knight Frank’s key concerns are means we’ve got a fundamentally better solution that if we hadn’t allowed you to come in and get to know, warts and all, what is worrying us.”

Michael Toogood, Head of Residential Asset Management and Partner at Knight Frank

How we can help

At MRI Software we’re a trusted partner to more than 70 ARMA members and hundreds of recognised names in the residential sector. To find out how we can support you on your way to creating an effective building safety and compliance strategy, get in touch today or download our ebook – Plan ahead for the golden thread – the critical role of technology for residential property managers.

The post A guide to creating an effective building safety and compliance strategy appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

There is little doubt the pandemic has had an irrevocable impact on workplaces worldwide, accelerating the switch to remote working and the adoption of new digital technologies to help manage the transition. But are we really going to see a homeworking free-for-all from now on? Despite the fact the sudden mass shift to home working demonstrated to most businesses that staff and executive teams could continue to be productive outside of the office, companies are managing the changes to the structure of work carefully.

Attitudes and concerns to remote working are still changing

Interestingly, a survey by MRI Software and CoreNet Global, the leading association for corporate real estate professionals, revealed that commercial occupiers were, in fact, tightening remote working policies. At the same time, landlords – initially shown to be more complacent than their tenants about the long-term damage by the pandemic in similar research in Q1 of 2021 – were growing more alarmed about the impact of remote working on their business when surveyed again at the end of Q3.

The Q3 survey of a group of nearly 200 tenants and landlords from a range of industries worldwide found that commercial occupiers’ willingness to allow all employees the choice to work remotely fell significantly from 39% to 26% between March and September 2021. Indeed, 70% of survey respondents planned to institute policies limiting remote working eligibility while increasing requirements to be onsite – up from 60% in March.

Despite the fact some corporate occupiers appear to be reconsidering the degree to which they will allow home working, the research also showed that landlords’ apprehension over the rise of remote work increased significantly over the same period. It revealed that 43% were concerned about its impact on their business compared to just 26% in March.

These findings indicate that corporate views on remote working are continuing to take shape at each new phase of the pandemic – as companies digest learnings and see how their operations are affected as the situation continues to play out.

Remote working is still reshaping workspaces

Nonetheless, the report findings make it clear that the wholesale shift to remote working since March 2020 has had a transformative effect on ways of working and the future of the office.

The analysis contained in the full research report, entitled MRI Software Market Insights: Views from Real Estate Occupiers and Landlords on the Return to Office, demonstrates that while attitudes to home working are still adjusting, the working world remains a much different place in the wake of COVID-19. The survey results show that, overall, nearly 80% of responding commercial occupiers have increased the availability of remote work since the pandemic. It also shows that 69% of respondents said that the worldwide shift to remote working during the crisis has fundamentally changed their long-term approach to space usage – only slightly down from 71% in March.

The key consideration for business leaders is how to better utilize their physical spaces. Tenants and landlords have an opportunity to partner on ways to return to the office safely and effectively. As more employees return to the workplace, both commercial occupiers and landlords realize that PropTech tools will be essential to planning and maximizing space usage, meeting the requirements of a hybrid office, keeping the workforce safe, and developing the best real estate strategies for the future.

Q1 2022 target for getting more people back to the office

The report also shows that commercial occupiers expect to see more employees returning to the office to collaborate and make use of resources as soon as it is feasible. In fact, 57% of corporate tenants expected to have more than half of their workforce back in the office by the end of Q1 2022. Landlords were even more optimistic, with 67% expecting the majority of workers to be back onsite by the end of Q4 2021.

Other key findings indicate that fewer companies saw a need for wholesale change in the Q3 survey than earlier in the year:

• 42% of corporate tenants indicated in September that they would require less space after the pandemic, down from 56% in March
• 49% of commercial occupiers were converting or expanding their use of hot-desking, down from 54% in March
• At the same time, 61% of landlords expected their tenants to lease the same or more space despite the prospect of more remote working in the future, but this figure was also down from March (67%)

Clearly, while the fact that successful remote working in just about every corporate sector has opened eyes to the potential of a brave world of home working, as the pandemic continues to play out and more normalcy returns, many are now expecting less of a radical change to the status quo. As the prospect of getting people back into the office seems more practical, more occupiers and landlords seem to reconfirm its value.

Tapping PropTech to support change

Although wholesale support for an entirely new work dynamic going forward appears to be softening somewhat, there is little doubt that attitudes both among managers and employees to remote working will never be the same – and that companies will have to deal with that reality. The research demonstrates that the vast majority of corporate occupiers do realize that and see a strong need to adopt technologies to handle the changes they face in managing the workplace. The survey showed that 70% of companies occupying business premises plan to adopt new technologies to address changes in space usage.

More strikingly, the survey showed that an increasing proportion of landlords are beginning to see that they need new technology tools to deal with the workplace of the future. The percentage of landlords that thought their existing technologies were sufficient to manage changes in space usage dropped from 61% to 45% between the March and September surveys. The Q3 results also reveal that 61% of landlords expect to adopt new technologies to handle changing space needs, compared to 55% in the previous survey. The top functions named by landlords planning to adopt new technologies going forward included the ability to:

• Track and manage who is onsite (employees, visitors, contractors) – 63%
• Strategically manage long-term space utilization and layout – 53%
• Schedule and reserve desks – 47%
• Better enable hybrid meetings between onsite and virtual attendees – 42%
• Reserve and manage meeting space – 21%

The pandemic continues to see new phases as it develops. At the same time, businesses’ views on how to manage it and how they will reshape the way the office functions will continue to evolve as we move into 2022. Pandemic-driven technology adoption has enabled people to stay connected and collaborative no matter where they work and will continue to do so. However, organizations still recognize the benefit of bringing employees back to the office as part of hybrid working arrangements that support engagement, workplace culture and productivity. And to make a success of hybrid work, organizations need to put the right technology tools in place – like the MRI @Work solution set – to help inform decision-making and ensure businesses can continue to thrive in the face of all future challenges.

See the full survey results in the report here.

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MRI Software’s newest Agency Solutions expert, Michael Connolly, made the leap from working on the front line of an estate agent to helping other agents transform their processes using MRI’s Sales & Lettings.

We talk to Michael about his experience so far as the latest member of the MRI team, and how it’s given him a new perspective on the industry.

Where did you work before joining MRI Software, and how did you come into your new role?

I joined the MRI Software team in September. Prior to that I worked first as a lettings negotiator, and then for a recruitment company who recruited into the property industry, so I’ve always been in property. I love working in the industry – the focus on relationships and networking is a perfect fit for me.

In my recruitment role I’d had a few meetings with MRI. Getting to know them as a company, I thought “I have to work here eventually!”, so it became my plan to impress them as much as possible. When the vacancy for an Agency Solutions expert came up, my eyes lit up and I just couldn’t let it go! I spoke to the team at MRI and put in an application, and was absolutely delighted to be offered the role.

Tell me about your role at MRI Software.

My job as an Agency Solutions expert is focussed on the MRI Sales & Lettings software, a CRM designed specifically for estate agents, so I’m speaking with companies very similar to where I worked in my previous role as a lettings negotiator.

My role is to showcase and demo the CRM system as well as MRI Engage, our tenant portal, so I’ve spent my first few months getting to grips with the system and beginning to go out and understand what estate agents are struggling with and where their pain points are.

How did you find the process of getting to know the sales and lettings software?

In my previous role in lettings I used a CRM system for over two years, so I was familiar with the concept. I’m not the most tech savvy person in the world, though, so I have a lot in common with many of the clients I’m speaking to! What I loved about MRI Sales & Lettings was how quickly I was able to pick up the system – if I can do it, anyone can!

It’s easy for me to showcase the benefits of MRI software, because I can see first-hand how it solves problems I experienced in my previous role.

What do you see as the biggest benefits of MRI Sales & Lettings to agencies?

Fundamentally, MRI Sales & Lettings give agencies the tools to stand out and attract more business.

Features like the Task Hub show you exactly what you need to do and who you need to chase each day, so there should never be a reason to miss important tasks, like following up with a landlord. These are the sorts of things that really impact the relationships you build as an agent – the little things that build up and reflect on the entire company brand over the long term.

The open API’s and vast integrations are also a huge benefit. When I worked in recruitment, proptech was a huge buzzword and everybody was talking about the latest software. With so many different platforms out there, integration is a must – you don’t want to have different pieces of software working against each other, or force clients to add data to multiple systems and repeat themselves.

Our open and connected approach overcomes this. MRI Sales & Lettings offers over 50 integrations at the moment, and part of my role is reaching out to potential partners to continue to expand. This is a huge benefit to clients, and to me, as it means whatever software they’re already using I can say “yes, we can integrate with that”!

How have you found working for MRI Software as a company?

The main thing that stood out to me in my first few months at MRI are the people. There are so many experts on the team who are able to help out! I’m not an expert on the development and implementation side of the software, but there are many people with decades of experience to help me understand what’s possible for my clients.

Another thing I’ve really enjoyed about MRI is that we’re always working on new features. We look to release five software updates annually at a minimum, so if there’s something a client really wants that the software doesn’t do, I can pass it to the development team to suggest it for future roadmaps. This makes it possible for me to really advocate for my clients, and have a say in the development of the product itself. The future of MRI Sales & Lettings is really exciting and I’d love to be more involved in driving this as part of my future progression. It’s also worth mentioning that these updates are always released on a Sunday to minimise any disruption to your business.

What advice would you give to agents who are considering a change of CRM software?

I know from my past how stressful moving systems can be. Previously I would’ve been apprehensive if my manager had told me we were changing systems, and I often speak to clients who’ve been using their current system for ten years plus and know it’s limiting them, but who are too afraid to take that step.

With MRI, you have access to a product specialist to walk you through the process and train the team. Our professional services team are there to guide you through the implementation, support you with data migration, and get you up and running. It’s never going to be 100% stress-free, but we can make it as easy as possible with an expert team who’ve done it many times before.

Taking the plunge with a new system leads to huge long-term benefits. Enabling agents to bring in more landlords, more tenants and ultimately more revenue.

Property is a very competitive industry and the agents who stand out are the ones who won’t rest, but keep pushing to be better.

If you’d like to hear more about my experience or learn more about MRI Agency Solutions software, feel free to get in touch.

The post From agency life to software guru: an interview with MRI Software’s newest Agency Solutions expert appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

In 2019, there were an estimated 3.18 million people living in fuel poverty in England alone; 15% of those were thought to be social housing residents. Homes with unfit insulation and sustained underheating can cause long-term issues with assets. A deep understanding of an organisation’s housing stock can help identify where improvements should be made.

In general, housing stock in the UK is amongst the oldest and most fuel inefficient in Europe. This, paired with the rising cost of living are risk factors for residents to fall into fuel poverty and suffer the associated physical and mental health impacts, as well as for housing stock to incur damage and costs. If somebody is in fuel poverty, then they’re unlikely to be able to heat their home properly – and not having properties heated means that they could be falling into disrepair.

This is a financial risk to organisations, with damp and mould needing to be rectified and repairs needing to be undertaken. If households are unable to heat their homes sufficiently, this will remain a persistent problem for housing providers; whilst a household remains in fuel poverty, costly ‘band-aid’ repairs for mould and damp are likely, becoming expensive ‘solutions’ in the long-run.

Social housing providers working with legacy assets, for example 1960s high-rise blocks, are dealing with buildings that were built with very poor insulation. This is a structural issue, which can be hard to address. Infamously, one of the tactics used in recent years to insulate these buildings has been to overclad them, leading to disasters, loss of life and the ongoing cladding scandal.

Addressing net zero

One thing helping organisations drive transformation for these problems in the long-term is the current move towards setting carbon targets, which all social housing organisations are now doing. The public know that home emissions need addressing as well. Activist group, Insulate Britain’s sole demand in their protests is for the UK government to undertake a ‘legally binding national plan’ to ensure all homes are insulated to be low energy by 2030, and by 2025 to fund the insulation of all social housing.

At the present moment, housing providers in general, are taking a ‘fabric-first approach’, which means that if it’s possible to better insulate a property, they will take action. Taking this step decreases the amount of fuel that’s required to heat a property, which should prevent more people going into the catchment of ‘fuel poverty’. Addressing this however, is not necessarily as easy as it sounds – particularly for older properties where it can be a challenge to insulate them to a high standard.

There are many issues around retrofitting for homes in order to insulate them to the required standard. Beyond the ‘fabric-first approach’, there are proposals from the government to encourage households to switch from using gas boilers to heat pumps. Gas boilers in homes are responsible for 1 in 7 tonnes of the UK’s carbon emissions, which is mainly due to poorly insulated homes, rather than faults with the boilers themselves.

The answer is not however, as simple as changing all properties to heat pumps. They are less flexible than boilers and one of the prerequisites for the switch is that homes are properly insulated to start with. In fact, the heat that they deliver to radiators is at a lower temperature than that from gas boilers. This means that they don’t work properly unless insulation is addressed first.

This year, a report from the UK Committee on Climate Change explained that in recent years “minimal progress” had been made in insulating buildings adequately and in moving towards low-carbon heating. At current estimates, the move to low-carbon heating in homes will take around 700 years to achieve. With so many living in fuel poverty, more accelerated strategies need to be adopted.

Case Study: Could the Nordic approach help the UK?

In 2017, Stockholm’s mayor made the claim that “fuel poverty is non-existent in Nordic countries.” The Nordic model includes setting minimum heat standards for homes and legislation to include heating costs in rent. District heating models where municipalities are responsible, rather than households, are also popular.

For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark 98% of heating needs are delivered by an authority-led system following legislation that compelled citizens to sign up to the city’s heat networks. Currently, these systems run by burning biomass but work is being undertaken to switch to fossil-free alternatives, demonstrating that once these networks are installed, they can be adapted to keep up with the latest technologies.

In the UK, some headway is being made. For example, in Wales the government has pledged £150m for social homes to improve insulation, clean energy and carbon reduction. This kind of funding can assist housing providers in achieving their net zero goals and pass on savings to residents in the form of cheaper energy bills. Additionally, in 2021 a ban was announced on new build social homes that use fossil fuels for heating.

How MRI Asset Management can assist organisations in addressing fuel poverty

For housing providers, asset management systems can assist with the diagnosis of fuel poverty. This is because it is not solely about trying to use IoT or meter readings for identifying fuel poverty, instead MRI’s Asset Management system brings together many data points that can be indicators. The solution knows the materials that the property is made from, the current levels of insulation, the current heating system and the EPC rating. This can then data model each home’s theoretical running costs, if not the actual running costs.

From that point, users have the base information to calculate which households could be at risk of fuel poverty. If you know a household’s income, the body of evidence becomes more compelling. Some of our customers may use Tenancy Analytics to assess the income side of the risk of fuel poverty, others can use the data in Asset Management to substantiate that risk. This can give them the opportunity to model questions such as, ‘if the same tenant, was in a different property, would they have a different level of fuel poverty?’

Across the housing sector, providers and partners are rising to the challenge of addressing fuel poverty. From transforming stock to the immediate actions of crisis management for households in need. The Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT) have given over £1m worth of vouchers over the past year through their Energy Hardship Fund, which assists households experiencing fuel poverty. We were exceptionally proud to have been able to support this initiative. In the long-term, housing providers have the will to address fuel poverty and the duty to cut carbon emissions in their homes by improving insulation. Comprehensive data management can be a key part of driving these changes in an efficient and cost aware manner.

If you would like to talk further about how technology can be used to support you to address fuel poverty in your homes please get in touch at socialhousing@mrisoftware.com

The post Understanding fuel poverty as an asset risk appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

As businesses continue to redefine their return-to-work plans, corporate real estate professionals are returning to in-person industry events. In the fourth quarter of 2021, groups like BOMA, IFMA and most recently CoreNet Global have begun welcoming back industry specialists at a time when many pivotal decisions are being made about their office spaces, data and remote-work policies.

MRI Software was thankful for the opportunity to moderate a panel at the 2021 CoreNet Global Summit in Seattle titled, “Leveraging Technology for Strategic Workplace Decisions”. The panel featured Kay Sargent of HOK, Simon Davis of Impec Group, and Alecia Chandler of EBUSINESS Strategies. Andy Welkley, Senior Product Marketing Manager at MRI, moderated the discussion on the continued evolution of the office, the need for flexibility in a hybrid environment and how people are a pivotal part of a successful office transition. The conversation maneuvered down some interesting paths – let’s take a look at five takeaways from the panel.

Going hybrid provides an opportunity to cut costs

All organizations with a physical footprint are determining the best working model for their employees. A majority of the businesses we’ve spoken to are implementing hybrid work scenarios, which provides flexibility for the employees but creates new challenges for employers. The short-term problem of flexible working has been addressed with a short-term solution: hybrid work. However, the longer-term need for businesses is to evaluate the space they have for future decisions about their footprint.

If you are eliminating the need for all staff to be in-office all week, there is an opportunity for cost savings through various channels. Do you close the office on certain days to save on operational expenses like janitorial services? Do you re-evaluate the lease you have on your physical space to something more suitable to your new work environment? Do you shut down some offices? Take this opportunity to find cost savings during this period of monumental shift for your employees and your business.

Your meeting room problem is actually a booking problem

How often do you look for a meeting room at the office only to find they’re all booked? How frustrating is it to then walk through the office and see empty conference rooms, or one employee leveraging it as an office by themselves? The answer shouldn’t be to simply add more conference room space – the problem that needs to be addressed is how to book the space. This can free up under-utilized areas and also provide extra freedom for employees.

Setting parameters around who can book particular spaces, as well as setting requirements for occupancy can help alleviate some of these issues. Room booking software that enables you to not only see booking data, but also empower staff to easily view, book and modify meeting rooms can become a real advantage to getting people back into the office. The last thing an employee wants to do is come into the office for collaboration and not have the ability to collaborate.

You can’t manage what you can’t measure

Hybrid working models present opportunities to evaluate the places we occupy and the trends of how people use them. If you don’t have a means to measure the usage of offices and the trends of your staff, your business is likely leaving money on the table. Using access control systems, employee and visitor management sign-in software and physical sensor technology allows you to collate new data points that have never been more relevant. Operationally, it makes the management of buildings more efficient.

Data is only valuable if you know how to use it

Now you have data points, but what good is data if you can’t act on it? Hybrid working models give businesses a chance to constantly re-evaluate how people work. Today’s “return to work” plan may look nothing like your work practices two years from now. Many CEOs even see the shift to remote working being a temporary event and still want to see fully utilized offices post-COVID. Your data matters. Tracking your space utilization can effectively shape your long-term corporate leasing strategy, which in many cases, may swing expenses by millions of dollars. But you also have the opportunity to use this data to impact your employees’ lives. Knowing how they work allows you to cater to your most important asset: your people.

Space is cheap compared to the price of people

It’s hard to recruit and retain talent. The flexibility of working from home during COVID changed the perspective of many employees about not only what they want to do, but how and where they want to do it. Putting technology in place that makes working from the office even easier than working from home gives your staff a reason to want to work at your company. It can be hard to sell employees on culture when they are absorbing it virtually. Businesses need to put real value not only on the costs associated with flexible spaces, but also on the cost of losing talent for lack of flexibility. Commuting into an office can be burdensome, but for an employee to know they can easily and effectively book a desk and a meeting room for collaboration allows your company culture to shine through – keeping your employees satisfied.

Facilities Managers, Directors of Real Estate, and Building Managers have the ability to truly impact the future of the business both financially and culturally with the decisions that they make over the coming months. Putting your people first has never been more important, and the ability to leverage technology to also save money in the process brings this area of an organization to the forefront of future executive-level decisions.

CoreNet Global was a fantastic educational conference, and you could feel that all in attendance were thrilled to finally get back together in a safe environment. CoreNet members will have free access to the audio recordings of the sessions, so check out the panel discussion. Next year’s CoreNet Global Summit in Chicago will be another great opportunity to evaluate the progress made in the industry toward reinventing the workplace. Learn how MRI Software can help you make the most of your hybrid work policies.

The post 5 ways your business can win at hybrid working appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

In the spring of 2021, the commercial real estate sector looked ahead to a bright future as the global vaccine rollout was underway, and businesses everywhere considered how best to bring their employees back into the office.

But just as all things in today’s world are subject to change on a moment’s notice, so has the thinking of landlords and tenants in the face of unexpected speed bumps in the return to “the new normal,” including the rise of the delta variant and discussions surrounding vaccine and health requirements.

MRI conducted two surveys – the first in March and the second in September 2021 – to see how landlord and tenant views on return to office plans have changed over time. Now that businesses have 2022 in their sights, let’s take a look to see where both parties stand today.

Firming up return to office timing

Our first survey from Q1 2021 indicated that a large percentage of tenants were unsure as to when they’d bring more than 75% of their workforce back into the office, and landlords, didn’t expect to go back into the office until later in the fall or winter.

Data from the Q3 2021 survey, however, shows that tenants and landlords now have stronger ideas as to when employees will be brought back into the office. 57% of corporate tenants expect to have more than half of their workforce back in the office by the end of Q1 2022, while landlords were more optimistic, with 67% expecting the majority of workers to be back onsite by the end of Q4 2021.

Return to the office policies are being cemented

In our survey from the first half of 2021, landlords and occupiers alike agreed that some time in-office should be required for employees, but plans were not yet set in stone. Our data from Q3 2021 shows that 70% of respondents planned to institute hybrid work policies that include onsite requirements, formalizing plans as return dates get closer.

Policies around hybrid work and office requirements have largely firmed up across the board, with nearly 80% of all respondents increasing the availability of hybrid work. We also see that 69% of respondents said that the worldwide shift to remote working during the pandemic has fundamentally changed their long-term approach to space usage, which is consistent with the initial survey. Nearly half of the respondents plan seating capacity for less than 75% of their workforce.

Occupiers and landlords need flexible technology to meet new challenges

In Q1 2021, landlords felt mostly confident that they had the technology in place to handle a return to the office, but this is no longer the case. With changing space requirements and the need to better understand the health of employees and visitors that enter the building, both occupiers and landlords now see a strong need to adopt technologies to handle changing requirements.

According to the data, 70% of corporate occupiers plan to adopt new technologies to manage changes in space usage. The percentage of landlords that thought their existing solutions were sufficient to manage changes in office usage dropped from 61% to 45% between the two 2021 surveys. The most recent results reveal that 61% of landlords expect to adopt new technologies to handle changing space needs, compared to 55% in the previous survey.

The latter half of 2021 is not turning out the exact way that many predicted, but landlords and tenants are adjusting their expectations and assessing new technologies and their own space requirements in order to facilitate a successful return to the office. As we continue into 2022, communication between all parties and solutions that flex to a business’s individual needs will be crucial in transitioning into a new normal.

Get the full survey data from the report:

MRI Software Market Insights: Views from Real Estate Occupiers and Landlords on the Return to Office, by MRI Software and CoreNet Global

The post 3 ways return to office plans have evolved for landlords and tenants appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

By Doug Sarney, Solutions Principal for MRI Software

Sometimes, the tools we have to hand don’t quite get the job done and when that happens, you might just need to build new tools yourself. The team behind the Resident Voice Index initiative here at MRI Software came up against just this problem. Our solution was to build custom data analysis tools, which would ensure we were getting the best out of the data.

The Resident Voice Index recently published its first report, in which nearly 4,000 UK social housing residents were asked about their feelings and perceptions of their neighbourhoods and housing providers. To draw out actionable insights from the data sets, custom technology had to be built to offer some uniquely sophisticated ways of associating question results and interpreting qualitative responses.

Why was a custom build necessary?

We did our research before choosing to build specifically for the project, looking closely at the source collection tool and weighing up options with other available solutions. What we quickly realised was that the collection analysis tools didn’t do what we needed; we had a vision for a deeper level of data analysis. One difficulty we came across when trying to interpret the data was the ability to associate the answers of one question with the answers to another. It was a biggie.

The BI Architect behind the Resident Voice Index tools was Naveen Hadagali. He explains how flexibility drove the decision to build for the Resident Voice Index: “It gives us ways to analyse the data by applying statistical and logical techniques that help in deriving insights. More importantly it will be scalable, flexible and intuitive to use.”

The benefits of building

For the Resident Voice Index questions, we asked about a variety of topics, covering belonging, caring and safety. We wanted to find hidden information and deeper insights so the technology needed to be able to uncover associations between seemingly unrelated topics.

The ability to link answers gives you the power to create different subsets of the data. The benefits of this are that you can begin to explore those relationships which you otherwise wouldn’t be able to reveal. Our tools give us the ability to identify all the people that thought one way about question ‘A’, make them a subset and see how they behaved or answered other parts of the survey – and that could be any part of the survey. For example, what people who felt safe in their neighbourhood thought were positive contributions made by their housing provider.

Moving on from that, the ability to cross tab was developed. For example, those that answered this way with question ‘A’ and this way with question ‘B’, against a third set of data, like their age or location or the answer to another question. This really allowed us to identify some of the niche results that wouldn’t have come forth using conventional off-the-shelf tools.

Another benefit was the work that Naveen’s team did to build capabilities for dealing with qualitative responses. A result that was uncovered in the first survey was people suggesting things like ‘community spaces’ or ‘community events’, which built a picture of what the respondents wanted to see or appreciated in their neighbourhoods. We developed an algorithm that enabled us to associate words with each other when they were clearly linked in the respondents’ answers. Some other platforms only analyse individual words and as such, the analysis would have been weaker and less enlightening, giving flat answers of ‘community’ and ‘spaces’.

Part of the build included carefully selected points of intervention where our human researchers can make edits so that they can see more intuitively what was meant by people’s qualitative answers. We were very careful not to doctor (or ‘munge’) any of the data, while making sure that perfectly good data wasn’t written off or separated from its appropriate groups. For example, by acknowledging spelling mistakes or by excluding extraneous data and profanities that add nothing to the insights.

We removed the word ‘good’ from a word cloud analysis. When we asked for positive contributions from people’s landlords, answers naturally included things like ‘good communication’; or ‘good repairs’, etc., but the insights didn’t need to know that it’s ‘good’ because we asked for ‘good’ things in the question. Techniques like this exclude the obvious words that would otherwise dominate, drawing out the data that matters for reporting purposes. As the project continues, we expect these capabilities to evolve and grow.

Constant and deliberate improvement

We are now developing the second survey of the Resident Voice Index and the tools built for survey one will be tested against a whole new set of data. Naveen is excited to see how the project grows from this point: “We are going to extend the framework that we have put in place and strengthen the sentiment analysis and text analysis.” In the future he is looking to “make the tools flow much more seamlessly, so you can see on the fly what impact a change may have rather than waiting for a day. Soon, we’ll be able to quantify the qualitative input much more easily, working to build an intuitive framework that can really uncover business intelligence from what people say.”

We are sharing the Resident Voice Index as a showcase for the Business Intelligence capabilities we have available at MRI Software. We wanted to parade the skills that Naveen’s team has to build great tools and solutions, at pace for unique specifications. What’s more, the tools that we develop can often then be applied across other MRI solutions; utilising our custom builds across organisational innovations. We are constantly and deliberately improving and are looking forward to presenting the next round of innovations.

If you would like to talk to someone at MRI Software about the BI tool built for the Resident Voice Index or for a project you have in mind, please email: info@mrisocialhousing.co.uk

View the results of the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey here: https://residentvoiceindex.com

The post The BI that’s driving The Resident Voice Index™ appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Following a research cycle and consultation with our partners, residents and the sector, the next survey from the Resident Voice Index is here! Launched November 1^st 2021, the Community Support & Life After Lockdown survey is open and asking social housing residents about their experiences across the past year and a half, their relationship with their housing provider and what people’s outlooks are for the future following this extraordinary time.

The impact the pandemic has had on us all has been momentous; this rare global collective experience – and in some cases, trauma – has affected all of us. Across the world there will be a scramble to collect and analyse data to accelerate our understanding of how we withstand shocks, prepare for further adversity and how people believe the recovery and rebuilding from this time should be handled.

Before the memories fade, we are consulting the Resident Voice Index community and our unique access to a large network of social housing residents to hear from them directly about their experiences during this time and their recommendations for communities.

There’s a chance to take the good coming out of the pandemic in terms of building stronger communities and delivering services in a different way.

 Housing provider, Resident Voice Index workshop

The survey asks about the services and assistance that communities received during the lockdowns and the feelings of loneliness, resilience and optimism that people felt. It will seek to investigate whether these feelings have shifted since the start of the pandemic, asking residents about any changes in the relationship that they have had with their housing provider across that time. The results are set to be incredibly interesting and our hope is, as with the first report, contributed to by just under 4,000 social housing residents, that their thoughts provide actionable insights for providers and policy makers to take on board in their strategies.

To shape the questions for the survey one of our project partners, HQN arranged workshop sessions that were undertaken with their members, both residents and housing providers. Below we outline the key themes and topics that emerged from these enlightening sessions, which spoke to the ongoing challenges faced across the sector.

We need to ask tenants what their priorities are and avoid assuming we think we know what’s important.

Housing provider, Resident Voice Index workshop

We are all ‘vulnerable’

What has become apparent over the past few years is that our ability to cope under stress has been tested, we are all capable of being vulnerable and we all have complex needs. Attendees in the session for housing providers spoke at length about this and the need to move away from stigmatising language that describes those in social housing as ‘vulnerable’.

One Chief Executive in attendance spoke of adopting new approaches to leadership and resident/housing provider relationships, which included moving the paradigm away from a ‘fixing’ one to a ‘healing’ one and engaging in the practice of ‘Compassionate Listening’.

During the residents’ focus group great levels of empathy for how housing providers coped in the first parts of the pandemic were shown and the challenge is for providers to maintain these levels as things ‘return to normal’.

Actions from housing providers in response to the pandemic

When asked about the assistance given by their housing providers during the lockdowns, there was a mixed set of responses across the resident workshop session.

Some described housing providers and local authorities that stepped up and were a great source of support. Some described piecemeal and inconsistent assistance. Others in no uncertain terms felt that their communities had received no assistance.

Give residents resources and they’ll take it from there

A theme that continues to emerge across the Resident Voice Index project is that of giving communities resources to connect with and support one another and build self-sustaining resilience. One resident attendee described the difference that taking ownership of communal green space made over the pandemic in helping to connect their community.

Everybody’s starting to realise that they are part of the wider community around them, just through something little that might seem insignificant changing. Small things matter. I think that’s what I’ve learnt over the last year: small things matter.

Resident, Resident Voice Index workshop

Some housing providers are recognising this and looking at how to assist residents in taking more ownership over their homes and neighbourhoods. One provider that we spoke to is even exploring how to facilitate residents carrying out repairs in their homes themselves.

We did our repairs very differently right at the beginning, because one of our resident surveys a few years back said that they wanted us to help them look after their homes themselves – which we were beginning to get to the bottom of and then the pandemic came in. Then last year we were able to deliver tools and materials to go into homes.

Housing provider, Resident Voice Index workshop

Digital services are here to stay but deliver them well

The transition to digital services across housing delivery is well underway and was accelerated by the pandemic, with resident expectations changing in line with other services they receive.

We were fortunately in a transitional change of becoming more digital just before Covid hit. Our customers engage far more with us, especially for online consultations. Our relationship has changed, they want to give us feedback. They want to communicate with us a lot more. We’ve shown more interest in them.

Housing provider, Resident Voice Index workshop

Generally, across the sessions this was embraced. With the thought that if technology is being used to streamline services and improve relationships with residents then extra time and resources found from those efficiencies would be well spent on feet on the ground and in-person community work. There was a mindfulness from both residents and providers that these processes needed to consider the needs of individuals and the challenges that digital exclusion may bring.

One of the residents made a cogent argument that the records of housing providers need to improve to identify who needs assistance in times like a lockdown. They made it clear that systems that work could go a long way to solve problems in customer service.

What now?

There was a palpable sense of foreboding for the coming 12 months. Now that the emergency work is done, staff and residents appear somewhat depleted. Housing providers spoke of frontline staff who are looking with worry at the implications that the cost-of-living crisis will have over the coming winter. Residents spoke of looking to one another to raise their voices collectively for fear of being ignored as individuals. One resident made it clear that to move forwards working together, it would be necessary to include wider members of communities and agencies in the conversation.

We are really looking forward to hearing again from social housing residents in the UK about the topics we explored above and freely sharing those insights with the sector, residents and policy makers in the new year.

How can my residents get involved?

To access a resource pack to send the survey out to your residents, simply click here.

Or share the link to the survey directly with your residents here.

The post Resident Voice Index™ Community Support & Life After Lockdown survey launches! appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Few industries are emerging unscathed from the coronavirus pandemic, but the global retail sector has been hit particularly hard. The impact of lockdowns around the world, local restrictions and social distancing resulted in UK retailers experiencing the worst sales in 25 years. Additionally, the pandemic has accelerated the trend away from purchasing goods in physical shops, with e-commerce growing 46% in 2020. The impact retailers have seen on the main streets of urban centers, suburban shopping malls and out-of-town retail parks is lasting and promises to usher in critical changes in how these spaces are used and managed.

Accelerating commercial retail trends

The reality is that the pandemic has acted as a commercial retail trend accelerant for changes already taking place in consumers’ shopping habits. Both retailers and their landlords are facing a fundamental shift in the marketplace, with many retail businesses closing a large number of outlets for good. The real estate owners and the retailers themselves need to work together to reshape their commercial spaces in order to compete with e-commerce.

Already, many landlords are working with retail occupiers to ease the pressure on stores with an increasing number of leases incorporating turnover rents, which closely align rent to an individual store’s performance. During a successful sales period, both parties benefit from the agreement, and during downtimes, the landlord does not lose a tenant that is viable over the long term to an empty space. But turnover rents alone are not enough. The reality is that consumers will continue to shift their purchasing online and physical stores are at risk. During lockdown, consumers were forced to become reliant on online shopping and became accustomed to the around-the-clock shopping, personalized advertising and home delivery so bricks and mortar retailers must now provide a superior in-person shopping experience.

Balancing tenant mix and the landlord/tenant relationship

Whether in a shopping mall or on the main street of a town center, landlords need to work with retailers to ensure physical stores remain attractive and relevant to shoppers. Many are working together to create experiential shopping ‘journeys’. This approach creates an engaging showcase for brands and products, enhancing the personal aspects of shopping by allowing consumers to see, touch and try – often with in-store demonstrations and helpful staff armed with tablets assisting shoppers in finding precisely what they want.

In working to revive retail sites, especially in struggling shopping districts in towns and cities, real estate owners, operators and investors need to look beyond their retail tenants. They must consider developing a more complex mix of occupiers that bring to life the full spectrum of activities in these areas – enabling consumers to live, work and play in closer proximity. The upshot is that, increasingly, landlords are looking to include residential, office, co-working, hospitality, and service industry tenants in developments that previously had more of a complete retail focus.

To manage these changing real estate trends, commercial landlords and occupiers need the right technologies. For retailers to justify paying for physical stores, particularly in shopping centers, landlords will need to demonstrate how commercial spaces deliver value, which will be best achieved by measuring foot traffic and tracking the customer’s journey in and around the stores. For those landlords managing a more diverse set of uses for their properties, many will require software that will enable them to handle the blurring of commercial and residential tenants by providing a holistic view of their leases.

The retail industry has endured an immensely challenging time, but the success of the global vaccine program also brings hope that it can now focus on the road to recovery. However, we are now living in a post-pandemic world which has changed the shopping habits of consumers, and retailers must now reimagine the in-store experience to help entice shoppers back.

If you would like to learn more about our retail management software solutions, please get in touch today.

The post How the pandemic changed the evolution of retail and commercial real estate appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Setting the scene
If you are reading this it is likely that IFRS 16 has become a hot topic within your organisation, so naturally you will be aware of the notable change to lease accounting practices, that is about to occur within the public sector and it’s impact on your organisation. However, if you are only just starting to think about IFRS 16 the new lease accounting standard for the public sector comes into effect on 1st April 2022 and fundamentally requires organisation spotlight.

As a public sector organisation, you can take advantage of a much more mature standard than when the private sector transitioned back in 2019, with countless organisations having gone through multiple interims and year-ends reporting to the updated standard. But now it is the public sector’s turn. Software applications are more mature in relation to the standard as well as accounting auditors being clearer on what scenarios and challenges are out there, whilst general best practice across the board is more apparent.

The question is: Are you truly prepared for the transition and have all areas covered?
MRI has gained insights from over 500 lease accounting implementations, whilst logging what went well, what needs to be considered and practices to avoid. Thus, providing relevant information to your organisation.

What we learnt about IFRS 16 from the Private Sector
IFRS 16 was introduced into the private sector in January 2019. This has provided valuable insights and challenges faced throughout it’s implementation. The new standard meant that leases had – and continues to have a significant impact on the balance sheet.

Therefore, MRI wants to openly share our experiences, challenges and solutions over the 500+ lease accounting implementations, with key takeaways for public sector organisations to learn from the private sector transition.

Procuring an appropriate solution and timing
With the 1st  April 2022 IFRS 16 deadline fast approaching for public sector organisations to transition to the new lease accounting standard, there are many factors that need consideration, and often many were overlooked by the private sector.

Many private sector organisations started trying to manage IFRS 16 leases via Excel or ‘IFRS 16 calculators’ only to run adrift. Challenges in term of processes, limited automation, security and double handling of spreadsheets and finance systems not only leads to data integrity problems but limited company control and insight.

Investing in lease management and accounting technology ensures that the business-as-usual treatment of leases is managed effectively, whilst automatically driving the asset and liability calculations alongside disclosure reporting for the finance team. If implemented correctly, the technology should meet and exceed the return on investment.

Not only is it important to have an appropriate solution in place to handle IFRS 16, but it is also important to have a solution implemented in a timely manner.  Robust, reliable, and scalable solutions are not implemented overnight, it takes time to get this right, and so it is vital that you do not treat this as an afterthought as we approach  2022.

Private organisations who implemented with time to test and conduct impact analysis prior to the deadline found the transition easier, cleansed their data more successfully and gained confidence within their organisation’s strategies. We therefore encourage, if you have not already, to start  assessing your data’s quality, source all required data and documents and implement a lease accounting software solution as soon as possible.

The role of technology
Technology plays a pivotal role in IFRS 16. It can automate the calculations of leases that would otherwise be a manual exercise, allowing for effective time management. It is vital to consider the continually evolving lease agreements you have with various key events, indexations, free rent periods for multiple leases across the portfolio, which can often lead to an endless effort and without the correct technology platform can, result in incorrect calculations.

IFRS 16 has demonstrated that a combination of cross departmental collaboration and technology to facilitate and automate, is the key to successful ongoing management of the standard. A major consideration is data confidence, data quality and data availability. This is the single most overlooked item on the list for organisations transitioning to the new standard. Questions like: Have we captured all our lease incentives and costs? or how do we know that our current rental value in ‘X’ without having to dive back into the lease agreement? Will be left unanswered if your organisation is non-strategic with their implementations of IFRS 16.  Data cleansing is paramount and therefore we have seen huge demand and interest in utilising our platform leveraging AI (Artificial Intelligence), to extract the required data points from your lease contracts, eliminating errors, whilst maximising data integrity and providing auditability for the transition, as you move into BAU through year-end.

More knowledge on IFRS 16 and ongoing required attention
When the private sector adopted the new standard from 1st January 2019, it is fair to say many challenges, complexities and scenarios we are now familiar with were unknown, thus by way of preparation little could be done. Although the standard had been finalised there were not any operational experiences by organisations on how this standard would work in practice.

The private sector has now learnt, that although the initial transition is important, the processes in place to handle IFRS 16 post transition is just as crucial. This is an area most private organisations initially disregarded and have since gone out to procure a solution that can handle this on an ongoing basis, thus replacing the transition solution.  Successful transitions understood the importance of end-to-end processes and controls required to efficiently manage the new IFRS 16 lease accounting standards on an ongoing basis. Approaching this in the correct way mitigates risk and needless expense further down the line.  The biggest lesson to take from this is IFRS 16 needs to be considered for the foreseeable and not just the date of transition.

This is a company-wide issue not a finance issue
With the finance department being responsible for sending off the reports to their auditors for month, quarter, or year-end, you may think that this is finance’s problem. However, from the private sector we have learnt that this is not the case. The key lease data such as lease dates, options and rental amounts are not normally held by finance, these are generally held by other departments such as the property, estates or asset teams. Successful transitions are those that have wider stakeholders involved in this process and a consolidated system/process in place that integrates various departments together.

Are you ready?
After reading the above considerations and what we have learnt from the private sector, are you really prepared for April 2022? We have implemented over 500 IFRS 16 projects varying in numerous requirements across both the public and private sectors. With an already strong history with various government organisations and NHS trusts, we can help.

Please reach out if you have any questions on how we can assist with the transition.

The post Are you ready for the IFRS 16 Public Sector deadline? appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

We’re all working within an ever-changing business landscape, and it’s more important than ever to stay ahead of the game, create efficiencies, and deliver a service that stands out and provides real impact. For estate agents, the market in recent years has been volatile to say the least, so resilience, adaptability, and excellent customer service are the watchwords for surviving and thriving. Adopting new solutions to help elevate your offering is often a smart move. 

However, having spent 3 years working in central London as an estate agent and latterly another 10 years in the utility space I know all too well how many cross-sell opportunities there are in property transactions and the amount of sales calls estate agents get. 

There isn’t always much difference between the solutions on the surface, ‘save time here, make money there’ – the difference quite often comes down to the people you deal with on a day-to-day basis along with the commercial benefits and efficiency savings. It takes a lot of and effort to unstitch one solution, and stitch in another that’s relatively similar, so why bother? What difference can providers be offering to make the process worthwhile?  

The key, for us at Ittria, is the automation and integration of data, which is why we’ve partnered with MRI as part of their MRI Agency solutions.  

Working within the void and utility notification space, taking the hassle out of between-tenancy management for agents is what we do, and with the relationships that we forge with software providers like MRI, we can offer a service that easily enhances daily operations. Integrations are all about creating an established and trusted exchange of information between systems and parties, minimising administrative tasks, increasing speed, and reducing costs, thereby allowing you and your staff to focus on what matters to you – moving people into properties. 

Automation of services 

Through the integration with MRI Sales & Lettings via MRI Agency Home, Ittria’s services can benefit your business with minimal input from your team. The pathway set up between the two systems allows for the automation of our services, meaning it’s as simple as entering the data into your system as normal, and your “between-tenancy” management happens automatically.  

Here’s how it works: 

When a tenancy is due to end, we receive a notification from your system, prompting our systems to send notifications to the current water, council tax, and energy suppliers, informing them of the upcoming change of payment responsibility. When the property is vacated and the void period begins, we switch the property’s utilities to our preferred void suppliers, generating income for your business through commission payments. When the new tenants move in you know who the current utilities providers are, and the notifications for the new tenancy are all sent out on your behalf. 

All this happens without any extra work on your part, since the integration with MRI allows Ittria to access your tenancy information, automating the void period and handling the details. No more time spent on the phone to utility supplier call centres being told you can’t make changes because you’re not the landlord – instead you have a single point of contact with Ittria and everything else is sorted for you. It takes the hassle, away, allowing your team to focus on your core business model.  

Cutting through the noise 

With so many solutions, systems, and software available for estate and lettings agents, each touting efficiencies and benefits for your business, your technology stack can easily become too much to handle. So many agents find themselves with various installations and implementations of different products, but in reality, find themselves only using a select few on a day-to-day basis. With so many different solutions, duplication of data entry is often inevitable, and though modules and software might seem relatively low in cost, it all adds up and your business can be forking out substantial monthly payments for solutions that don’t work for your particular business.  

With a fully integrated technology stack, made up only of the solutions that provide measurable benefits and are genuinely useful to your team, you can create a pared down, streamlined system that facilitates a seamless data flow between products.  

Having an integrated tech stack also means improved data accuracy – only inputting data once means every system is working with the same information and reduces the risk of mistakes due to data entry errors and typos.  

Ittria’s integration with MRI Agency Solutions means that for MRI Sales & Lettings users, Ittria can slot neatly and seamlessly into your stack, providing operational benefits as well as income generation. 

Danny Wyrwoll, Ittria  

ittria.co.uk 

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Across the UK, 9-10% of the population are experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity and over the past five years the need for food banks has risen by 128%. The pandemic has exacerbated these problems and expected changes are predicted to have negative effects in the coming months. A concerted effort will be needed from multiple organisations to prevent the escalation of these issues and we believe technology can support this process, making it easier to identify the most vulnerable in our communities.

In the Resident Voice Index Neighbourhoods & Communities survey, social housing residents were asked about the facilities and amenities they had within a 15-minute journey of their home, in accordance with the ’15-Minute City’ urban planning approach. They were also asked how important these factors were. Overall, the survey found that amenities and services related to health and wellbeing were the most important for residents to have in their communities and generally speaking, that respondents were well provisioned for.

There was only one circumstance where this was notably different; ‘access to healthy and affordable food’, which ranked third in importance but only seventh for prevalence. This suggests that there could be a gap between how able people are to access healthy, affordable food and their need for it.

The impact of food insecurity

The cost of food is rising, the Universal Credit cut is looming and a ‘Cost of Living Crisis’  has been named recently by the press. The sector can reasonably predict these issues to be one of the main threats to sustainable rents and tenancies facing social housing providers this winter. Equipped with the right data and technology however, providers can pinpoint residents in need of additional support and services. There is a strong connection between housing stability and food access, placing housing providers at the centre of the ongoing maelstrom.

People on low incomes spend more of their income compared to the average on essentials – food, utilities, rent, bus fares and so on. When they are swept into deeper poverty they have to cut back: the food budget is often one of the few areas of spending that gives that option.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2019

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s UK Poverty Report for 2020-2021 found that 37% of the social housing residents they polled had experienced a reduction in their income since the beginning of the pandemic and had subsequently reduced their expenditure on food. Worryingly, 8% of those with children reported actively cutting back on food for them. The link between housing providers and the right to food is not lost on the sector; take HQN’s Alistair McIntosh for example, sharing a picture of the food bank that was operating across the road from this year’s CIH annual conference.

The role of housing providers

Housing providers have been giving support across the country to alleviate the worst impacts of food poverty, food deserts and food instability in communities – especially in reaction to the pandemic. One of the most impactful answers given in the Resident Voice Index Neighbourhoods & Communities survey was a resident talking about the positive contributions made by their housing provider in the community. The respondent said that it was the, “Local community food shop that is trying to help eradicate food poverty for families forced into the Universal Credit shambles.”

An estimated 2.5 million children in the UK live in food insecure homes. Responding to statistics such as this, some providers have set up emergency food boxes for households in need, with others creating ‘lunch clubs’ with heavily subsidised meals to ensure people have at least one warm, substantial meal per day. Meanwhile, Hafod Housing in Cardiff are running their Food and Fun programme, the aim of which is to ensure primary school age children do not go hungry during the school holidays.

Social landlords are becoming involved because food poverty is on the rise and impacting their tenants.

Inside Housing 2019

Thinking to the future, providers building new homes are also pre-planning what constitutes a thriving, healthy, neighbourhood. Catalyst Housing’s, St Ann’s New Neighbourhood for example, makes residents’ health central to their proposed plans, that include on-site allotments for residents and spaces for farmers markets. This project has adopted a multi-partner approach, recognising that housing providers cannot address this problem alone.

The role of technology

Another one of the threats to household sustainability over the coming months are the expected rises in energy prices, which will disproportionately affect those on low incomes, especially those hit by the cut to Universal Credit. It’s realistic to predict that these compound circumstances will drive more people into fuel poverty and possibly rent arrears.

Someone who paid £80 per month for their energy just lost £80 per month in Universal Credit. Meanwhile, their bill’s gone up £20 due to price cap increase and gas prices. That person has gone from barely coping to £100 a month in debt in a split second.

Fraser Stewart, Strathclyde University

Fuel poverty is intertwined with food poverty; we know from the government that households experiencing fuel poverty often cut down on food expenditure in order to heat their homes. The use of data and technology by housing providers could be one of the tools in the box that teams have to identify and assist any of their residents who could be at risk of food poverty.

Data points that could be indicators that a household is in need of extra assistance might include those that have children (looking particularly at how parents might not cope during the school holidays when costs rise). Other factors could be whether they are accessing free school meals, are Universal Credit applicants, are at risk of fuel poverty, or are having trouble with rental payments and arrears.

Tracking these data points can trigger a welfare call at just the right time. Drawing from the concept of the ’15-minute city’, there are other data sets available that could assist housing providers in addressing food insecurity amongst their residents. For example, Trust For London’s ‘E-Food Desert Index,’ which identifies food deserts in the capital.

Housing providers using MRI Tenancy Analytics can identify pre-emptively the households that may be at risk of fuel poverty or financial hardship by cross-referencing the data points mentioned above. Using this solution, teams can spot red flags and begin conversations early to put suitable support in place and sustain tenancies.

Hafod Housing use Tenancy Analytics to ensure that sustainability remains at the heart of their tenancy approach. Richard McQuillan, Head of Housing Services at Hafod Housing explains how this works in practice: “We’ve already had a couple of cases where we’ve used Tenancy Analytics to check on tenants claiming to have no financial issues but who in reality, were in financial distress. Tenancy Analytics allowed us to quickly access the correct information which meant we were able to reassure them that they wouldn’t lose their tenancies and we were able to help them to rectify the situation. Early intervention really is key in these situations.”

Tenancy Analytics and the data it generates means the company can wrap the right services around individuals at the right time.

Serena Jones, Director of Homes, Communities and Services, Coastal Housing Group

This winter is going to be especially challenging to many in the UK and housing providers will be faced with huge challenges to address a crisis that needs multi-agency approaches to solve. Central and local government will be at the core of the response, as evidenced by a recent council vote in Coventry that enshrined the ‘Right to Food’. For housing providers, as much timely insight as possible into the lives of the people in their homes could be the difference between households needing to make the choice between decent food and paying rent.

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As we move towards the end of 2021, what the coming year has in store for estate agents is something we all need to be thinking about. With the drastic changes enacted on the industry over the past two years thanks to the pandemic and political events such as Brexit, it’s more important than ever for agencies to be prepared and resilient. By looking at the current trends within the industry now, we can make informed predictions about what we can expect in the coming months and in 2022.

Consumer Behaviour

During the pandemic, the demand for suburban properties with green space skyrocketed, thanks to lockdown, working from home, and the desire for extra room: Rightmove statistics over the last year have shown a significant uplift in searches for gardens and extra bedrooms for offices. However, as businesses are opening up workplaces again, there are signs that people want to move back towards cities and industrial centres. It’s too early to tell right now whether this is going to become a more sustained trend, or if the popularity of suburban properties is going to endure.

City-based agents are seeing the rental market pick up again after temporary rules on eviction notices have been rescinded. However, the latest news on winter Covid plans might mean that working from home is once more encouraged over winter, which might support those who are staying outside of cities.

The pandemic continues to keep agencies guessing. One thing is clear, though; it’s important for agents to adapt and become more resilient in a variable market.

The end of the stamp duty holiday

The stamp duty changes have impacted the market hugely over the course of the pandemic, with a record number of transactions taking place for many agents. However, as the changes are being brought to an end, the market is shifting once again, with uncertainty surrounding whether the end of the stamp duty holiday will drive down prices.

In addition, first-time buyers have been overshadowed by people with larger budgets over this period, so we may be in for a change in the type of buyer, with fewer existing buyers and people moving home or buying additional properties, and more people with smaller budgets making their first steps on the property ladder.

A landlord shortage

Profitably owning properties is becoming more difficult thanks to tax changes impacting landlords. Buy-to-Let landlords are seeing increases in taxes and stamp duty, causing some to decide to exit the market altogether, which is going to have further effects on agents. It’s likely there’ll be less stock to offer to applicants, and landlords may be looking to negotiate agent fees to offset their increased tax obligations. This may mean more work for agents to bring on new business and to upsell their services to existing landlords and clients.

An Employee’s Market

As many industries have seen in recent months, there are more jobs than people in the agency market. This is leading to rising salaries and increased competition for good talent, which means an increase in salary and recruitment costs for agencies; if a member of staff leaves the team it can cost 20-30% more to replace them. As many agencies reduced headcount over the course of the pandemic, this pay rise is likely to impact the market and cause problems, particularly for smaller players.

Prioritising resilience

The overarching message for the coming period is that it’s important to adapt and place a priority on resilience. With changeable consumer behaviour, fewer transactions, lower stock levels, and higher salary costs, agencies need to be able to cut costs and operate more efficiently to survive.

With a stripped back and high-performing technology stack, agencies can build resilience and meet the coming challenges head-on.

Efficiency

For smaller agencies, it’s more sustainable to improve efficiency and maximise the output of a smaller team than shoulder increased hiring costs. By automating as many routine tasks as possible, you can minimise the amount of time your team spends on admin and refocus their efforts on value-adding activities.

With a good management system like MRI Sales and Lettings, many of the time-consuming tasks that require multiple solutions and duplication of effort can be consolidated into one system, with processes automated to not only save time, but also to avoid errors in data processing.  For instance, with a Making Tax Digital module within your management system you can calculate rental income for landlords and fill in forms at the click of a button.

Adding value

By using technology that utilises the data you have to analyse and recognise trends, you can identify areas to bring in additional revenue and carve a focussed niche, rather than targeting an ever-widening section of the market.

Data collected from your customer portals and property searches can help to identify what your applicants are looking for and what your vendors and landlords are doing, which can open up new opportunities.

It’s important to fully understand how to extract the right information and use it in the most beneficial way. This means choosing a tech solution that provides excellent reporting features that provide an insight into where the highest areas for potential conversion are, allowing you to focus resource.

Customer service

If you have a very good technology stack that’s capable of digitalising a lot of your clients’ journey, you can offer more self-service options via customer portals. This not only results in a reduced requirement for staff to be manning the phones and answering questions which could be done online, but also allows clients to take control of their own accounts and relationships with your business, providing them with a flexible way of engaging with you.

Futureproofing your business against the uncertainty that the coming months have in store means investing in technology and maximising the value you can reap from the resources and talent you have. Get in touch with the experts at MRI today to discuss how we can help you to build resilience.

The post Preparing for 2022 – How current trends will impact estate agencies appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Never before has there been so much information available about PropTech. There are quite literally thousands of real estate technology providers to consider as the number of PropTech startups grows by the day. With many of them using the same PropTech terminology, it’s easy for them to blur into one.

As a result, it has never been more difficult to make a decision on which PropTech solution, or solutions, are right for your business. Before we try and answer that problem, we need to first understand what PropTech is and why it matters.

What is PropTech?

At a foundational level, PropTech is simply the application of technology to real estate in order to raise revenue, drive efficiency, enable better service, or power transactions. Applying different technologies to different parts of the real estate industry is what gives us the vast array of PropTech solutions that we find in the market today. There are PropTech solutions that address development, construction, sales, marketing, leasing, and operations. Further, solutions are available to serve key stakeholder groups, including brokers, tenants, vendors/suppliers, as well as institutional and other investors. With a high degree of variability in operational constructs and an array of stakeholders, there are endless permutations of ownership models, operating models, and stakeholders.

In recent years, PropTech has reached new scale and momentum as all corners of real estate have modernized and automated, sought better data to support decision making, and ultimately driven NOI by adeptly applying technology to better real estate businesses globally.

Understanding PropTech terminology

One of the main areas of confusion commonly associated with PropTech is simply the language used to describe what is on offer. Terminology such as tech stack, business intelligence, and data analytics for example, is often used without clear descriptions of what it actually means in the context of the offering. With the use of these terms such commonplace, the challenge first lies in determining what they actually mean.

Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has nearly unlimited potential when applied to the real estate industry. From automated lease abstraction to delivering more accurate, structured data, AI-powered real estate tools can automate many of the manual processes that have been inherent in the industry for ages and give businesses renewed insights into their data to make better decisions.

Big data
Big data refers to extremely large datasets. Typically, these are so large and complex that not only would a traditional data-processing application, such as Excel©, be inadequate to manage them, but users might not even be able to see the full picture of what data is relevant to their business and processes without PropTech.

Business Intelligence
Business intelligence is the visualization of data used to analyze, report on and optimize business decisions. With the excessive amount of data that real estate firms generate, business intelligence and analytics tools can be harnessed to yield insights that will guide strategy and increase competitive advantage.

Data analytics
Data analytics is the process of analyzing raw data to identify trends and patterns and inform key decision-making. Without the right tools and guidance, modern real estate professionals can face a lot of uncertainty as they attempt to extract information from the mountain of data that their businesses create.

Deep learning
Deep learning is the part of AI and machine learning that enables everything from practical tasks to predicting what TV series you should try next based on your watch history. It’s the “science” behind computer systems that when fed data, can make decisions about other data with the aim of mimicking – and going beyond – the human decision-making process.

Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT is the process of connecting objects and devices to the internet to enable them to “talk” to each other while being managed and monitored. For example, IoT can help property managers handle predictive maintenance on HVAC systems in commercial buildings to move toward more energy-efficient operations.

Machine learning
Machine learning is the subset of artificial intelligence that provides systems with the ability to adapt, change and improve without the need for human intervention. When applied to the industry, machine learning can automate manual processes in areas such as lease abstraction, lease auditing, and conversational AI.

Open and connected
Open and connected PropTech refers to software platforms designed to integrate with systems from other providers, allowing real estate companies to choose the systems that work best for their business and create competitive differentiation. The platform provider takes responsibility to manage the integrations with select third-party providers.

Open data
Open data is data available to the public that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone.

Single stack software
Single stack software refers to a platform that includes all features and functionality within one system, or stack. All aspects of the platform are developed, maintained, and managed by one provider.

Technology stack
A technology stack is made up of the infrastructure, data, services and programming languages that power a software application. Real estate companies can evaluate PropTech providers to find the tech stack that suits their needs.

User experience (UX)
UX refers to all the touch points an end-user has with your system. PropTech software that gives staff a positive user experience with intuitive navigation will enable them to provide a better overall customer experience.

User interface (UI)
UI refers specifically to the visual part of a computer system used by the end-user to interact with the software.

Choosing the right real estate software for you

Once you have established what is available to you and what works for your business then you are ready for the next step: bringing everything together.

The ideal scenario is to choose a system capable of integrating with the best components in the market. This means you never have to compromise on functionality, allowing you to have all your preferred solutions available in one end-to-end system.

There are a number of providers who say they offer an open platform; however, it is important to closely evaluate any solutions claiming to have open architecture. Many vendors claiming the ability to integrate haven’t got the functionality to support their assertion, similar to the “cloud-washing” of products that don’t offer real cloud functionality.

MRI Software has done the hard work to assess what solutions are viable and meet real business problems. We have established a strong and growing partner program with tried and tested providers. As such, we can provide flexible, open PropTech software that meets the needs of your real estate business – today and tomorrow.

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Controlling fixed asset information and extracting the data needed for compliance and reporting purposes can often come with many challenges. These hurdles may be caused by a lack of a proper functioning asset management system or the need to update processes to reflect changes in the organisation’s environment.

What challenges are presented by fixed asset management and how do you evaluate the current processes and the solutions that specialised systems offer?

The major challenges

Fixed asset management may generate several challenges, such as dealing with the volume of data, tracking assets and the maintenance of those assets.

1. Volume of data

Fixed assets can create data that continuously increases. Throughout an asset’s lifetime, the amount of information about it will never decrease. The file will continue to expand with information about depreciation, maintenance performed or required, whether it has moved departments, and so on. If an organisation does not have a proper system to record all this information, it can quickly get out of control and become chaotic.

2. Tracking assets

Fixed assets may be transferred to another department or disposed of without the information making its way back to the accounting department, or to those that maintain the asset register. If the asset register is not kept up to date with the movement of assets, it can quickly become an obsolete tool.

3. Maintenance

Fixed assets can often be quite costly, and most are expected to last for several years. To get the most out of an organisation’s fixed assets, it is important that those items are maintained over time. Without proper maintenance, assets may need to be replaced prior to the end of their average life expectancy or repaired more often than expected, thereby causing the company unforeseen costs.

Evaluation of your current practices

As an organisation grows, processes may be outgrown as well. If an asset base has increased significantly and no specific management system is in place, patchwork solutions may make it difficult to overcome the major challenges of ongoing fixed asset management.

If your organisation is currently using spreadsheets as an asset register, this could be compounding the challenge of dealing with the volume of data. With the amount of information available as your asset base grows, a spreadsheet will quickly become too large to properly manage everything. Additionally, this system offers no audit history to see changes made and it is difficult to avoid unknown and unintended errors.

If you have a specialist system in place or use the fixed asset module within a general ledger, it is important to review the functionality and decide whether it is still meeting your needs. Older programs may not offer integration with other solutions that you require, such as asset tracking by barcode or RFID. Or it may be that the basic asset register lacks the necessary functionality or reporting capabilities needed to address maintenance issues.

If an organisation does have a specialist fixed asset system in place that has all the required functionality but continues to experience problems with asset management, it may be time to retrain employees and review current practices.

How software is an incentive for changes to your processes

Whenever a company implements new software or updates their current systems and procedures, it is a natural stimulant for change. If there are challenges or issues to address, the introduction of a new system is the time to do this. For example, a new fixed asset management process or software system can help correct issues associated with ghost or zombie assets that exist by adding annual physical audits to avoid the issue in the future.

Another issue to solve when introducing software is that of asset transfers and disposals. With a system that allows for event request authorisation, an organisation can expunge any manual processes in place that may require filling out forms that then have to travel from one department to another. Inclusion of transfer/disposal authorization in the software will help to streamline processes and ensure the accuracy and accountability of an asset register.

Additionally, the annual reconciliation of the fixed asset register will be far simpler with the utilisation of functionality that requires transfers and disposals to be properly authorised and recorded throughout the year. Sound internal controls and the provision of a full audit trail for each asset will help to prevent unaccountable asset losses.

Whether you have a system in place currently that is sufficient or if you implement a new system, it is important to ensure that it serves as a helpful tool to overcome the challenges of fixed asset management. The purpose of specialist software is to decrease the amount of manual labor and to increase efficiency. Some of the ways that can ensure best use of this tool are to run regular reports and to conduct a physical audit on a regular basis.

If an organisation has or plans to purchase fixed asset software, make sure to take advantage of annual upgrades made to the software as these will include any changes required in line with the latest regulatory requirements such as IFRS.

When it comes to dealing with fixed assets, there are several ways to ward off the worries that are associated with ensuring the data is correct. To overcome the challenges of voluminous data, inaccuracy and maintenance requirements, organisations should review their current practices and fixed asset management systems. Some of the hurdles associated with fixed asset management can be overcome by a simple restructuring of processes, while others may require that a new system is put in place to provide the tools for change.

Learn more about MRI’s fixed asset management or request a demonstration.

The post Overcoming the hurdles of fixed asset management appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Contributed article from Jon Land, Head of External Relationships at HQN
 

Jon Land, Head of External Relationships at Housing Quality Network offers his perspectives and reaction to the recently released Resident Voice Index Neighbourhoods & Communities report.  

When HQN was approached by MRI to support the Resident Voice Index (RVI) project, we jumped at the opportunity.

Building on the ambitions of the Social Housing White Paper, we recognised that the Resident Voice Index had huge potential to become an accurate, nationwide barometer of resident sentiment in that it gives tenants the opportunity to talk freely about their homes, communities and life in general.

It is fair to say that some of the results from the first RVI survey, which focused on neighbourhoods and communities, make for stark if not particularly surprising reading as they reflect the general direction of travel for the social housing sector over the past 10 years or so.

Despite nearly half of residents (46%) saying they care about belonging to their neighbourhood, it’s disappointing that 84% of respondents don’t believe their housing provider improves their sense of community. This is quite alarming and raises the fundamental question: what is the purpose of a social landlord?

There was a time when housing associations proclaimed that they were ‘in business for neighbourhoods’ – they prided themselves on being rooted in their communities with a commitment to do ‘more than bricks and mortar’, giving them a crucial USP in comparison to traditional housebuilders and private sector landlords.

But priorities changed. Without getting too much into government policy, the need to ‘build, build, build’ became top priority; the housing regulator was told to refocus on viability and value for money rather than consumer standards, with a focus on the ‘core business’ of property rather than people. Mergers became the order of the day, leading to landlords covering larger geographic areas and becoming more detached from their communities.

If you then throw in the four-year rent cut and the detrimental effect this had on community investment programmes (amongst other things), it is perhaps unsurprising that residents feel the way they do.

Of course, how people feel about their community can’t solely be attributed to the role of their housing provider. The key elements seen as crucial to a sense of neighbourhood safety – community policing, street lighting and CCTV – are the responsibility of other agencies. There is also a significant proportion of residents who have no interest in belonging to a community no matter how much a housing association or local authority tries to make it happen.

As one resident respondent to the survey so eloquently put it: “We who live in a community create community. So, it’s whether you actually want to be part of your community. Some people are really happy to just come and live in their house and they don’t want to be involved in anything regarding where they live. The housing provider can try, but they can’t make community. The housing provider I am with have community development officers that can do things. They arrange community things, but people don’t turn up.”

It’s also interesting to note that this sense of belonging has been in decline across all parts of the UK in the last couple of years – but there is no doubt that it’s more apparent in communities where social housing is the dominant tenure. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have had a major impact as people simply haven’t been able to interact with each other but at the same time the lockdown period saw a concerted effort by social housing providers and other local agencies to become more visible and refocus on frontline service provision. The question is whether this continues.

Another cause for optimism is that we are seeing community investment becoming more of a priority for social landlords. The ability to measure social value in quantifiable terms has definitely helped as it ticks the all important ‘value for money’ box.

However, the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey suggests that housing providers have their work cut out in convincing residents that they are a force for good in their area. From a survey of nearly 4,000 residents, an overwhelming majority struggled to give an example of a positive community contribution their landlord had made. Whether this is a fair reflection or not is beside the point – there is either a major communication/engagement issue or, for whatever reason, social housing providers are simply not seen in a positive light – as reflected by a lot of the findings and recommendations set out in the White Paper.

Improving how residents feel about their neighbourhoods and communities shouldn’t be that difficult. Yes, it will require effort and commitment on behalf of the housing provider and a willingness to work in partnership with others such as the police and local authority.

But much of it boils down to getting the basics right – listening to residents, having a relationship built on trust and co-creating with the community, not just doing stuff on their behalf that they have no say in.

When you look at the ‘Suggestions for positive interventions’ put forward by residents in the survey compared to ‘What do you most like about your neighbourhood’ there is a lot of crossover. Clean spaces, green spaces, more amenities for children, the appearance of properties, transport links, services such as schools, shops, cafes and community centres all feature. All of this needs to be linked to the availability of jobs.

Much of the above is closely aligned to bringing up a family and a desire to put down roots in a place and stay there for a long time. Communities cannot be created overnight – it requires long-term commitment. Some of the most disillusioned residents are younger people and the survey points to the fact that if we can start to engage better and do more for them, it will help the landlord-resident relationship in the long run.

We look forward to the results of the second Resident Voice Index survey with interest.

With thanks to Jon Land for this contributed article. HQN provides high-quality advice, tailored support and training to housing associations, councils, ALMOs and other housing providers. If you’d like to find out more about this organisation, visit www.hqnetworks.co.uk

The post Resident Voice Index™ reactions: HQN appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

We are living in the age of information. Our working and personal lives are underpinned by software, data and technology to an extent that few could have envisaged even a decade ago.

Our industry is embracing technology and harnessing the power of data at speed – it has to, or we face being left behind or overtaken by disruptive challengers.

Opportunities are being created to transform the way we do business and interact with buyers and sellers, but this also presents a problem for estate agency bosses – chiefly, how can I choose solutions which work best for my business when so much is available on the market?

We recently conducted a survey looking into this dynamic.

The wider aim was to find out how well software suppliers are meeting the needs of agencies, and how agencies themselves interact with their management systems.

What took us a little by surprise was the number of suppliers that estate agents are committed to. The respondents to our survey, on average, had 11 such vendors on their books, the highest number recorded being 30.

This immediately rings alarm bells in terms of juggling maintenance across so many platforms – choosing cloud-based solutions such as those offered by which also operates a one-stop shop style partner network, can certainly help to bring this under control.

How to cut through the noise

With so many options out there, it is little wonder that decision makers are struggling to narrow down what might be best for their business.

We know the general benefits that technology can bring to help deal with challenges such as managing customer expectation, increased competition, evolving legislation and disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Smart solutions can fill gaps, automate activities and create streamlined processes for you and your teams.

However, not all PropTech solutions are suited to all estate agent businesses.

The first, and arguably most important step towards selecting your software involves developing a true understanding of what you actually need – sounds simple, but this is more difficult than you might think.

Indeed, due diligence should stretch far beyond reading lofty promises from providers who offer pipedream return on investment figures with little to no substance to back up their claims. If something looks too good to be true… you know the rest.

There are at least six key questions estate agency leaders should ask themselves, the answers to which will help to identify the PropTech solutions you need to extract maximum value for their business:

1. What are your business problems?
2. What is your business strategy?
3. What is your technology strategy?
4. What other systems do you currently have in place?
5. How important are those systems and software to you?
6. What is your overall budget?

Getting to grips with these fundamental questions is where any decision-making process in relation to investment in agency software should begin.

Once these have been answered, business leaders can begin to consider the various types of software available and what to expect from each type of solution.

Here, it is important to note that no one application or system can be your silver bullet – every agency has its own nuances, identity and bespoke requirements, and good technology providers will understand this.

However, there are some commonalities that can be drawn out, features and facets which all solutions should be able to provide.

To help estate agent leaders digest some of these key aspects, we have produced a comprehensive guide to technology in sales and lettings.

A key feature of the publication is a deep dive into what to expect from various types of software, covering key business priorities such as customer relations management, day-to-day processes, strategy, finance and compliance, flexible and remote working, user experience and online communities.

By following these steps and taking time to pause before jumping into the world of real estate software, estate agents can ensure their enterprises are well and truly futureproofed for many years to come.

The post Avoid sleepless nights by choosing the right sales and lettings software appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Using asset management systems to prioritise building safety and compliance
 

As a sector we are all too aware of incoming legislative changes to fire safety regulation that will have an impact on compliance operations and subsequently, on the systems that support those processes. Systems considered by housing providers should assist the ‘responsible person’ in adhering to the expectations of regulation and automate the constant needs of upholding safety standards across housing stock.

Recent amendments to The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, 2005 and the expected changes emerging from The Fire Safety Act, 2021 will provide a foundation for secondary legislation. These will not require a further act of parliament and will make it easier to incorporate the recommendations from The Hackitt Report, 2018 into the day-to-day operations of housing providers.

These changes have been welcomed to improve housing delivery across the UK and prevent residents living in unsafe homes. One benefit of these amends has been the clarification and standardisation in law of what is expected in terms of fire safety from all housing providers. One such amend that delivered these clarifications was detailing the requirement for ‘external walls’ as part of fire risk assessments (FRAs), to now include doors, windows and any other external features, such as balconies which had previously been contested or left open to interpretation.

The impacts of these changes will be felt throughout the housing sector and will serve to further protect residents. To support the execution of these requirements and equip the ‘responsible person’ to deliver the ‘golden thread’ as needed, advanced asset management systems can ensure that compliance is embedded intuitively into day-to-day processes across organisations.

How management systems should support safety compliance

Flexibility

The regulatory environment is constantly shifting to include further clarification on existing legislation and adapt to our changing world. The systems employed by housing providers should pre-empt these changes and evolve without compromising existing data or disturbing a housing provider’s service delivery.

Automation to support a job that never ends

Completing fire risk and safety assessments is a constant, cyclical element of housing management. Asset management systems should be key to executing that flow of work between departments and with third parties.

Much of the standard and continuous administration can be automated. Furthermore, integrated systems can recognise when additional work needs to be deployed and trigger those works across the relevant teams or contractors, tracking and recording the progress of those works as they go and automatically setting dates for the next assessments.

Intuitive workflow

Ideally, each team member within a management system should be able to access their tasks on an intuitive dashboard at any given moment and be alerted to work that is imminent or overdue. This servicing data should be available in the field, via mobile devices and updated centrally as work is completed.

For managers, an overview should be available to track work and alert team members to any changes in individual workflows.

Single version of the truth

Presently, there are still organisations that are using single or multiple spreadsheets for their fire risk assessments and asset management. This can leave these processes reliant on one person and more susceptible to human error due to multiple working copies. Systems can assist organisations in building an audit trail across their safety and compliance actions that include the accountability of all parties who undertake works, thereby building and retaining the ‘golden thread’.

Transparency

One of the outcomes from The Hackitt Report and The Charter for Social Housing Residents will be residents having the right to “know how your landlord is performing”. This will include the availability of fire safety records for any building within the housing stock upon request. As such, clear reporting should be available at speed and with ease. Aside from residents, providing easily extractable reports on building safety is increasingly becoming the norm in bids to secure ESG funding.

Delivering beyond compliance

At MRI Software, we are looking to the future and working with our customers to build management systems that ensure that safety and compliance processes can be embedded within day-to-day operations. In this mission we are looking to deliver beyond compliance. This includes confirming the relevant competence of staff and third parties to help ensure only people with the right training and qualifications undertake work pertaining to safety.

Intuitively designed asset management software should deliver more than just a system of record, instead it should offer to housing providers a dynamic compliance management tool that accelerates the automation of administrative tasks, alerts multiple teams to needed actions, upholds compliance and safety standards, and allows asset teams to manage by exception.

If you’d like to find out more about MRI Social Housing’s Asset Management solution please contact us

The post Delivering beyond compliance appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Lease accounting rules were dramatically altered when the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS 16), requiring all leases to be recorded on balance sheets in a bid to increase the transparency of business exposure to costs, came into force in January 2019. Yet, despite IFRS 16 coming into effect over two years ago, some businesses are still feeling the impact of the new legislation and struggling to make the right adjustments to their lease and accounting practices.

IFRS 16 represented one of the most significant changes to lease accounting in decades because it eliminates nearly all off-balance-sheet accounting for leases. Before IFRS16, businesses expensed leases, but now lessees must recognize assets and liabilities arising from leases on their balance sheets.

The business challenges of IFRS 16 compliance

Virtually every company has been impacted because most businesses lease several big-ticket items, including cars, offices, power plants, retail stores, cell towers and aircraft. COVID-19 has added complexity to leases with additional KPIs and clauses.

IFRS 16 spotlighted the importance of accurate, complete and incongruent data given the on-balance sheet accounting for almost all leases. Still, many organizations are struggling to achieve this because they are using old fashioned and manual ways of collecting the data, such as spreadsheets, which are inefficient, costly, and time-consuming.

The businesses most affected by IFRS 16 usually have a presence in multiple regions, different business operations, and often acquire companies. As a result, they have complex portfolio structures, and trying to manage all of that with spreadsheets and collect accurate data remains a considerable challenge. This has a knock-on effect on the ability of real estate teams to optimize portfolio performance and finance teams’ need for accurate IFRS 16 disclosures along with full amendment and validation logs.

Real estate and finance teams must work together

Furthermore, before IFRS 16, many organizations worked in siloed ways with real estate and finance teams having minimal interaction, but achieving regulatory compliance requires more inter-department collaboration and communication. IFRS 16 asks for an unprecedented degree of financial transparency. Businesses need to approach the entire process with a ‘one version of the truth’ mindset if company figures are to be 100% accurate. Consequently, accountancy needs to become an integral part of a real estate professional’s remit.

All real estate teams within an organization need to approach new and existing leases with the standard at the forefront of every decision. It may even be that traditional approaches to property are no longer within the business’s best interests. What’s more, accounting teams should now have a greater say in whether certain assets are bought or leased, completely reshaping the role of real estate. All of this means there’s a greater need for collaborative reporting.

How lease accounting software can help

Fortunately, technology is helping automate time-consuming and costly tasks and provides a central platform for collaborative reporting. Organizations that have overcome the challenges of IFRS 16 use technology that extracts the critical data – often using machine learning and AI for extensive lease portfolios – from leases in just a few minutes and eliminates manual errors so real estate and accounting teams can access accurate data in real-time.

Using the right software solutions ensures that half-year and end-of-year audits don’t become unmanageable, expensive tasks because there are full audit trails for any changes made during the lease lifecycle. Additionally, lease accounting software can ensure compliance by automating otherwise time-consuming calculations, prone to error and difficult to audit in a spreadsheet or different software approach. This means all teams have one platform which produces accurate reporting, allowing real estate and accounting teams to focus their time and attention on tasks that deliver real business value.

With the right lease accounting technology platform, companies have the capability to handle the huge churn in data and automatically analyze the numerous variables that can affect leases to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date.  The upshot is that, through the effective implementation of the standard, IFRS 16 can help make the business not just more transparent, but more efficient.

Learn more about our Lease Management, Lease Accounting and AI-powered lease abstraction tools in the solution brochure.

The post A balancing act: how technology continues to help businesses keep IFRS 16 compliant appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Since March 2020, the real estate industry has experienced a large shift to a digital environment in the face of a global pandemic. As investors shift their attention to the future of commercial spaces in a tech-driven world, many are wondering which COVID-related changes can be expected to stick around.

Recently, a panel of experts from Deloitte, One11 Advisors, CohnReznick, and MRI Software shared their insights into the specific ways investors, owners, and occupiers in the real estate industry are reacting to current market trends. Here are some of the key takeaways:

1) There’s increased interest in innovation – from all parties

Even as both the traditional office environment and brick-and-mortar retail were experiencing turbulence, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology. Real estate owners and operators were forced to move their businesses further into the digital space than ever before, and many have come to recognize the benefit that these innovations can have on how their organizations are run. To quote Ken Meyer, Principal at Deloitte Consulting:

On a foundational level, everyone recognized that everything needed to be accessible, and everything needed to be properly integrated so you could drill down and see the data.

Since the pivot to digital in 2020, many of the reasons that owners and operators traditionally opted against impactful tech adoptions simply vanished. Now, with those barriers gone, companies are investigating the possibilities of tech innovation as a competitive advantage more than ever before.

2) Tech adoption can mitigate risk in strategic planning

Having access to the right data can help you make more informed business decisions, but in a world where it seems like everything is “unprecedented,” access to historical information isn’t always enough. Utilizing technology that enables businesses to analyze market trends, variables, and other external factors can provide valuable insight that can be used to drive better decision-making and optimize return on investment.

3) Investors want to understand the end users of their services

Core aspects of offices and retail centers were dramatically impacted by the loss of foot traffic at the start of the pandemic. Real estate investors have become acutely aware that they rely on more than just consistent rent rolls and cashflows – they also rely on the employees that work for the occupiers, or on the customers that retail tenants depend on for profit. In order to boost performance in businesses dependent on the human element, investors need more information on the end users of their services – customers, employees, visitors – than ever before. By taking cues from the relationship-driven residential sector, commercial real estate investors are adopting smart technologies that enable them to benchmark the behaviors of those end users in order to drive performance.

Among all these observations, the panel of experts agreed on one thing: the digital transformation in the real estate industry is here to stay, and when it comes to tech adoption, looking forward will be the only way to stay ahead of the curve. Learn more about the opportunities for real estate investors in a post-COVID environment.

The post Real estate investment post-COVID: Technology is here to stay appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Technology is a fundamental component for institutional investors and real estate investment managers, with increasing importance on support for investment strategies and essential building services.   

Having experienced irreversible landscape alterations through the previous 18 months, and with the likelihood of further changes in the coming months and years, it’s important to take advantage of the solutions and innovations available in order to thrive in an uncertain future.  

Adopting technology is vital in ensuring that real estate investment organisations have tools and efficient processes to help you understand portfolio performance now and in the future, make confident decisions, as well as manage data from one single source of truth. But how can this be achieved?  

Data is Key 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, property and investment managers now have more data points to consider in the strategic planning process. As well as environment, sustainability and profitability factors, it’s now essential to monitor health, safety, and the type of experience that residents, tenants and occupiers are going to have inside and around their properties.  

With more data to gather and consider, as well as higher expectations from stakeholders around investment decision-making and governance, effective management and processing of the data is more important than ever.  

Data quality

There’s a saying in data analytics – garbage in, garbage out. It’s vital to ensure that the data being inputted into the system is complete, accurate, and of a high quality to make informed forecasts and build smart strategies. Having full control over the data within your system is imperative to avoid human or data entry errors while making modifications or handling complex calculations like scenario modelling.  

Minimising the risk of errors within your data means automating as much as possible. From data gathering to calculations, finding a solution that provides end to end management of data means its quality is likely to be upheld and you’re able to lead your business into the future with decisions based on strong, data driven foundations.  

Tools that use AI to input data can scrape documents and leases for customisable input fields, ensuring accurate data with which to make decisions.  

Data processing 

It’s important that this data is accessible in a complete and consumable format that allows for quick actioning and decision making. This means ensuring data is coming from a single source of truth and isn’t siloed across different departments and datasets.  

To achieve this, it’s crucial to find a tech solution that can consolidate your data and deliver it within a customisable interface with the ability to drill down for closer analysis. This allows for a full 360-degree view of your portfolio and assets and, in this way, basing decision making off your data becomes simplified and adaptable to your firm’s practices and requirements. 

Integration

Data from across the whole organisation is needed to build well informed strategies. To avoid duplication of effort when inputting data, guaranteeing your tech stack is fully integrated not only streamlines processes but also ensures more accurate data across the board. Choosing solutions that can be integrated is critical, which is why an open and connected approach is fundamental. 

Communication 

As well as real time reporting to investors, tenants and customers are calling for better communication with landlords and property managers. Over the pandemic, people have become accustomed to being able to manage their lives remotely, whether that’s shopping, banking, working, or socialising. There is now an expectation to be able to manage tenancies, make payments, and log repairs and work orders online.  

Digital portals allow leaseholders to manage their tenancy remotely and online. This provides a valuable service to customers and also reduces the risk of miscommunication by having data input into system directly from tenant.  

Modelling 

The key to winning real estate investment strategies is adaptability. Few could have predicted the events of the past 18 months but being able to model scenarios quickly with the ability to adjust different factors means that decisions can be reached and a range of different options can be tested quickly, allowing you to pivot and adapt to changing situations, whether global or more commonplace. 

With so many different facets to consider when planning and strategy building, accurate and well-informed scenarios are simpler to achieve with modern strategic planning tools.

Become a RE:Visionary with MRI

At MRI, we know that the ability to make winning real estate investment strategies is vital for our customers to lead their businesses as true visionaries. Visit our investment solutions page to find out more about how our tools can help you streamline, connect and unleash the visionary in you.

The post The digital components of a winning real estate investment strategy appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

In the property sector, we’re seeing more and more mixed-use schemes and developments being planned and implemented. Projects like the £2.5bn Bankside Yards scheme, which will include office, retail, hospitality, leisure, and residential properties, are leading the recent surge in mixed-use developments across the industry. In addition to this, retail to residential conversion continues to push on, with organisations like Hammerson seeking to replace traditional anchor tenants with clusters of residential units.  

These schemes provide excellent investment opportunities. However, the management of different property types can be a complex and nuanced task, requiring the administration of multiple types of leases, and can lead to organisations using multiple management systems to cover all of their requirements. 

Managing a Mixed-Use Development 

Different sorts of leases require different capabilities from your management systems, meaning that as soon as you pivot towards mixed-use, the management of your development can become complex. For example: 

• Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) management may require a residential rental management system capable of handling resident finding, tenancy progression, internal unit maintenance responsibilities and landlord accounting. 
• Long leasehold management requiring operators to cater for ground rent billing, service charge management and year end reconciliation, s20s and a myriad of compliance requirements. 
• For Commercial units, leases may be of larger value, with more frequent and potentially costly rent reviews, along with the requirement to bill rent and service charges.  These leases may also have rent free periods, requiring the ability to straight-line for reporting purposes. 
• Retail units can include more complex leases still, with either a fixed rent or turnover based rent dependent on sales generated, with different break points in sales and percentage rates and different percentages on different product sales. 
• VAT variations also need to be considered, as mixed-use sites will often require a reconciliation of irreclaimable VAT at year end.  

Finding a system to deal with mixed-use schemes can be challenging. Often, systems from a residential background can’t handle complex turnover rent, while agency specific systems are often not designed to handle service charges or the property to unit relationship hierarchy of commercial and retail properties. Vice-versa, systems designed for Commercial/Retail management lack the ability to deal with some of the nuances of residential management such as ground rent and service charge notices, billing different charges on behalf of freeholders and RMCs or the tenancy progression functions for signing up ASTs. It is also not uncommon for commercial systems to be heavily property-centric and miss the emphasis on customer interactions that permeate through the residential space.  

Because of this, it doesn’t surprise us to find many businesses using many different systems to manage mixed-use developments, which can lead to several issues: 

Fragmentation 

Using multiple separate management systems to handle mixed-use developments can lead to a fragmented, siloed, opaque way of working, resulting in a lack of cohesion across the scheme and an inability to access an overall view of a scheme or portfolio’s performance from everything to leasing, maintenance, finances, or customer issues. 

This can also cause a huge time inefficiency when reporting to clients or investors as data from disparate sources needs to be manually combined. 

In both cases, the use of Integrated systems allows for a more rounded approach, the joining up of teams and the consolidation of data and processes. This also allows senior level managers access to a fuller picture of the portfolio as a whole and allows for more informed decision-making processes. 

This also applies to the front-end challenges of a mixed-use development. With numerous different types of tenants, there is a danger of complicating the customer experience with different portals and apps geared towards commercial tenants, visitor management, and residential tenant aspects. Pushing towards a more joined-up approach to connect all tenants in a single configurable portal will allow you to foster a better community within the development and get maximum satisfaction for your customers and a better ROI from your tech.

Asset Management 

Where majority leasehold developments are reasonably easy to model ground rent income for, the inclusion of commercial and retail or Build to Rent units introduces rental income and owner expenditure that accentuates the need for understanding the potential cashflows of a development.  

With variance in rents, breaks and lease lengths, plus fluctuations in turnover rent, operators need a way to effectively project the income and model how this could change or be increased through effective asset management.  

For a mixed-use development, a much more sophisticated toolset is required, with integrated asset and investment management solutions that can consume data from your core property management solutions, allowing for more cohesive asset management strategy.

Lease Management 

Another challenge for mixed-use operators includes onboarding more complex leases. It can be a step change to manage and understand the nuances and implications within different leases and agreements. 

Even more basic can be the wasted time taken searching through to paper-based or PDF images of documentation relating to tenancies.  

AI extraction tools (like MRI’s Contract Intelligence) can help with both pain points. Firstly, through using AI to abstract key data points from lease documents for data migration back to MRI property solutions. Secondly, for users who want to reduce time spent querying leases, our OCR can convert any document into instantly searchable machine-readable text, cutting down that time to mere seconds. This allows operators to free up time and better serve their customers.  

At MRI, our property management solutions are developed with an open and connected ethos, meaning our systems are fully integrated and are designed to make the management of mixed-use developments simpler. Get in touch with our team today to find out how we can best serve your next project. 

The post Managing Mixed-Use Developments appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

MRI Software is thrilled to announce that we’ve won a Stevie® Award for the fourth time in the Large Computer Software Company of the Year category! For the past 50 years, we’ve taken pride in our ability to come together as one company with the best and most enthusiastic employees to deliver excellent software, services and support to our clients. As we continue throughout another year of tremendous growth, we’re honored to receive another Stevie Award as a result of our efforts.

Helping clients innovate for the future

Since 2019, MRI has expanded its technology solutions for real estate owners, operators and occupiers through new product launches, enhancements to existing offerings, and strategic acquisitions. MRI’s solutions help businesses respond to the challenges of COVID-19 and plan for the future by using technology to embrace digital operations and prepare for the return to the office. MRI is proud to be a PropTech industry pioneer that helps clients plan for the future by becoming technology visionaries through the execution of several key strategies including:

Transition to digital services – When the pandemic forced a sudden shift from in-person to online operations, MRI clients had access to software that allowed them to easily transition to virtual processes and maintain business continuity — from collecting rent payments online to managing the leasing process virtually and collecting digital signatures.

Reinvent the workplace – As a “new normal” rears its head, MRI has been at the forefront of helping real estate occupiers and landlords adjust to and navigate changes in space requirements, lease agreements and contracts. With space scheduling software and tools that help manage employees and visitors in the physical office, MRI is offering clients a way to reinvent the workplace for their business needs.

Forging a path forward together

This award underlines MRI’s understanding of where the real estate industry has been headed with or without the pandemic. Having the right technology in place will not only enable real estate organizations to preserve business continuity in the short term as they return to the office – it will position forward-thinking companies as industry visionaries that are able to thrive in the face of change. As we move forward into an era where the workplace experience will be more varied than ever, MRI is committed to both innovation and an open and connected approach to real estate software. Learn how you can become part of our award-winning team.

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Guided by our philosophy of being open and connected, at MRI we are constantly evolving and developing relationships and partnerships with other solutions providers to ensure the best experience for our clients and agents.

Through MRI Agency Home, you can access all your apps and solutions within your tech stack, allowing you to seamlessly access integrated products from over 50 different partner solutions. One such solution is Fixflo, who have partnered with MRI to allow for effective working processes.

What is Fixflo?

Fixflo is an award-winning repairs and maintenance management module for letting agents. Established in 2013, Fixflo filled an important gap within the property management process, allowing tenants to log repairs and maintenance issues via a portal which connected to the property management team. Since then, Fixflo has become the market standard software for repairs reporting.

The benefits of the partnership

Offering demonstrable, real-time benefits which have earned exemplary feedback from clients, Fixflo’s partnership with MRI is one that is mutually advantageous. As a modular solution, it needs a flexible core solution like MRI Sales & Lettings with which to integrate and develop alongside to ensure it remains relevant and futureproof.

MRI can work with Fixflo to develop the company’s products, absorbing the strengths of the software into our core solutions. However, for both companies, the ability to offer a seamless experience for clients is the most compelling benefit.

A response to our clients’ needs

MRI’s philosophy of ensuring that products are developed and work in a way that is open and connected means that we partner with companies who we believe help us to produce a better experience for our clients, and there is a plethora of third-party applications available that genuinely enhance our clients’ workflows.

As Trevor Youens, MRI’s Senior Director of Residential and Partnerships, says,

There are so many potential integrations out there, but those that really stick out for us are the ones like Fixflo, who have developed from a product used to simplify a maintenance issue to where we are today, where an entire part of the journey is delivered through a partner integration and helps the agent, the tenant, and the landlord.

Working with loyal early adopters, the integration between Fixflo and MRI products like MRI Sales & Lettings and MRI Qube PM has evolved, responding to the requirements of real clients.

This is all part of the shared philosophy of Fixflo and MRI, as explained by Rajeev Nayyar, Managing Director of Fixflo,

Having a commitment to connection means you’re not just investing at the outset for the build of a product, but you’re committing to iterating and improving and listening to customers.

How to get the most out of the software with this integration

To ensure the partnership between MRI and Fixflo delivers properly for our clients, we spend a lot of time understanding their needs and requirements. The residential market is changing rapidly, and with that the priorities of agents and property managers also change. In this way, we make sure that our clients can reap the benefits from MRI products and third-party solutions.

As part of the partnership, Fixflo can be fully integrated into our client’s tech stacks and easily accessed and managed via our Agency Home portal, which allows for easy use of multiple tech solutions and a reduction in duplication of effort.

In a recent survey conducted by MRI, it was revealed that agencies have a huge number of software suppliers, the average being 11, with some reporting as many as 30. At such high numbers of technology partners, it is important to ensure that every solution is being utilised by the team and delivers demonstrable return on investment.

A large number of software partners can also represent a poisoned chalice, in that the efficiencies and benefits that the solutions offer are countered by their lack of integration with other products, leading to duplication of effort and an increase in manual processes. When solutions are developed to integrate and work together, manual effort can be reduced resulting in the driving of real efficiencies.

The partnership between Fixflo and MRI, and the development of MRI Agency Home has shown there are solutions available to agents that can deliver fully integrated processes. Agents who take a step back to assess the usage of their technology stack, ensure it all connects and delivers the required efficiencies whilst delivering industry leading performance and functionality, can benefit from more streamlined operations and reduced manual effort.

MRI Agency Home is available to MRI Sales & Lettings customers at no additional cost, and if you are a new customer to either Fixflo or MRI, integration between the two solutions is included within the implementation process. Get in touch with our team today to discuss your needs.

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As work-from-home restrictions ease for many countries, people around the world are beginning to think about returning to the office. This introduces some challenges for businesses to adapt office environments to a different way of working.

What will the office look like once workers begin returning? Without a doubt, there will be plenty of new safety protocols involving strict personal hygiene and physical distancing, but how do we make this transition as simple and as safe as possible?

As employers, we are all navigating new territory. The workplace we left many months ago is unlikely to be the same when employees return. Most organisations plan to increase their use of technology to manage the flexibility that will be required in the office of the future. In these unprecedented times, the reality is likely to be very different than we anticipate.

Using technology to keep your employees safe

Companies across the globe face many challenges when it comes to returning to the office, and it can be hard to know the best way to ensure employee welfare is maintained. We’ve pulled together the top four features to look out for in any people presence management software:

Employee and guest screening

Screening all employees and guests before they arrive at the property ensures that only those who meet your organisation’s onsite criteria are granted access. It’s also incredibly beneficial to get alerted when you encounter a person who does not meet your criteria so their access can be restricted.

Touchless sign in/out

The fewer surfaces we touch in the workplace, the better for slowing the spread of germs. Ensure your software has the option for employees and guests to enter and exit your location using a touchless kiosk, QR code poster, mobile app, or via the front of house team. These systems reduce health risks, improve overall hygiene, and create peace of mind for anyone entering or exiting your property.

Onsite policy acknowledgement

Make sure that everyone who enters your location is aware of your organisation’s requirements by using a system that allows them to acknowledge your onsite policies. This could be as simple as asking them to agree that they will use hand sanitiser or stay six feet away from other people. For any question not answered correctly, someone on your team can be notified.

Limit numbers onsite

Automatically set the number of people allowed to be onsite at any one time rather than leaving it up to an individual. This feature takes the responsibility off your receptionist or facilities team and ensures that anyone attempting to gain access after your maximum number is reached will not be allowed to enter, and one of your employees will be notified. This is a great feature to help manage density within your office space.

MRI Workplace Central offers these and other features to help you keep your organization and those within it safe and secure. Watch the webinar here to learn more about how technology can help you prepare for the return to office and beyond.

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Commercial and residential real estate firms have undergone a digital transformation over the past few years, and when the pandemic forced many to social distance and work from home, that transformation was dramatically accelerated.

Even with return to office discussions underway, work will likely not look the same as it did before, and neither should your business operations and data practices. By implementing cloud services for your real estate business, you can mitigate both risk and cost while preparing for future growth. Here are just a few of the many benefits of cloud migration for commercial real estate firms.

Remote access

This past year has proven that not only can businesses maintain productivity in a work from home environment – some employees thrive in this environment. As organizations everywhere are looking towards what the office of the future will look like, your system’s accessibility or lack thereof shouldn’t have to be a driving force in deciding what’s best for your company or its employees. Cloud services can allow you and your employees to securely access your data and applications from anywhere.

Stay at ease and up to date

Some real estate organizations prefer to house their technology and data on their own servers, but this choice comes with its own set of risks and costs to the business. With cloud services, your staff can focus on tasks that drive value to the business instead of doing double duty as tech experts. Through cloud services, you can ensure that all employees are using the most up-to-date version of software, simplifying the support process and enabling you to maintain consistency across your business.

Scalability

As your real estate firm takes on new properties, projects, and staff, cloud-based solutions will give your business the flexibility it needs to grow. Many real estate companies end up migrating to the cloud only after they’ve outgrown existing systems and reached a point where the business can’t pursue new opportunities. A proactive cloud migration will ensure that your firm’s growth won’t be limited by inflexible technology.

Dedicated help

Using cloud services also offloads the responsibility of having to support servers, software and data backups to the organization you choose as your provider. With the help of dedicated IT support and a toll-free help desk, you’ll receive fast, efficient and effective client services. In addition to dedicated support, you can also work with your provider to develop reports and distribution guidelines that adapt to the way you do business.

Businesses across the real estate industry are pivoting to the digital environment and shaping the future of the office. With MRI Cloud Services, your organization can prepare for tomorrow and implement solutions that work for you, whether you’re at home, in the office or anywhere else. Learn more about how Cloud Services and other digital solutions can benefit your business.

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The first results of the Resident Voice Index Neighbourhoods & Communities survey are now live and accessible for all to view. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without the residents involved in our consultation period, those who volunteered to be Resident Ambassadors and the thousands who answered the survey. As such, residents needed to be the first to see our work.

At MRI Software, we believe that continued consultation with residents is central to achieving great things in the housing sector and that by using technology and expertise with data, those messages can be amplified and delivered to the right people to enact change. Before we launched the results of the survey to the sector at large, we wanted to express our gratitude to all the residents that have shaped the project. In early July, we delivered a sneak preview of the data to HQN’s Residents’ Network in two ‘Residents First’ sessions. Doug Sarney, Project Lead presented the data and started by introducing the core values of the Resident Voice Index approach.

Resident Voice Index values: Independence, Transparency, Brevity, Anonymity

First and foremost, it is important to note that we are not paid by anyone to perform these surveys. The results of the resident surveys are published for free in a transparent ‘warts and all’ fashion for anyone who may benefit from using them. The surveys are kept unintrusive and short by focusing on the chosen topics only and we guarantee the results will not be traceable back to individual respondents.

A ‘Residents First’ approach

We have wanted to include residents at every stage of this project, learning what they want to be asked about, what their limits are as far as topics are concerned and how they want to be spoken to. We made sure all resident events and consultations protected their anonymity, ensuring no landlords were present and no views were attributed to individual respondents. This approach of ‘Residents First’ will continue for all future Resident Voice Index project activities.

We have a philosophy of ‘Residents First’ and that philosophy is because the residents took time out to do the survey and engage with the project. It’s more important to share the results with them before we’ve told anybody else.

Doug Sarney, Project Lead, MRI Software

Residents told us they wanted to be kept informed about how the results were published and how we were going to use them. Part of the ‘Residents First’ approach is making all the results free and publicly available to whoever wants to view them – both residents and housing providers alike. Providing access to all the data means the results coming out may not always be favourable but, as one resident said in an early consultation session: “You need to ask uncomfortable questions to get the answers you might not want but you need.”

The views of residents

The purpose of the Resident Voice Index initiative is to inform housing providers and policy makers about what residents think could be done to improve lives and communities, and for us to use our data analysis tools to present those findings.

In the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey, we asked the question: ‘Do you feel that the current actions of your housing provider increase your sense of community?’ 16% said yes and 84% said no, opening up the debate into the role of the modern social housing provider.

At first glance, that 84% may seem like a heavy negative. It became clear when we launched the survey however, that part of that percentage included those who don’t expect their landlord to provide anything other than a decent home. As one respondent put it, “I don’t believe it is down to the housing provider to create a sense of community, it is down to the residents to look after and respect the community they live in.”

Data analysis of the Neighbourhoods & Communities survey seeks to discover what could improve the experience of the 84% and identify what’s working for the 16%, putting these potential ‘quick wins’ in front of housing providers in digestible formats.

In the future, we will be investigating the role of housing providers and how, in the residents’ opinion, that role will be defined in the 21^st century, gaining insights from those who believe that social housing provision is about no more than bricks and mortar, as well as those who believe that registered providers should play a more integrated role in communities.

The positives are important

One attendee of our ‘Residents First’ sessions spoke about a National Lottery project working with her housing provider to hold community events. She reported that the results of this work improved her mental and physical health.

This comment touches on one of the fundamental approaches for the Resident Voice Index surveys. This is not just an exercise in finding out what housing providers are doing wrong; that doesn’t serve the sector and in turn won’t serve residents. We will always ask questions about the positive things happening for residents in their homes and communities, because they will be the best indicators of what the sector is doing right and for those who aren’t doing that just yet, suggestions on how to improve.

[The Resident Voice Index is] A holistic project, and for all of this to have benefits to residents it needs some joined up working from all of the elements involved. From where we put houses, to who goes in them. This is bigger than one landlord and even just the government.

‘Residents First’ session attendee

Further questions were asked in this ‘Residents First’ session around digging down into specific characteristics, such as diversity or disability. To answer, in order to align with our core value of ‘brevity’, we won’t generally ask multiple demographic questions during the surveys, however these topics will be explored specifically in a considered manner in the future.

How housing is delivered is generally moving towards opening up processes to ensure increased resident involvement. Technology and great data visualisation can facilitate mass consultation at speed and deliver actionable insights. We are taking influence from the involved residents we’ve spoken to across this process, the great work done by staff and residents alike on scrutiny panels and mixed boards and the new developments across the country actively seeking citizen consultation before they build homes. As one of our Resident Ambassadors said, “Residents are an asset to their providers.”

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We’re proud to announce that MRI Software has been recognized as a Technology Leader in the SPARK Matrix^TM: Integrated Workplace Management Systems Research, 2021 from Quadrant Knowledge Solutions.

Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, a global advisory and consulting firm, conducts strategic research each year to determine the capabilities of each organization and their ranking and positioning for Technology Excellence and Customer Impact. MRI’s designation of Technology Leader is an affirmation of MRI’s commitment to provide organizations with advanced technology that enables them to become visionaries within their industry.

Equipping clients to be visionaries for tomorrow

MRI pioneered the real estate software industry in 1971, and since then, we’ve provided innovative solutions to forward-thinking technology decision makers so that they can both meet today’s challenges and prepare to overcome the challenges of the future. Even after 50 years, MRI remains a technology leader by being a champion of open and flexible solutions that allow companies to work the way they want.

As proven by the disruptive events of 2020, technology that allows real estate businesses to remain flexible will be the way forward for the real estate industry. In physically separating people from their offices, their employers, and each other, the pandemic has forced organizations across the globe to create connection and flexibility with technology. MRI Software has been helping our clients do that for 50 years, and as a Technology Leader, we will keep arming clients with the solutions they need to succeed in the future.

Learn more about MRI’s Integrated Workplace Management System and how it can benefit your organization.

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Single Family Rental investments have been growing hugely in popularity over the past 12 months, with what was a small niche of the property investment market now becoming one of the fastest growing areas.

In addition to investors’ interest in Build-to-Rent style properties in city centres to cater for the young professional’s lifestyle, more and more demand for larger homes for families in the suburbs is driving growth in the SFR market.

Housebuilders looking to head off turbulent market conditions are selling portions and entire estates off to institutions. We have seen a lot of market activity with the likes of Gatehouse Bank’s sale of the Thistle Portfolio to Goldman Sachs, Apache Capital’s SFR fund launch, and Sigma Capital’s sale to Six Bidco.

However, as investors are turning to a different corner of the market, the management of such portfolios poses different challenges to those found with city centre BTR properties.

What is Single Family Rental?

Many investors and developers have been focussing on city centre housing blocks targeted at the young professional market, which usually involves purchasing a single block that is divided into multiple 1-2 bedroom flats. Single Family Rental instead involves buying a number of individual family-sized single houses, with one tenancy per property.

Why is demand for SFR growing?

In the past 18 months, when COVID-19 related restrictions meant that people were required to stay in their homes, many renters began to place a higher value on outdoor spaces, larger living areas, and of living outside of busy city centres.

Additionally, the number of renters overall is increasing, with a quarter of the UK’s housing market expected to be made up of private rental properties.  Those who aren’t in a position to get onto the property ladder are now looking for rental accommodation suitable for starting families, spreading out, and benefiting from more garden space.

With this growth in demand has come a rise in investors buying housing estates and individual housing properties in order to offer high quality Single Family Rental housing.

As well as the upshoot in the demand, single family rental properties offer several investment benefits. As they’re often located on the outskirts of larger cities with strong commuter links, it’s likely they’re going to be subject to faster appreciation.

Additionally, families, as opposed to professional couples or single tenants, are less likely to move regularly, preferring stability and continuity while they raise they families. This means longer tenancies and fewer void periods.

Managing SFR

Managing multiple properties requires Single Family Rental software capable of handling the increased asset management requirements associated with managing multiple properties, as well as detailed and customisable reporting and investment modelling capabilities.

Asset management

Detailed and granular asset management is a must when dealing with multiple properties. The ability to track and maintain components across a portfolio of properties requires SFR software built for the purpose, with the capability to view performance both as individual properties and across the whole portfolio. With MRI software, it’s possible to personalise how data on assets is stored to include custom fields, allowing property managers to be incredibly granular as well as view overall performance across a group of properties.

Reporting

As we’re seeing many of the investors in SFR being funds or capital partners as opposed to developers, clear and bespoke reporting on assets is vital, to enable all stakeholders to track and make decisions based on the performance of assets and housing stock. With MRI software, reports are fully customisable, meaning you can extract any data necessary to ensure that investors and partners are able to gain a full view of the property portfolio as well as individual properties.

Investment Modelling

Investment modelling is also important when working with multiple properties. Having Strategic Planning software which allows specific modelling of scenarios for improvements and investments in your portfolio using data analytics means that stakeholders can test out multiple options and make informed decisions on future business plans. MRI’s strategic planning solutions offer modelling functionality, allowing for multiple properties and various funding scenarios.

Property Management

Ensuring properties are safe and properly managed is equally as important for SFR housing as BTR city centre blocks. With the right property management software, you can be sure not only that your tenants are receiving high quality service and accommodation, but also that investments are made with full information, and components and assets are managed to ensure the best ROI for stakeholders.

At MRI, our software solutions provide flexible, open, and integrated platforms to ensure your property portfolio is managed effectively. Take a look at our MRI Living brochure to learn about our dedicated residential solutions.

The post Managing Single Family Rental Properties appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, many organizations are re-evaluating the amount of available workspace in their leases, whether for space management or financial reasons. This requires real estate accountants to modify leases properly and stay compliant with GAAP and lease accounting processes.

What is a modification of a lease under GAAP?

Any changes to your financial obligation during the term of the lease will cause a modification to your lease accounting capitalization schedule from the date you realize the change until the end of the term. Modifying a capitalization schedule may require a different set of calculations than your original lease schedule. When you modify your lease schedule due to a change in the term of the lease, or a change to the liability, you can change the discount rate to be based on the new/remaining term.

Common examples of lease modification triggers include:

• Early renewals
• Extension of lease
• Cancel early
• Contraction
• Each time you receive an allowance payment from the landlord
• Blend & extend
• Rent tied to outside index (CPI) – Different rules for FASB & IASB
• Renegotiate your rent
• Expansion – Creates a new ROU Asset, therefore you will create a new capitalization schedule for the new space as opposed to re-measuring the existing schedule.

Lease accountants need to be aware of what will trigger a lease modification and how to properly account for it. Be sure to work with your legal team and management to ensure all lease changes are accurately and completely included in your financial information.

Accounting questions to ask yourself before entering a lease modification

The current trend of re-evaluating available workspace and leases means that lease accountants need to ensure they’re following compliance guidelines and best practices under ASC 842.

Here are four accounting factors to consider before modifying a lease.

1) Dates – What is the effective date of the modification?

The date in which the modification becomes effective is important when you are entering changes under the new standard. Your accounting policy will dictate when the negotiations are considered final, whether it’s in writing or verbally, and this will become your modification date. There is usually a gap between the official modification date and the effective date of the changes in terms. This impacts the recognition of the measurement of lease liability and ROU asset. For example, a lease extension is being negotiated to start in September 2021 but is signed in July 2021. The effective date of the modification will be July 2021 and all financial information should be adjusted as of that date.

Be careful around quarter or year end reporting and make sure all changes in those periods are included by gathering all pending lease modifications from legal or lease administration. It’s important to use the correct date of modification because it determines what interest rates you use, what expenses are recalculated for the remainder of the lease, and the new liability and corresponding ROU asset.

2) Costs – How will a change in lease expense affect my financial balances? How will current interest rates affect my lease accounting when I modify?

Any increase or decrease in your overall cash payments for the existing lease are going to directly impact the liability and asset on your books. Additionally, the modification date will dictate the interest rate to use on the new liability as noted above. The new lease liability will be remeasured as of the effective date of modification using the new interest rate and lease payments. Any difference in the liability from what’s been previously recorded will be adjusted against the ROU asset.

3) Increasing or reducing existing space – How will my accounting numbers change as I downsize or increase my available workspace?

Often, an existing lease will be modified for the addition of space, which changes the terms of the original lease and a brand-new lease is papered for the same property. For accounting purposes, we can treat this as a new lease with a corresponding interest rate as of the “new lease” date for all the new space. The new lease will begin immediately following the end of the old one.

If an existing lease is continuing with no changes and additional space is being leased from the same landlord, then the new space should be accounted for as a new lease with current interest rates, and the existing lease should remain unchanged. These will be treated as separate leases under their respective terms.

Any reductions in lease space would be considered partial terminations and the liability and ROU asset must be reduced as of the effective date of the modification. This may also result in a gain or loss for any difference in reduction of the lease liability as compared to the reduction of the right-of-use asset.

4) Lease term – What if I am extending my lease term? Will I include options on the modification? How are my balances impacted by a reduction in term?

If you are extending a lease, the effective date of the modification will dictate the new interest rate which will be used to calculate the liability and adjust the ROU asset. This should not be accounted for as a new lease, but as a modification. Consider if any options were previously included as reasonably certain upon adoption before adding the new amounts, as they would have already been included in your balances.

A reduction in lease term will result in a modification of the liability and asset that is less than you have recorded. Any early terminations may result in a gain or loss for any difference in the reduction of the lease liability as compared to the reduction of the right-of-use asset.

If you are modifying a lease to end earlier and you had previously included options that were not exercised, you will have a decrease in the liability and potentially an adjustment to expense for the inclusion of the option payments in the original liability. Reasonably certain options that may have been included upon adoption potentially are not deemed certain upon modification of the lease due to new economic circumstances and will need to be considered for the modification.

Using software to simplify the lease modification accounting process

Utilizing purpose-built software can make it easier for you to follow the proper processes when entering lease modifications. MRI offers a variety of lease accounting software solutions for both SMB and enterprise organizations that can help you stay in compliance with IFRS 16, IASB, GASB, and FASB requirements. Keep your organization in good standing with software that simplifies journal entries for rent concessions, capitalization schedules for payments and asset management, and audit trails to easily access and review your data. See how MRI’s lease accounting solutions can benefit your business in the aftermath of COVID-19 and beyond.

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After months of research and development, the Resident Voice Index initiative’s ‘Neighbourhoods & Communities’ survey has closed. The team at MRI Software are now working to deliver robust analysis of the results using unique business intelligence tools and our in-house and partner experts. The findings will be published in August to residents and the sector.

We are now entering the last phase of the first output of the Resident Voice Index initiative, bringing together the impactful results and developing sophisticated analysis to draw out the insights we hope may impact the future service delivery of social housing in the UK and the shaping of local neighbourhoods and communities.

As part of this process, we reflected on the invaluable insights gained from stakeholder workshops conducted with leaders in the sector and with residents who guided the themes of the project. In the groups we spoke about shared challenges and hopes and built the outputs to reflect the priorities facing social housing today.

The topics covered investigated how resident engagement should be improved, the limitations of satisfaction as a measurement of a housing provider’s work and the tangible and intangible interventions that could help. During the eight sessions across March and April, core themes emerged illustrating the pathways for housing providers to investigate over the coming years.

Resident engagement: can we get it right?

A consensus emerged that satisfaction is nowhere near a broad enough measure for understanding the needs of residents. Recent press and the Charter for Social Housing Residents have put into sharp relief that a ‘78%’ measure of home satisfaction may not mean all that much, particularly if that number cannot be analysed within its wider context of internal and external data.

If indeed conventional measures of satisfaction are not enough, the next step explored was what could be – and what aspects of questioning residents would accept regarding their opinions and feelings. The overwhelming response from those we spoke to, when asked if they would feel comfortable speaking about more personal and hard-hitting topics, such as mental health, was that these questions could be asked but they had to be transparent and purpose driven.

As one resident put it, “Ask me anything, but tell me why first and tell me how my answer is going to be used later.”

For residents, there is a desire for communication approaches to be re-examined in order to overhaul resident engagement. An ‘easy win’ fed down from the resident consultations was for providers to eradicate jargon from communications, using plain English instead and being realistic about the limitations of services.

A worry put forward across all stakeholder consultations was the prevalence of the same people showing up for engagement exercises; the challenges faced are how to get more residents involved and to hear from those that are silent. For example, one provider’s research found that only 20% of their residents contacted them. For the remaining 80%, the challenge is now working out how their voices can be used to inform service improvements.

Part of the work many housing providers are undertaking is around enhancing or moving away from transactional surveys focused solely on service delivery and trying to ask questions centred around what residents care about to gain a deeper understanding and build personas.

A big challenge: tackling antisocial behaviour

Numerous residents that we spoke to were worried about the impact that poor behaviours and minimal support to victims and perpetrators may have on communities. Early trends from the Resident Voice Index ‘Neighbourhoods & Communities’ survey suggest similar sentiments from social housing residents across the UK.

In some cases, workshop attendees feared that many instances are not reported either to the police or housing providers because residents aren’t satisfied that the issues will be dealt with and that some neighbourhoods are suffering in silence without tangible pathways to address the problems.

For housing providers, similar concerns were echoed, that social safety and building safety are the baseline of their provision and that these issues need to be addressed to sustain resident trust. These problems are not easy to solve and will take a plethora of methods, technical tools and partnerships to manage the work actively.

Multi-agency co-operation

Housing as a sector is unique in having to understand the relationship with its customers who are placed at a junction of multiple factors. Home is a linchpin of stability, resilience, wealth, health and cohesive communities. Given this responsibility, housing providers find themselves needing to collaborate with residents, health providers, community groups, the police and a wealth of other services to work together at a civic level.

During the focus groups, a large housing provider with homes across the UK spoke of the challenges they faced working with teams from over 160 local authorities and trying to engage in work that helps increase localism across the communities where they have homes. The local environment may not be something all housing providers are directly responsible for but to mitigate negative impacts and encourage positive ones, safe, secure and efficient systems should be utilised to get the right people talking to one another with access to the best and most up-to-date evidence.

Included in this joint-working approach are the residents themselves. One of our resident ambassadors put eloquently that housing providers need to see residents as an asset base of skills, passion and willingness, with local and interpersonal relationships at a community level. When given access to resources and affordable community space, these involved community members can work within neighbourhoods at a positive, grassroots level and help stem larger problems by building stronger social networks and activating more people across communities.

The Resident Voice Index is a long-term project by MRI Software seeking to deliver a suite of indices and insights publications that are going to challenge conventional customer satisfaction and performance communicators. We feel we are uniquely positioned for this project, having a large, independent and direct link to social housing residents across the UK. The results from the first survey will be delivered to the sector later in the summer and we are more than excited to share them and assess the impact that the results may have.

If you would like to get involved with the next stages of consultation for the Resident Voice Index initiative, please reach out to Solutions Principal and Project Lead, Doug Sarney at doug.sarney@mrisoftware.com.

The post The Resident Voice Index™ initiative; A brief outline of sector and resident consultation appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

In an era where real estate firms are inundated with data, it can be hard to know what data is most important to your business, and it can be even harder to uncover that information in the first place. CFOs and Controllers in real estate firms need to track commercial real estate metrics to ensure the success of the business, but gathering all the necessary data to calculate key metrics is difficult as it can be scattered across the organization. With all the manual work it takes to track down data, the metrics will likely be out of date by the time you get around to using them.

With a business intelligence and analytics solution, commercial real estate firms can visualize their current business metrics, monitor KPIs and drill down to the granular details to make strategic data-driven decisions and deliver for investors.

Here are just a few of the financial metrics that your commercial real estate firm can and should be tracking with an analytics solution:

1. NOI

The right analytics solution can not only give you a visual representation of your net operating income – it can also show you the underlying metrics that influence it, like capital and operating expenditures. With the capability to drill into these stats, you can better understand the ways in which they impact your business and better identify how best to prioritize your organization’s time.

2. Receivables tracking

All businesses have certain expectations when it comes to payments from their tenants, and with the power to keep track of your receivables in an easily accessible dashboard view, you’ll be able to identify late payments and assess risk and impact to cash flow based on that information.

3. Budgets vs. actuals

Your organization’s budgets are designed to meet the strategic goals of the business, and by not tracking to those budgets, you run the risk of missing your marks. With an analytics solution, you’ll be able to gain visibility into deviations and track your budget against your actuals, without the hassle of digging through data. Comprehensive dashboards can provide relevant information tailored to your business and personalized needs while still giving you the flexibility to expand upon them if necessary.

4. Occupancy

A high-level view of your occupancy rates gives you not only a better understanding of your tenants, but a more thorough picture of how your space is being used. A solution that helps you visualize occupancy metrics and tenant mix can equip your business with a new understanding of the relationship between your leases and your physical space, instilling more confidence in your strategic planning.

Visualize CRE metrics with analytics tools

A powerful business intelligence and analytics solution can give you a more detailed view of the CRE metrics within your organization, equipping you with the ability to make data-driven decisions and measure success. Learn how MRI Analytix Portal and Data Store arms your business with the ability to assess trends and identify outliers and prepares you to become a data visionary.

The post 4 commercial real estate metrics to drive financial success appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

For commercial real estate investors and owners, mitigating risk requires making informed decisions based not only on accurate data, but also on the projected return on investment and rate of return. One such tool asset managers can use to assess the value of a given investment is the internal rate of return (IRR) formula.

Even if your current processes and operations include knowing how to calculate IRR, understanding its purpose and how it’s being used in the real estate industry can help guide you in the use of the formula.

What is internal rate of return and why is it important for real estate?

Before investing in a property, real estate investors need to know if that project will deliver profitable returns. In its simplest form, IRR is the percent that an investor will earn if a certain project performs as expected.

This statistic is important for commercial businesses with multiple properties managed by separate parties because it gives a better picture of what your investments might yield, allowing your business to make the determination as to whether a project is worth the time and effort. Calculating IRR requires an input of real data based on real assumptions, which means the data you’re using to make assumptions should be rock solid to ensure accurate results.

How to calculate the Internal Rate of Return

One way to determine the internal rate of return on a project is to calculate it manually by following a set formula. In this formula, the expected cash flows for your investment are given and the Net Present Value (NPV) equals zero. More information on what that formula looks like in practice can be found here, and once the internal rate of return is determined, your business can put it up against the cost of capital to see the financial value of the project based on your new and existing data.

How IRR is used across real estate

Utilizing the IRR formula can help asset managers in real estate businesses not only assess the value of a property now in comparison to other potential investments, but it can help determine the cost of the project over time and in response to different potential scenarios.

However, most property management systems don’t have the ability to calculate IRR in-system, which leads users to export data from the system into a third-party application, calculate IRR, and then reupload data into their property management systems. Many times, that system can be as unstructured as an excel spreadsheet. The danger in doing this, however, is that the data you plug in to calculate the Internal Rate of Return needs to be as accurate as possible, and whenever you export data into a third-party application that doesn’t integrate with your property management system, errors can come into play quickly.

This problem is exacerbated by the models that many asset managers operate, where employing multiple managing agents means that they have to manually model IRR from multiple disparate data sources. This makes forming a true comparison of IRR across different assets a challenge, often consuming the time and effort of at least one staff member per year.

For asset managers in the real estate industry, knowing how to calculate IRR is becoming an important part of the job. Calculating IRR with a tool that doesn’t integrate with your processes, however, can create increased risk for your business. Learn how MRI Investment Central can integrate with your property management system, keeping all your data on the same track and giving you confidence in your calculations.

The post How to calculate the Internal Rate of Return and what it means for the real estate industry appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

This blog was written by Andy Hamilton, a Consultant at Proactis.

Proactis, a certified MRI Software Solutions Partner, helps property management companies control 100% of their spend. Their solution transforms the Source-to-Pay processes, which helps organisations save money and create efficiency gains while increasing compliance and reducing risk.

Over the years, I’ve worked with many organisations in the property management sector, including CBRE, Knight Frank and Savills, to help them drive better value from their spend control and management processes. Through this experience, a number of key themes have emerged:

1. React to changing market conditions with flexibility and agility

Whether you’re managing your own company’s properties or those of your clients, controlling and managing spend is critical in terms of getting the best value possible for the goods and services you purchase – no matter how things change.

If the latest events have taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. And with that mindset brings the need to develop agile strategies that can change should your environment shift overnight. Time doesn’t stand still, financial obligations must be respected, and business needs to keep going.

Some companies have been able to adapt their processes. For example, Proactis customer Honeywell expanded its production at its aerospace facility to manufacture N95 masks for Covid-19 protection.

Other institutions, such as the University of Sussex, have embraced technology to ensure they can keep functioning and, in this case, deliver higher education.

Agile Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) also proved critical for Bright Horizons, with a portfolio of over 320 nurseries, as it enabled the company to respond to the pressures Covid placed on the business when it was forced to shut the majority of nurseries during lockdown. Having the ability to control and manage cost effectively and centralise more purchasing was key to successfully navigating through the initial lockdown.

For Finance teams in many organisations, I have found that the situation has actually highlighted a number of areas that can be improved – not only short-term fixes, but for the long-term running of the business. For example, systems that connect teams, simplify reporting, centralise data and connect with the wider organisation can redistribute workload and reduce paperwork.

The impact of Covid forced many to accelerate their journey on the path to digital transformation.

2. Make it simple, but accurate

Obtaining the best value is critical, not only to success, but in some cases to survival. An agile approach to spend management helps achieve this by improving the effectiveness and transparency of both strategic and tactical sourcing processes, while reducing administrative time and effort. Savings can be realised by driving on contract spend and proactive expenditure control through the P2P front-end.

In complex property organisations in particular, it is key to be able to accurately determine who should authorise spend, how the recoverability should be classed, and ultimately where it should be allocated through the underlying property management system.

3. Gain visibility and control

Visibility of spend, through the entire process – from request, through comparison against service charge, to summary analysis – is invaluable to every level of decision-making. Budgets are tight across most businesses, with many having to do more with less.

It’s crucial for property management firms to closely manage costs against budgets, ensure that costs are controlled within the boundaries of the service charge provision, and have the flexibility to react to operating changes at any stage in a process.

4. Improve efficiency

A common objective, and challenge, that I often hear is whether Finance functions can improve process efficiency or not. For example, a strong P2P process, underpinned by well-integrated technology, supports ‘right first time’ invoice submission. This in turn reduces invoice queries and processing time. Imagine the value and reduced time when an invoice can be matched first time to an approved PO, goods receipted, and suppliers validated!

5. Eliminate overpayment and reduce fraud

Another important goal for Finance teams is eliminate overpayments and reduce invoice fraud. Well-adopted and efficient P2P processes prevent payments to unknown suppliers, duplicate payments, or payments when goods or services are missing. I have found that this often results in significant reductions in wasted resources for the buying organisation.

6. Add value without duplicating functionality

My experiences have proved that you can deploy effective spend control around just about any core system. In fact, deploying spend control that’s aligned with your property management system is the only sensible approach when seeking to deliver truly quantifiable value.

True best-in-class, agile P2P systems are “agnostic” of other systems but are built with clear integration points that utilise industry standards and tools to make integration into a product management system easy to implement and manage. Such integration ensures that you can get best-in-class procurement capabilities aligned with the familiarity of your property management system to deliver simplicity and maximise user adoption.

7. Integration is not just a suggestion

Proactis and MRI Software work in partnership to provide a complete end-to-end system for property companies around the world. Combined, our systems are truly agile and integrate seamlessly with each other. They create a complete solution that enables property management organisations to operate in a more effective way and ultimately better serve their customers.

As we mentioned above, Proactis is an MRI integration Partner! Their procurement and spend management solutions can streamline business processes, ensure compliance and drive down costs. To learn more about Proactis, visit their website.

The post 7 key considerations for better spend control in property management appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

As the vaccine rollout continues and real estate occupiers across the globe are assessing local health and safety requirements, everyone – from employees to landlords – is asking the same question. When and how will companies bring people back into the office? Answering that question requires finding a solution for the return to work that prioritizes the needs of the business and of its employees. No one office will return the same way, and for that reason, businesses need to have a solid plan in place to address those who wish to work onsite full time and those who are more productive working remotely.

We understand that workplaces are about driving productivity and collaboration, which is why we’re introducing MRI Workplace Central, a set of solutions that enable occupiers to create a safe, flexible work environment that empowers employees to make optimal use of your workplace. Workplace Central can be your one-stop shop for bringing employees back into you’re the office and manage your space requirements as the needs of your business change.

Plan for the right reopening

As one survey showed, most occupiers are planning on bringing their workforce back gradually, with some remaining in their work-from-home schedules full time. Maximize your office space with Workplace Central by easily planning your new occupancy floor plans and return-to-office scenarios to ensure a safe and successful reopening.

When employees come back to the office, they can return to a workplace that is designed specifically for collaboration across teams, whether those teams are in-office or working remotely.

Track who’s on site with presence management

Workplace management isn’t just about office layouts – it’s about establishing clear lines of direction on where employees are supposed to go, having established procedures for visitors, and booking desks for employees working on a hybrid schedule. Gain visibility into who’s on site with solutions that let you fully track the people coming into your building, from visitors to contractors and even full-time employees.

For those who might not spend every day of the week in the office, this means utilizing booking technologies that let them reserve a desk for themselves, schedule a meeting room, and allow visitors into set parts of the premises – all from a mobile application.

Modify the space to suit your needs

The pandemic hasn’t just caused a shift in market trends. It’s completely changed the way we think about office space. The workplace will need to be constantly flexible and open to reinvention based on the needs and desires of its employees. Workplace Central gives you a full view of real time and historical trends to highlight shifts in usage and adjust layouts to meet changing demands for space.

As more employees return to the office and use the space over longer periods of time, you’ll gain a better understanding of how the space is being used. With this knowledge, Workplace Central can enable you to readjust your original plan to better meet evolving space needs, whether that means adding room for collaboration or removing desks.

Optimize your office with usage data

While changes will always need to be made to accommodate your employees, you also need a workspace management tool that gives you greater insight into how changes to your office are impacting the business and how your leases might need to be adjusted as requirements continue to change. Workplace Central lets you leverage reliable, strategic insight into your reconfigured workplace to identify areas of improvement and lease re-evaluation, utilizing AI-powered lease abstraction.

Learn more about how you can utilize Workplace Central to the benefit of your business and your employees in this webinar.

The post 4 ways to build a better office with MRI Workplace Central appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

At MRI Software, we have been exploring how the fundamental process of managing housing stock could be improved for teams and how we can assist housing providers around the incoming regulatory need for transparency.

Our latest solution, Service Charges, combines the expertise of the heritage brands that make up MRI Social Housing with the best of MRI Software technology. The past year has been spent examining the service charges offering of these heritage brands and assessing the capabilities that we have available, as well as what we feel we should be offering the sector.

Why is Service Charges a priority?

After extensive consultation with our clients around their expectations and hopes for a system, it was established that the right way forward was to build a new solution that would incorporate all the functions they relied upon in the heritage products. For many of our clients, this was an opportunity to review the data that they hold in disparate systems and to think about implementing something new.

Through this process of consultation, it became apparent that there was a real opportunity within the social housing sector for a strong standalone service charges solution. The main driver for our clients was developing a system that would integrate seamlessly with their housing and finance management systems.

Following our clients’ feedback, housing providers can expect the functionality of the Service Charges solution to include elements, such as:

• Data migration from selected modules
• Expenses and structures that can mirror other systems and integrate with them
• Or, for providers whose structure includes more than housing, expenses that can be managed as standalone items

Core principles of the Service Charges product

Alongside the primary goal of delivering an integrated product, one objective of the solution is to eliminate swathes of manual processing that might be prone to human error. To support use, Service Charges will be an easily configurable system with an intuitive user interface, developed to be accessible and simple to use.

Importantly, workflow in the solution is organised to drive users to the most pressing actions, preparing teams for the day. Ease of use is one of the core principles shared across our systems and in aligning their styles, our aim is to deliver a consistent experience for users of multiple MRI solutions.

The ability to report well

How a housing provider spends its income and service charge payments is going to come under increased scrutiny in the near future. The Charter for Social Housing made clear that “service charges should be transparent and communicated effectively, and that there should be a route to challenge or redress if things go wrong.”

Consultation with social housing residents by the government mirrored our own research around the belief from residents that service charges can be unclear. This can lead to a lack of clarity as to how residents’ money is spent, whether they receive the services they are charged for and whether the prices are reasonable. This, in turn can fundamentally damage trust in an organisation. Our Service Charges solution allows housing providers to drill into the detail of their service charges and evidence where they are being spent.

Built with the sector, for the sector

In our workshops with clients, we have tested the delivery of the solution in phases, asking them whether we’ve got right, if any key functionality has been missed and what the order of priority should be for the building of product features. Our approach in building our solutions is to work with individual providers and tailor implementations to their needs.

And it doesn’t stop there. These consultations will continue as the system progresses to ensure that the solution is continually improving and that we’re building the solution that the sector deserves.

Phase one: initial release

Phase one of the Service Charges solution is planned for delivery across the last quarter of 2021. The initial release will include a plethora of functionalities, including the ability to manage payments and arrears, to apportion and approve estimates and to report.

From December 2021, implementations will begin with existing users of our Housing Enterprise solution.

Phase two: additional functionality

From 2022, the solution will move forward in an agile way, delivering regular releases. We will be growing our user groups and actively seeking our clients to feed input into the product’s roadmap. The solutions will be further enhanced through integration with existing products and additional features, such as managing meter readings and resident enquiries.

Our hope for the solution

Service charges are a core element of providing housing. At their best, service charges systems within an organisation provide efficiency, transparency, assist decision making and ensure no elements are unaccounted for. Through our Service Charges solution, we are looking to drive technological innovation in the sector that can support teams in building thriving communities and sustainable tenancies.

The launch of our Service Charges solution has already piqued the interest of housing providers and is due to launch soon with our pilot partners. If you’re interested in how the system could support your own processes, please get in contact with your particular timescales and personal implementation needs at socialhousing@mrisoftware.com, so that we can make sure that we are able to accommodate you with your Service Charges journey.

The post New Product Announcement: Service Charges appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Organizations that occupy real estate have faced many challenges over the past year. In particular, the spotlight on the relationship between tenant and landlord/agent has intensified – with a greater-than-ever need for clear communication and collaboration. Regardless of sector, the way in which businesses provide services, sell goods and interact with their customers and employees has changed, and many of these changes are here to stay.

The future of leases

Real estate lease agreements as we know them have evolved during the last 12 months, with the introduction of new clauses, increased scenario coverage, more options available, and a shift towards turnover-based structures. The very nature of negotiations over the life cycle of the lease are therefore becoming increasingly key to the long-term profitability of a business, in terms of driving down costs and reducing the extent of obligations.

Occupiers have naturally moved to explore and push for more flexibility within lease agreements to accommodate a rise in scenarios such as underutilized office space due to employees working from home, and account for space that perhaps cannot be legally utilized due to COVID restrictions. Occupiers may become more reluctant to signing up to long-term lease agreements based on fixed space, instead there could be more of a movement to demand more defined types of space around temporary or flexible areas with differing options and unit costs. It begs the question; will we see more short-term leases forming part of occupier real estate strategy? The added attraction of this approach of course is that those short-term solutions often do not require inclusion on financial statements and lease accounting schedules, which may act as an additional driver.

The introduction of COVID-type clauses brings a whole new dynamic to real estate lease negotiations and management. These clauses can vary significantly depending on country, region or property use; however, there have been such scenarios recently of termination options made available to the occupier linked to financial stability of the business based on COVID factors, as well as mutual terminations and break options linked to COVID or pandemic-related scenarios.

Many MRI occupier clients have proactively moved to renegotiate and re-gear leases on mass to agree a more sustainable commercial model, whether that be concessions, deferrals or a change in payment frequency. Recently, particularly in the UK, occupiers have sought to renegotiate quarterly rent payments to monthly, more akin to the US leasing model – spreading the risk thanks to smaller periodic payments. The impact this can have on reporting and internal processes means technology alignment is particularly significant if this negotiation covers a large and complex portfolio.

New lease variables

As the impact of the pandemic forces occupiers to re-evaluate the structure of leases, it’s bringing to the fore other questions and trends around how real estate agreements are put together. Take sustainability, a hot topic in many walks of life, and none more so than sustainability within the property sector. ESG clauses are increasingly being imposed within lease agreements to enable landlords to more accurately track progress on ESG initiatives, which naturally require the occupier’s permission. This is placing responsibility on an occupier to now share sustainability data for more of a detailed indication to the landlord of the premises being a “green building.” We are seeing this become a common requirement within the market where occupier organizations have a need to understand much more than their financial obligations, and now have a potential legal obligation from a sustainability perspective across their portfolio of lease agreements, which we anticipate could have a consequence when negotiating any sublease agreements, too.

For retailer occupiers, we are also seeing an increased movement towards desirable turnover rent based agreements with landlords, with many landlords also proactively presenting a regearing of the lease to restructure the agreement. This model creates a more interdependent relationship between landlord and occupier and is aimed at benefiting both parties. This is evidently a more attractive proposal for when times become tough as we have seen during the pandemic, where stores out of the occupier’s control are legally required to stop trading.

Role of technology

In the same way that there has been a natural evolution to single source of truth; i.e., a single lease record driving all payments, lease accounting schedules, key event alerts, etc., there is now a movement toward Artificial Intelligence-powered occupier management.

For a sector that has been notoriously slow to adapt to change and adopt technology, the pace at which real estate lease structures are evolving demands a faster movement toward innovation and automation. Many occupier technology procurement processes are no longer simply looking at functional requirements around key business processes, but are instead conducting deep evaluations of how best to maximize the integrity and auditability of real estate and lease data, to provide confidence in the data held within systems not just at the point of go-live, but on an ongoing basis. To be able to leverage lease data confidently, to rely on auditable data to inform strategic decisions, to have visibility of the obligations across the portfolio, to identify key clauses and options directly linked to opportunities to drive down costs, are all of paramount importance. The introduction of AI to real estate and integration with core real estate management applications is a game changer, with the ability to move away from manual, time-consuming, error-prone data entry methods and instead leverage clean, structured, and complete data captured at source from lease contracts. With leases becoming more complex, technology needs to be robust, flexible, and scalable. We have seen more and more organizations incorporate additional departments like legal, along with senior stakeholder involvement as part of a procurement process, often with a project steerco, given real estate now has more of a seat of influence at c-suite level than perhaps ever before.

As a whole, customer and employee habits look likely to continue changing, lease agreement structures are evolving and becoming far more sophisticated and far reaching, new trends across occupier requirements are developing, and technology’s role in supporting and underpinning real estate strategy will continue to become more prominent over the coming months and years as the occupier space becomes more complex. It’s therefore absolutely key to the long-term vision of occupier organizations to fully understand their obligations beyond financials in order to leverage their portfolio, and technology will be fundamental to successfully doing so.

Learn more about getting the most out of your leases.

The post The evolution of real estate leases appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The voice of the resident will increasingly find itself as a central focus for housing providers to achieve their goals, prove social value and be compliant in the regulatory environment. Over the past year, the role that technology has played in reaching residents and gathering the customer voice has become more important than ever. This week, we were joined by HACT’s Digital Lead, Michael McLaughlin to discuss the ways that the sector is evolving.

The way housing providers operate has been shaken up – the past year necessitated the switch to digital or remote-only engagement between provider and residents. Most will never return fully to their previous model of working. Results from recent research by McKinsey estimate that during the pandemic, the uptake of digital practices or digitally enabled products has accelerated by around seven years. In fact, housing association, Stonewater recently announced that they will be permanently embracing a hybrid working model. This change will fundamentally influence the relationship housing providers have with residents and their teams.

For some organisations, especially those that work across multiple geographies, there have been opportunities for wider and more frequent resident engagement using digital platforms. During our Resident Voice Index focus groups, we learned from residents that many have been able to attend more consultations on account of them being digital, costing nothing to get to and involving no travel time.

The inability to gather face-to-face data has changed the way we work, but actually it has enabled us to reimagine our relationships and work with communities and residents in a way that we never have done before.

Michael McLaughlin, Digital Lead, HACT

Understanding low-touch residents

No two residents are the same and so insight can help establish what kind of service individuals expect and need. Michael explained, “The opportunities are to work, not just with residents in a different way, but work with residents that we’ve never worked with before. Often there may be residents who pay the rent on time, who don’t present with a complaint or repairs. Actually, they could make up a large percentage; this could be up to 30% of the resident base that housing providers just don’t speak to and there isn’t enough data from.”

The pandemic drove forward individualised care powered by remote tech. “Having an online platform or engaging with residents in the past year through welfare calls, for example, has allowed providers to gain better insight into the requirements of the quieter people.”

Understanding and delivering for multiple needs and customer journeys is the future of resident engagement. “Some of those residents who don’t present with repairs or complaints potentially could be people who work. Organisations may just be missing a significant percentage of the resident base because a housing provider doesn’t have the ability to communicate with them outside the hours of between nine and five.”

Mixed Modalities

More commonly used in education to refer to blended learning, the phrase ‘mixed modalities’ refers to the application of different approaches to appeal to the style of learning or engagement that best suits an individual and brings out the most positive results for all stakeholders.

On its own, the digital transformation won’t solve anything; housing providers will need to maintain personal and human services for some of their residents, but without data-enabled business Intelligence, organisations will find themselves with less capacity to deliver those human services with evidenced decision-making. Not only is this best practice but it can be expected to become regulation following the publication of the Charter for Social Housing Residents.

“Engagement can take many forms, but the crucial factor is that it is tailored appropriately. We expect all landlords to tailor their engagement in the future. Housing providers working remotely have re-imagined the resident/housing provider relationship. Everything doesn’t have to be face-to-face; it doesn’t have to be consultation like just sending letters out or turning up to a specific meeting. Instead, as the world opens up again, looking at ways of engagement that fit with an individual’s lifestyle.”

An approach that housing providers can adopt in order to deliver these individualised services, remain efficient and keep within budgets should be answering questions like: “How can we as housing providers use data to streamline processes, to create a better service, not only for the resident, but actually for organisational internal systems? How can we instigate creating a standardised platform of managing data, governing data and ultimately making better decisions?”

HACT has developed the UK Housing Data Standards in partnership with OSCRE, which include guidelines around complaints and feedback. These data standards will be adopted into our Resident Voice Index project.

Data for richer engagement

Utilising data is not the end of face-to-face consultation for some residents or direct community engagement in local areas. Used well, it can be a tool to deliver more time to teams to give rich customer support backed up by reliable evidence. “You can go out into the community and be as visible as possible, but if you don’t have that real evidential backing then you’re not able to build on that platform.

“Ultimately, could a housing provider be better served spending their resources in the community, providing direct tenancy support or using AI to interpret some of these online engagements to find out what that person wants? If adopting further tech is about understanding more about the data around that person because of when and how they engage, then having AI as part of that internal process could really help.”

Regulation

The pandemic hasn’t been the only driver of immediate change. Michael believes that, “Having set regulations, like the incoming resident satisfaction measures will require having robust data to back that up. It will enable residents to have more confidence in the work that’s done and also in the engagement, because it’s measured and transparent. The Charter for Social Housing Residents calls out for that transparency.

“Grenfell showed the need for that increased customer voice, not just customer voices, but what’s being done in response. Are residents actually being listened to? Is the organisation listening to the data they’ve got? And what are housing associations presenting back to residents off the back of that?”

The insights from our Resident Voice Index focus groups reflected this also; residents understand that their data will be used and are willing to give self-reported insights. However, providers should feed back on the ways insights have impacted service delivery and soon will be obliged to allow access to that data.

For many residents, digital-first strategies for basic communication are near established now. Using knowledge gathered, housing providers can deliver tailored resident experiences that automate time-consuming everyday tasks when residents want to complete them in order to create time and space for more personal levels of engagement.

The post The future of resident engagement appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

This opinion piece was written by Arik Kogan, VP of Finance & Investment Solutions at MRI Software, and was featured in the EG UK Cities Investor Guide, published 3, June 2021. Read more here.

Machine learning and AI is going to be an extremely important part of our strategy at MRI Software. However, it’s not going to be a machine that anticipates the next major, COVID-level upheaval. Instead, I see software’s role as smoothing the path and freeing up headspace for analysts to apply human creativity and generate these kinds of visionary insights.

Machine learning provides us with more accurate data

A major priority for data accuracy is to reduce the need for human intervention and to ensure that data is complete, accurate, mapped appropriately and flowing into the right parts of the ecosystem. Machine learning is a big part of that – it can automatically gather, interpret, format and consolidate data much more quickly and accurately than a human could ever manage.

No matter how incredible our machine learning capabilities are across our solutions, there’ll always be exceptions requiring human intervention. Over time, though, I see an evolution of the processes we’re already using to reduce the need for human input in data gathering and mapping, so that analysts spend less and less time gathering and cleaning data, and more time using it.

Predictive analytics is the future of strategic planning

Predictive analytics is really the next big leap that we want to take.

Each company using solutions for planning and forecasting is doing things slightly differently, but there are also always things that remain consistent and repeatable regardless of circumstances – in areas of consistency like this, a lot of planning and analysis could be replaced by a predictive analytical engine powered by artificial intelligence.

For example – we can generally determine the cyclical aspects of the real estate market and their effects on things like interest rates, valuations, and transaction volume. There are aspects of these areas that could be programmed into AI, so a human being doesn’t need to go into a solution like MRI Investment Modelling to incorporate them manually – instead, the system can automatically build them into the plan.

So, for example, if you want to perform a capital deployment scenario and identify the best use of those funds, the system could use this information to build a strategy for you based on baked-in assumptions about target asset classes and regions based on market data and trends, and could make recommendations to reinvest in specific assets.

Could an AI have predicted COVID?

While predictive analytics could make successful recommendations in scenarios like this, there are elements where human factors make that impossible. For example, there’s no way an AI would have predicted the way COVID affected core assets.

An AI’s assumptions on core assets would be that they’re fairly stable, but COVID caused a global 30% drop in the value of core assets – offices, shopping centres and multi-family residential buildings – and corresponding jumps in areas like industrial buildings, warehousing and data centres. I don’t think you could design an AI, at least in the next 5 years, to predict that type of thing.

I don’t expect a computer to be flagging the next major COVID-level industry event. However, what AI can do is remove more and more of the “busy work” associated with data processing and modelling, leaving analysts free to model and test a much wider range of scenarios than they currently have time to, and to produce scenarios quickly to keep pace with board-level decision making during volatile times.

Laying a smooth path for visionary insights

At MRI, we know that while machine learning and AI are extremely exciting technologies, human creativity is the true differentiator for our clients.

To me, the real source of potential for real estate investment firms is the visionary insights their human teams come up with. The smoother and more intuitive our software processes can become, the more headspace we free up to allow talented analysts and decision makers to get creative with data and strategies.

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It’s unlikely that anybody could have predicted the real estate market shifts over the past 12 months. As in many other industries, it’s likely that the landscape is forever changed, and the real estate industry can expect to face some further curve balls in the coming months and years.

To navigate the road ahead, it’s vital that real estate investment management firms have the tools and processes in place to allow for confident decision making and a visionary approach to long-term strategy. All too often, firms’ ability to anticipate and plan for the future is limited by inadequate processes and out-of-date tools.

There’s never been a better time to review your approach to data and analytics, and to ask some tough questions about whether long standing processes are still fit for purpose, or whether they might be holding your most insightful decision makers back.

The discussion points below provide a starting point for identifying gaps in your current analytical approach and implementing changes that will not only allow you to adapt and respond more rapidly to future unforeseen events, but to operate more efficiently and effectively in real-time too.

How much are we spending to report on “what is”?

Historically, the most important challenge for strategic planning was collecting and aggregating data from multiple disparate sources. Early real estate software was typically designed as a closed system with limited connectivity, requiring analysts to output data from property management systems and combine it manually with market data, valuation details and third-party benchmarking sources to provide the core data sets on which to base investment models.

As the market has become more sophisticated, and as investors have become ever more demanding in the granularity of reporting data they expect from their management companies, the workload required just to build these “what’s happening now” data sets manually is overwhelming.

Technology providers have responded to the requirement from their clients for a more connected data ecosystem by investing in API’s and other web services to allow integration between not just systems designed by the same provider, but a much wider range of tools and data sources, from multiple suppliers.

This open and connected ethos opens up significant opportunities for real estate investment firms to save time and improve efficiency in their data gathering and base case reporting. By increasing the speed at which your team can get a clear picture of “what is”, your team is free to focus on “what will be”.

How many potential points of failure are there in our data analysis process?

Not only does collecting and collating this “base case” data manually in spreadsheets take a disproportionate amount of time, it also introduces multiple points of failure where inaccuracies can creep in. Every human intervention in data processing increases the risk of errors, whether through inaccurate data entry or incorrect modifications to calculation functions in a modelling spreadsheet – and when mistakes do crop up, it’s often near impossible to follow an audit trail to figure out exactly what’s gone wrong.

Errors can build up over time, skewing data and leading to unknown levels of inaccuracy in modelling calculations. There’s a laundry-list of examples of Excel mistakes leading to significant financial and reputational damage for businesses depending too heavily on spreadsheet calculations for major business decisions, from Fidelity’s $2.6 billion mistake when calculating dividend distributions for its Magellan fund to the more recent UK government COVID testing debacle.

Streamlining and automating data gathering is not just a time saver, but a vital risk reduction process. By relying on established, tested software and API’s with a robust audit trail, real estate investment firms can have confidence in the data on which they’re basing critical business decisions.

Are our data team analysts, or just data wranglers?

Data analytics and business intelligence hires are high on the priority list for real estate investment firms, and with good reason – the ability of a company to insightfully analyse data, spot trends and make timely strategic decisions is a key differentiator, and data wizards are rightly regarded as being key to this.

Too often, though, firms bring in talented individuals only to have them hamstrung by convoluted processes and poor-quality data, turning visionary analysts into data wranglers who spend so much time collecting data and reporting on “what is” that they have no time to plan for “what will be”.

As millennials and Gen Z employees enter the workforce, this not only limits companies’ performance but affects their employee engagement and retention, too – younger employees’ expectations for intuitiveness, integration and user experience are sky-high as standard, and employers who don’t supply the right toolkit can struggle to retain talented new hires, particularly as younger generations already expect to switch jobs more frequently than their older colleagues.

For real estate investment managers, identifying the appropriate suite of technology to minimise resource usage on rote data management allows analysts to focus their energies on building the most realistic, profitable and successful strategic plan for your portfolio – getting the maximum value out of their data teams and keeping them engaged and productive.

How long does it take to remodel our projections for a new scenario?

Having the right data management tools in place gives real estate investment managers the agility to pivot in the face of changing situations – whether COVID-level or more commonplace. Just as firms should be relying on technology to map, aggregate, normalise and report on data, they must also look to technology to streamline their processing calculations.

In the bad old days of Excel-based investment modelling, it could take a team of analysts weeks to produce financial and strategic plans based on a specific set of assumptions. Should the board then wish to explore a slightly different set of assumptions, the entire process started again, meaning that by the time insight was available, the opportunity had most likely passed.

With modern business intelligence and modelling tools such as MRI Investment Modelling, AI and robotic process automation can make short work of these types of calculations, reducing the time required to adjust scenarios from weeks to mere minutes. Not only do these systems provide data that’s more reliable and less error-prone, they also put critical business insights in front of senior teams quickly, allowing them to take decisive action and maximise new opportunities.

Become a RE:Visionary with MRI

At MRI, we know that our customers need robust, connected software solutions to achieve their strategic objectives, leveraging cutting-edge technology to become true data visionaries. Get in touch find out more about how our solutions can help you streamline processes, connect your tech, and ultimately unleash the visionary in you.

This blog was originally featured in the EG UK Cities Investor Guide 2021, published 3, June 2021. Read more here.

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It’s been a year of change, challenge and uncertainty. Every segment of the UK property sector has felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with massive shifts in the way people interact with real estate. From the initial complete shutdown of the UK housing market and eviction moratoriums, to mass remote working and sweeping retail closures, many have felt pain.

However, throughout the crisis, technology adoption and innovation has continued. And with vaccination rollouts picking up pace across Europe, focus is increasingly turning from overcoming the immediate obstacles to what comes next. A perfect time then for industry professionals to come together, explore the state of the market and examine the broad range of innovative technology that can help plan and deliver a successful post-pandemic future.

MRI Ascend Europe 2021

Part of our global client conference series, Ascend Europe went virtual for this year – offering the opportunity for 1,000+ industry visionaries to discuss and review the role technology has to play in the weeks, months and years ahead. Run across four days (10-13 May), the packed agenda featured more than 50 sessions showcasing latest industry insights, technology trends and software innovations. There were also two exciting guest speakers for attendees to enjoy – connection specialist Simone Heng who provided an engaging guest keynote, and well-known comedian and TV presenter Jimmy Carr, who presented the hilarious ‘Last Ever Lockdown Virtual Quiz’.

PropTech – past, present and future

The event kicked off with a joint session from the Executive Leadership team. Patrick Ghilani, Chief Executive Officer, marked MRI’s 50th anniversary as a technology innovator and looked at how the company has continued to play a leading role in the evolution of PropTech.

In his opening address, Ghilani said: “In 1971 we were founded as a company called Management Reports Incorporated. Through technology changes, through changes in growth, leadership, ownership, economies – you name it – we survive. But more importantly, we thrive. We believe we thrive because we collectively – you and us – are connecting communities with technology. And 50 years later, although the solutions change – and the mediums for delivering those solutions change – the ideals are very much the same: productivity, efficiency, value, and financial success for your organisations.”

Smart, nimble experiences

Up next was Chief Product Officer Saurabh Abhyankar, spotlighting how the rapid spread of coronavirus has shaped or created new trends, changing how we all live, work and play. Yes, the industry was somewhat in flux before the pandemic hit, but that shift has now been turbo-charged – and, in many ways, technology has never been better placed to offer support.

“Everything is changing, which makes it an exciting time to be in the world of PropTech, because it’s a time where we can all shape the future,” said Abhyankar, who highlighted the opportunity to apply data and analytics “in ways that really matter”. He noted that: “When looking to the future, we are able to define three mega-trends that we believe shape the future of real estate and PropTech. The first is smart buildings and technologies, which is about buildings having sensors and data – but also about the technology becoming smarter with insights and artificial intelligence to help drive automation. Secondly, physical spaces will become more flexible and respond to the changing needs of people, which means business models and PropTech will also need to become nimbler. Thirdly, engaging resident, tenant and guest experiences matter more now than ever before, because people have much more choice now.”

Real estate technology visionaries

Rounding the trio of speakers was Dermot Briody, Executive Managing Director for Europe. Bringing to life MRI’s mission and what it means for the region, Dermot was joined by Tom Attree – Director of Sustainability and Technology at Capco, and Nick Atkin – CEO at Yorkshire Housing. Both discussed the technology strategies for their respective organisations, and the wider sector trends affecting their software journeys.

Briody commented: “The aim of the Ascend conference, and MRI’s priority over the past 15 months, has been to support our customers and help them navigate the ongoing uncertainty and market changes. The pandemic has accelerated many trends that were already taking place and acted as a catalyst for digital transformation. Despite not being able to see our clients and Partners face-to-face this year, we are incredibly proud to have continued our collaboration and innovation with the leading names in European real estate. Together, we have overcome the obstacles, emerging from the pandemic to help businesses of all types to build a stronger future.”

Learning, insight and best practice

The Ascend conference also showcased advances and updates across MRI’s product portfolio and offered advice on how users can optimise their systems and achieve even greater efficiencies, additional cost-savings and regulatory compliance. Across six dedicated content streams – Commercial, Investment & Planning, Residential, Agency, Social Housing and Workplace – just a few of the many session highlights were:

• Lead your organisation into the new normal – how users can unleash the power of MRI’s comprehensive solution suite to achieve digital transformation.
• Become a data superhero with the power of AI – how, with artificial intelligence as your ally, you can unlock true data-driven insights.
• See the future, plan to win – exploring why, in an ultra-competitive and high-pressured environment, the time is now for tech in real estate investment.
• Connected tech for connected residential communities – examining the residential technology ecosystem and how it can connect your business with the people and communities you serve.
• Building safety & the resident voice – industry experts sharing their views on the cladding crisis, resident engagement and associated challenges.
• Technology in social housing – taking a journey through a comprehensive solution suite for housing associations and local authorities.
• Leveraging housing solutions – how advanced and integrated housing management systems can help you deliver better outcomes.
• Reinvent the workplace – showcasing how purpose-built software can give you a 360-degree view of your buildings and facilities.
• Optimising space management – looking at how a suite of tools can help you establish a safe and optimised return to work.

Also presenting as part of the agenda were several client speakers, discussing the technology vision for their businesses and the ways in which they leverage MRI’s broad platform. As well as Capco and Yorkshire Housing from the opening session, other contributors included Beyond Housing, FirstPort, Optivo, Network Rail, Savills and Settio – and our sincere thanks go to all who were involved.

And Ascend wouldn’t be Ascend without the involvement of our Partner network. We were delighted to welcome 10 key sponsors as part of the event:

Visionary sponsors:
Advanced, Fixflo, Proactis, REdirect Consulting

Executive sponsors:
insightsoftware, Localz, Retransform, TopUp Consultants

Professional sponsors:
AJB Consulting, Assetsoft

What’s next?

Ascend is just one component of our ongoing efforts to ensure clients extract maximum value from MRI’s solutions. There are so many ways you can get the information and resources you need about topics and challenges in the property sector – and about the latest and greatest functionality in the products you use every day.

myMRI Client Portal – utilise a range of resources, from release notes through to hints and tips videos. You can also raise Support and Services requests, access a growing Knowledgebase and submit ideas for future developments.

Events – you can catch us at a variety of events across the sector – from speaking slots on panels to our exhibition booths where we’re ready to help. You can also check out our programme of webinars and product user groups across our broad range of solutions.

Resources – here you’ll find an ever-growing range of white papers, ebooks, webinars, client case studies and much more. All of this is ready for you to access at any time.

And, of course, we look forward to the prospect of seeing you, our valued clients, once again next year (hopefully in person!) at our 2022 Ascend Europe event. Until then, thank you to every attendee, speaker and Partner that helped make this year’s conference one to remember.

The post A vision for proptech at MRI Ascend Europe appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

We recently conducted a survey and discussion session with estate and lettings agencies called Agency panel – Cut through the noise and get to the point!, with the aim of finding out how well suppliers are meeting the needs of agencies, and how agencies themselves interact with their management systems, and how MRI as a supplier could adapt to better suit the needs and expectations of our clients.

This was followed by a panel discussion with myself, Simon Whale, Founder of Management Consultancy Kerfuffle, and Iain White, Founder of the Innovation Collaboration Group, an estate agent consultancy.

The results gave us a lot to think about, with questions arising around training, building partnerships, and collaboration with other suppliers.

However, one of the most surprising results of the survey was the number of technology and software suppliers that agencies are committed to – the highest number recorded on the survey was 30 suppliers, with an average of 11, although when respondents were asked to list them, there were on average an additional 3 suppliers more than they originally thought.

The Volume of Suppliers

This figure raises a lot of questions: why do agencies need so many suppliers? Are all of the products agencies are signed up to used enough to justify the expense? What can both suppliers and agencies do to make this more manageable?

To answer why agencies have committed themselves to so many software products, it’s worth looking at the different PropTech solutions that are available.

In the past, many suppliers have sought to satisfy particular sectors within the property industry, whether that’s lettings, sales, etc. and carve themselves a niche within the space. This has then resulted in a number of companies existing to find breaks within processes and developing fixes, which is one way in which agents are driven down the path of signing up to and paying for a multitude of tech solutions.

The answer could lie in collaboration between suppliers. While suppliers working together is something that is gathering pace, the previous practice of blocking collaboration has meant that we’ve potentially lost 20 years of development, resulting in an overly diversified market where finding fully joined up solutions that truly solve a particular problem from end to end is a significant challenge.

Many agencies will attest that there is no solve-all solution in existence that will do everything an agent needs, so it’s important therefore that suppliers are honest about what exactly their product will solve, and ensure their solutions are able to integrate with the products of other suppliers.

Are all the solutions being used?

Iain White expresses:

“Estate Agents are estate agents – they’re not technological gurus. They often know what problem they want to solve but they often buy a platform that doesn’t really solve their problems.”

Frequently the result of trying to find fixes to create a fully joined up process without the proper guidance from suppliers or consultants means buying a lot of different, cheap products, that may not be suitable, but are such a small monthly expense that agencies don’t think about it too much.

Simon Whale comments:

“It becomes expensively cheap…because it just adds up and adds up…at Kerfuffle when we work with an agency, over 1 in 5 realise that they’ve been paying for a supplier that they’re just not using at all… this starts to have a serious impact on your business, not just from a financial point of view but also making sure you’re liaising with these partners to make sure you’re getting the best out of it.”

How do we make this better?

There’s blame to lay at the door of both the suppliers and the agencies. As Ian explains,

“I think there are lots of PropTech firms taking money from estate agents and knowing that the product isn’t being used. There’s two wrongs there, no one’s measuring that properly on the estate agent’s end and the supplier should be having some form of success team to make sure that the product is providing a return.”

The solution here then is two-fold. First, suppliers need to accept the responsibility of ensuring their products are right for their clients, and agencies need to ensure that the suppliers they work with are partnering with them. As Ian White says,

“The right suppliers are partners in your business, they’ll take the time to understand you, they’ll work with you and they will help you drive your business… If it’s not a proper relationship with your supplier then look somewhere else.”

Secondly, agencies need to be constantly evaluating the value that a piece of software is providing them. If the product isn’t providing a real return on investment or driving efficiencies within the business, then it’s time to look for a different solution that will.

That being said, it’s also important to include your supplier in your evaluation. Communication can often solve many of the issues you find within your systems, and fully committing to a product can result in fuller, more valuable usage from it.

Choosing the right CRM is one of the biggest decisions an agency make because it has such a profound effect on how the business operates. It makes sense, then, to fully commit to a system that may take some time to fully implement before you start seeing any ROI, but will give far better benefits your company a plethora of dis-jointed, “plug and play” style products.

At MRI, we pride ourselves on the strong and trusting relationships we build with our clients, and our open and connected ethos means we partner with a host of other suppliers to ensure a more seamless, joined up overall product. To discuss your needs with our team, get in touch. 

The post Cut through the noise: Evaluating the volume of estate and letting agent partnerships appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Thursday 13^th May concluded the MRI Ascend EMEA Conference, which showcased the best of MRI Software and our partners. The last day of the event was dedicated to our social housing suite of products. A key theme across the sessions centred on looking to the future to build best-in-class solutions with our sector partners to better equip the communities that our clients serve.  

During the Ascend sessions, members of our team alongside our partners and clients helped illustrate the multiple touchpoints along the social housing resident journey that our solutions can support housing providers with. We looked to the future at some of the key developments, innovation and projects we will be aiming to bolster the sector with as we move forward.

There were many inspiring speakers at this year’s Ascend Conference. Here, we showcase just three of the most future-focused sessions. MRI Senior Manager – Product, Joanna Lewis spoke with COO at Optivo Housing, Jane Porter, touching on what’s next for our solutions using machine learning and AI analytics to inform better decision-making. Solutions Principal at MRI Software, Doug Sarney outlined two of the thought leadership programs that we have underway, The Data Revolution and The Resident Voice Index initiative. Lastly, our Director of Product Management, Deborah Matthews tackled the ‘why’ of what we do and shared our work on building people-centred solutions, co-created with East Ayrshire Council.

It’s important for us at MRI Software to enter new territory, to do new things and try brave new things.

Doug Sarney, Solutions Principal, MRI Software

Income management with machine learning & AI

In a session that outlined the income collection challenges that housing providers have encountered over the past year, Joanna Lewis outlined the next steps MRI are taking with the Housing Analytics suite to support income teams throughout the whole of the tenant journey.

Access to better data can drive income services from reactive to proactive, with teams able to offer support before crisis occurs. Looking to the future, the use of AI and machine learning will only increase in order to support better decisions.

Joanna explained, “Currently we are able to see who is in arrears and severe arrears and prioritise them and we have the ability to do bulk actions on those lower-level arrears. The feedback we’ve had from customers is around identifying residents in the middle of the pack, who may have had a change in circumstances – which is particularly relevant now. They may be in low level arrears or indeed, credit but that change in circumstances could push them into arrears. Being able to predict this sooner allows providers to be more proactive in the support that they provide.

“In the new technology that we are producing this year within Income Analytics, there will be a set of data within a list that exceeds the parameters of what would have been expected, telling customers that this is a set of data you might want to take a closer look at and understand better.”

We do have to stop doing things that we’ve always done and expecting different results. If you want something different, we have to do things differently.

Jane Porter COO, Optivo Housing, MRI Ascend Conference 2021

Resident engagement with The Resident Voice Index initiative

MRI Solutions Principal, Doug Sarney spoke about The Resident Voice Index initiative; a new suite of sophisticated indices and insights publications for use by the entire social housing sector that challenge current customer satisfaction methods and performance indicators.

As a vehicle for innovation, “The Resident Voice index is a thought leadership project that we’re going to use to enter new territory. MRI Software’s advanced data visualisation techniques in the form of always-on dashboards are going to be used to display this information to deliver high levels of representation and enable people to turn the data into decisions.”

The surveys of residents will provide, “Punchy and timely information to facilitate change available to those who are able to drive that change.” From MRI, the commitment to driving collaborative change will be central. “All of the questions will be co-created with our resident focus groups and industry partners for the project.”

“The Resident Voice Index project has a philanthropic aspect; we want to give something back to the sector above and beyond our general corporate social responsibility activities. The outputs will be publicly available and free to anyone that wants to consume them. MRI Software is not being paid to do this; this is important because it makes the service truly independent, it makes it very compelling and hopefully, difficult to ignore.

“The audience for this project are people that can make a difference, people that can improve services and neighbourhoods. People within organisations that steer policies can change the way that things are done. I hope, like me, you feel that this is one of the most exciting projects to emerge in social housing for many years. Keep an eye out for next steps!”

Co-creating sector-leading solutions with our customers

Deborah Matthews opened her session by theorising that in order to create solutions that have buy-in from teams and residents, the ‘why’ of a product or project needs to be identified. Joined by two members of East Ayrshire Council, the session explored the creation of the innovative MRI Housing Register and Allocations solutions, helping East Ayrshire’s residents to find the home that’s right for them.

Blair Millar, Strategic Lead at East Ayrshire outlined his vision for the solution and the experience working with MRI Software on delivering a product that aimed from the outset to be sector leading.

“For some time, we were looking to modernise the way in which we engage with the people we serve. The current system is very administrative-focused and took significant resource. Our belief is we could allow our residents to interact in a more person-centred, digital way. We wanted to provide a system that was highly accurate and an information rich resource.”

I’m so proud to see a vision like this brought to a reality, in fact the product really surpasses my own high expectations of it.

Blair Millar, Strategic Lead, East Ayrshire Council

Approaching the project, Theresa Mackin, Business Support Manager at East Ayrshire Council made central a ‘blue sky thinking’ mentality with multiple stakeholders. “We didn’t just want to design an online application form. What we wanted to do is design something really unique, something that wasn’t already out there, something that we felt very proud of, that we could look at and go, ‘that is market leading, that is best practice’.

From the outset, MRI Software got the vision, the process. Our design sessions meant that they knew what we were trying to achieve, taking the journey from paper to product and improving it as well.

Theresa Mackin, Business Support Manager, East Ayrshire Council

Looking to the future, MRI Software is excited and proud to deliver projects that build sustainable tenancies and help our customers in their mission to build thriving communities. We will continue to collaborate with our partners across the sector to make sure our output is relevant, purpose-driven and driving the sector forward.

The post Innovators in the sector: Building leading solutions to drive change appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

Dealing with former tenant debt: A case study
Over the past few months MRI Software have been working closely with Cornwall Housing on a unique solution to recover former tenant debt on their oldest debt. This consists of debt that is five or six years old, as after six years the debt becomes statute barred and is no longer recoverable.

When we first sat down with Cornwall Housing, the age of the debts in question was widely believed to mean that they were in fact, ‘dead money’. Here’s what happened next, in Paul Oxford, Finance Manager at Cornwall Housing’s own words:

“We asked MRI Software to visit us as we were looking at alternative ways to increase our income streams concerning our former tenant arrears (FTA). After a really productive and insightful meeting with them we agreed to look at 500 FTA cases that we had returned from our current supplier after they could not be traced and we were therefore, left with no alternative than to pass these for write-offs.

“However, we received our first file back from MRI Software with details of names, traced addresses and a propensity to collect the debt that we were able to follow up on – this led to us contacting some individuals by phone and some by letter.

“Over the next few months installment plans and payments have been coming in on a regular basis,” said Paul, who went on to add: “The return on investment we have received to date has been fantastic. We have collected nearly 2 ½ times what we have invested, and this is growing every day.

“MRI Software has had a real positive effect on our Former Tenant Arrears collection rate, as well as increasing our income stream. We would most likely have written these debts off had we not worked in partnership with them.”

Lisa Howarth, Income Housing Manager at Cornwall Housing commented “I’m delighted with the results, we didn’t expect it to be so good. We are now looking at using MRI Software to help us collect other areas of former tenant debt”.

Greg Andrews, Head of Customer Operations at MRI Software commented “The process is still ongoing for Cornwall Housing, with another 130 records in which investigations have recently begun.

“We’re thrilled to have already recovered over twice the cost of the records for Cornwall Housing’s former tenant debt, with their expectation that in the next few weeks the recovery will be three times that of the initial cost. We very much look forward to working closely with them as investigations progress.”

If you want to know more about MRI Software solutions, contact us.

The post Former Tenant Debt Case Study: Cornwall Housing appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The launch of the Resident Voice Index initiative was announced in February. The project is shaped by those working and living in social housing and in turn, aims to deliver great value back into the sector. After a positive response to its launch, the Resident Voice Index project has been gaining momentum. We have reached out to housing providers and residents to get to the heart of what matters to them and have gained sector partners to support the delivery of this ground-breaking initiative.

The Resident Voice Index project is a suite of indices and in-depth analysis developed to challenge conventional customer satisfaction measures and performance indicators. The output will consist of data and insights, bringing together some of the traditionally quantitative aspects of housing delivery, while also gathering self-reported data from social housing residents about their perception of their homes, their neighbourhoods, their wellbeing, and their outlook for the future.

In making sure that the service delivers the best value, we have been working with a broad set of sector stakeholders. This will ensure that a variety of views are independently listened to and that the right data is being collected and delivered back to the sector and residents in a way that benefits them.

Existing studies of resident perception are often procured and paid for by housing providers themselves, broaching standardised questions or those that housing providers are required by regulation to measure. Opportunities for unconscious bias can consequently arise, as well as missed chances for the collection of timely data about changing and shifting topics that are identified by residents and the sector.

Why MRI

At MRI Software, we believe that we are uniquely positioned to deliver a truly independent and responsive service through The Resident Voice Index initiative. As a supplier of software and services to around 850 social housing providers, we have a strong position within the sector, as well as the largest direct link to social housing residents via our mutual exchange platform, HomeSwapper, which at any one time has around 250,000 users.

In building this suite of indices and outputs we will make full use of our advanced data visualisation techniques to deliver actionable business insights in the form of ‘always on’ dashboards, to be used for free by registered providers, sector partners, policy makers, regulators and by residents themselves. As such, this is one of the most exciting new projects to emerge within the social housing sector for some years.

Heading up the project within MRI is Solutions Principal, Doug Sarney, who is bringing the Resident Voice Index initiative to life by bringing together other leading experts from the sector to deliver on quantitative and qualitative outputs and research.

The beauty of The Resident Voice Index initiative is that it will be provided as a free service to whoever wants to take a look. This is for a couple of major reasons: firstly, MRI wants to give something back to the sector beyond more conventional Corporate Social Responsibility activities. And perhaps more significantly, the honesty of a genuinely independent service, not paid for by the providers or with questions asked by the providers themselves, which sits outside of regulatory requirements is going to be a difficult message to ignore.

Doug Sarney, Solutions Principal at MRI Software

Our partners

The Resident Voice index initiative is a collaborative undertaking and alongside consultation with providers, policy makers and most importantly, residents, MRI have teamed up with strategic partners across the sector.

The Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT) who have a wealth of experience in this space and also acknowledge the drawbacks of conventional satisfaction mechanisms, has advised our research team to ensure the Resident Voice Index project asks questions that matter – and asks them well.

The Housing Quality Network (HQN) is one of the sector’s main advisory, support and training organisations. They have and will continue to assist the project through the engagement of their established resident network to ensure that resident insights are incorporated into the product design.

The Resident Voice Index initiative has the potential to be huge for the housing sector to tap into the thoughts and feelings of residents on a regular basis. Not just dipping in with a few hundred here and there; it has the potential to reach tens of thousands of social housing residents.

Jon Land, Head of Business Development, Networks & Events, HQN

Consulting the sector

The Resident Voice Index initiative was conceived during the middle of 2020, as our country and the world were reeling from the initial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Seeing a need to collect and disseminate timely insights, the initial proposal quickly led to a structuring of the project and securing its backing and funding, resulting in the internal launch of the project last autumn. Shortly afterwards, the Charter for Social Housing Residents was published, and the project team was delighted to see that The Resident Voice Index project aligned with many of the sentiments and goals of the white paper.

Over the last month we have approached housing providers and residents in a series of consultations delving into the issues and topics that need deep investigation. Topics ranged from residents’ perceptions of what a neighbourhood means to methods of communication between landlord and resident and the expectations of residents versus the reality of service provision. We are beyond grateful for these engagements and they have heavily influenced the shape of the outputs.

Some of the core findings from these sessions were that there is an appetite from both residents and providers to change the way that the social housing sector is surveyed and that there is a need to scratch deeper under the surface than traditional methods have thus far done. Providers are already shifting their stance towards more perception and qualitative analysis and residents are open to being surveyed in a more detailed way if the outputs can be used by decision-makers to make a difference to their lives.

In order to challenge the conventional, we will need to ask more uncomfortable questions than have traditionally been asked of residents. Our findings have shown that residents don’t mind being asked about more sensitive subjects as long as you are honest about why you are asking and what difference it may make. Our mission is to generate these insights in the most respectful and sensitive way and present anonymous results so that stakeholders that are serious about improving the lives of social housing residents can act accordingly.

Doug Sarney, Solutions Principal at MRI Software

The first survey focusing on Neighbourhoods and Communities starts this month. It will seek to understand residents’ perceptions and sense of belonging to their neighbourhoods; the facilities that are available to them; what’s important with respect to a feeling of safety; and what social housing residents like about their communities. The results will be published on www.residentvoiceindex.com once available and also distributed as an insights publication.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the Resident Voice Index initiative and future opportunities to get involved, please get in touch at info.ResidentVoice@mrisoftware.com.

The post The Resident Voice Index™: The story so far appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

After a year of lockdowns and social distancing, governments around the world are starting to cautiously map out the roads to lifting restrictions. Vaccinations have now been administered to over half a billion people globally and are providing the world with a route back to something resembling the “old normal.” Vaccines are helping to reduce transmission and countries like the UK are already seeing a quick decline in the number of coronavirus cases due to its rapid rollout of vaccines.

The early success of vaccination programs provides hope that employees will be able to return to the office in the near future – even as new variants of the virus emerge – but the ramifications of COVID-19 will still be felt in workplaces across the world long after lockdowns have ended. Facilities managers in charge of day-to-day operations and tenant safety now have to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring workplaces are as safe as possible.

Adapting workplaces for the future

Even as vaccination programs continue to reduce the number of coronavirus cases and help ease restrictions, we’re unlikely to see a total and immediate return to offices. Many employees have now seen how remote working can improve their work-life balance and in many cases actually make them more productive. Global businesses have already kick-started projects that will determine when employees begin to return to the office and how frequently – with many expected to adopt hybrid working models.

Facilities managers will have the responsibility of helping people feel safe when they return to the workplace in the coming months. They need to ensure any and all new COVID-secure requirements are being met at all times and make certain the workplace offers an environment that meets all safety standards and guidelines for occupiers. Keeping these spaces Covid-safe means that businesses will have to consider tools that provide greater flexibility – for this, FM technology will be crucial.

Preparing for the long-term impact of coronavirus

The pandemic is likely to have a lasting impact on the way we think about work in the future. While some companies will adopt a fully remote working model, the vast majority will take a hybrid approach and have employees commute to the workplace a couple of times a week to help spark those impromptu chats and watercooler conversations that often lead to enhanced creativity in teams. However, in a post-pandemic world the future of work will likely mean that offices will be reconfigured for shared spaces. A survey from Gartner revealed that over 80% of global leaders plan to let employees work from home some of the time, which will lead most firms to reconfigure their office space. We might expect some companies to reduce the size of their commercial real estate as they continue to evaluate what to do with their square footage in a bid to identify cost-saving opportunities, while others might need more space to enable lower office densities and more collaborative spaces for when employees come in.

This need for more practical space planning, combined with employees potentially mixing working from home with hot-desking rather than having their own full-time, fixed workspaces, means the facilities manager will have to leverage PropTech and the data-driven insights it provides. Having the right technology in place is necessary for understanding how much office space they have, how much square footage they need going forward, and how to execute plans for rearranging floor plans effectively.

Reaping the benefits of PropTech

With the help of space management solutions that offer visibility of room layouts, seating configurations and calendar bookings, businesses are better placed to more efficiently use the space they have – thus cutting down on valuable real estate costs by making the best use of capacity. For the FM professional, this means that they can understand how people are using workspaces and their working patterns and can find innovative solutions to building safety and security issues.

In London alone, businesses will occupy an additional 13 million square feet of office space in the near future and New York is expected to grow its office space by 14.3 million square feet, so the need for FM teams to use software to plan office re-openings and ensure spaces promote the safety and wellbeing of those that occupy them is evident. Solutions that allow employees to book meeting rooms, rather than historically, simply walking in, and more stringent visitor management methods, such as having individuals signing in to record who guests are and who they are visiting, will create a more structured and controlled use of the environment.

Additionally, systems that track hot-desking, informing a manager of when a team member will be coming into a workstation, not only serve to effectively manage space but also help the FM team meet health and safety standards by ensuring that all necessary deep cleans of an area are carried out between uses. This will become essential in implementing acceptable safety measures so that employees can be assured that an organization is doing everything it can to protect everyone’s safety and well-being.

Likewise, technologies for scheduling collaborative spaces such as conference and meeting rooms will be critical to managing the number and flow of employees in an office and ensuring the deep cleaning of those spaces between uses. Furthermore, occupiers can reinforce health, safety and security within a building by utilizing PropTech platforms that record, track and manage everyone with a physical presence in an office at any one time – not just employees but visitors and contractors, providing arrival notifications and access permissions.

The future of the workforce is almost here

There is still a considerable amount of uncertainty surrounding coronavirus, but many businesses are already setting plans in motion for a hybrid working environment that combines the flexibility of homeworking with the collaborative nature of the office. The onus is now on FM teams to manage reconfigured office spaces and ensure they function well. The result is employees can not only stay safe but also improve efficiency and performance. By being equipped with the right tools, FM teams can work with corporate occupiers to prepare ways of working that will become the new reality even as we emerge from the pandemic.

The post How facilities managers are using proptech to safeguard the future of the office appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The proliferation of IoT devices and sensors in social homes has the capacity to improve housing provision in three core ways; by integrating real-time data to improve asset safety, by making broad cost-savings via operational efficiencies as services become less reactive, and by improving the communication between residents and providers to support sustainable tenancies.

To date, the take-up of IoT technologies by social housing providers has been cautious.  By 2019, only 20% had implemented a solution in more than 100 homes. Factors that are accelerating implementation across the sector include successful case studies emerging from early adopters, as seen with MRI client, Housing Solutions who implemented an AI customer portal. The portal has greatly reduced time spent by officers on day-to-day functions, leaving them able to spend time on cases in need of more support.

Expected changes in the regulatory environment will also drive IoT uptake to improve safety and resident experience. The Building Safety Bill will mandate that each organisation has a ‘chosen person’ who bears responsibility for ‘The Golden Thread’ of asset information, necessitating better digital records of buildings. Furthermore, those trying to get ahead by adopting further digital infrastructure will be influenced by the recommendations made by The Hackitt Review for ensuring building safety.

IoT can be deployed across social housing in many shapes and sizes. Examples range from AI communications to smart locks, leak detectors, smart meters, fire door safety, smoke alarms, environmental sensors, smart boilers and smart lighting.

Environmental sensors can help improve safety and service in homes. By tracking information related to temperature and humidity, housing providers can compare poorly performing homes against data around a resident’s financial vulnerability. Identifying those at risk of fuel poverty can assist teams in creating personalised plans based on evidence to improve the resident experience.

For housing providers looking to utilise IoT, three key factors should be considered:

1. Embedding connected homes will drive cost efficiency and contribute carbon saving goals
2. Without a plan for IoT, any organisation’s digital transformation faces further disruption; action now will reap benefits sooner
3. Residents can be empowered by being given transparency over how their home performs 

Data standards and compliance

In our first Data Revolution breakfast meeting, Phil Brining, from Data Protection People warned the housing sector about careful adoption of connected homes: “I would fully expect a revision to the privacy and electronic communication regulations (the PECR) to follow, to ensure that British data protection laws remain broadly equivalent to those in the EU. Privacy regulation brings under its scope IoT devices; regulatory change is likely on its way for the Internet of Things.” For more of Phil’s insights, you can read The Data Revolution e-book here.

Social Housing and the Internet of Things

If a housing provider cannot explain what a sensor or smart meter device does in a resident’s home, how it benefits both the housing provider and the resident, and how that data will be collected, stored and protected, it shouldn’t be deployed and could in fact, damage trust in a provider. For Maryhill Housing in Glasgow, including tenants in the journey was fundamental to their IoT strategy. Alongside the provision of high-speed fibre optic internet, free classes were provided to residents to increase digital inclusion.

The adoption of IoT devices can drive inclusive design within an organisation. Residents with mobility needs for example, can be provided with the control of lighting or temperature from wherever they are in their homes. Smart sensors, planned well, can serve to greatly improve the quality of life for those who need it – but could benefit everybody. Installing systems that work for all residents can also save on some costly adaptations.

Giving residents access to smart home technology can create a more collaborative relationship between social housing organisations and their residents, empowering both with the tools and data so they can share the responsibility of efficiently managing and maintaining their homes.

HACT, Do the Smart Thing

Smart locks are another way in which IoT can improve a resident’s experience in their home. In the simplest of ways, if keys are lost then residents can be granted access to their home remotely. Operatives can also be let into a home without the residents needing to be present in order to carry out routine safety checks. And as housing teams may continue to work remotely, smart locks could also enable local officers to perform a welfare check if concerns are raised.

Improving communications: Housing Solutions

Housing Solutions rolled out 4,500 Amazon Alexa devices to residents, in order to establish an AI platform that would provide 24/7 real-time interaction with residents around day-to-day activities such as allowing tenants to make routine requests, enquire about rent-balance enquiries, log repairs and update their personal information. In doing so, they were able to free up officer time for residents needing more support. Like Maryhill in Glasgow, Housing Solutions also improved their Wi-Fi provision to make sure all residents had access to this scheme.

Under this scheme, residents have been able to request calls from officers at their leisure, eliminating time spent in hold queues and giving them a hands-free path to communicate with their housing provider. Through the scheme, Housing Solutions could identify the most popular topics being asked, which have all now been fully automated, minimising the time spent answering these simpler questions.

Joining the data dots

Looking to the future, the better served assets are by a digital feedback loop, facilitated by the IoT, the broader the impact and business intelligence they can harvest. As this environment is rolled out across sectors, there will more opportunities for joint working. Plans from the Cambridge Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDDB) envisage digital twins that securely feed a National Digital Twin to eventually allow the integration of data between service providers.

An example of this further down the line could be collaborations between housing organisations and water companies that safely share data in order to model which homes could be susceptible to floods and kick-start preventative works to protect those homes.

The Internet of Things (IoT) can enable efficiencies for operations and maintenance, but it’s the promise of analytics that offers the most business benefits. The enhanced technology around analytics detects patterns and trends, allowing you to make more intelligent decisions about the business moving forward. Uncertainty is driving firms to look toward best-in-class innovations that offer predictive analytics, fuelling the demand for long-term portfolio planning, risk mitigation and streamlined strategic planning.

Brian Zrimsek, MRI’s resident subject matter expert on real-estate tech

At a consumer level, smart devices can streamline activities, saving money and time and making homes easier to live in. However, at scale, the possibilities for organisations to improve their processes and services, moving operations towards proactive rather than reactive change, are vast and in the future, could help connect previously siloed sectors and environments.

The post Social housing and the Internet of Things (IoT) appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The MRI client base has always recognised the importance of training – whether this is to onboard new recruits, upskill existing users or get greater benefit from the application by implementing new functionality or adopting best practice.

The change in people’s working circumstances because of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a number of challenges to businesses. For the MRI Professional Services team, the challenge was clear – continue to deliver training and consultancy to the same high standard to which our clients have become accustomed, but do so remotely. While this was nothing new for consultancy, delivering training content remotely represented a move away from a model rooted in delivering training face-to-face in a classroom style environment.

The Professional Services team rose to that challenge and we have learnt along the way.  We have refined content, explored suitable tools, and worked hard to improve the user experience.

As a consequence, remote training has been very positively received by those who have attended over the past 12 months and rather than an interim measure born out of necessity, it represents permanent and preferred delivery model with some very clear benefits:

Cost effective

There are no travel costs, no travel time and it means less time away from the office for your team.

Flexible & convenient

Remote delivery allows for a more flexible approach. Clients can book sessions in half-day slots and schedule several over a few days or weeks and can fit sessions around their working day.

Involve the whole team

Ideal where members of the team are split between different locations or working from home – all can attend a collaborative training session together.

Gain hands-on practical experience

Obtain just as much hands-on practical experience of the application during the session as if attending in person. Attendees have access to a cloud-hosted training environment while also seeing the trainer’s screen.

Learning resource

All remote training sessions are recorded as a further learning resource. All attendees receive a link after completion of the course so they can re-watch at their leisure.

MRI have a wide variety of standard training courses covering all the key elements of our solution suite, including MRI Qube PM and MRI Horizon. Take a look for yourself on our training portal. 

The post The benefits of remote training vs on-site appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

This article was co-written by Brian Zrimsek, Industry Principal, and Arik Kogan, Vice President of Financial and Investment Solutions at MRI Software.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the most challenging planning and forecasting moment for real estate investors since the Great Recession from over a decade ago. In comparison, the current period is both broader and deeper in its impact on real estate, creating substantial needs for technology to help (re)forecast 2021 and the next few years, in spite of all of the unknowns.

What makes this challenge more complicated for the real estate industry?

Unlike other market downturns in recent memory, there is a uniquely human element to the one that has acutely impacted the real estate investment landscape since March 2020. With the turbulence of the last year behind us, Green Street is already noting a valuation recovery and pointing to a continued positive trend.

Global transaction volume hit record lows through 2020 (anywhere from 13% to 61% across various regions, according to JLL), but these numbers were brought down primarily by asset classes that investors do not believe will bounce back hard and fast in the post-COVID global economy. There is plenty of capital available to be deployed, and while office and retail transactions have been limited, other asset classes, like apartments, student housing, and hotels, are being sourced and acquired eagerly by private equity investors.

How to create opportunity out of the challenge

These phenomena affecting the market, and core assets in particular, create an unprecedented challenge for investors, but also an incredible opportunity for those equipped to navigate it effectively. Strategic planning through this pandemic is not just an exercise in economics and math, but an intricate web created by the intersection of the market with human beings. We will be working from home. We will be shopping online. And when we don’t, we want health, safety, sustainability and an experience worthy of the effort.

As more factors, data points, and potential scenarios come into play for real estate investors looking to make quick and confident decisions, modern technology has become table stakes. For short-term planning and forecasting, integrated planning and budgeting tools make quick work of using past periods to drive future period forecasts, while providing for both general and specific assumptions to be put into specific planning scenarios and then rolled forward from one period to the next.

Driving multiple scenarios is important given the lingering uncertainty, allowing leaders to understand the likely bounds of the playing field in front of them.

Short-term, operational plans should then be used as inputs to longer-term planning processes. With a strong basis in operational realities, longer-term plans can be more reliable for further scenarios and strategic planning, including:

• Planning cash flow in support of expense or capital activities
• Identifying debt covenant opportunities or issues
• Projecting valuations as part of acquisition and disposition scenarios

Using data to model scenarios and gain consensus on plans is truly important given the uncertainty of the current time. In addition to gaining consensus over future plans, you must also ensure that you are leveraging data to both manage risks and ensure compliance.

Learn more about how you can plan to win with financial planning and analysis technology.

The post Planning for the future with FP&A technology appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

The National Housing Federation’s annual Housing Finance Conference took place last month and we were there alongside Dacorum Borough Council, Hafod Housing and the National Housing Federation to present our Housing Analytics suite of solutions. The systems, designed for social housing providers, support decision-making across the whole resident journey, from pre-tenancy to post-tenancy.

Speaking on the day were:

Joanna Lewis: Senior Manager – Product, MRI Software

Greg Andrews: Client Success Manager, MRI Software

Sandra Mogan: Rent and Income Team Leader, Dacorum Borough Council

Lisa Slade: Tenancy Sustainability Leader, Hafod Housing

The Housing Analytics suite has brought together powerful solutions from MRI Software’s heritage brands to assist housing teams in making evidenced decisions to deliver support. The past 12 months has been particularly challenging; rent arrears have risen as people’s lives and livelihoods have been impacted by the pandemic. Alongside the practical implications soon expected from The Charter For Social Housing Residents, there is an immediate need for providers to have access to a broader picture of what is going on in their homes. Amidst these changes, using tools that highlight issues before they escalate, housing providers can maintain positive and support-driven relationships with residents.

Supporting sustainable tenancies

The pre-tenancy capabilities within the Housing Analytics suite offer housing teams a full picture of a potential tenant’s financial circumstances. Having this insight ensures that individuals aren’t placed in unaffordable homes, limiting hardship for residents and arrears for providers.

Hafod Housing embedded the pre-tenancy tool into their day-to-day working in order to provide support, addressing financial issues head-on and never penalising potential residents. Lisa Slade explained, “We don’t use it [the tool] to refuse tenancies, that’s the key point that we want to get across. This is purely so that we know the financial background and are able to work with residents in a positive light in order to get the outcome and sustain that tenancy for the long-term.”

Once a tenancy has begun, the in-tenancy solution maintains these positive relationships, supporting tenancy management to identify residents falling into difficulties and avoid negative outcomes. Dacorum Borough Council went live with the solution just two weeks before the first national lockdown. Sandra Mogan’s Income Management Team utilised the software to assist them with the upheaval experienced at that time. Given the limited ability to meet with residents over the past year, the email and text functions within the system enabled swift resident communication and assisted Dacorum in shifting their approach to centre on support.

During the crisis some tenants may be depressed or dealing with loneliness. That more personal contact, sending a little text saying, ‘Please contact us’, not ‘We need to talk to you about your rent account’… but ‘Give us call’, ‘Can we help you?’, ‘Can we support you?’. All-in-all it’s helped us move more towards tenancy sustainment than as a way of enforcement.

Sandra Mogan, Rent and Income Team Leader, Dacorum Borough Council

Covid-19 challenges

When the pandemic hit the UK in March 2020, few anticipated the duration of our national lockdowns or the long-term economic impact that they would have. By December 2020, the UK’s jobless rate had risen to 5.1% and forecasting further hits to employment, the Bank of England is estimating that the unemployment rate could peak this year at 7.75%.

For Sandra, the Coronavirus crisis exposed new worries for both her team and the residents they manage. “One threat is the redundancies coming after the furlough scheme ends. We have been putting in UDCs, markers on any accounts [at risk]. We have kept track of anybody in our tenancies who has been affected financially by COVID. As such, I run a report on Income Analytics and just make sure that we are keeping in touch with those people. It’s important that we don’t go down that enforcement route if they are affected by COVID or are isolating. It’s really important that we continue to keep in contact with those people, that we know that it’s not their fault they’ve been financially affected.”

Looking to the future

While the past year has been one of great upheaval, our aim remains to deliver greater innovation and support for social housing providers and local authorities – and as such, we have maintained one eye on the future. The ongoing enhancements to our suite of solutions include investigating capabilities to link repairs data alongside housing analytics in order to predict future behaviours.

Joanna Lewis elaborated on further work being undertaken to incorporate machine learning capabilities, utilising historical and live data held by housing providers.

Machine learning generally is something that we are building more and more into our products and we’re always looking for feedback for the areas where we can integrate that in. We work in partnership with all of our customers and one of the things we’ve been asked about are people who are in credit or have been really good payers and then a change happens in their lives and it leads to a change in their pattern of financial behaviour. They maybe wouldn’t be recognised immediately, but the sooner that these individuals can be identified, the more support housing teams can give them. That will be available in the product very soon.

Joanna Lewis, Senior Manager – Product, MRI Software

In the near future, machine learning will be used to bolster the work of housing teams, delivering far greater reporting capabilities and supporting efficiencies for housing officers and managers. Housing Analytics has offered long-term support to our customers and when ‘stress tested’ by the coronavirus pandemic, it was a tool that housing teams could use to strengthen the safety net they hold beneath their residents.

The post Housing Finance Conference: How Housing Analytics can improve efficiencies, maximise income and reduce financial risk appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

What if your real estate business could leverage technology powered by artificial intelligence without requiring coding skills on the part of the user? This is the potential that “no-code AI” offers – the ability to let non-technical experts utilize applications that can expedite data extraction and entry processes.

With the digital transformation taking place across the real estate industry, businesses are turning to technology to bring their operations into the modern era. Given its application to lease abstraction and lease management, artificial intelligence offers immediate value for real estate businesses and property management firms. With no-code AI for real estate, these organizations can quickly save time and money.

No-code AI could be a mainstay in the future of the real estate industry for businesses that want to harness the power of AI without the need for deep technical skills. Here are four benefits of no-code AI that can transform the real estate industry:

1. Scales with your business

No-code AI’s biggest advantage is that it can adapt to your business needs as they grow and change. End users don’t have to have a deep technical background to tailor the system or make adjustments. As your business expands, the solution can learn your new requirements over time and easily scale to meet your needs.

2. Allows automation of specific tasks

Most firms in the real estate industry are inundated with manual tasks, and AI can automate these to help commercial organizations and real estate occupiers save time. Processes such as lease abstraction, contract reviews, and hunting for terms and conditions in legal documents can be handled automatically. No-code AI gives real estate executives and analysts the ability to benefit from this tool, even without an IT background.

3. Quick training for regular tasks

With any AI-powered tool, the end user will need to “train” the system by introducing it to sample documents so it can learn what to look for and how to accomplish certain tasks. With no-code AI, this process can be done quickly, and once you’ve trained it to identify the type of information you need, whether it be a key term or critical lease clause, the system becomes more accurate every time it reads a document.

4. Can be used for predictive analytics

Artificial intelligence can be used for more than just documentation and lease management, however. While no-code AI can automate your business’s regular processes and pull key data from your leases, it also has the potential to be used for predictive analytics. AI has the capability to understand the terms that it extracts from a contract, which could give an occupier or lease administrator the ability to make better decisions and budget more accurately.

AI is one of many solutions that can drive the digital transformation of real estate organizations and help save time and money. While no-code AI is beginning to grow at a steady pace, MRI Contract Intelligence has been utilizing this technology since its inception. Contract Intelligence automates the data extraction and contract review process for commercial businesses and occupiers, helping them reduce the risk of costly revenue leakage and providing valuable insights hidden in documents. Learn more about how MRI Contract Intelligence can benefit your business.

The post 4 reasons no-code AI is the future of real estate technology appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

With March marking 1 year since the beginning of the first national lockdown across all 4 nations of Britain in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the housing market has morphed and adapted to survive 12 months (and counting) of uncertainty.

At MRI, we’ve been working with estate agents and property software providers, developing digital solutions to improve the real estate business and streamline processes. Over the past year, I’ve been eyewitness to how the market has coped, adapted, and thrived to remote working, unprecedented activity, and a huge culture shift to digital solutions to improve their real estate business and streamline processes.

Thankfully, the government recognised the essential nature of the housing market early on. While the continuation of housing sales and support in the form of the Stamp Duty holiday has gone a long way towards keeping the industry afloat, the quick response from estate agents has also been critical in making the most of a very challenging year.

A smooth shift to remote working

When the UK was plunged into lockdown, it’s safe to say that confusion was the leading emotion for many. However, estate agents across the country achieved a speedy response to the orders for high street shops to close their doors, and for the most part adapted well to working remotely.

At MRI, we’re aware that many agents are already quite far into their digital journeys, so for many, getting to a position where in-office work could be completed from home wasn’t too difficult an undertaking. Fortunately, most CRM systems are cloud based these days, so it’s been relatively straightforward to get teams up and running.

Remote viewings – the jury’s still out

In the early stages of the pandemic, remote viewings quickly became popular. While the metrics we have access to showed a sudden drop in viewings at the very start of lockdown, virtual and remote viewings brought this number back to pre-COVID levels within just a few weeks.

Customers were surprisingly comfortable with instructing agents to put houses on the market and committing to tenancies completely remotely. While this led many to champion remote viewings as a huge success, we found that while there was a huge degree of uptake in people giving verbal intent to buy during virtual viewings, this was offset by high levels of withdrawals when they saw the property in person.

In the lettings market, the levels of actual move-in throughout this process were much higher, but the bigger commitment of buying a house seems to be a step too far. While I remain sceptical about the future of remote viewings, particularly for property sales, as a result, these did undeniably keep the momentum going in the sales market, so kudos should be given on that account.

Handling continued higher demand

The government’s Stamp Duty holiday predictably led to a huge uptick in activity. Add lowered fees to the fact that many of us have had a lot of time to notice where our homes are lacking, and suddenly estate agents, solicitors, and mortgage brokers are all scrambling to keep up with greatly increased levels of demand.

Without the Stamp Duty holiday, we’d have been seeing an inordinate amount of stalled sales, and thanks to this initiative the housing market has remained fuelled and safely afloat through a truly exceptional time.

During this period, we’ve analysed property searches carried out online, and double glazing – once the most popular search criteria for tenants seeking properties – has been replaced by outside space. This shift in desirable factors is likely going to hugely affect how agents approach selling in 2021 and beyond.

Achieving compliance and efficiency through automation

We talk at MRI a lot about how agents are faced with high levels of expectations to be liable for any failures in compliance for energy efficiency, boiler servicing and other legislation.

For many, the raft of new restrictions and legislation introduced over the past year, combined with a continued downward pressure on fees, can make dealing with this a challenge, particularly in the private rental sector, and particularly with agents simultaneously having to manage their resource levels with fewer staff in the office.

With a perfect storm of higher workloads and fewer staff, agents are rightly looking to technology to ensure that compliance standards are maintained efficiently, and we’ve been working with agents over the course of the last year to help them leverage automation and technology to this end. Whether it’s by supporting them to implement new technologies, or minimising mistakes by integrating multiple systems, there’s a huge opportunity to streamline processes and save time whilst also increasing accuracy and reducing risk.

Why the future looks bright post-COVID

Thankfully, the Stamp Duty holiday is not due to finish with a hard stop, but with a gentle phasing out. Regardless, I don’t get the impression there’ll be a lot of drop-off. Enquiries are still coming in, and agents are still busy.

With so many agents now furnished with the capability of working remotely, the question about whether many people will be returning to the office at all is ever-present. I do think there’ll be a different working environment post-COVID. Of course, there are some things that need to be done in person, but this year has proved it isn’t always necessary.

What has become clear for many agents is the true value of technology to help their teams work flexibly and remotely – and while most have done a stellar job of adapting, it’s vital that the industry keeps the momentum up and continues to streamline, automate and integrate their technology approach.

Overall, with a market transacting at the level it is right now, we seem to have survived one of the worst crises for a generation. From my vantage point at MRI, the market has been kept afloat thanks to the right support from government – and, of course, the quick, agile response of agents.

The post 1 Year of COVID-19: How have Estate Agents coped? appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

With the massive shift to online working, learning and socialization that has taken place over the past year, the customer experience is more important than ever. In the real estate industry, the relationship between you and your customers no longer revolves around the lease – now, it relies on the customer themselves, whether they’re a resident or a commercial tenant.

Technology that puts the customer first

With the real estate industry transitioning away from paper documentation and trending towards data and digital usage, it is clear that integrated portals and other forms of mobile and web-based technologies are critical to support customer engagement. But while self-service extensions of transactional systems are the most common starting point, there are a bevy of customer engagement solutions now finding their way into the real estate industry.

These new capabilities are helping businesses place the customer (not the lease) at the center of the relationship by emphasizing certain categories, such as:

• Lifecycle tracking – Understand the tenant from pre-tenancy to post-tenancy, their needs and where they are in the lifecycle. It includes features like pre-tenancy tracking of leasing opportunities, pre-move-in tracking of paperwork and space readiness, tenancy tracking of satisfaction, financial health, lease options and upcoming renewals, as well as post-tenancy tracking of exit reasons and destination.
• Communication history – Track every phone call, email, and text message, both inbound and outbound so that any member of the team can engage with the customer on an open issue or as a follow-up to a prior item.
• Interaction history – See a full history of communications and compile information regarding portal logins, service requests, complaints, payment activity, after hour needs and any other touchpoint between you and your customer.
• Comparative data – Understand how this tenant compares to other, similar tenants. This is especially important in retail, where performance can be similar in a category of stores. Leveraging analytics and BI solutions can drive future business in other properties where tenant profiles match desired tenancy characteristics. It can also show early signs of distress with existing tenants as compared to a peer group.

Tracking and managing the relationship from prospect to tenant and throughout a tenancy provides a richer context for business. Understanding all touchpoints between a customer and the real estate enterprise can provide important color on renewal negotiations. Learn about the other real estate technology strategies that can benefit your business.

The post Maximize customer engagement with real estate technology appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

It’s no secret that real estate businesses generate massive amounts of data as part of their everyday operations. But how can this data be used to your advantage to differentiate your business and make more informed decisions?

Big Data was originally defined by Gartner as larger, more complex data sets, especially from new data sources. These data sets are so voluminous that traditional data processing software just can’t manage them. But however cumbersome this data may be, it can be used to address complex business problems even during an era that’s defined by uncertainty and the need for flexibility.

Developing a data strategy for real estate

To best approach the growing masses of data, you’ll need a plan and an enterprise-wide set of policies that define how data will be collected, stored, processed and communicated. These policies should address data ownership, quality, access, security, privacy, ethics and retention. It should include master data management practices that cover entering, aggregating, consolidating, de-duping, standardizing, and maintaining data throughout the enterprise.

Unfortunately, enterprises typically realize they need data governance and master data management well after data is being captured and struggles to make sense from data become all too real. But in this case, that’s okay! Why? Because the future is full of data – far more so than the past. The trick is to make sure your business is ready for what the future holds.

How can you best harness data?

After tapping into and organizing data, the next challenge is to find the signal in the noise. Your business must find the data that really matters and that can help drive better business results, better workflows and better customer and stakeholder service.

While traditional reporting still serves to memorialize a point in time, you can do better. Real estate executives should not need to search through a wall of numbers, an alphabetically sorted list of properties, to uncover the metrics that need their attention.

It is increasingly important to take those key data elements from reports and move them to dashboards and dynamic grids with the ability to interact and to drill down. Sorting and filtering make data more consumable. The ability to drill down into underlying transactions, lease terms, data sources and contract obligations makes business-critical information more accessible and allows for self-guided discovery of further insights. Finding the signal in the noise is not about all the data, it is about the right data, in the right place, at the right time, for the right user.

Pushing your real estate enterprise to be more data driven is imperative. Enterprises should use historical data to inform on future trends, pointing you to likely outcomes and potential options while using current data to benchmark across your portfolio, driving up performance.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) grows in deployment, more and more data will become available, allowing for smarter uses of data to differentiate both decision making and services. Tuning space conditions to daily occupancy and usage patterns, understanding out-of-norm conditions that require maintenance, and much more. And we have not even scratched the surface of what the data scientists will do to drive further differentiation based on our vast array of data.

In a world that is increasingly dominated by data, those who can see clearly into their data are the ones who will gain the competitive advantage. Learn how you can equip your organization with the tools and solutions needed to harness and understand your data.

The post Differentiate your real estate business with data appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-flexibility-driving-reinvention-of-the-workplace/ Fri, 26 Mar 2021 13:30:11 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=34539

In March 2020, when the pandemic hit and a state of emergency was declared, a large portion of the workforce, especially office-based staff, decamped and quickly transitioned to working from home. Business processes pivoted to embrace paperless processing, digital signatures, and video conferencing. Zoom meetings became the rage and “You’re on mute” was the phrase … Continued

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In March 2020, when the pandemic hit and a state of emergency was declared, a large portion of the workforce, especially office-based staff, decamped and quickly transitioned to working from home. Business processes pivoted to embrace paperless processing, digital signatures, and video conferencing. Zoom meetings became the rage and “You’re on mute” was the phrase of 2020.

As 2020 wore on, it became clear that working from home was possible, and even successful, at scale. Naturally, this led to the more recent conversation about what we now need from an office, if we need one at all. While some small, satellite offices have been rationalized, the consensus is that an enterprise needs a home and its people need to come together…but maybe not like they did previously.

Considerations for the future of the workplace

While each enterprise must assess what is best for them, discussions and decisions will center around the following:

Density – Space per employee has been shrinking, as has distance from others, and the pandemic will surely drive against that trend, creating more required space per person and raising the importance of space planning and flexibility.

Assigned desks vs. hoteling – The days of assigned seating may be behind us, especially if a significant part of the workforce continues to work from home with increasing frequency.

Meeting rooms and collaborative space – We’ll also have to rethink meeting rooms as it is unlikely that people will be excited to overcrowd any given space just to be part of a meeting. These rooms need to give way to better collaborative spaces as teams return to the office together.

Flexible space – Both indoor and outdoor open spaces have grown in popularity. In order to drive collaboration and culture, having large spaces that can be quickly repurposed will be of increasing importance as ways to bring larger groups together safely without sacrificing utility during more normal business activities.

Space as a service – Ancillary income can be brought into the organization by making some of your space available on marketplaces like WeWork. Similarly, space needs outside of non-core office areas may be met with the use of flexible space from similar marketplaces and providers. The ability to quickly flex space up and down to meet needs is a growing trend.

How technology can transform your office environment

In addition to defining how space will be used, there are a number of opportunities to leverage technologies for space access and usage:

Space planning tools – These can help your organization clearly and visually understand space layouts, staff density, flow and other elements of the configuration and to create alternatives that provide for the space options listed above.

Workspace reservation systems – As space becomes more fluid, technology can be used to facilitate workspace and collaboration space reservations, including in-space displays of current and coming reservations.

Entry/exit timing tools – There are certain high traffic moments that must be addressed when returning to the office. Interestingly, the lunch period is often more densely trafficked than the start or end of the day. To better ensure social distancing, some organizations are using time blocks to manage peak traffic to better address employee safety.

Access control and on-location awareness – Understanding who has access to a space, where they are allowed and, most importantly, if they are on-location is increasingly important. Presence management is key for:

• Air quality and other HVAC/climate sensors – Air quality and efficacy of filtration functions should be added to existing systems to ensure temperature is economically managed in conjunction with space usage.
• On-location messaging – Broadcast or individualized messaging can better facilitate entry and exit windows and space assignments while also providing a method for communications about various safety alerts and visitor services.
• Wayfinding – With more fluid use of space, employees may need wayfinding assistance to get to and from their key locations or to a colleague.
• Health and safety tracking – Unfortunately, contact tracing will still be an important topic as we get back to the office.

In-room video conferencing tools – Given the success that has been enjoyed with video conferencing capabilities, meeting rooms and other collaborative spaces will need to be fit with updated technologies that allow for in-person and remote staff to be equally included in collaborative experiences as the days of poor audio over a speakerphone are long gone.

As we continue further into 2021, the workplace will be reshaped not through incremental evolution, but with the lessons of a prolonged pause, a rapid adoption of technology and much thought about what a mobile, distributed, hyper-connected workforce really needs.

Learn more about the future of the workspace and how technology can help you prepare.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/tackling-the-most-harmful-and-serial-domestic-abuse-perpetrators/ Fri, 26 Mar 2021 11:02:48 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=34550

The past year saw reporting of incidences of domestic abuse skyrocket, while in recent weeks the safety of women has dominated the national conversation. Particularly striking was an MP reading in parliament the names of those killed in the past year. It took over four minutes. These murders are most likely to occur in or … Continued

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The past year saw reporting of incidences of domestic abuse skyrocket, while in recent weeks the safety of women has dominated the national conversation. Particularly striking was an MP reading in parliament the names of those killed in the past year. It took over four minutes.

These murders are most likely to occur in or around the home and be committed by a partner, ex-partner or family member. Those working across policing, safeguarding, the housing sector and multiple other agencies tackling domestic abuse (DA) are increasingly working to embed processes that aim to address the root of the problem and the consequential disruption, namely the perpetrator.

This article outlines and builds on topics discussed during a recent event held by HQN in partnership with MRI Software. Speaking at the event were:

Denise Lloyd

MATAC Manager, Northumbria Police

Dr Kelly Henderson

Interim Director of Housing, Women’s Pioneer Housing

Greg Andrews

Client Success Manager, MRI Software

Extensive research conducted by Dr Kelly Henderson in 2019 found evidence of proactive work being undertaken by housing associations and local authorities to deal with domestic abuse in their homes and support domestic abuse survivors. “Many are already committed to taking action through sector-led initiatives such as the ‘Make a Stand’ pledge. However, the provision for dealing with perpetrators isn’t yet as sophisticated as services offered to survivors. Only 6.1% of housing providers said that their organisation provided any support to perpetrators to address their behaviour.”

The time for change is now; the role of housing providers in tackling domestic abuse is becoming more concrete. The recent budget announced an additional £19 million was being made available to support domestic abuse programmes. The Domestic Abuse Bill is set to go through parliament in April, which has specific outcomes for Tier 1 local authorities, whilst wide-ranging changes are expected for housing providers following the publication of The Charter for Social Housing Residents.

Within this white paper, two sections in particular name housing providers as ‘well-placed’ to identify abuse and state that new regulatory standards will be established as to how housing providers approach DA.

If the sector is going to get ready for these changes expected from the social housing white paper, we can’t just focus on picking up the pieces of the chaos caused by perpetrators. What are we actually doing about the cause of the problem? Many organisations I hope will now be looking at what they do to tackle perpetrators.

Dr Kelly Henderson

Policing domestic abuse during the pandemic

Lockdowns have produced an environment in which victims may be at home almost constantly with their abusers with few visible routes to safety. Northumbria Police have established a core message that abuse is not the reaction to a hard situation, but choices that a perpetrator makes, actively refuting any of the multiple narratives that emerged during lockdown of partners who simply ‘snapped’.

The importance of housing cannot be overstated, especially during the pandemic. It has never been more important to house perpetrators of domestic abuse.

Denise Lloyd, MATAC Manager, Northumbria Police

Working with MHCLG and local authorities, accommodation has been made available for any abuser who has been charged and is on bail or has been served a DVPN and is not legally allowed to return to their home. This enables victims and children to remain in their homes and for perpetrators to establish some stability upon which they may be able to engage with programmes that address their behaviour.

Denise Lloyd, from Northumbria Police hopes this level of joint working and provision outlives the pandemic. “This process worked absolutely fantastically, almost to the point where I was saying ‘I wish there was a pandemic all the time!’”

MATACs (Multi Agency Tasking and Coordination)

In 2014, Northumbria Police force was the first service to design and embed the MATAC process. The basis of the MATAC programme is an algorithm, which identifies the most harmful perpetrators and judges them against three factors: Recency, Frequency and Gravity. During this process, Northumbria Police developed the first definition of what a serial perpetrator is – which is now set to be adopted nationally – and developed a freely available MATAC toolkit laying out approaches and resources available; ‘Domestic Abuse A Whole System Approach’ (DAWSA).

An independent evaluation undertaken by Northumbria University found that the force’s work delivered a significant social return on investment, indicating that for every £1 invested, it built £14.54 in social value.

We’ve spoken previously about the wide ramifications and costs that domestic abuse has across public services, not to mention to those experiencing it. Ranging wide from missed days at work, police callouts and money spent by housing providers to fix damage caused during an assault, the personal and public costs can soar.

The work done by the MATAC teams with perpetrators in Northumbria led to a 65% reduction in re-offending in relation to abuse. What’s more, it also found that there was a wider reduction (61%) in offending across other offence types. As Denise explained, “People don’t tend to just commit domestic offences, there will often be wider criminality involved. That could be antisocial behaviour, drug related crimes – anything.”

Partnership working: why housing providers play a role

For the MATAC process to work, it relies fundamentally on strong partnership working. Sharing a case study of this in action, Denise outlined a situation that may not have been referred to the MATAC process had it only been left to the police’s work to identify serial offenders. The evidence and secondary referral from a partner agency was fundamental in bringing the perpetrator into the process.

This perpetrator had also engaged in stalking behaviours towards a neighbour, Denise explained: “The housing provider had to step in and she was moved, so it’s quite a big impact on a housing provider made by one perpetrator’s behaviour.” The information shared by the housing provider, such as the home being in a state of dangerous disrepair, gave a less confrontational route for engaging with the household in order to assess the wider situation.

The individuals living there had already been served a PPO (Personal Protection Order) because of the state of the property. However, rather than evicting them on these grounds, it was agreed in partnership by those involved in the MATAC to keep them in the home in order to keep the victim in sight and available for intervention and support.

Keeping track of a situation and recognising patterns of behaviour are essential if housing providers and key partners are to address domestic abuse in their homes. Bringing the online event to a close, Greg Andrews, Client Success Manager at MRI gave a brief outline of MRI’s antisocial behaviour and domestic abuse case management software, Streetwise. The interlinking modules were designed and built by practitioners, including Dr Kelly Henderson.

The system facilitates the joint working so central to addressing DA in communities. As touched upon by Denise, DA is sometimes connected to other criminal behaviours and the recording of those incidents can lead housing providers to link action together. One Streetwise user, Chelsea Kelly from Poplar HARCA believes that the ability to see connected incidents, “is really helpful when deciding on action to take against repeat perpetrators and also when considering what other support can be put in place.”

Addressing the root of DA in communities by identifying and engaging those who cause the problem has the potential to stop an abusive situation before the damage that’s done is irrevocable. Putting in place support, including accommodation for perpetrators in order for them to address their behaviours could save lives and also enact real societal change, preventing others from being victimised in the future. In these circumstances, housing providers are one of many actors that have the ability to build safer neighbourhoods and protect their communities.

Greg Andrews is happy to speak on any of the issues that came up in this article and how MRI Software might be able assist those preventing and dealing with DA in their communities. You can get in touch with him here: Greg.andrews@mrisoftware.com

The full webinar is available here.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/your-technology-partner-through-covid-19-and-beyond/ Thu, 25 Mar 2021 10:57:49 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=34399

It’s been a full year since Boris Johnson’s dramatic address from Downing Street, when people across England were told categorically to ‘stay at home’. The journey from then to now has been long and difficult, but the vaccine rollout and phased easing of restrictions provide hope that a return to some semblance of normal is … Continued

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It’s been a full year since Boris Johnson’s dramatic address from Downing Street, when people across England were told categorically to ‘stay at home’. The journey from then to now has been long and difficult, but the vaccine rollout and phased easing of restrictions provide hope that a return to some semblance of normal is coming.

Throughout the pandemic, it’s been our goal to keep you fully informed and updated through various communications and resources. For this latest business update, we share insights from Dermot Briody – MRI’s Executive Managing Director for Europe. Dermot reflects on an unprecedented 12 months, discusses how MRI has continued to serve and support clients, and looks ahead to what the rest of 2021 has in store.

How have COVID-related restrictions affected MRI’s ability to deliver software?

“We’ve actually delivered more software projects in the past year than ever before in the European region. So, I must say thank you. Thank you to my MRI colleagues, and most importantly to you, our valued clients. We couldn’t have done what we’ve done without our teams and our users adapting so successfully to remote working – continuing to collaborate and innovate despite the obstacles in place.”

Has working from home been problematic for MRI users?

“There’s no denying this past year has been challenging, but today’s technological capabilities have made it possible for teams and individuals to operate effectively from home. For example, we’ve certainly seen the benefits of recent investments in our data centres. More and more clients are relying on our world-class SaaS infrastructure, and that infrastructure has stood up to the test. As a result, we’ve been able to help clients quickly migrate from on-premise setups to a hosted environment – minimising disruption to their business.”

Has the pandemic impacted MRI’s growth and business performance?

“As many people will have heard, our business has expanded significantly in the region over the last year – most notably in the social housing sector. I’m proud to say we are now more than 750 people strong (out of 2,000 globally), serving all of the major asset classes in the UK real estate industry. But, while we have continued on our growth trajectory despite the uncertain market, what matters most is our commitment to being a trusted technology partner and advisor for our clients. It’s what we strive to deliver every day.”

What measures has MRI put in place to ensure client engagement during the first half of 2021?

“Our comprehensive client interaction programme quickly moved to an online format when the pandemic was declared – with various user events, webinars and virtual seminars running throughout 2020 and into the start of this year. Across our teams we’ve created more digital content, free training, resources and various other materials in a bid to provide as much support and guidance as possible. The mantra is, and will continue to be, ‘we’re here to help in any way we can’. To demonstrate, we’ve just announced that our MRI Ascend Europe client conference will be taking place in May – delivered via a dedicated virtual event environment. While we (hopefully) can look forward to a return to an in-person exhibition in 2022, the virtual format has a number of benefits and we’re tremendously excited to be bringing you a fantastic set of sessions covering the full depth and breadth of real estate technology.”

Looking further ahead, what is the longer-term vision for MRI in Europe?

“Simply put, we want to be the best – delivering world-class software, services and support each and every day. You’ll see more organic and acquisitive growth as we continue to enhance our offering. You’ll see further innovation as it pertains to a single software experience across our ecosystem of MRI products and Partner solutions. And we’ll continue our relentless focus on client satisfaction – measured in both qualitative and quantitative terms. There are challenges yet to come, of course. But there are also opportunities. I am confident in the ability of the MRI team to deliver for you, and I believe our partnership will see us succeed together.”

Dermot, and other executive leaders from the MRI team, will be sharing much more on our company vision and software innovation at the upcoming MRI Ascend Europe virtual client conference. Visit the dedicated event website to learn more and view the full agenda.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/discussing-hot-topics-in-the-lettings-market/ Thu, 18 Mar 2021 17:07:34 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=34247

MRI Software’s own Trevor Youens, Senior Director Residential & Partnerships, recently participated in a Fixflo-hosted webinar looking at the lettings industry in 2021. Trevor joined Zoe Bywater – Director of Lettings at Belvoir Bedford, and David Smith – Partner at JMW Solicitors, to talk about the key challenges faced by lettings agents over the past … Continued

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MRI Software’s own Trevor Youens, Senior Director Residential & Partnerships, recently participated in a Fixflo-hosted webinar looking at the lettings industry in 2021.

Trevor joined Zoe Bywater – Director of Lettings at Belvoir Bedford, and David Smith – Partner at JMW Solicitors, to talk about the key challenges faced by lettings agents over the past year, and the changes and opportunities ahead.

Here are some of the key themes and outcomes from the chat.

Is this the end of the high street lettings agent?

It’s impossible to talk about 2020 without referencing the COVID-19 pandemic. The lettings industry’s response to lockdowns and associated legislation changes were top of the list for discussion. A widespread shift to remote working, while a challenge for many agents to overcome at short notice, was more successful than many had expected. Businesses reinvented how they arranged viewings, signed tenancies, arranged maintenance and managed communications – and did so in not much time at all.

While panellists felt the technological changes made by agents over the past year are likely to reap further benefits over the long term, the idea that 2020 marked “the end of the traditional high street agent’s shopfront” was more controversial. While Zoe saw an opportunity for agents to continue to benefit from an efficient remote working model, Trevor pointed out that survey data showed many customers still saw a physical presence as an important factor when choosing an agent. As the phased lifting of lockdown restrictions happens, a physical office presence is likely to remain important.

Fast-changing legal requirements – and more to come

Solicitor David explained that the raft of changes to the legal landscape is a huge risk factor for lettings agents, both now and in future. While agents are already under pressure to respond to fast-moving changes to court working practices and eviction processes, it’s important they stay up to date to respond effectively to even more changes planned for the rest of 2021.

EICR certification requirements on all tenancies in England from 1 April are likely to lead to a shortage of available electricians to carry out checks and remedial work. While many agents are struggling to navigate tight deadlines and misinformation, it’s unlikely that this deadline will be extended, and while local authorities have been advised to be reasonable when handing out fines, it’s vital that agents demonstrate they’ve taken as many steps to achieve compliance as possible.

Data protection is also a high priority, mainly due to challenges associated with Brexit and the creation of a new UK data protection regime – not to mention significant increases in data security breaches and subject access requests. It’s time for agents to urgently review their data protection processes to avoid being caught out by cyber threats, and to remain vigilant for more changes to come.

The case of Northwood Solihull Ltd. v Fearn & Ors also poses a tremendous risk to landlords and agents in 2021. If an agent has signed a prescribed information certificate within the past six years that isn’t signed by a director and correctly witnessed, the Northwood Solihull ruling means that a Section 21 notice cannot be served, and agents could be liable for a penalty of three times the deposit amount. While this ruling is currently being challenged in the Court of Appeals, it could lead to a vast number of claims if upheld. Agents need to think carefully about ensuring that current tenancies and renewals are compliant to reduce their potential liability.

Streamlining processes to relieve margin pressures

While there are challenges ahead for lettings agents, Trevor explained that there are some positive signs as well.

MRI’s data shows that despite what agents might be expecting, there’s not been a huge increase in arrears and defaults when compared to the same period last year. There has, however, been an average 8% reduction in rent levels across the country, with bigger drops in central London.

We’re also seeing a sustained level of interest in the UK’s Build-to-Rent sector from investors in the US and beyond, with a high level of mergers and acquisitions in the space pointing to continued strong performance post-Brexit. This creates opportunity.

On the other side of the coin, rapid changes in working practices and regulation are likely to squeeze profit margins through 2021. It’s more important than ever that agents review their processes from the ground up to identify outdated approaches and pinch points which could be streamlined. Trevor considers onboarding, deposit release and maintenance to be the most common areas where agents could make improvements.

Resisting the temptation of ‘shiny tools’

When carrying out this streamlining process, all panellists agree that it’s important to think strategically and not get distracted by ‘shiny tools’ which look good but don’t effectively solve business problems.

Zoe stressed the importance of using technology strategically, freeing up human resource to focus on communication and relationship building, rather than automating communication and potentially damaging engagement.

David talked about the importance of integration across proptech solutions, ensuring that systems spoke to one another and that data did not have to be manually copied across multiple systems, leading to potential errors and GDPR risk.

Finally, Trevor shared a top tip for agents to help them select to the right proptech solution to meet their requirements: look for systems which have grown and evolved over time in the industry, rather than stitching together a few single-feature tools. Older, more established systems might not necessarily be as ‘shiny’, but are more likely to provide the levels of efficiency and integration required to help lettings agents thrive.

Want to hear more? You can watch the full on-demand webinar here.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/3-trends-consider-when-planning-return-office/ Thu, 18 Mar 2021 13:30:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=34207

Real estate occupiers have been rethinking the traditional workplace even before the COVID-19 pandemic. A year into the “new normal” of working from home, attitudes and market trends have shifted dramatically, and it’s become increasingly clear that the workspace will not look the same when employees are invited back into their respective offices. Tenants need … Continued

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Real estate occupiers have been rethinking the traditional workplace even before the COVID-19 pandemic. A year into the “new normal” of working from home, attitudes and market trends have shifted dramatically, and it’s become increasingly clear that the workspace will not look the same when employees are invited back into their respective offices.

Tenants need to meet the new and changing expectations of their employees, and organizations are being challenged to rethink their use of office space, consider the safety and well-being of their staff, and understand how hybrid and flexible work models impact the future of office planning.

1. How will offices be used once employees return to work?

Bringing employees back into an office setting won’t be as easy as it sounds. Some employees have settled into this “new normal” and believe that returning to the office full time would be detrimental to productivity, while others look forward to going back to the traditional workplace. As companies navigate changing attitudes, the office space will have to be made appealing again. The office won’t just be a place where work gets done – it will be a place where people come to collaborate. Rows of cramped desks might need to give way to new spacing requirements, and small common areas that once brought employees together for lunch could be expanded into large spaces that focus more on community than rest.

2. Ensure staff safety and wellbeing on a global scale

While companies look to turn their offices into more collaborative, spaced-out environments, many of them will still have to contend with frequently changing health and safety regulations across multiple continents, countries, and cities. In additional to keeping up disparate safety requirements, the culture of work is likely to impact different office locations. While some in the US and the UK may not be comfortable returning to the office, many employees in the APAC region have already returned to their offices comfortably. This will present a unique challenge for global companies.

3. Explore flexible, hybrid workplace models

Taken together, these dynamics paint a picture of a future workplace that focuses on flexibility and adaptability above all else. Each company, region, office, and employee has dealt with the impacts of the pandemic differently, and workplaces will need to throw out the traditional “one size fits all” office layout in order to best accommodate all of the disparate needs and changing market trends.

How technology can help you plan the future of the office

In response both to health guidelines and market trends that favor space, flexibility, and collaboration, workstations across the office will need to be spaced out, and in many cases, rearranged altogether with the help of space management tools. Creating enough space between desks won’t just help the property remain in compliance with local health guidelines, but it can also provide employees with peace of mind, boosting productivity. In addition, visitor management solutions can help offices cut down on foot traffic and manage all non-employee staff that enter the building – a huge step toward ensuring the safety and security of everyone on the property.

On the subject of desks being rearranged, organizations may also have to accommodate employees who don’t want to return to the. office. One of the things we’re seeing in the return to the office is that many people want to remain either fully remote or on a hybrid work schedule, meaning that not every desk within the office will be filled at all times. Taking on an approach of “hotdesking” – where several employees might be assigned to one desk at different times throughout the week – can help offices consolidate desks and desk space.

With companies using fewer desks as a result of hotdesking or even hoteling, commercial tenants might come to find that they no longer need as much office space as they once did. In these cases, landlords and tenants will need to potentially reevaluate lease obligations and reach new lease agreements. Before taking on this process, both parties will need to have clear understandings of what’s in their leases so they can effectively communicate and agree upon new terms moving forward.

As landlords and tenants both look ahead to a time when offices will reopen, both need to be prepared to collaborate in order to address changing market trends and disparate needs among employees and other staff. Learn more about the trends impacting the return to the office.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-touchstones-digital-transformation-strategy-drives-efficiencies-and-improves-the-customer-journey/ Thu, 18 Mar 2021 13:19:48 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=34178

Property management company Touchstone has undergone a digital transformation process, improving its customer experience and internal operations to gain a strategic advantage in a competitive sector. Touchstone is a large property management company with offices in Bath, London, Milton Keynes and Scotland. They manage over 16,000 properties up and down the UK, with a wide … Continued

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Property management company Touchstone has undergone a digital transformation process, improving its customer experience and internal operations to gain a strategic advantage in a competitive sector.

Touchstone is a large property management company with offices in Bath, London, Milton Keynes and Scotland. They manage over 16,000 properties up and down the UK, with a wide portfolio covering student accommodation, retirement stock, Build-to-Rent schemes, agent solutions (which includes back-office services for letting agents), and lender services. The company has been operating for over 20 years.

Analysing their business objectives, Touchstone identified a need for the company to undergo a digital transformation that aligned with their core beliefs. These include:

• To continue to grow the business – in order for the company to continue to grow and remain viable, adopting new technologies both in internal operations and in customer-facing situations was vital.
• Achieve operational excellence – new systems and technologies provided opportunities to drive efficiencies within the business’s operations.
• Always be customer focused – introducing digital customer portals and improving the technology within the business’s call centres would provide a smoother, more positive experience for customers and applicants.
• Be a brilliant place to work – by providing teams with digital tools to ensure their work was unhindered by a lack of resource, Touchstone could improve the workplace experience for colleagues.

At the end of 2019, the business created a new role to lead the digital transformation within the company, appointing Stacey Phillips as Director of Technology and Innovation.

Stacey and the team drew up a digital transformation strategy which looked at every aspect of Touchstone’s work and considered the benefits that implementing new technology, systems or software could bring.

The main goals within the strategy were:

• To create an entire online customer journey – from applications for rental properties, through to managing their tenancy, and communicating with the Touchstone customer services teams.
• To ensure the integration of their internal management systems – any customer portals and client-facing systems needed to be supported by efficient and seamless processes behind the scenes to ensure a smooth customer experience and streamlined workflows.

The approach

As a long standing user of MRI Software’s comprehensive solution suite, having relied on its powerful platform for operational property management and accounting, Touchstone approached our team to work collaboratively on the transformation process. Sharing their strategy with their MRI Account Manager, we worked together in partnership to identify where Touchstone could further leverage products and services, and where other specialist providers could deliver value.

Stacey also took time to research the industry and the world of proptech by attending a range of conferences and organised events, inquiring about what other businesses had done and what technology could be adopted by Touchstone.

Stacey says: “When I started in this role, I asked how would I go about digital transformation if I ripped up what existed and started with a blank page. That’s the approach we took, and it requires a lot of research into the industry.”

Stacey also looked at Touchstone’s clients, concentrating on their portfolios and looking at ways in which the company could improve their service and provide solutions to client problems or inefficiencies.

Creating an online customer journey

This goal included a number of smaller objectives, required to ensure a smooth and seamless online customer experience:

• Implementation of a mechanism for customers to sign up and apply for tenancies online.
• Improvements to the existing customer portal to include expanded functionality and a more user-friendly experience.
• Integrate other systems into the customer portal, such as utility management, to allow for fuller visibility and more options for customers to manage their account online.
• Create a seamless system both externally and internally, ensuring that an attractive and polished customer portal is supported by a fully integrated internal system.

As a result, Touchstone has adopted tenant portal capabilities from the MRI ecosystem – and has launched the solution for its landlords. The implementation creates a fully integrated experience, from the applicant portal for new customers, through the new functionality for tenancy management and into the customer portal once the resident is moved in. It also allows for full integration with Touchstone’s internal management systems.

Driving efficiencies internally

“A big part of our strategy is to find the balance between having an amazing front-end that delivers for the customer, but also has efficient internal systems with no loss of data integrity,” Stacey explains. “If you’re not delivering an efficient internal service, then you can’t be delivering value for money to your clients, either.”

To ensure the business was internally robust and efficient, the Touchstone team worked collaboratively with MRI to identify the best solution. Through MRI’s partnering ethos, Touchstone was recommended Fixflo, the provider of market-leading lettings, block and commercial repairs and maintenance management software. The Fixflo application can be fully integrated within the MRI software suite, and the partnership between the two companies has enabled Touchstone to implement an intuitive, integrated system.

Stacey and the team embarked on a multi-phase project, with emphasis placed on ensuring that the in-depth integration was done thoroughly and the diagnostic tools within the system were calibrated to suit Touchstone’s operations. A number of bespoke elements within the system are also being built and integrated within Fixflo, which is still being worked on by the two teams.

The system was rolled out client-by-client and, now the integration is complete, Touchstone is working with Fixflo to ensure the system is optimised in a way that ensures the maximum benefit is reaped from the solution both internally and by the customer.

Benefits

The team at Touchstone has received excellent feedback against the changes they’ve implemented. The integrity of the internal systems within the company has become a USP of the business, and the team takes the time to demonstrate to potential clients how the seamless and integrated internal system provides a huge benefit to customers.

“MRI refer to it as an ecosystem, and we’ve started mirroring that language because we agree that it’s a perfect way to describe it,” Stacey says.

For customers, the use of Fixflo has allowed them increased visibility of their tenancies and better communication with the Touchstone team in real-time.

Internally, the new systems have allowed for improved workflows and streamlined processes. The increased pressure on property managers from health and safety legislation and new regulations being introduced regularly requires a lot of resource from property managers to ensure client portfolios are kept active and customers are safe. The implementation of the new systems within the business has resulted in teams working more efficiently, saving time, and allowing them to redeploy their focus into other, value-adding areas.

Digital transformation has also meant ensuring that colleagues within Touchstone have all the tools they need available to them, something that has been intensified by coronavirus restrictions. Incorporating co-working and communication systems such as Microsoft Teams, Power BI, and other products has enabled colleagues to access all the tools the need to do their jobs efficiently wherever they are. For Touchstone, digital transformation is about having large-scale systems that make processes either easy or automated, but also a workforce that have everything they need to do what they need to do.

Learnings and next steps for Touchstone

For peers who are also considering digital transformation, Stacey offers this advice: “Invest time in your strategy, and don’t make it too long. There’s no point in trying to guess what the technology landscape will be in five years – it doesn’t seem like a long time, but in tech it’s a very long time indeed. Research your industry, your competitors, and different providers. Work out why you’re doing it and what you want to achieve through digital transformation.”

Looking to the future, Stacey says it’s difficult predict the next few years, but she expects technology will advance to include much bigger things than portals and apps, “but for now that’s what we’re really concentrating on.”

The team is working through every aspect of the business, from improving internal telephone communications to exploring the possibilities of VR for marketing purposes, to ensure that Touchstone is prepared for the next stage of its digital journey and whatever new developments the future brings.

The post How Touchstone’s digital transformation strategy drives efficiencies and improves the customer journey appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/real-estate-industry-experiencing-digital-transformation/ Fri, 12 Mar 2021 14:30:05 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33975

The events of the pandemic, in combination with the availability of technology, have forever changed the relationship between the things we do and the place we do them. When many office-based workers were sent home in March 2020, business did not stop. With a quick pivot, business thrived and proved that there was another way, … Continued

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The events of the pandemic, in combination with the availability of technology, have forever changed the relationship between the things we do and the place we do them. When many office-based workers were sent home in March 2020, business did not stop. With a quick pivot, business thrived and proved that there was another way, a digital way, to continue operations, maintain effectiveness and drive new efficiencies.

The digital pivot, driven by necessity, must now be tuned to the default way to enable business. Actions should continue to eliminate all forms of paper, provide self-service capabilities to all stakeholders, ensure systems can be accessed from anywhere and enable instrumentation and virtual representation.

Eliminate all forms of paper

If success in real estate is based on location, location, location, it seems that the lifeblood of many real estate enterprises is paper, paper, paper. Contracts, drawings, invoices, leases, checks, reports, work orders, and many more paper items are at the core of many business processes.

While some of these items have been reduced during the pandemic, there remain a number of opportunities to further eradicate paper from day-to-day practices. If not already implemented, real estate enterprises should review and implement systems like:

• Automated payables systems to streamline the requisition, procurement, invoicing and AP payment processes
• Digital contracts, leases and other documents with electronic signatures
• Electronic payment capabilities for residents/tenants and other types of receivables
• Digital mechanisms for the assembly and distribution of reporting packages

These types of solutions typically include the capability for the involved stakeholders to interact directly as part of a redesigned business process, through self-service portals.

Provide self service capabilities to all stakeholders

Often in business processes, we move from digital to paper when we exit the four walls of the enterprise or we get outside the specific users of a system. To fully digitize a process, it must be complete from end to end, for all parties, and for all inputs and outputs.

There are many opportunities to service the stakeholders of real estate with portals and mobile apps that are designed for specific roles:

• Residents and Tenants – Offering transactional capabilities for payment and service requests as well as additional features like amenity reservations, package tracking, community forums, property handbooks, emergency contacts and much more
• Vendors and Suppliers – Offering the ability to make requests for good and services, submit invoices and check on the status of payments
• Owners and Investors – Offering an elegant channel for communications on performance, distributions, tax documents and other important updates

When self-service capabilities are leveraged, stakeholders are able to find information on their own rather than asking enterprise staff for it. Staff can be available to answer questions about the content, as opposed to providing the information in the first place. These capabilities are also accessible independent of location.

Ensure all systems can be accessed from anywhere

For both external stakeholders as well as internal staff, access to systems and data independent of location has never been more important. With work from home policies likely to continue through 2021 and a new hybrid model likely to become the new norm, enterprises can no longer assume that every employee will be doing their work in the same place every day. As such, all systems need to be accessible from anywhere.

Further, software applications need to be made simple for employees to use and traverse, especially where multiple applications are part of a role or a business process. This requires close attention to data integration, identity management, and most importantly, facilitation of cross-solution workflows and reporting. This ubiquitous access is typically delivered via cloud-based solutions.

With the operational elements of the business appropriately enabled and paperless, there are other fronts to attack as it relates to digitization.

Enable instrumentation and virtual representation

There is much talk of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the additional capabilities, visibility, and services it can bring. The instrumentation of properties is nearly boundless, and enterprises should work to find the projects that can generate cost savings or improve upon the experience within the building.

HVAC, access control, utility consumption, and contact tracing are just a few areas where sensors are being deployed to gather data, provide insight, and even launch business processes.

As more of a property is instrumented, a digital twin is a very effective way to present the information in the context of the property itself. The underlying building information model (BIM) can also be used for virtual reality and augmented reality applications, both of which are gaining traction as consumers seek virtual or self-guided exploration of spaces, sometimes before engaging with leasing staff.

In physically separating people from their offices, their employers, and each other, the pandemic has forced organizations across the globe to create connection and flexibility with technology. Digitizing your businesses won’t just serve the near-future challenges as we come out of the pandemic, it will prepare you for a future in which keeping people connected will continue to drive productivity, whether people are gathered in one place or many.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/evolving-with-your-needs-building-solutions-to-better-support-the-front-line/ Fri, 12 Mar 2021 10:40:33 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33981

The software systems adopted by local authorities should not disrupt service provision or wipe out proven methods of engagement. Instead, solutions should aim to bring an organisation’s expertise and information into one platform that can then be utilised alongside external data and with trusted partners. Alleviating homelessness in the UK is reliant on effective joint … Continued

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The software systems adopted by local authorities should not disrupt service provision or wipe out proven methods of engagement. Instead, solutions should aim to bring an organisation’s expertise and information into one platform that can then be utilised alongside external data and with trusted partners.

Alleviating homelessness in the UK is reliant on effective joint working with local authorities, third-party organisations and those experiencing homelessness – and the future of that work should be facilitated by instant and regulatory compliant data collation.

The urgency to proactively manage rough sleeper pathways is clear. In 2020, roughly 2 people sleeping rough died per day in the UK, up 37% on the previous year.

MRI Rise, our system designed to support rough sleeper pathways is the latest module under the Housing Jigsaw umbrella. Built with those working in the sector, the solution actually includes three modules in one; the Rise module, the SWEP (Severe Weather and Emergency Protocol) module and the counts and estimates module.

In February, client engagement leaders, Greg Andrews and Jennie Atkins presented MRI Rise – A better way to manage rough sleeping pathways in your community. They both outlined the process of building and continuously improving the product, its features and feedback from some of the early adopters, including Slough Borough Council, East Lindsey District Council, Waltham Forest, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and Havering.

Building MRI Rise with the sector

Customer feedback from those already using Housing Jigsaw demonstrated that there was a need for a product that could manage the multiple touchpoints across the rough sleeper pathway and bring together vital information points out from their silos under one system of actionable data. Many of the early adopters were suffering as they switched between multiple spreadsheets, lists and resources in order to deliver their homelessness services.

Learning this, a process of consultation was undertaken with housing practitioners to build a system which saved officer time, joined the dots and created a solid evidence base to work from.

We have had to use spreadsheets and other old-fashioned means of managing our rough sleeper service. As a manager, not being able to instantly see how many rough sleepers we have or delve deeper into each case is unacceptable, but with the Rise dashboard I will have the information immediately to hand. I will no longer have to twirl through spreadsheets, request information via email or go onto the internet for the weather reports.

Jason Oxby, Housing, Homelessness and Wellbeing Service Manager, East Lindsey District Council

Each of the Housing Jigsaw modules has been conceived by answering a need from the sector; indeed the flagship module, Homelessness Reduction was designed to deliver solutions against the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA). Regulation and legislation changes are plentiful in social housing and changes can require housing organisations to respond quickly. A system that has flexibility built into it, which allows you to take control and adapt it to your needs is vital for maintaining compliance effectively and with efficient use of resources.

Wraparound support

The journey from rough sleeping to housing will be made up of various touchpoints across many institutions and services. These can include local authorities, the NHS, vets, the police, charities, substance misuse support, shelters and religious institutions. Each of these touchpoints build a picture a person’s day-to-day life.

MRI Rise enables those coming into contact with an individual to record these interactions, ensuring that local authority housing officers have as much information as possible at their disposal. Users have the ability to configure hotspot areas to link sightings of rough sleepers and can imminently expect a mapping facility to consolidate recorded street activity with the sighting records.

Evolution: Strengthen relationships, protect individuals

One of the most important features within MRI Rise is the ability to create profiles for third party actors. Within user profiles set up for the local authority, partner organisations can input vital information and be assigned actions. This feature facilitates a multidisciplinary approach that weaves a safety net around the individual accessing services and an audit trail at each step along the pathway. Rise users have unlimited case profiles to share with their partners, all within data protection regulations and can adjust the access levels according to need, protecting the individual’s privacy.

In cases of extreme weather events, Rise has an inbuilt directory, which stores the details for accommodation providers and support staff. Having this available within the module means officers being alerted to a SWEP event can immediately dip into the directory to invite accommodation partners to provide spaces and support, speeding up existing processes during a time of great urgency.

Adapted to the organisation

Developing this solution with the input of Housing Jigsaw customers has revealed pain points, the addressing of which can benefit the wider sector. MRI Rise early adopters made it clear that customer assessments needed to be configurable according to each organisation’s methods and needs, as well as those of their partners. In addition to the standard questions built directly in line with HRA compliance, local authorities can build assessments around their existing and developing practices.

Within Rise, the outcomes and progress of an individual can be shown visually to track a customer’s journey over time. Beyond the ability to evidence work and measure outcomes, there is a human element that these visualisations can also engage. Importantly, customers can track themselves against these progression metrics. Using Rise, officers have the ability to share progress with individuals engaging with services along their pathway to permanent housing.

The ability to work seamlessly with partners and include live and legacy data sets will become commonplace for local services to enable working in a safe, trust based and GDPR compliant way. Interoperability facilitates the effectiveness of case management systems that move with the individual and the organisations that they are working with. Incorporating these systems into existing processes, rather than disrupting them to engage new ways of working ensures that the vital work that local authority officers do can continue uninterrupted, but better supported.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/mri-social-housing-and-hqn-supporting-the-resident-voice-index/ Fri, 05 Mar 2021 11:20:38 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33752

This year, The Housing Quality Network (HQN) and MRI Software are joining forces to instigate wider sector collaboration across all things technology and innovation. Through this enhanced relationship, we will work closely to ensure that the adoption and dissemination of technology solutions across the sector best supports housing associations and local authorities, and that the needs … Continued

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This year, The Housing Quality Network (HQN) and MRI Software are joining forces to instigate wider sector collaboration across all things technology and innovation. Through this enhanced relationship, we will work closely to ensure that the adoption and dissemination of technology solutions across the sector best supports housing associations and local authorities, and that the needs of residents remain at the heart of everything we do.

We spoke with Jon Land, Head of Business Development, Networks and Events at HQN to lay out what is to be expected from this exciting relationship this year.

“We’re very excited to be working with MRI’s social housing team who already have a huge footprint in the sector, working with a lot of organisations. From HQN’s point of view, we have traditionally focused our activities on the core housing elements; traditional aspects of housing like asset management, finance and rent.

“The digital approach is increasingly front and centre of everyone’s thinking and is becoming important to our members. We’ve made a conscious decision to embrace that and work more closely not only with MRI, but with the wider technology sector and those companies that are working with housing organisations. As such, our enhanced working relationship with MRI Software is an important one.

“This February, HQN have launched the Innovation and Technology Network, which MRI will be an integral part of. Together we want to find solutions for organisations and help them essentially provide better services to their residents.”

Working with MRI, HQN are looking “to provide a safe space for collaboration and help both worlds come together.” Over the next year both HQN and MRI Software will support one another to deliver a range of activities, including virtual events and research initiatives, as well as instigating wider conversations within the social housing sector.

Introducing the Resident Voice Index

MRI recently launched the Resident Voice Index, an independent platform that will enable social housing residents to freely share their thoughts about the services they receive from their landlords and what their homes and communities mean to them. We are pleased that HQN are welcoming this initiative and will be instrumental in driving this message and further conversations across its member-base.

At MRI, we are in a position to utilise our data and present findings back to the sector in a meaningful way, delivering insights for improving services for residents in line with the legislative changes expected to be laid out in the wake of the Charter for Social Housing Residents.

We are excited to engage HQN’s members in this journey. For Jon’s part, “At HQN we’re aware of MRI’s plan to engage residents and work with housing providers. The Resident Voice Index initiative has the potential to be huge for the housing sector to tap into the thoughts and feelings of residents on a regular basis.  Not just dipping in with a few hundred here and there; it has the potential to reach tens of thousands of social housing residents.”

Using data to improve residents’ lives

Harnessing the available data in the social housing sector will undoubtedly improve the lives of residents. For Jon, “This is quite an interesting one, because data as of itself needs to be properly interpreted and analysed and put to a useful purpose. It’s great to have all this data; housing organisations know they’ve got piles and piles of data but find it virtually impossible to do anything with it until somebody comes along and actually puts it together in a meaningful way.

“What we do know is that when you capture that data and work with it, the insights it can provide are genuinely transformative and MRI are again leading the way on this.

“I think we all in the sector face a lot of challenges; the day-to-day is difficult. I think that we have to welcome the white paper and The Charter for Social Housing Residents as a good thing. It’s my belief that the sector is in quite a good position in terms of our engagement with both the government through the Ministry of Housing and through the regulator – and both are currently in listening mode. The Resident Voice Index could be massive in the way that the sector moves forwards in terms of capturing that data.”

By conducting a large-scale consultation of residents, “there’s a proper opportunity for genuine change and HQN are very excited to be part of that; in order to understand what residents are really feeling about living in social housing, where they are in their own lives and where they want to be in the future.

“We’re doing our best and I think we’ve actually responded quite well organisation-wise to the challenge in terms of staying in touch with residents. But the longer it goes on, the harder it is. That’s where collecting and harnessing data comes in.

“MRI Software is working in some very, very sensitive areas that housing associations and housing organisations are involved with. This is really drilling into quite significant social issues – and being able to extract data from that to demonstrate the extent of certain issues is hugely powerful. For example, in using software with modules that enable case management that help housing officers prevent domestic abuse.”

Why should we be hopeful?

Jon continues, “I think we have to be hopeful. We should all have a social purpose and a mission and that’s genuinely why the majority of people working in housing do it – because they want to do something good for society and they want to do something good for their residents.”

In the coming weeks, we will be working with HQN to initiate focus groups on the Resident Voice Index with representatives within the social housing sector. While HQN will be inviting their vast networks to join these sessions, we would like to expand this opportunity to other leaders within the sector to have a role in shaping this initiative. For Jon, “This is an opportunity to get on board through HQN and MRI at a very early stage to be a part of that conversation in terms of how we take it forward. It’s going to be a rolling process as well; there is engagement potential over a number of years here.

“The Resident Voice Index project being undertaken by MRI Software is an incredible opportunity to get involved in a project that has major potential to make a significant change in terms of getting the resident voice front and centre – not only to ourselves, but to the government, to the regulator, and everyone that really matters. I would strongly urge everyone to get involved with it.”

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/prepare-2021-beyond-6-proptech-strategies/ Thu, 04 Mar 2021 14:30:54 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33647

The past year has been challenging for nearly every segment of the real estate industry. The COVID-19 pandemic initiated massive changes in behavior and transformed how people interact with property. Working from home, non-essential store closures, increased demands for home delivery, a collapse in dining, sports and entertainment, eviction moratoriums and mass unemployment have challenged … Continued

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The past year has been challenging for nearly every segment of the real estate industry. The COVID-19 pandemic initiated massive changes in behavior and transformed how people interact with property. Working from home, non-essential store closures, increased demands for home delivery, a collapse in dining, sports and entertainment, eviction moratoriums and mass unemployment have challenged every corner of real estate. At the same time, in order to maintain operations and serve customers, the pandemic also accelerated technology adoption, shining the spotlight on PropTech.

In 2021, PropTech continues to be at the forefront of the ongoing transformation of the real estate industry. There are six key strategies that should be embraced to ensure success, to drive value and to get the most from the technologies that are available today while positioning for the ones on the horizon.

Digitalize now

Technology continues to be the main enabler in separating activities from the places in which they usually occur. The pandemic has accelerated many of those trends, especially in real estate. With quick pivots from companies across the globe, business went forward even as office-based employees were sent home. Business thrived and proved that there was another way, a digital way, to continue operations, maintain effectiveness and drive new efficiencies. Driven by necessity, the digital pivot must now be mainstreamed as one of the default ways to enable business.

Differentiate with data

With such a rapid transition to online activities over the past few years, many traditional data processing systems can no longer manage the voluminous data sets of the modern era – what we know today as “big data.” No matter how overwhelming it may be, this mass of data can be incredibly useful when it comes to addressing business problems that you might not have been able to tackle before. The trick is finding the signal in the noise. To best utilize and manage all of this data, you’ll need an enterprise-wide set of policies that define how data will be collected, stored, processed and communicated. In short, you’ll need a strategy and a set of tools to enable it.

Plan to win

This pandemic has created the most challenging moment for planning and forecasting since the Great Recession over a decade ago. But where the Recession impacted real estate in very specific ways, the effects of the pandemic are disrupting real estate in a much broader and deeper sense. In spite of all the unknowns, the need to reforecast 2021 and the years ahead provides an opportunity for technology to help lead the way. For short term planning and forecasting, integrated planning and budgeting tools can make quick work of using past periods to drive future period forecasts while providing for both general and specific assumptions.

Manage risk and compliance

Managing risk and compliance is a job with no end. New challenges arise and old ones evolve in unexpected ways. As new regulations are enacted by federal, state and local agencies, technology and data can make the never-ending quest to mitigate risk and remain in compliance a little less daunting. When risk is managed and fraud is eliminated, both the property and residents benefit and create a stronger, safer community.

Engage customers

With the world going paperless, it is clear that integrated virtual portals and other forms of web-based technologies are critical for customer engagement. While self-service extensions of transaction systems are the most common starting point, there are plenty of other customer engagement solutions now finding their footing in the real estate industry. These new capabilities are placing the customer (or in this case, the resident/tenant) at the center of the relationship, which is where the lease used to be. It’s about relationships, not accounting.

Reinvent the workplace

When the pandemic first started to impact organizations a year ago, a large portion of the workforce, especially office-based staff, decamped and quickly transitioned to working from home. Business processes quickly pivoted to paperless processing, digital signatures, and video conferencing. With 2020 behind us, we can confidently say that working from home full time is not just possible for many; it can be a setup for success. This begs the question: What do we need from a future office space…if one is needed at all?

Technology adoption and innovation continues, and PropTech has never been in a better position to drive positive change for real estate enterprises and their customers. Digitalized processes, data-driven differentiation, tech-powered planning processes, improved risk and compliance management, greatly enhanced customer engagement and the reinvention of the workplace are six key technology strategies that should be embraced in 2021 and used as a foundation for the rest of the decade.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/in-focus-john-buckland-solutions-principal/ Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:49:12 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33564

Meet John Buckland FRICS John is a Chartered Building Surveyor and was a real estate manager for as US retail bank for four years and a partner in a private practice firm for ten years before moving into asset management software in 1995. Over the years John has been directly involved in software development, project management, … Continued

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Meet John Buckland FRICS
John is a Chartered Building Surveyor and was a real estate manager for as US retail bank for four years and a partner in a private practice firm for ten years before moving into asset management software in 1995. Over the years John has been directly involved in software development, project management, implementation consultancy, marketing and sales. 

What is your role in MRI?  

In my role as Solutions Principal, I have both hands-on practical asset management experience and over 20 years of asset systems development from guiding the direction of MRI’s Asset Management solution. 

My role is to create and own the Asset product roadmap, identifying and prioritising new areas of functionality.  To do this, I keep a close ear to the ground to identify market trends at an early stage and to ensure the best use is made of the latest technologies.  I work closely with MRI’s product owners and development teams to realise his short- and long-term product ambitions and with marketing and sales to launch and promote them.   

I am in the privileged position to be regarded as a thought leader for asset management, both within MRI Software and externally. My recent blogs have featured Compliance, Active Asset Management and Fixed Assets. (links to these will be added). 

 

What was your most memorable recent client project?  

I have been involved recently in helping Blackpool Coastal Housing to implement MRI Housing Asset Management.  Implementation is normally something done by our consultancy team, but it has been good for me to have direct involvement in a project and to understand both the client’s and our own challenges.  It has led directly to some suggestions for the short-term product roadmap. 

 

Your sector tech-predictions for 2021? 

2020 was a year dominated by Covid-19 and the tech sector was heavily involved in solutions helping clients maintain and enhance their contacts with their customers.  This theme has carried forward into the Housing White Paper which, along with the forthcoming building safety legislation will bring a focus on data quality and data availability through the “Golden Thread”.  This will mean innovation in the use of AI and IoT alongside much-improved systems integration, providing that elusive “single version of the truth”. 

 

What are your aspirations this year? 

To be a big part of spreading the word about the great range of solutions MRI have for the social housing market and to lose a few more pounds before my daughter’s wedding in the summer. 

 

And finally… a fun fact about you

I’m a Spurs supporter if that helps and I follow international cricket. At other times, I tried to go to one or two test matches or ODIs a year.

A proud boast is that I managed to get my daughter interested in cricket during the Ashes in 2005 and she is still keen!

 

John’s published articles:

John has written a number of blogs around Asset Management and is a co-contributor to the Asset Manager Best Practise E-Book; to view these click on the links below.

• Blog – How to take a strategic view of your housing stock
• E-Book – How an Asset Management Solution can support your organisation strategically
• Blog – How can an organisation measure social impact?
• Case study – ForHousing transforms the way its assets are managed

To contact John, please email: social housing@mrisoftware.com

 

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-right-people-in-the-right-homes/ Fri, 26 Feb 2021 07:05:54 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33551

In the UK the demand for social and affordable rents is high; housing providers are under pressure to deliver homes for more people and ensure existing tenants are moved into more suitable housing as their needs change. There are, however a minority of tenancies that are held fraudulently across the sector, costing housing organisations and … Continued

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In the UK the demand for social and affordable rents is high; housing providers are under pressure to deliver homes for more people and ensure existing tenants are moved into more suitable housing as their needs change. There are, however a minority of tenancies that are held fraudulently across the sector, costing housing organisations and the taxpayer money and withholding existing stock from legitimate residents.

Tenancy fraud is on the out. In 2019 it was estimated that tenancy fraud in the UK cost the taxpayer around £1billion per year. This may seem hefty, however the equivalent 2011 figure was £2billion. Reports in 2019 from The Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA) show that over the course of a year, fraud fell in local authority homes by 23%. With shifting priorities due to the COVID pandemic however, it remains to be seen whether this trend will continue through 2020 and beyond.

These numbers infer that the actions taken by local authorities and housing associations alongside the impact of housing reform over the last decade, are coming to fruition. So, what changed? The biggest shake-up in social housing regulation, including the introduction of Universal Credit for a start. In addition to this, the Social Housing Fraud Act (2013) made subletting rooms in council homes illegal and that same year the Bedroom Tax was introduced, aiming to eliminate the under occupation of badly needed family homes. Across that decade the digitisation of public services and acceleration of data-led organisations also brought the ability to investigate fraud out from the realm of dusty filing cabinets, helping to connect the dots.

Some alternative approaches are being taken to tackle tenancy fraud. Last year Southampton City Council announced a month-long ‘key amnesty’ for those committing housing fraud to pass back their keys. While this strategy does not recoup arrears, it brings homes back into circulation and may prevent a property falling into costly disrepair if it’s sitting vacant. This type of intervention can be undertaken before a housing provider goes on a dedicated campaign to identify those committing fraud.

The consequences for offenders who are caught rather than voluntarily surrendering the home can have lasting impacts on their lives. One example is a solicitor who unlawfully sublet their home in South London for three years. They were struck off, served a 12-week custodial sentence and were ordered to pay pack to the council in excess of £8,000 for costs and unlawful profits.

Stories like these are often caught up and widely publicised in the media, but the true proportion of housing fraud is representatively small. In 2015 for example, it was estimated that around 1.5-3% of Right to Buy applications submitted to local authorities were fraudulent. Bold headlines capturing the worst offending though, can contribute to the stigmatisation of social housing residents and the unfair tarnishing of the sector.

Despite these low figures, the stakes for uncovering fraud are high. Bristol City Council have estimated that per home recovered, £93,000 is recouped when costs like temporary housing are taken into consideration. Previously we’ve spoken about how housing providers can measure their impact across society by measuring how their work can make savings to the public purse and demonstrate value for money (VfM). One MRI Software customer, Metropolitan Thames Valley Homes (MTVH) have been using the Tenancy Analytics solutions to identify fraudulent tenancies in their homes. Over two years, a saving of just under £1.1 million was made to the public purse.

“Tenancy Analytics has proved invaluable for the Income team. In 24 months the product supported the recovery of 126 homes, which we have been able to reallocate to those most in need.”

Tim Millns, Director of Income & Leasehold Services, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing

We spoke to Greg Andrews at MRI about why housing providers are investing in fraud prevention and in the MRI Software solution, Tenancy Analytics. “Housing providers are in a situation where demand outreaches supply for social housing properties. There are over 1 million households on official waiting lists for homes and when somebody is illegally subletting, there is a family in need somewhere that isn’t getting the opportunity to live in a home.” Being faced with mounting challenges, Greg expresses “That getting the right people into the right homes is the priority for our customers.”

Within the sector Greg has found that customers are split. There are “those who are really on top of fraud; this may be because their stock is in towns and city centres, and these urban areas are more sensitive to subletting, for example. Those organisations are normally looking to make their processes more efficient.” Andrea O’Callaghan, Head of Business Improvement and Allocations at Swan Housing has observed that the identification of potentially fraudulent activity is one of the benefits of using Tenancy Analytics. Another is the gathering of robust evidence to enable swift solutions in cases of suspected fraud.

“As a registered provider we are unable to prosecute those we find guilty of tenancy fraud, as only local authorities have this power. Legal action would be required, which can be both lengthy and expensive, so our preferred solution is to encourage surrender of the property. As our knowledge increases, the number of cases of the tenant surrendering the tenancy has been growing.”

Andrea O’Callaghan, Head of Business Improvement and Allocations, Swan Housing

The other type of customer that Greg encounters are those that have yet to engage in a proactive campaign to drastically reduce fraud in their homes. Greg recalled that, “in a meeting recently a customer said, ‘we’re sure fraud is happening, but we just don’t know where.’ For some customers this may not be a priority because the resources aren’t there to investigate.” Engaging Tenancy Analytics first and foremost can establish that the people living in each home are who they say they are.

“Where housing associations and local authorities may not have the capacity to investigate where fraud is occurring, technology can help identify instances, such as whether somebody wrongly has a mortgage for another property or has been in receipt of a home by giving false information. Many organisations still receive leads for fraud from residents reporting suspicious behaviour to them or from housing officers going out and investigating proactively.” These door-to-door checks are strategies, which the current COVID environment has put a stop to for now.

Once keys have been returned from homes that have been fraudulently sublet – or otherwise – the next step for a housing provider is to undertake stringent pre-tenancy checks. These ensure that customer information on housing applications is correct and those coming into the home are given the right support in order to build sustainable, successful tenancies, ultimately continuing the consistent downward trend in fraud across the sector.

Removing fraudulent tenancies is the single most effective way of providing homes to those who need them from existing housing stock. Yet, over the past year, tackling fraud has taken a back seat for many housing providers as the COVID pandemic shifted immediate priorities. In Greg’s words, “Staff are so busy dealing with more pressing issues than fraud.” But analytics tools don’t need to prioritise; they continue working underneath an organisation’s day-to-day activities, uncovering potential fraudulent behaviour and alerting to false information without drawing heavily from an organisation’s resources and utilising the wealth of information that they already possess.

For more Information on how MRI’s Tenancy Analytics tool can support with the recovery of homes and revenue, please contact us at MRI today.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/resident-led-placement-the-right-to-choose/ Fri, 12 Feb 2021 08:38:40 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33282

By Eddy Irvine, HomeSwapper Account Director at MRI Software HomeSwapper, by MRI allows social housing residents looking for a mutual exchange to really interrogate whether another home is suited to their needs and communicate directly with the person who’s living there about their experiences of the home, the neighbourhood and even the service provider. At … Continued

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By Eddy Irvine, HomeSwapper Account Director at MRI Software

HomeSwapper, by MRI allows social housing residents looking for a mutual exchange to really interrogate whether another home is suited to their needs and communicate directly with the person who’s living there about their experiences of the home, the neighbourhood and even the service provider. At its heart, mutual exchange empowers residents to move where they want through self-organised action.

Mutual exchange is the number one way that council and housing association residents can take control over the type of home they live in and the neighbourhood that they are a part of.

It’s not a new thing; residents have been able to swap homes in this way since the earliest days of council housing. Estimates believe that a quarter of moves made across social homes are done so via mutual exchange. It is recognised in the UK and The Republic of Ireland as sometimes a quicker route than long waiting lists for residents to find the right home for their needs.

For housing providers, offering residents access to HomeSwapper can be a way to reduce contact hours for allocations teams, reduce over-crowding and under occupancy and lessen the hefty cost of voids. Using the feature, ‘Advertise a Void’ housing providers can share empty properties to a national set of prospective residents. In 2016, it was estimated that void properties across the UK cost the affordable housing sector £500 million per year.

Resident-led

Self-service has become the norm for all of us in society across a range of transactions and interactions and the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 only accelerated the uptake in digital self-service portals and digital interactions for housing providers.

Social housing residents are used to navigating Choice Based Lettings (CBL) applications for moving within a borough, through which they watch for new listings and ‘bid’ for a property. In many cases a large amount of people, including those on local authority waiting lists are all applying at the same time.

Home swapping takes some of that pressure away from residents, as the allocations won’t be made on a points-based system. Instead, exchanges are made through peer-to-peer communication, then a mutual exchange application, followed by written permission or otherwise by the housing providers involved.

Housing providers, individually or as collectives, can give social housing applicants a larger role in choosing their placement through digital platforms.

Gate One

Just because an activity is resident-led or done through an instant access portal does not necessarily mean it’s an instant process. One Swapper Story from Carl, living in Dorset describes a common phenomenon of using HomeSwapper to complete a series of mutual exchanges to ‘lily-pad’ from Nottinghamshire to Dorset. He told our team, “All in all, it probably took about four years. Which sounds shocking, but you had to work at it and we worked hard – really, really hard to do everything possible. With so many ups and downs it was like a rollercoaster.”

On the other side of mutual exchange, there are instant successes like this experience shared by a tenant from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in 2020: “We were able to swap to a ground floor flat with a more manageable garden in east Belfast within 6 weeks. We really love it here and are delighted our old house can now be used by someone else to bring up their family.”

What is important is that we at HomeSwapper, along with housing providers share these stories to encourage residents who haven’t yet had any luck on the mutual exchange front; for some it’s going to take a lot of perseverance and work, but it can pay off. Another of our swappers said, “You have to be committed to it. You can’t just put [your ad] there and expect people just to find you; you really have to put in the work and you have to be polite and kind and responsive to everybody.”

Taking the time to encourage those residents looking to move to embrace mutual exchange can be of great benefit to housing providers. The Green Paper in 2018 estimated that £200 million in empty properties are saved by swapping. Residents can be an asset to these homes and help housing providers avoid costly voids. The descriptions they give for their current home on HomeSwapper are often far better equipped in telling potential exchangers what it is about a neighbourhood that’s worth loving and making a new home from. This is compared to housing associations or local authorities listing homes without having had a lived experience of them.

Tackling Stigma

Research from Shelter found that over 60% of those in private rentals feel that they would be perceived “in a more negative light if they lived in social housing.” For those on low and moderate incomes, these perceptions need to be tackled with more housing options being developed across the UK into social rents, affordable rents, housing association homes and shared ownership.

On the positive side, renters with a council or housing association have the right to move across the country without agency fees by swapping their homes and a robust regulatory environment which is set to strengthen in the next few years. On the other hand, these residents have less choice to vote with their feet. Tackling stigma against those in social housing is one aim of the Charter for Social Housing Residents. New customer satisfaction measures and ongoing consultation with residents are expected to be a transformative process in the coming years.

Part of the role of companies like MRI Software, aside from providing solutions that facilitate moving home as easily as possible, is to champion the residents and the positive work that housing providers do. This includes moving away from stereotypes of those in social housing as the most vulnerable in society and revealing the broad, normal and complex communities in those homes and the actions they can take to exercise control over their lives.

Informing the Sector

In the Charter for Social Housing Residents, it was announced that an “evidence collection exercise” will be undertaken imminently to ensure “that housing is allocated in the fairest way possible and achieves the best outcomes for local places and communities.” It’s going to be important over the next few years for housing providers to utilise data to understand what ‘fair’ means and what their residents want from their homes.

The data collected by HomeSwapper about the choices of properties and preferences made by residents can shed light on what the community needs from their homes and the type of developments that should be planned for the future. HomeSwapper data across 2020 showed that the COVID-19 lockdowns had changed what residents were looking for in prospective moves.

By encouraging people to take their future into their own hands, I believe that mutual exchange is a vital part of the range of choices that social housing residents have. Housing providers and services like HomeSwapper, by MRI should always be building services that enable them to live in the home that they want, in a part of the country that makes them happier or closer to their families.

If you want to know more about the journey from search to swap, click here.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/lease-administration-key-uncovering-hidden-costs-leases/ Thu, 11 Feb 2021 16:44:13 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/lease-administration-key-uncovering-hidden-costs-leases/

For a corporate occupier, managing the complex leases within the organization’s property portfolio is a tedious endeavor, especially given how difficult it can be to ascertain the true monetary value of a lease. When it comes to managing a large portfolio of complicated leases, human error is one of the biggest risks your organization faces … Continued

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For a corporate occupier, managing the complex leases within the organization’s property portfolio is a tedious endeavor, especially given how difficult it can be to ascertain the true monetary value of a lease.

When it comes to managing a large portfolio of complicated leases, human error is one of the biggest risks your organization faces as the simplest of mistakes could cost a lot of money. At MRI Software, our team of lease administration experts interact with clients daily to catch many of these errors before they happen.

Here are three key areas in which common slip ups could have resulted in real estate occupiers losing out on big money.

Unreliable lease abstraction

It’s not uncommon for important data points to get lost in the time-consuming process of manually pulling information from your leases and contracts. Collecting all of the data, provisions, and terms from your leases – and knowing where that information can be found quickly – is a top way to drive cost savings. Utilizing “deep lease data” can benefit your business by bringing to light automatic renewal provisions, security deposit billings, and improvement allowances.

With inefficient lease abstraction, automatic renewal provisions in leases and contracts can sometimes go unnoticed, especially if the lease has been added to your portfolio through a large acquisition. If left undiscovered, these renewal provisions can cost your organization a whole 12 months’ worth of rent. In large acquisitions like this, you could also be losing out on security deposits that your accounting department won’t have an accrual for, meaning the deposit will be paid out. With a more efficient review of these leases and through cross-referencing with legal documents, these deposits could be accounted for.

Poorly tracked improvement projects

Major facilities management projects that involve multiple departments (and, as such, multiple points of contact) could also be exposing your organization to financial losses. If the improvement allowances tied to these projects aren’t properly tracked, it could end up costing millions of dollars in delay costs and funds not collected from landlords.

Rent payment and processing errors

There are plenty of steps in the rent payment and collection process that could be exposing your organization to financial risk. Whether due to technical errors, oversights, or landlords in accidental misalignment with their leases, money can easily fall through the cracks, and considering that rent serves as the largest dollar spend in most organizations, that money can add up fast.

One step of the rent collection process where errors can occur is in the application of late fees. Sometimes, late fees are applied when they’re not supposed to be – it’s even possible that a landlord might have set their system to charge rent as late until marked otherwise. If rent is paid on time and charged with late fees anyway, that could end up costing your organization thousands. Similar errors can occur in the simple act of rent payment. If a payment isn’t applied to the corresponding account in a timely manner, there’s a risk that the money could get lost in a landlord’s bank account.

Catch mistakes before they impact your business

Having the right technology and expert advice to manage your leases can save your organization thousands of dollars. Whether it’s through AI-powered lease abstraction tools that pull critical terms and key data out of your leases or through a committed team of experts that can catch errors in rent payment processes through monthly reconciliation, MRI Software’s lease administration solutions can enable you to tap into the full potential of your data, drive cost savings, and simplify your leases. Learn more about how much your leases could be costing your organization.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/agency-home-blog/ Tue, 09 Feb 2021 14:30:42 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?post_type=resources&p=33211

People say siloed data and fragmented digital solutions will soon be a thing of the past. They’re wrong – that reality is already here. You can see it in everyday life. It’s no longer a novelty that you can connect together your social media platforms, or that two health tracking apps can talk to each other and share data. These, and hundreds… thousands of similar examples, are basic expectations of the tech we … Continued

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People say siloed data and fragmented digital solutions will soon be a thing of the past. They’re wrong – that reality is already here. You can see it in everyday life. It’s no longer a novelty that you can connect together your social media platforms, or that two health tracking apps can talk to each other and share data. These, and hundreds… thousands of similar examples, are basic expectations of the tech we use (constantly, if you’re anything like me). The demands we make of our business systems should be no less – especially as the lines between home and work become increasingly blurred.  

The need for integrated tech, for a single software experience across applications – even between multiple providers – is a concept we’ve been leading in the agency market for many years. As is the critical need for mobile capabilities and complete flexibility in an environment that is fast-paced and ever-changing. Indeed, we were the first to deliver live, two-way integrations between proptech products in the sales and lettings space, and we continue to invest significant time, resources and expertise to widen and strengthen our ecosystem. 

But we know talk is cheap, and that actions speak louder. You’ll hear many residential agency CRM tech providers wax lyrical about their integration offerings. While others have been making noise, we’ve been busy making progress.  

Agency Home – your gateway to the market’s leading solutions 

Imagine a world where the tech you need to do your job is available from one easy-access location, like apps on a smart phone. Where you log in once and move freely between different programmes as if they are one. How about if the changes you make in one of those apps updates relevant data in real-time across the whole suite, wherever you are based? Put simply – a platform that lets you focus on your day-to-day while tech does its thing. Put even more simply – tech that lets you concentrate on making money! Our new Agency Home concept brings this vision to life. 

Brand-new, with no cost and available right now for our MRI Sales & Lettings solution*, Agency Home is a landing page that provides easy access to your main CRM system and complementary applications. Powered by our innovative Application Gateway technology, it’s also customisable – so from one central location you can add links to your most-used websites or other online favourites. Go a little deeper under the hood, and the products featured across Agency Home are deep linked. In real terms, that means viewings you book through a portal are immediately brought into your centralised calendar, or a maintenance request raised by a tenant utilises cross-product workflow to automatically flow from client-facing apps to back-office operational systems. And that’s just scratching the surface. It’s efficiency, it ease-of-use, it’s connected.  

Integrations for sales and lettings available today 

Of course, Agency Home is the framework – but what of the filling? Many will say they integrate, far fewer can actually demonstrate it. Available to MRI’s agency CRM users today are more than 50 integrations with specialist providers in the industry across marketing, tenancy agreements, referencing, communications, property management and many more. And if those 50 aren’t enough, we are open, ready and able to connect with the specialist providers and applications you are using to run your business.  

There are certainly challenges ahead for sales and lettings agents as we navigate through and past the COVID-19 pandemic. In a world where customer demand is only increasing, where flexible working is here to stay, and where we need to constantly find ways of doing more with less, one obstacle you should never need to overcome is your software solutions not playing nicely together. We believe it, we are saying it and – most importantly – we are living it through our tech. How many others can say the same? 

Learn more about our Sales & Lettings solution here, and get in touch with our tech experts to find out how you can leverage Agency Home and our connected ecosystem to help your agency grow and succeed.  

* To benefit from the new Agency Home you need to be running the latest version of MRI Sales and Lettings. 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-can-an-organisation-measure-social-impact/ Thu, 04 Feb 2021 21:19:20 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33179

Social housing providers are by default, social actors. The services they provide impact individuals and communities, create jobs and generate savings across public services. Increasingly, businesses are assessing their strategic value beyond the bottom line and housing providers are no different, needing to evidence this work to secure funding, be compliant to the regulator and … Continued

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Social housing providers are by default, social actors. The services they provide impact individuals and communities, create jobs and generate savings across public services. Increasingly, businesses are assessing their strategic value beyond the bottom line and housing providers are no different, needing to evidence this work to secure funding, be compliant to the regulator and build sustainable tenancies.

According to Deloitte, companies that integrate a ‘social impact’ mindset into their organisation use it as a driver to explore new markets, build differentiated products, grow strong regulatory relationships based on trust and attract and retain young talent. In the world of finance there is a growing number (an estimated 17% per annum) of impact investors that understand that the world’s largest problems cannot be improved unless capital is purposefully targeted at the companies seeking to solve them.

What is social Impact?

Social impact (sometimes used interchangeably with social value) for a social housing provider has its firm foundations in providing and increasing the supply of affordable housing in the country. That impact can also be quantified by the difference an intervention or service has from an individual level, such as helping a resident secure employment or at community level, such as the number of antisocial behaviour cases in a neighbourhood. This also of course, stretches up to a societal level, with activities such as making targeted adaptations in homes to prevent falls, which has a net value saving for the NHS or becoming a driver of economic growth through construction.

Measuring these factors can inform decision makers where best to allocate funding, set strategic targets, show staff the evidence that their work is driving change, communicate the use of taxpayer’s money to the public and prove compliance to the Social Value Act 2012. There isn’t yet a standardised approach to measuring social impact in the sector, but there is a mounting evidence base of work identifying what social impact means for the social housing sector. Hyde Housing for example, have built a methodology to estimate that the direct social value for each of their tenancies is £11,175 per annum and has created a staggering £401 million per annum in total social value by measuring the impact social housing has on people’s lives. That number rocketed to £607 million per annum when the economic impacts of repairs and construction were considered as well. Other contributors to this base of evidence include the UK Collaborative Centre of Housing Evidence (CaCHE) and HACT.

Housing studies and research projects like these are proving that interventions by social landlords can improve social health and wellbeing, assist independent living, provide a safety net and make pathways in reducing poverty and homelessness in the UK, whilst making savings to public finance.

Why Measure Social Impact?

John Buckland, Solutions Principal with MRI Software has recognised a recent shift in demand amongst MRI’s customers. “The interest in tools like the MRI Housing Asset Management module, Options Appraisal to inform social impact scores is growing. There are standalone services that can achieve this score however, MRI can pull together the data that exists already within an organisation to include dynamic, real-time data sets. As opposed to a once a year or six-monthly audit, our tools allow organisations to access the information as and when they need it.”

At MRI we assist our customers to build their own scores according to their unique criteria, be it regulatory or commercial. “Part of the Options Appraisal module of MRI Housing Asset Management allows properties to be scored using criteria linked to any data in the system. Typically, this will include factors relating to demand, local amenities, energy performance, etc. The purpose of it is to measure relative performance.

“There are two ways that it does that; the first is financial performance, looking at income and expenditure flows into the future. These are not necessarily social impact or sustainability measures, but that depends to some extent how you measure sustainability. Are these homes sustainable if they are not performing in a financially stable way?”

The second way the Options Appraisal module works, “is for an organisation to define their own characteristics that measure social impact and to allocate scores based on how those properties are doing in those characteristics. Our calculator is user defined; our customers can create their own factors in order to measure social impact within their organisation.”

One reason why this tool is so unique and beneficial is that it allows housing providers to test the impact that proposed strategies may have. “The calculator allows our customers to develop scenarios for alternatives, asking ‘What if we switched to a different form of tenancy and did some work for improving the environment? Would that make an adjustment?’” This allows organisations to plan for the future with a level of confidence in a campaign’s success.

Regulation

John identifies that “the need for more comprehensive social impact scoring has to a certain extent, been driven by the regulator.” The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 in particular, saw some housing providers as both bidders for contracts and procurement authorities, having to prove “Value for Money (VFM) criteria. As such, it required housing providers to have business plans that are stress tested.”

The user defined service that MRI provides means that customers can use our data expertise to draw out the values and track the progress of chosen data points that could be asked of them by established social value criteria made within the sector and required by the regulator.

Investment

In a previous article we spoke about the ESG Social Housing Working Group’s release of a 48 point criteria to establish a common reporting standard tailored to the sector, for social housing providers to use in order to access the £2 trillion impact investment market. The themes they have identified as metrics of social value include resource management, the resident voice, and affordability.

Research by bank, BNP Paribas found that 90% of global investors predict that more than 25% of their funds will support ESG projects by 2021.

Social housing has always been seen as an ethical investment, because it’s housing. But that’s no longer good enough for ESG investors. Increasingly they’re answering more searching questions about what exactly your business does.

Mark Davie, Head of Social Housing, M&G

Investment in social housing by capital funds has great potential to support housing associations to tackle the housing crisis by increasing housing options beyond the private rented sector through maximising the affordable housing supply, social housing and routes into shared ownership.

For providers of housing at social and affordable rents, the considerations of social impact are central to each organisation’s values and operations. Movements in the sector like the ESG Social Housing Working Group, HACT’s Social Value Roadmap and the Charter for Social Housing Residents are driving a need for housing providers to harness their data; to identify what works, to track which activities are driving change over time and to build scenarios for future strategies that balance the costs and predicts their social impacts.

If you would like to read more from John Buckland about how MRI Housing Asset Management can assist organisations in measuring impact and stress testing strategies, such as net zero carbon, click here.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/celebrating-50-years-mri-software/ Tue, 02 Feb 2021 14:30:10 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33081

2021 marks the 50th anniversary of MRI Software, and we are thrilled to celebrate this milestone with our clients, partners and staff around the world. We were excited to close out 2020 (I mean, who wasn’t?) because we couldn’t wait to kick off our anniversary festivities! The golden anniversary of MRI Software The PC hadn’t … Continued

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2021 marks the 50th anniversary of MRI Software, and we are thrilled to celebrate this milestone with our clients, partners and staff around the world. We were excited to close out 2020 (I mean, who wasn’t?) because we couldn’t wait to kick off our anniversary festivities!

The golden anniversary of MRI Software

The PC hadn’t even been invented when MRI was founded in 1971, but we were already pioneering the real estate software space. The business was launched in Cleveland, Ohio, and initially focused on residential real estate clients, with commercial products added soon after.

Wondering how we automated our clients’ property accounting functions in the days before fancy computers? We processed client paperwork and turned it into professional-looking printed reports overnight with our IBM 360-20 mainframe, mag tapes, punch cards and disk packs. Once we got our hands on a Xerox 9700 printer, our commercial real estate product was unstoppable!

A history lesson: Global expansion and growth

The industry was poised for revolution – there was a huge opportunity to provide business services for the unique needs of commercial and residential real estate companies. MRI pioneered the industry and set the stage for Proptech as we know it today.

If you follow the history of MRI, you know that the company has grown significantly in recent years, notably in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. MRI’s presence in APAC actually dates back to the 1990s, when we were one of the first providers in the region. The expansion outside of our Cleveland headquarters accelerated in 2002, when MRI became part of Intuit and was known as Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES). In 2010, Intuit spun out the real estate division and MRI Software was once again a standalone business.

Fast-forward a few years to 2015, when our aggressive growth strategy took off. The company expanded even more, first to Toronto, then Atlanta, bolstering its Investment Solutions offering along the way. The journey accelerated after that, with the addition of teams in South Africa, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and India. But MRI’s growth was about more than increasing its global footprint – the company strategically expanded its offerings and entered new markets, adding innovative solutions for automated communications, risk management, payments, and the underserved government-subsidized housing sector.

Today, we are proud to have clients and staff on all continents except Antarctica (we’re working on it). We continue to push the limits of innovation for real estate technology, and as a result, MRI was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the US in 2020 (and 2021!). Not bad for an established business that’s been around since 1971.

And the beat goes on

Much has changed in the world of technology since MRI was founded, but the important things have stayed the same. Our obsession with client success has been around since day one, and we still strive to amaze our clients and learn from them in our quest for innovation. In the early days, working at MRI felt like being part of a family, and our culture still embodies this today. Even now, MRI employees have opportunities to try new things and explore different roles within the organization.

As MRI continues to grow, our mission to help organizations transform the way communities live, work and play remains at the core of the business. It’s true even after 50 years, and it will remain so 50 years from now. Learn more about who we are.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/in-focus/ Mon, 01 Feb 2021 15:47:43 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33070

With over 15 years’ experience gained in social housing, Greg Andrews is MRI Software’s Senior Solutions Architect, responsible for our Tenancy Analytics suite of solutions. We asked Greg to give us a brief review of his 2020 project highlights and predictions for 2021. Your role at MRI Social Housing? I’m a Solutions Architect working in … Continued

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With over 15 years’ experience gained in social housing, Greg Andrews is MRI Software’s Senior Solutions Architect, responsible for our Tenancy Analytics suite of solutions. We asked Greg to give us a brief review of his 2020 project highlights and predictions for 2021.

Your role at MRI Social Housing?

I’m a Solutions Architect working in the Social Housing Sales Engineering team. My job is to ultimately support the Sales team. I love talking to customers and helping them understand what benefits our products offer.

Most memorable client project in 2020?

Working with Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH) was a great highlight. Using the MRI Tenancy Analytics solution, they were able to recover 126 homes from fraudulent activity. They have since been able to reallocate these homes to those most in need. MTVH estimated this exercise saved over £1m to the public purse. With UK housing at such a premium, this was a brilliant success story; ensuring the right people live in the best-fit properties.

Sector tech predictions for 2021?

One positive to come out of the last year is that we have demonstrated we can continue to work more efficiently from home. I always enjoy travelling to meet customers, but as we have seen over the past 12 months; many meetings can be held remotely via Teams and Zoom. This will continue, post-Covid, with flexibility across the workplace, greater emphasis on ensuring staff are technologically equipped to work from home and also bigger office spaces being replaced in favour of agile, working-hubs.

On another note, the Government’s Social Housing White Paper highlights the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on reinforcing the need for a safe home. Tackling issues such as antisocial behaviour, domestic abuse and providing support to vulnerable people continue to be vital, and MRI has proven solutions ready to help with these challenges. I believe social housing providers will increasingly look to analyse individual resident behaviours, as well as any risks they might be vulnerable to, which will not only ensure organisations secure more sustainable tenancies but that they can provide the necessary resources to support their tenants and communities.

For the housing sector, the ability to assess financial vulnerability levels across the whole tenant journey is essential. We hear from lots of our customers that engagement with tenants happens at a much higher rate when the right support is offered before they move into a property. Making use of our pre-tenancy analytics reports will help enable tenants to have a long, thriving tenancy with open, honest communications with their landlords.

Aspirations for 2021?

After the many changes following the acquisition of Orchard, Castleton and Housing Partners, I’m looking forward to being a part of and contributing to a much wider team and supporting our clients through what looks to be yet another crucial year in social housing. We are 100% focused on delivering solutions that truly benefit our clients, but also with their customers experience in mind.  Also, I hope to see Arsenal win a trophy, but that may be a wish too far!

Contact Greg Andrews: Greg.Andrews@MRIsoftware.com

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/leveraging-technology-transform-facilities-management-software-reopen-commercial-properties/ Fri, 22 Jan 2021 20:19:05 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33011

2021 has started with more uncertainty than many had hoped for despite the development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines. The spread of new, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus has left many who were looking forward to a return to the office now facing further doubts and fresh restrictions aimed at controlling the pandemic while the … Continued

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2021 has started with more uncertainty than many had hoped for despite the development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines. The spread of new, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus has left many who were looking forward to a return to the office now facing further doubts and fresh restrictions aimed at controlling the pandemic while the new vaccines are rolled out. Indeed, it will still be months before we see a return to something even resembling the “old normal.” For a facilities manager in charge of building maintenance and ensuring staff and tenant safety, that means making ongoing adjustments for both sites that must remain open and those that plan to reopen as circumstances improve.

As the situation continues to evolve, commercial property operators need to re-evaluate the way they carry out day-to-day operations to ensure everyone is safe and healthy – and technology can play a crucial role in meeting new challenges. Given the ongoing necessity of social distancing, facilities managers need to continue to provide updates on health and safety procedures and communicate what steps are being taken to protect everyone working or visiting a workspace. These include deep cleaning processes, building security measures and efforts to minimize physical proximity.

It has become clear that, as restrictions change and the COVID situation continues to shift, effective facilities management in the commercial sector will be vitally important. It becomes critical not just in providing safe working environments for those who must venture back to offices and other workspaces, but in instilling confidence that everyone onsite is safe. Indeed, the task of managing facilities maintenance (FM) will become more complex and increasingly important to efforts aimed at a safe return to normality in the long run.

Managing the workplace as restrictions ease

When more people begin returning to offices, facilities managers will shoulder an important responsibility. They need to ensure any and all new requirements are being met during any transition period in the coming months when people may feel safer returning to buildings, but there are still concerns about the spread of the virus. The need to work with occupiers to make certain the workplace offers an environment that meets all safety standards and guidelines – such as one-way systems or desk placements.

Indeed, we will likely see numerous examples of how organizations will need to rethink and repurpose their use of space, both to meet interim requirements and in fact, on a permanent basis in many cases. This could include areas that are isolated or “out of bounds” for specific individuals or groups – or may even stretch to areas for testing facilities. What’s more, many FM departments and workplace managers will be tasked with completely reimagining their organization’s use and utilization of real estate given shifts in working patterns and increased numbers of remote employees.

Technology will play a critical role in handling the changing nature of work. Paper-based, manual methods are not robust or reliable enough to manage this evolving situation. They cannot be relied on to guide well-informed, strategic decision-making which is required.

Digitalizing the facilities management process

The need to plan spaces more effectively means facilities managers have to rely on complete and accurate information – and have the right solutions in place to visualize and manage their space and related workplace data – so they can take all necessary steps. To properly address these challenges, space management solutions that offer visibility of room layouts, seating configurations and calendar bookings in one place will help ensure that locations are utilized in the best and safest way. Through software, actions or assets can be assigned to users, and can all be tracked on the system, while requests, assignments and approvals can be applied and automated. In what has the potential to be a confusing and sensitive time for stakeholders, this clear communication will be vital.

Furthermore, building security and safety will continue to be a significant issue as conditions change in the coming months. There is a growing need for facilities managers to look at how to streamline visitor management and lobby traffic. Knowing the who, when and where of everyone in a commercial property – whether visitors, contractors, tenants, or FM staff themselves – will be more important than ever in ensuring the safe operation of facilities and complying with any government track and trace requirements.

Facilities managers can utilize technology that allows the capture and analysis of real-time data on new working patterns and visitor activity to ensure commercial properties’ smooth running. For instance, visitor management solutions that offer an intuitive interface to quickly check in staff and register visitors will be critical to ensuring the overall safety for everyone, while efficiently managing the process.

Employing technology that ensures effective measures are in place and enables organizations to communicate that to all staff will be important in inspiring confidence and assuring those returning to work that their health and safety are being protected.

Opening clear lines of communication

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of communication across estates and property teams today. Corporate occupiers and building staff alike need information on everything from social distancing and cleaning, to procedures for maintenance and contractors, to visitor management and where to enter/exit. Tenants, employees and customers, as well as FM teams and contractors, need to be made aware of all new rules, restrictions and actions taken in every physical working space, and digital solutions are a quick way to communicate up-to-date information to ensure safety.

Utilizing online portals, for instance, not only enables facilities management teams to maintain clear and consistent lines of communications, but they also provide a straightforward, agile way to handle day-to-day queries, as well as urgent issues – particularly those raised by COVID-19. Issues that might have previously been considered non-urgent could suddenly become critical in the context of maintaining a COVID-secure environment. FM teams will want to rely on their software’s flexibility to track and monitor new and ongoing issues.

Workplace communications have already taken on a new level of importance, and this will continue as new requirements develop. For example, FM managers will need to have digital tools for ensuring that engineers and contractors have all the information they need. They will also need to run an effective multi-discipline helpdesk to deal with reactive jobs and manage COVID related issues. Facilities managers will likely need to have procedures in place, for instance, if a COVID case is reported at their location. With an appropriate FM system, they could have built-in workflows of the steps needed to manage and respond to such an incident.

The pandemic and its fallout also continue to impact how teams communicate and execute planned work. For example, suppose there are simultaneous jobs at a building. In that case, measures might need to be taken to prevent separate teams or engineers from being in a building together and to allow for cleaning to occur between their visits.

Boosting efficiency and agility through FM technology

The impact of the coronavirus crisis on facilities management will reverberate for some time, even once the rollout of vaccines signals that it is safer to return to workspaces. Facilities managers were already facing mounting pressure to provide better customer service than ever while also cutting costs, and that will continue as people filter back into workplaces.

Everyone coming into offices and other workspaces today has high expectations on the use of digital technology to live, work and play. Investing in the right digital solutions not only improves the working and customer experience but boosts efficiency by optimizing the use of staff and time needed to deal with tenant issues – leading to savings.

COVID-19 has drastically accelerated technology adoption and, as the remit of facilities managers continues to broaden, going digital will be an essential component for commercial properties looking to optimize facilities management and ensure the safety of all involved.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/putting-the-resident-first/ Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:32:08 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32978

Operating models for delivering services are being propelled years into the future for housing teams. By necessity, delivering customer-centric social housing services from home and 24/7 direct-to-customer communication channels have become the norm. These services can be utilised for ensuring flowing dialogue between housing provider and resident that manifests itself in more meaningful resident engagement. … Continued

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Operating models for delivering services are being propelled years into the future for housing teams. By necessity, delivering customer-centric social housing services from home and 24/7 direct-to-customer communication channels have become the norm. These services can be utilised for ensuring flowing dialogue between housing provider and resident that manifests itself in more meaningful resident engagement.

The change in operating environment for teams over the past twelve months means that digital access for residents has been implemented with urgency rather than necessarily through a digital transformation strategy. According to McKinsey, the share of digitally-enabled products has accelerated by seven years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amidst this change, tenancies have still begun and ended and repairs have needed to be arranged. In the past year, residents have become much more familiar and comfortable with self-service. When stay at home orders were announced, Phil Riley, an independent IT consultant speaking on the MRI Social Housing webinar, ‘Social Housing From Home: 2021’, found that organisations in the sector that had already invested in their digital offering reaped the benefits and felt less impact from the change to working environment than those who had not.

When the pandemic struck, resident contact became the biggest challenge, with face-to-face meetings and support an impossibility. This was against a back-drop of residents becoming increasingly worried about the financial impact of the lockdown. The majority of housing providers have done an excellent job in remaining connected with vulnerable residents and in attempting to allay fears. However, these challenges have unsurprisingly, put housing teams under huge stress, with longer working hours and mounting costs of service delivery.

According to Phil Riley, during the height of the pandemic residents began making complaints to housing providers about impossibly long call queues. A trend that followed was the almost wholesale move to text channels such as SMS, webchat and social media. Many providers, small and large, are only now coming to grips with what is needed in the medium-term to entrench these methods in their service delivery and ensure the best outcomes for all residents.

However keen and good the sector gets at deploying new technology, we must never lose sight that it is about the residents getting in contact. It is of strategic importance to craft and deliver strong comms campaigns that bring customers along the journey.

Phil Riley, Independent Social Housing Technology Consultant

Bringing service to the sofa

In the face of a more pressing need to engage with alternative communication methods, many residents have grown in confidence around using them as a mode of communication with their housing provider. It is imperative however, that no one be left behind; generational gaps and access to devices must to be taken into consideration with service delivery.

In the incredible rush to provide remote services, many systems and channels have been established in a reactive way. Now is the time to step back, see what has worked and understand from residents how easy they find completing tasks on a day-to-day basis, evaluate which devices they use and whether tools like a single sign-on would suit their needs better.

James Massey, Strategy Director at MRI believes that social housing is in a unique position within the wider housing sector: “Organisations hold large amounts of data about their properties and people. Harnessing this data can pinpoint areas for improvement that can directly impact residents’ lives. In the difficult months ahead, some residents will need increased levels of support. Efficiently managed data and comprehensive self-service for business-as-usual activities is a necessity to assign help to where it can make the largest difference.”

Once an organisation understands who is on the sofa, service delivery teams can be supported and trained to deal smoothly with enquiries and painlessly assist those who might need extra help from home. “Effective data management enables organisations to build responsive services. Social housing residents, like us all, are used to real-time updates, targeted content and rapid customer service; their housing providers should be no different.”

The Regulatory Environment

In the coming months, the expectations placed upon housing providers will become more demanding; to communicate their work with residents; gather their opinions on the organisation’s performance and listen to their ideas on how to improve services. Last November’s social housing white paper outlined that, “Stronger resident engagement by landlords will give residents a clearer voice so that they can hold landlords to account.“ This will be challenge enough, however it now seems likely that providers will need to engineer these consultations and communications mainly in the digital sphere.

Some housing providers are building digital engagement spaces to encourage communities to bring their presence online. Sutton Housing in their 2019/2021 Resident Engagement Strategy, announced a 24/7 resident portal for services as well as digital information in communal areas of buildings, giving real-time updates about events, services and repairs.

Establishing meaningful resident engagement can build trust in an organisation, reduce complaints and boost satisfaction scores. The London Assembly Report, ‘Hearing resident voices in social housing’ found that the social housing sector is proactively leading the charge in engaging residents in new ways.

Case Study: Engaging Residents with Digital Tools, Optivo Housing

Optivo aimed to reach out to residents not normally interested or able to take part in more traditional forms of resident engagement, like community groups or scrutiny panels. In order to do this, they built new channels for digital engagement, ultimately gaining 15,000 responses through their online engagement hub, which represented a 75% increase in participation on the previous year. A notable increase was a 35% rise in engagement rates from those under 35.

The future of digital engagement

Organisational culture and buy-in has been named by the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence as the most important element for achieving meaningful resident engagement and open communications. Six years of data from a large housing association showed a ‘strong and intensified correlation’ between involving residents in decision making and planning, and improved financial performance.

In the coming years, to achieve the levels of resident engagement that will help an organisation thrive and comply with incoming regulations, many day-to-day processes need to become digitally enabled. This resident self-service is expected to release housing teams from these everyday tasks, meaning that they can work alongside residents to provide better, more-sustainable tenancies, enhanced services and thriving communities.

Hearing and listening to the voice of tenants and communities has never been more important. We have an opportunity now to make far-reaching and innovative change to how we deliver engagement. The key will be to put in place engagement practices built on mutual respect, trust, accountability and transparency. I am heartened to see the sector embracing the opportunities that digital can bring to encourage and enable more people to get involved, facilitating conversations quicker and in different ways.

Jenny Osbourne, MBE TPAS Chief Executive

 

 

 

 

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/understanding-your-residents/ Fri, 15 Jan 2021 08:11:01 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32937

Developing an understanding of who residents are, what their situation is and how they behave and react to disruption both before a tenancy begins and during one, is key for housing providers to build sustainable tenancies and tailor support. Social housing providers have become a sector of experts in dealing with a shifting operational environment … Continued

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Developing an understanding of who residents are, what their situation is and how they behave and react to disruption both before a tenancy begins and during one, is key for housing providers to build sustainable tenancies and tailor support.

Social housing providers have become a sector of experts in dealing with a shifting operational environment with limited resources. Challenges faced by housing associations and local authorities over the last few years, such as the roll out of Universal Credit or rent reduction made the impact of 2020 acutely felt by housing providers and residents alike.

In November 2020, Greg Andrews and Joanna Lewis from the MRI Social Housing team presented a webinar exploring ‘Tenancy and Arrears Management’. The session touched upon MRI Housing Analytics software solutions and their ability to offer insights into individual residents’ behaviours as well as any risks they might be vulnerable to, ensuring organisations not only secure tenancies but sustain and support them.

The MRI Housing Analytics suite supports our customers to understand their residents at two key stages of the tenant journey.

1. Pre-tenancy: MRI Safestart
2. In-tenancy: MRI Tenancy Analytics & Income Analytics

Pre-tenancy and in-tenancy analytics can help to build a rounded understanding of a resident and the pressure points they might face. Experian, one of the external data sources used in the MRI Tenancy Analytics tool, estimate that 50% of adults in the UK are potentially financially vulnerable, with 3 million people unable to pay debts when they are due.

Building the Bigger Picture

For social landlords, one of the biggest risks for rental arrears recognised by Income Manager, Alison Myhill at North Devon Homes is “at the start of the tenancy.” Robust analytics can provide income teams with real-time data to assist informed decisions and establish sustainable tenancies.

Before a social housing tenancy begins, pre-tenancy assessments can provide significant benefits in building a picture of who a resident is and what services they may need to access across their time in a home. In our Senior Solutions Architect, Greg Andrews’ experience, “We hear from lots of our customers that engagement with residents happens at a much higher rate when the right support is offered before they move into a property.”

For organisations, pre-tenancy analytics solutions should be used as a springboard for human investigation; an opportunity to co-create with the resident a structure that can enable them to have a long, thriving tenancy with open, honest communications. If those channels are opened before a missed rent payment, timely customer engagement can also help to improve the mental health of residents by alleviating some of the stress caused by debt.

As part of our application process we carry out a Safestart affordability assessment which looks both at the customer’s incoming and outgoing monies as well as any current debt or liabilities they may have.
This enables us to have frank and honest conversations with our customers on how they might afford the rent and costs of living in their new home and support them best by signposting them to additional support when needed.

Holly Edwards, Head of Lettings, Stonewater

During a tenancy, a resident may fall into rent arrears seemingly suddenly and without communication with their housing provider as to the context. For some housing providers, a missed rent payment may be the first signal of someone in financial distress. Using data analytics, which harness externally available data sources, organisations can track the financial performance of an individual. These tools can flag the first signals of hardship months in advance and thereby mitigate the possibility of rent arrears, while highlighting those most at risk due to circumstances such as welfare issues, vulnerabilities and fuel poverty.

When external data points are accompanied with internal information gathered by the housing provider, officers can approach communications with a broad understanding of a resident and their needs. Additional context, such as whether a resident has accessed a food bank, what their employment status is or if an individual requires support around literacy will influence the approach that officers take with interactions and the mediums they choose.

Listening to Resident Preferences

Feedback from MRI Social Housing customers using the Income Analytics tools have shown that residents generally prefer SMS communications and are more likely to respond to calls for action when they are received via that channel. Pertinent questions are – knowing this – where else can SMS be applied? – and how can housing providers rightly serve or train those who are not comfortable with that method of communication?

Using every touchpoint to listen to residents can transform the relationship that a resident has with their housing provider. Utilising the MRI repairs and maintenance tools, organisations can compile information around the best time of day to reach residents in order to ease everyday interactions, for example if a resident works unsociable shift patterns or are more available once children have been dropped at school.

As digital self-service becomes more prevalent across most consumer and public services, having a grip on the type of platforms residents are comfortable with will be paramount to conducting fruitful two-way communications.

The past year in particular, has seen many people’s earnings and security come under threat. Grampian Housing Association in Scotland found that 30% of residents asked were slightly worse off than before 2020 and just over 20% were significantly worse off. Understandably, the self-employed in particular, were the people most at risk of financial hardship during this period. In addition to these findings, 15% of residents asked, who were previously self-sufficient had now applied for welfare and benefits.

To provide a quality response, effective landlord services must be holistic in approach, with fit-for-purpose integral data and systems that are integrated with professional skills and expertise.

Inside Housing

Looking to the future: Predictive analytics

For the housing sector, the ability to assess financial stress across the whole resident journey is essential. Philosopher Marshall McLuhan said, “We march backwards into the future”; the ability to look back at financial behaviour across years of data collection can indicate patterns and moments where arrears are likely to increase because of other financial commitments.

Christmas is a good example of this; most people’s spending stretches to account for presents, luxury food and rising heating bills, leaving other outgoings to fall short. Data across multi-year stretches showing proof of financial difficulty during those winter months can help officers instigate conversations in autumn and plan solutions alongside their at-risk residents. When analytics and customer modelling are utilised in a customer-centric manner they can be tools to prevent hardship.

Speaking Directly to the Resident

Last November, the publication of the Charter for Social Housing Residents from central government made clear that the voice of the resident is predicted to become statutory practice in order to influence operations directly.

For housing providers, undertaking in-depth analysis and investigations beyond fulfilling basic customer satisfaction measures will take extra working bandwidth and levels of empathy and insight that technology is yet to offer.

The ramifications for not paying close attention to the lives of residents are serious from a human, as well as a cost savings perspective. Alongside analysing, identifying and predicting behaviours that kickstart actions to prevent hardship, housing solution analytics tools have the ability to further enrich the picture an organisation has of each resident. In turn this will enable housing providers to approach individuals for feedback using their preferred channels and talking about the topics that impact them.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-future-of-work-reopening-offices-after-covid-19/ Fri, 08 Jan 2021 16:32:26 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32839

When the Coronavirus pandemic first led businesses around the globe to close offices at the beginning of 2020, few would have expected that so many people would still be working remotely at the end of the year. But despite ongoing uncertainties and restrictions, the future is certainly looking brighter each day, especially as the rollout … Continued

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When the Coronavirus pandemic first led businesses around the globe to close offices at the beginning of 2020, few would have expected that so many people would still be working remotely at the end of the year. But despite ongoing uncertainties and restrictions, the future is certainly looking brighter each day, especially as the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine is already underway in the UK and North America, and the prospect of reopening offices after COVID-19 is sooner than ever. The pandemic has accelerated trends many expected to take off a few years down the road – namely, the reimagining of how office spaces will function and the rise of flexible workspaces.

In a panel moderated by Beth Schwartz, MRI’s Senior Director of Product Management, at our recent ‘Ascend Anywhere‘ virtual users conference, leading experts from across the real estate industry joined a panel to discuss “The Future of the Office” and how the pandemic is affecting trends in the sector. There were a few areas that the panel picked out as ones to watch, which will be of keen interest to both commercial landlords and corporate occupiers in the New Year.

Meeting the need for greater flexibility

While the return to the “old normal” appears to be on the horizon, it is unlikely to be the same workplace “normal” that existed before the pandemic. Having many people in the office only part of the time and teams spread across geographies is no longer the huge challenge it may have seemed in the past, and organizations have had the opportunity to test remote working scenarios while considering how to better utilize their physical spaces. As we move into a post-pandemic world, traditional work methods will likely make way for flexible working. Many people within businesses are far more likely to mix working at home with hot-desking rather than having their own full-time, fixed workspaces in the office.

The attitudes of many people – and employers – towards working remotely and being in the office have undergone a fundamental change now that they have seen how efficient working from home can be. Many office workers live a substantial distance from their workplace and faced a substantial commute before the pandemic. They have now seen how working at home – at least part of the time – has positively altered their work-life balance and in many cases improved their productivity, which is an encouragement for employers. During the pandemic, many people have only been venturing into the office one or two days a week even when lockdown restrictions have been lifted, a pattern that promises to become much more of the norm post-COVID.

We may also see more shared spaces where people can come together to collaborate on tasks and meeting goals. Another Ascend panelist, Robert Pavese, Partner at Atlanta Property Group, expects to see a post-COVID uptick in demand not just for flexible workspaces but spaces for “common area gatherings”, which he noted was already a trend before the crisis. “We have a lot of designs which we put on the shelf. We haven’t thrown anything away because I do think that it will come back – but everything is on hold right now.”

Modern-day amenities – plus safeguards

The Future of the Office panel kicked off by looking at a rise in a variety of amenities, designed into commercial properties and offered to tenants – a trend the panel saw continuing. Beth Schwartz noted that “things like onsite dining, specialty shops, gyms, activities like yoga and so forth” were emerging as key requirements for corporate occupiers and that employees were often looking at those amenities when deciding on a potential employer. Tim Curran, CEO of Building Engines, adds that those sorts of amenities – which have been pushed further into the mainstream of the modern workplace by coworking spaces such as WeWork – are no fad and are now seen as “fundamentally valuable to tenants.”

Panelist Scott Morey, Executive Director at One11 Advisors commented that many companies were looking beyond these sorts of amenities as a result of COVID. “We’ve seen a shift from amenity to necessity as tenants see more value in safety, security and transparency.” Indeed, while pre-coronavirus trends indicated a steep rise in amenities being designed into properties, employees now also want to make sure the facilities address factors such as how clean the air is, how safe building procedures are, how safely space management is handled, and other factors to help tenants feel comfortable in an office building.

The vital role of PropTech

In rethinking properties as we move out of the pandemic, PropTech will play an essential role in helping both building owners and occupiers understand how their employees are using workspace, what their working patterns are, how the building can be adapted to those – and using all this information to reconfigure existing commercial spaces or guide new developments. Another outcome of coronavirus is that it has accelerated the need for technology at almost all levels of work and space management. As Tim Curran noted, it is critical for businesses to now have “flexible software and processes in place” so that everyone can adapt to new ways of working and move forward together.

Forward-thinking leaders in the real estate industry will embrace PropTech solutions as they continue to deal with the fallout of the pandemic and its aftermath. By leveraging purpose-built digital tools, those landlords and tenants that move towards putting technology at the heart of their business will be able to unlock a new depth of understanding that enhances property use and efficiency. The reality is that operating a building safely, efficiently and effectively is no easy task, and there has never been a time more important than now to create a foundation of agility and adaptability.

Watch the on-demand webinar to learn how space management software can help you in reopening offices after COVID-19.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-to-take-a-strategic-view-of-your-housing-stock/ Tue, 05 Jan 2021 12:30:45 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32811

Author: John Buckland, General Manager – Asset, MRI Software  As part of my role, I regularly talk with senior asset management leaders about things they see coming down the road that will affect them going forward. Recently, many customers have expressed concerns to me over how to take a strategic approach towards planning. In these … Continued

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Author: John Buckland, General Manager – Asset, MRI Software 

As part of my role, I regularly talk with senior asset management leaders about things they see coming down the road that will affect them going forward. Recently, many customers have expressed concerns to me over how to take a strategic approach towards planning.

In these conversations, it often becomes clear that customers are struggling to take a strategic view because they’re relying on systems which aren’t designed for the purpose of strategic asset management – instead, data is often cobbled together using spreadsheets and inputted into business planning software.

In this post, I’ll explain how a dedicated Asset Management Solution (AMS) can provide you with the best tools to support strategic decision making when it comes to managing your housing stock.

For an in-depth explanation of how an Asset Management Solution can support your organisation strategically, download our [e-book].  

The social housing organisations I talk to regularly discuss the need to take strategic view of several key areas:

• Carbon Reduction Measures

Addressing carbon emissions and energy efficiency continues to be a high priority for social housing asset management. However, identifying the most impactful measures can be a challenge.

Using modelling and “what-if” scenarios can help organisations to take a strategic approach to planning and implementing carbon reduction measures.

• Investment and improvement programme modelling

Another key focus area for asset management leaders is understanding the impact of different improvement programme approaches. For example, what’s the potential impact of reducing the lifetime of a kitchen from 20 years to 15, or installing boilers that only last 12 years?

Modelling different scenarios can help you understand the potential changes in cost and performance, and make the right decisions for the long term.

• Active Asset Management

Active Asset Management is a term that has come into more widespread use over the past few years, and describes a way of measuring the long term performance of properties, using modelling tools to analyse worth and how that changes depending on various hypothetical scenarios, such as conversion, investment, modernisation or replacement.

Active Asset Management requires social housing organisations to have a clear view of the impact of potential changes from both a monetary and social perspective, and to balance a range of different factors to inform long term strategic decision making.

The Right Tool For The Job?

While many social housing organisations are aware of the benefits of modelling for these types of scenarios, many struggle to access the right data to run the types of modelling they’d like to. Often, housing associations rely on a mixture of spreadsheets, manual data collection and business planning software to carry out this type of modelling. This can lead to a lack of synergy between systems, and is often a time-consuming and inefficient way of working.

Instead, these analyses would be far better managed using a good Asset Management Solution (AMS). An AMS should offer the functionality to allow for a range of scenario modelling, from measuring the impact of carbon reduction measures to improvement programme planning and active asset management.

Used well, a good AMS can help to improve your planning processes, create stronger, more robust business plans, and offer you a strategic approach to your asset management.

To find out more about Strategic Asset Management using an AMS, download our accompanying [e-book] for practical advice on choosing a system and using it to run asset management modelling for carbon reduction, improvement programme modelling and active asset management.

[Download the e-book now]

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/building-safer-neighbourhoods/ Tue, 05 Jan 2021 09:16:42 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32786

The publication of the Charter for Social Housing Residents last year has primed housing providers and the organisations like ours that serve the sector, to prepare for changes that will improve social housing residents’ experiences through more explicit tenant satisfaction measures. As set out in the Charter, landlords will be expected “to report to every … Continued

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The publication of the Charter for Social Housing Residents last year has primed housing providers and the organisations like ours that serve the sector, to prepare for changes that will improve social housing residents’ experiences through more explicit tenant satisfaction measures. As set out in the Charter, landlords will be expected “to report to every tenant on such matters at least once a year, if not continuously using technology.”

The Charter begins with the damning statement: “Tenants in social housing are more likely to be victims of crime and experience antisocial behaviour.” The causation between the two is a far more complex picture. Antisocial behaviour can severely impact the quality of life of residents and strategies aimed at ensuring that those experiencing it feel listened to and supported are set to be made central to the housing provider’s remit.

The National Housing Federation’s Great Places programme evidences a link between deprivation, poverty and antisocial behaviour. Many of the measures set forth will rightly compel housing providers to have clear routes for residents to report and have their cases resolved in a timely and transparent manner. However, addressing root causes of antisocial behaviour in the community will require the same drive from legislators across sectors and services to reduce deprivation and poverty, in order to build safer neighbourhoods and strengthen the frameworks with which to deal with this issue.

Antisocial behaviour measures predicted to be announced:

• Responsible Neighbourhood Management
• The transparent reporting of how the above is achieved
• A public information drive to educate tenants on “Community Trigger” arrangements
• Addressing the needs of some perpetrators that may be suffering from poor mental health or in need of other support
• A possible audit on in-house training given to antisocial behaviour teams regarding the “awareness and understanding” of mental health issues
• Public space protection amendments to be made to local design codes to encourage “designing out crime” from neighbourhoods
• For social housing providers to identify vulnerable tenants with regards to ‘cuckooing’ and county lines following successful interventions by landlords to protect residents at risk of being exploited by gangs
• To support residents to “feel safe in their homes, without the stress, fear and tensions that antisocial behaviour and crime can cause”

What are the current antisocial behaviour responsibilities of social landlords?

Generally speaking, all landlords of any type are not responsible for the behaviours of individual tenants. In addition, a case in 2009 involving Hounslow Borough Council ruled that local authorities do not owe a duty of care to protect individuals from the criminal behaviours of others unless they assume a responsibility of care, for example any ward of the state.

One of the main capacities housing providers have to protect their residents is by choosing to offer homes to tenants that will enrich the health and wellbeing of the community as a whole. Social landlords and local authorities currently have the right to refuse tenancy if antisocial behaviour is a concern. Alternatively, they can choose to give individuals a fair chance using an Acceptable Behaviour Contract alongside a tenancy agreement to protect community safety. In 2019, it was made compulsory for antisocial behaviour policies to be published, alongside the routes that residents can take if they find their experience lacking.

A local authority area could have excellent processes behind the scenes to effectively manage a case review, but if their portal is bad, it’s all a waste of time because victims will never know it exists, that they can use it, or feel able to access it.

The Victim’s Commissioner, 2019

The case for Case Management

According to the Home Office, for residents of social housing experiencing antisocial behaviour, having consistent and open communication about what was being done to address the issue and even what could be done was appreciated, even if investigations resulted in no further actions.

In 2019, a report from the Victim’s Commissioner and Nottingham Trent University highlighted the importance of antisocial behaviour incidents not being treated as a standalone event. When recorded thoroughly, the cumulative effect in these cases can be properly investigated by housing officers, as well as the police and help to reveal any underlying causes of the behaviour. This is especially important, as it’s estimated that less than a third of incidents are reported to local authorities, housing providers and the police. As such, having as many fragments of a case to hand can help reveal the bigger picture.

Our MRI Streetwise solution supports this approach to connecting incidents in order to get a view of the wider situation. Using the system, a user has access to all information available to them in one secure place. Case history, notes and linked cases to the perpetrator and victim are all there at the click of a button.

For Chelsea Kelly, Head of Community Safeguarding at Poplar HARCA, “Streetwise has enabled us to look at cases in a different way. In one case we had a complaint from a neighbour about noise nuisance in a property and this was logged. After reading the complaint and the noise that was being reported, the Officers decided to look into the history at the address. As the Antisocial Behaviour module is linked in with the Domestic Abuse module, we could see that there had been a historical case of domestic abuse at the address. Immediately this made us change our approach and we reached out to the tenant living in the property. Rather than taking enforcement action against the noise we were able to put support mechanisms in place for the tenant.”

This was a really important outcome, as whilst neighbours may not understand what is happening in the household, we had a better understanding and were able to help and support rather than enforce.

Chelsea Kelly, Head of Community Safeguarding, Poplar HARCA

 

CASE STUDY: Nottingham City Homes, Tenancy Sustainment Strategy

Between 2016-2019, Nottingham City Homes (NCH) undertook an antisocial behaviour social impact evaluation, which evidenced that proactive antisocial behaviour case management had a positive impact on their residents. For the organisation, this reduced tenancy turnover by strengthening a victim’s sense of belonging to their community, a factor which can be damaged by experiencing antisocial behaviour.

At the time of reporting their experiences, 59% of antisocial behaviour victims wanted to move from their home. Following interactions with the housing teams and the case management model, that number dropped to 30% and only 9% actually ended up moving. Those who had reported also felt more connected to their neighbourhood following the end of their case, in line with NCH average figures.

Antisocial behaviour reporting in 2020

Something that will skew antisocial behaviour reported rates in the coming years will be the impact of the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. More time at home has meant some residents notice others’ behaviour far more than previously. Reported domestic abuse incidents have skyrocketed and due to schools and leisure facilities being closed as well as a lack of access to work, young people may have been gathering more in public places. Further impacting figures for antisocial behaviour are individuals reporting those breaking COVID-specific rules. All these factors will conspire to make 2020 unique in its antisocial behaviour reporting.

Greg Andrews from our social housing team spoke to Streetwise user, Wheatley Group following the first UK lockdown of 2020. They “told us that over the 10-week period of the first lockdown they had seen 2,000 antisocial behaviour cases reported, which equates to approximately the total number of cases they would expect in a whole year.”

In Worthing and Adur, councils normally dealing with 80-90 antisocial behaviour cases a year saw a 100% increase in 2020. In some cases, these were as simple as the complaints of victims and witnesses to a neighbour dispute or noise pollution offences, both of which might need only minimal interventions of community protection by local authorities and housing associations. In some circumstances more serious incidents like youth offending, criminal offences and hate crimes may need the involvement of local police and more robust legal action.

Keeping a record of all these incidents can help identify the victims and perpetrators most in need of intervention. Case management can also serve to identify ‘hotspots’ of antisocial behaviour to inform strategies for how to ‘design out’ unwanted behaviours to build safer neighbourhoods.

In the future, alongside open communication, strong partnerships should be established to support resident organisations and activities, ensuring that residents’ insights and concerns are listened to in order to build safer neighbourhoods free from antisocial behaviour. The momentum caused by genuine and continued tenant involvement will do more to undermine poor behaviour within communities and build strong ties across neighbourhoods than leaving residents isolated from decisions made about their own lived environment.

The Government’s Social Housing White Paper highlights the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on reinforcing the need for a decent and safe home. Tackling the issue of antisocial behaviour, domestic abuse and helping vulnerable people is vital, and we at MRI Social Housing are ready to support the sector with the right solutions.

Greg Andrews, MRI Social Housing

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/return-work-3-ways-restore-tenant-confidence-commercial-office-buildings/ Mon, 21 Dec 2020 14:34:28 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32726

During 2020, many commercial office buildings faced an unexpected challenge: empty offices. The pandemic created a sudden shift to remote working, which will likely continue even after vaccines become more widely available. Businesses of all types are reevaluating their use of office space, and as a result, the relationships between commercial landlords and tenants are … Continued

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During 2020, many commercial office buildings faced an unexpected challenge: empty offices. The pandemic created a sudden shift to remote working, which will likely continue even after vaccines become more widely available. Businesses of all types are reevaluating their use of office space, and as a result, the relationships between commercial landlords and tenants are more important than ever.

While the pandemic will eventually abate, its impact on tenants’ comfort levels could last years. So, what can commercial property managers and building operators do to create trust and make tenants feel comfortable in an office again?

Build tenant relationships with space planning, communications and visitor management

Commercial landlords and tenants have negotiated many uncommon things over the past year, including lease concessions related to COVID-19 and multiple options for rent deferment or abatement. The relationships built over the course of those conversations will hopefully open the door for more collaboration on an effective return-to-work strategy.

1. Space management practices

Even before the pandemic, space planning and occupant comfort were becoming an important part of portfolio management. The increasing need for flexibility is top of mind for landlords, since tenants are rethinking their use of space. In some cases, employees may become spread across a distributed hub-and-spoke model in which a company has a central office in the city but offers employees the option to work from a satellite office in the suburbs.

Here are a few space planning questions to ask your tenants to find out how much flexibility they require:

• Will employees be working part-time or flexible hours?
• Will you be rethinking your space to accommodate social distancing?
• What percentage of your workforce will continue to work remotely? How are you assigning and tracking assets?
• Will portions of your office space be temporary or hotelling space?

Effective space management software can help optimize your use of space and leverage it as part of your lease management strategy.

2. Tenant communications

Landlords can proactively communicate with tenants to increase their comfort level in the office space. Sending messages about HVAC updates, cleaning protocols and other activities lets your tenants know that you are concerned for their wellbeing and are taking steps to protect the property. MRI Tenant Communications software can help you proactively communicate with tenants and keep them engaged to measure the effectiveness of your actions.

3. Visitor management

It’s essential to understand the capacity of your space and to manage the number of people on your property at a given time. Visitor management software for commercial office buildings can help you manage tenants and guests across multiple control points to get an accurate picture of activity in your space.

Flexibility is key

As the past year has demonstrated, commercial property managers need to be prepared for anything. Using technology to better understand space planning, communicate with tenants, and manage visitors can improve tenant satisfaction and help building operations run more smoothly. As the office space will also need to welcome back vendors and visitors down the line, learn how to mitigate risk as more people come back into the office.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/building-sustainable-tenancies-new-models-for-housing-providers/ Thu, 17 Dec 2020 14:31:32 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32704

Long-term commitment to and investment in a community are the stand-out functions of social landlords. With experience spanning decades, the unique mixture of sustainable households and wraparound support is leading developers to team up with local authorities and housing associations to create thriving neighbourhoods. Affordability is a foundation of tenant sustainability – and without truly … Continued

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Long-term commitment to and investment in a community are the stand-out functions of social landlords. With experience spanning decades, the unique mixture of sustainable households and wraparound support is leading developers to team up with local authorities and housing associations to create thriving neighbourhoods.

Affordability is a foundation of tenant sustainability – and without truly affordable options on the housing market, people will struggle, tenancies will fail and organisations will incur costly voids. In London the aim over the next decade is to deliver 65,000 new homes a year, with 50% of those to being genuinely affordable. It’s unlikely that without the specific expertise around delivering homes for the community that housing associations and local authorities possess, that these targets will be met; the formation of partnerships will be crucial. The success of social housing providers in facing these multiple challenges has been notable, with housing associations in England having doubled in two decades their share of total housing stock from 5% – 10%.

Sustainable Growth

In an increasingly difficult and commercialised operating environment, Registered Providers are excelling in finding solutions that serve residents while future proofing the organisation for employees and future residents. Establishing funding is necessary to build new homes and is also required to raise revenue to continue providing quality resident support and care.

In November 2020 the intention was announced that 60 housing associations alongside investors and lenders would launch The Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing. This would provide social landlords with an opportunity to accredit their ethical credentials as charities and social bodies, in order to capture a share of the £2 trillion ethical investment market looking to invest in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) assets. The sector is presently unique in its move to organise its own standards to make itself more attractive to ethical investors.

Housing associations are hybrid organisations, often with philanthropic or charitable roots, that operate on a not-for-profit basis; yet they increasingly compete in the private housing market and source their funding from the corporate bond market. As the 2014 front cover of one housing association’s annual report proclaimed, ‘Socially hearted, commercially minded’.

London School of Economics

Case Study: The Living Wage Joint Venture (JV)

Brighton & Hove City Council and Hyde Housing have entered an equitable limited liability partnership called ‘Homes for the City of Brighton and Hove’, both contributing £60m to the venture. Of the 1000 homes proposed, 100% will be affordable and half of the homes will offer shared ownership status, options given initially only to existing Brighton residents. The remainder will come with tenancy agreements setting rent at 37.5% of the household income for those earning The Living Wage.

The joint venture will establish ‘light-touch’ methods of housing management to give housing officers more capabilities to deal with vulnerable people living within the organisation’s homes. Five-year fixed term tenancies will be offered, where any future rent increases are capped at the cost of living to support residents to maintain their tenancy. Both parties expect that this effective housing management will create a high demand for the properties and ensure sustainable tenancies with low void rates and rent arrears.

Whole Systems Thinking

This project couldn’t have been launched soon enough. Research in 2018 showed that to live in a one-bedroom property comfortably in Brighton & Hove, a household would need to be earning at least £48,000 p/a. In Brighton it’s estimated that 54% of households earn below £30,000.

One of the external conditions for success is a city-wide approach to a fairer deal for supporting people to build stable homes. ‘The Brighton & Hove Living Wage Campaign’ sees 600 local employers across private and third-sector organisations in partnership with Brighton Chamber and has meant over 3,400 people have received pay rises. The campaign is the first and only of its kind that has been established by the business community. This city-wide commitment to whole systems thinking and partnerships with local organisations will strengthen communities along with the wealth of the city.

Working Together

For housing association, Hyde Housing, working with local authorities is an opportunity to share risk, reward and expertise. Peter Denton, chief executive of Hyde envisions a future where for-profit Registered Providers include social landlords as owners. Exploring equity models may help to plug the spending gap, where the English regulator has seen individual unit costs across the socially rented sector and the cost of maintenance rising by an average of 7%.

Broadland Housing group have noted that during 2020 “A new sense of collaboration between housing associations is emerging and awareness that housing associations working together can accelerate change, stretch their resources, and achieve greater impact.”

Mixed Tenure

The models of mixed tenure offered by Registered Providers in the housing market will grow in importance in order to build stronger communities where diverse households can establish firm roots. One challenge these developments may encounter are new rules outlined by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which will change planning applications so that local authorities have less insight into new developments. This includes the introduction of a ‘zonal’ system, whereby sites are labelled for ‘growth’, ‘renewal’ or ‘protection’, as well as proposals that scrap Section 106, which meant councils could mandate affordable homes as a requirement for development.

For social landlords, establishing affordable tenancies with residents can be the reason that households thrive rather than just survive. In order to do the same, private organisations will increasingly be forging strategic partnerships and secure profit-making projects to protect their social mission. In many cases, social landlords with their long-term perspective are more suitably equipped to sustain communities and deliver long-term solutions to the housing crisis.

As community anchors, housing associations are in a unique position. We work in a place for the long-term. We have the capacity to affect the recovery and reset of communities across the UK now and in the future.  There are significant risks ahead of us that we will need to navigate. By working in collaboration, by evaluating and learning from our experience, by being bold in our choices, we will be able to accelerate change, maximise our resources and achieve greater impact as place-based organisations.

Andrew van Doorn, CEO of HACT

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/integration-development/ Mon, 14 Dec 2020 16:14:27 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32524

Interview with Ian Niblock With a hands-on, customer-centric approach to product development and a deep understanding of the sector, Ian Niblock, MRI’s Integration Development Director for social housing, is well-positioned to lead a dedicated team of individuals to bring our 2021 vision to reality. And the team has certainly made a strong start, with work taking place … Continued

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Interview with Ian Niblock
With a hands-on, customer-centric approach to product development and a deep understanding of the sector, Ian Niblock, MRI’s Integration Development Director for social housing, is well-positioned to lead a dedicated team of individuals to bring our 2021 vision to reality. And the team has certainly made a strong start, with work taking place to enhance and unify UX and UI, our single sign-on Application Gateway, plus the creation of a new integration platform to deliver solutions more efficiently to clients.

With the coming together of Castleton, Orchard and Housing Partners into MRI Social Housing, how is your newly formed team structured?

Some experienced and knowledgeable people have come together across the heritage companies. Our combined team includes solutions architects, head of development and development leaders across a wide and diverse solution set. We have kept our team on the solutions with which they are familiar with their respective heritage companies. This is to ensure we continue to deliver planned enhancements, with the most experienced developer for that solution on-board. In these COVID-impacted times, our newly formed cross-functional team has come together virtually extremely well, and I look forward to getting the team together in the near future.

With the widest breadth of solutions now available to the social housing sector through one provider, what are the key goals and objectives for the year ahead with regards to product integration?

We are focused on improving existing integration options between all solutions. These enhancements are shaped by continuous feedback and suggestions from our client base, knowing that the improvements we are making are central to user needs.

With a wider solution set, we are now also exploring new integration initiatives – unlocking opportunities for clients to leverage the best solution for their requirements from across our whole suite. Take MRI Income Analytics as an example. This is a solution from the Orchard stable, but we are now working towards integration with the MRI Housing Management product that has come from the Castleton acquisition. Where a lack of integration or high development costs might have been a barrier to adopt new solutions in the past, our open and connected approach is helping clients overcome these challenges.

In addition, new releases this year will be coupled with alignment to the MRI look and feel – and users can expect to see UI and UX updates. We’ll be sure to use every opportunity to inform clients as these are implemented.

We are also working on our new standard integration framework. Once this platform is built, the efficiency and speed of multi-solution delivery for clients will be vastly improved. We are essentially looking to minimise development input during the implementation process and seamlessly hand this over to the GPS teams.

Finally, we are building a business intelligence platform as an offering to the MRI client base. Data continues to be a key talking point across the sector. Issues around data integrity, quality and data responsibility across organisations quite often become the biggest downfall or weakest link when getting IT projects off the ground. Worse still, it can become a barrier to an organisation’s ability to provide the desired level of customer service. MRI’s business intelligence platform will ultimately take data from an MRI or partner-supported solution and bring it all together into a single form, enhancing analytics and reporting.

What can clients expect to see early in 2021?

We’ve got some great integration projects lined up for the first three months of the new year, giving our clients easier access to a wider set of solutions. MRI Housing Professional (Castleton) clients, will be invited to preview how their software can integrate with MRI Income Analytics, a proven solution that helps to drive income collection and reduce rent arrears. MRI Housing Enterprise clients (previously Orchard Housing) can explore options to integrate with our latest MRI Document Management release as well as MRI Communications Manager, the sector’s leading SMS platform enabling instant and real-time communication.

No doubt, it’s going to be a very busy year for the team. The breadth of product offering from a single provider is unseen in the sector; but the focus, skill and dedication the team has coupled with the investment from being part of MRI Software mean we are extremely motivated for the year ahead. We see the real potential our enhanced solutions have to offer in the sector, and the real difference it can make to our clients.

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/squared-carrying-out-an-it-transformation-project-during-lockdown/ Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:10:34 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32540

Squared, a Luton based housing association, embarked on a transformation project to overcome back-office inefficiency issues across the organisation so they can better serve their customers. In February 2020, after a rigorous review of the market and their current systems, Steve Behan, IT and Finance Director, Squared and his team put together a strong business … Continued

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Squared, a Luton based housing association, embarked on a transformation project to overcome back-office inefficiency issues across the organisation so they can better serve their customers.

In February 2020, after a rigorous review of the market and their current systems, Steve Behan, IT and Finance Director, Squared and his team put together a strong business case as to why they needed to move to a cloud based software suite and implement solutions more suited to their size and capacity as a smaller housing association. They were successful in receiving approval from their board to partner with MRI Software (previously Castleton Technology at the time) to provide the cloud based, housing management solutions they required to fulfill their ambitions.

Squared, felt that MRI’s integrated Housing Management Community solution, was the right solution to improve their back office inefficiencies, streamline their processes, enable remote working and reduce the pressure on their small IT team. They found the Community solution to be great value for money; offering the same level of functionality as a larger housing management system but at a more affordable price.

Another major benefit of the solution for them was the integration with MRI Software’s Housing Finance Professional system, which will allow them to work much more efficiently as planned.

As they began this project, the Coronavirus pandemic led to a national lockdown being imposed in March 2020, so how did this affect Squared’s plans?

Challenges through lockdown

As staff had to work from home, Squared, like many other organisations had to find alternative ways of supporting their tenants where face to face interaction was no longer feasible.

Rob Robinson, IT Manger, Squared commented:

“Challenges for us as a social housing provider during lockdown included: providing support, help and advice across our varied client base. Day to day contact within our single person accommodations had to continue despite shielding and self-isolation though we were able to provide support remotely utilising our technologies. Advice and help with arrears for our clients who were furloughed or had lost their income. Continuing to provide emergency maintenance cover through our own staff and contractors.”

Rob explained that whilst many organisations have struggled to provide uninterrupted service during the lockdown and since due to drain on resources. Most social housing providers will have had strong business continuity plans in place reducing the risks.

Luckily, Squared had made a conscious decision to encourage flexible and agile working and all relevant staff had been provided with laptop and mobile , with the “remote desktop” option also adopted. Most staff already had the ability to work from any location which meant we had an easier transition to home working than other organisations. However, their main housing software was not cloud based and updating, editing, and obtaining data was laborious. The MRI Housing Management Community solution is cloud based and fully remote was one of the key drivers for changing their current systems.

IT project experience throughout lockdown

Squared have managed to successfully continue with the project and have already succeeded in going live with the Housing Management Community and Finance Professional solutions.

The Housing Management Community solution is cloud based, so the implementation was simple and has been successfully carried out during lockdown, over a relatively short timescale. The short project timescale was another key factor in Squared’s decision to go with MRI’s Housing Management Community solution. Squared have also managed to train staff have remotely and feedback has been positive from a user experience so far.

Rob Robinson commented on how the MRI staff have supported Squared to continue with their project implementation during lockdown:

“The team have been extremely supportive, they have provided regular progress updates, provided us with templates for required data (building in easy to use formulae) and the project has remained “on time” throughout. They have delivered remote training for all of our relevant staff, and have also been willing to admit when things haven’t gone well. They have not sought to pass the cost or blame on in these instances and have resolved issues by bringing in subject matter experts where necessary.”

Benefits of the project

Squared believe the Housing Management Community solution will reduce pressure on their small IT team as it is cloud based. They also believe the solution is the only one in the market that is truly developed for smaller housing associations but with the required scalability to support their future growth.

The benefits they are expecting are:

• Enhanced processes and practises using real time data, driving efficiencies in CRM, property management, planned/unplanned maintenance.
• Finance function efficiencies, including arrears management, HousingBrixx planning, payment collection, management and executive reporting.
• Streamlined document management, analytics, scheduling and maintenance, cleaning and gardening staff tracking.
• Enhancing digital engagement with customers and real-time customer communications, through the use of MRI customer self service solutions.
• Live, real time data capability to provide the insights and intelligence needed in order to make data driven decisions quickly and clearly.

Next steps – 2021 and beyond!

With their back office and remote working capabilities in place, Squared’s strategy is to now focus on digital engagement and self-service for their tenants, by implementing MRI’s digital, customer self service solutions.

MRI look forward to working with Squared on the next phase of their project and to see their innovative vision come to life with the support of our Social Housing solutions.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/3-reasons-rethink-office-space-planning-covid-19/ Thu, 10 Dec 2020 16:57:21 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/3-reasons-rethink-office-space-planning-covid-19/

COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated trends in office space planning. Work from home practices were already impacting the modern workspace before the pandemic, but now, organizations eager to bring employees back into stable and sustainable work patterns are rethinking office space. As a post-COVID office environment draws near, a key consideration for business leaders will be … Continued

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COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated trends in office space planning. Work from home practices were already impacting the modern workspace before the pandemic, but now, organizations eager to bring employees back into stable and sustainable work patterns are rethinking office space.

As a post-COVID office environment draws near, a key consideration for business leaders will be managing the workflow between those who are coming back into the office and those who are still going to be working from home for a period of time. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that space management can help you bring employees back to the office safely.

Creating a flexible work environment

While previous wisdom called for a desk setup that fostered collaboration, future office space planning will need to take into account that any given space may not be filled with the same people at the same times. With a possible rise in employees who alternate their work schedule between home and the office, consider desks that don’t have permanent assignments. “Hotdesking” can help employees who only come into the office occasionally to find a seat anywhere and access the office’s features and amenities just as easily. This would also mean enabling each desk with access to the company network and arranging common spaces so that collaboration with coworkers can take place in a more spread-out environment.

Balancing work/life integration

The post-COVID office environment is going to include plenty of employees trying to balance work both in the office and at home. How can this balance be facilitated so they can properly collaborate with their counterparts and be as productive at home as they could be in the office? You’ll have to equip your employees who work from home with the tools and technology necessary to establish their home office, but you’ll also need to keep track of those assets from a financial and accounting standpoint.

Increasing square footage requirements

With all this discussion regarding employees no longer working in the office full time, one might think that this would add up to a decrease in square footage. But in rethinking the office to accommodate for that flexible nature of work going forward, it’s possible that larger work areas may be needed. This goes beyond the need for a collaborative workspace or hotdesking, but to facilitate social distancing as people now have illnesses like COVID-19 and the flu on their minds. Establishing more amenity space might be needed, whether it’s for a common space or for additional office space.

No matter which of these issues has the biggest impact on the modern workplace, it’s guaranteed that 2021 office space planning will look a lot different than what many initially planned. Properly managing the space in your office can be the key to success when it comes to bringing employees back safely. Using space planning software is one way to accomplish all this in a visual way, driven by the needs of your organization and availability of the space. Learn more about how space management software can help you smooth the transition back into the office.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/homeswapper-by-mri-building-communities/ Mon, 07 Dec 2020 17:24:19 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32389

Our HomeSwapper system is the leading platform for mutual exchange in the UK and the only service facilitating tenant-led placement in the Republic of Ireland. The platform empowers social housing tenants to source a mutual exchange from the largest community of swappers and their properties in the country. Alongside this mutual exchange service, HomeSwapper offers … Continued

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Our HomeSwapper system is the leading platform for mutual exchange in the UK and the only service facilitating tenant-led placement in the Republic of Ireland. The platform empowers social housing tenants to source a mutual exchange from the largest community of swappers and their properties in the country. Alongside this mutual exchange service, HomeSwapper offers a comprehensive suite of support for tenants to find the right homes for their needs.

Many of the software solutions offered within the social housing sector exist to reduce time spent in lengthy regulatory requirements, to support housing maintenance or to predict and ensure the sustainability of tenancies. These products are adopted by housing providers in order to save staff time and to ensure cost effectiveness for local authorities and registered providers so that they can re-invest in the tenants that need their support the most.

Within this environment, HomeSwapper is a refreshing solution, enabling tenants across the country to speak to one another, self-organise and to exercise control over their tenancies. The drivers for HomeSwapper users are often on an emotional spectrum, with the platform empowering tenants to find a house that not only suits their needs but that feels like ‘home’. Through the platform, the power of choice is returned to the tenant.

Building the community

There’s no getting around it; achieving a mutual exchange takes time. In most cases it takes a concerted effort on the part of the tenant and is a more time-consuming task than the activity of simply logging onto HomeSwapper once and finding that ‘perfect match’. What this has meant for MRI is the delivery of robust business-to-customer channels for the platform in order to strengthen the community of swappers and enhance their experience.

In recent times, many landlords within the social housing sector have adapted their processes to deliver a more customer-centric experience with open dialogue between tenant and landlord. The HomeSwapper model has mirrored and supported this tenant-first approach, listening to and responding to the tenant voice.

The HomeSwapper.me tenant website was set up to ensure that swappers had easy access to the resources that would help them to use the platform in the most effective way. The tenant blog that sits within this site, in its primary function is there to make sure users can learn how to use the site to ensure their best chances of finding a swap, to understand the actions to take with their landlord once they have found that swap, as well as any regulatory changes that might affect this process and their lives in social housing.

The voice of tenants actively using the platform is engaged with through this support site to create content that resonates with the HomeSwapper community and shows support for their shared struggle in the quest for a new home. The strong community that exists within HomeSwapper is supportive, with members behaving like neighbours; a sentiment that is enhanced by the use of these so-called ‘swapper stories’.

This lady wanted to get out and move from Dorset as soon as possible. She was registered disabled and had a stairlift in the house; the house she then had to move into had to be adapted. We befriended this lady and her family and were talking on the phone a lot and trying all these different types of MultiSwaps for people who wanted to move to our house. Eventually we found one that was quite close to where we were. That person came to view our house and I went to do the viewing for the lady in Dorset because she couldn’t come up herself. I took loads of pictures and videos and sent them to her.

HomeSwapper user, Carl

The tenant and landlord community

Across 2019/2020, one strand of the community management for HomeSwapper has been to align the conversations activated across the MRI Social Housing blog and social media channels for a landlord audience with the tenant channels for HomeSwapper.

The topics that are of most strategic importance to the social housing sector are those that directly impact and are therefore, of great importance also to social housing tenants. As such, communications within this sector are about telling the same story from different points of view.

Much of the content produced within this space on the MRI Social Housing blog sits under the recurring theme of ‘Building Sustainable Tenancies’. These articles explore the subjects most likely to impact both tenant wellbeing and a landlord’s management of stock, such as antisocial behaviour or fuel poverty – both topics that have also been addressed on the HomeSwapper blog for tenants.

Interestingly, one of the most popular articles amongst HomeSwapper tenants is one that gives them an insight into a landlord feature for advertising empty properties within the platform: Void Properties: What This Means. This is of course, in tune with wider concerns at the heart of the social housing sector, concerns that were covered for landlords in an article about the UK’s empty homes here on the MRI blog. There is little precedence for this approach of aligning tenant and landlord conversations, however the success of the recently published article on void properties shows there is a remit for matching their concerns.

HomeSwapper is the ultimate local community platform – the majority of users could in fact, be neighbours with an average swap distance on HomeSwapper of only 26 miles. The guiding forces and the power of HomeSwapper remain those of personal empowerment and inter-community engagement. By treating tenants and landlords as part of the same community we recognise that they exist within the same structures and are impacted by many of the same issues. Our purpose in changing the frame of the conversation assumes that the reason our software is designed to solve a problem for a landlord is in order to solve the same problems for the tenant.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/2021-real-estate-technology-trends/ Wed, 02 Dec 2020 21:45:16 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32316

Predicting real estate technology trends for 2021 may seem like an impossible task, but in many ways, the economic uncertainty of 2020 was the catalyst that accelerated trends already in place. The shift to remote working and the need to keep one’s distance from others sped up technology adoption in unprecedented ways across the commercial … Continued

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Predicting real estate technology trends for 2021 may seem like an impossible task, but in many ways, the economic uncertainty of 2020 was the catalyst that accelerated trends already in place. The shift to remote working and the need to keep one’s distance from others sped up technology adoption in unprecedented ways across the commercial and multifamily sectors.

It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that there’s no going back. In 2021, we will continue to see reliance on digital tools to help real estate businesses increase agility, leverage operational efficiencies and embrace flexibility like never before.

Here are a few Proptech trends that we expect to see in 2021.

Landlord/tenant relationships remain vital

At the start of 2020, the commercial real estate industry was already cognizant of the value of relationships and the connections between people and property. The events of 2020 tested those relationships as commercial and retail tenants struggled to pay their rent and negotiated with landlords for lease concessions, rent deferments and abatements. Looking ahead to 2021, these relationships will be essential to weather the storm and ensure success for all parties.

Rethinking use of office space

Even pre-pandemic, real estate occupiers were increasingly focused on space planning as part of a portfolio strategy, and the events of 2020 only accelerated this trend. If fewer people will physically work in an office, then less space will be required. But if a business thrives on in-person collaboration, then they may need more space per employee. Will these requirements balance out? As building owners and operators adapt their processes to meet new tenant requirements, space management software will be an important tool to create a clearer picture of how to optimize your space and leverage it as part of a lease management strategy.

Proactive communications

Improved tenant and resident communications practices will be essential to maintain the strong relationships forged with landlords in 2020. Reliable communication plays a big part in making them feel comfortable in their living and workspaces, and it helps property managers and building operators gauge the effectiveness of their new processes and activities. Keeping tenants and residents engaged and aware of regular cleaning protocols, visitor management practices, and other maintenance updates can help them feel safe in your properties.

Multifamily goes digital

We’ve been tracking the impact of COVID-19 on the multifamily, affordable and public housing sectors in our Market Insights reports since March 2020. While digital services and amenities were already considered table stakes pre-pandemic, we’ve seen a surge in electronic payments, online maintenance requests and online applications during 2020. Initially, these may have been short-term solutions to meet social distancing requirements, but they’re here to stay. In 2021, multifamily properties have an opportunity to reevaluate the role of the leasing office and shift from centralized operations to a distributed model – in fact, many new properties have been developed without a physical leasing office, relying completely on online services.

Fraud is on the rise

The flipside of an increase in online transactions associated with digital services is that fraud triggers have increased significantly since the onset of the pandemic. Savvy property managers would be wise to invest in fraud prevention technology to ward off this significant business threat. Multiple layers of fraud protection and screening, combined with up-to-date knowledge of local and federal regulations, will be essential to identify potential fraud before it impacts your community.

Bottom line: Flexibility is key

The best thing that your real estate business can do to prepare for 2021 is get agile. Recovery is coming but it will be uneven throughout 2021, by both geography and sector. Commercial firms should understand the degree of flexibility they have with commercial tenants, gauging their health and offering terms that are mutually beneficial. Residential businesses need to stay focused on converting leads with flexibility in price and term in order to maintain occupancy through the first half of 2021.

In times of uncertainty, flexibility is key and technology offers a path forward. 2020 was a wild card. Here’s hoping that 2021 will be somewhat more predictable.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/data-reveals-impact-covid-uk-commercial-property-leases/ Wed, 02 Dec 2020 14:37:06 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32304

While there are hopeful signs of relief from the COVID crisis thanks to new vaccines, we’re still some way from a return to ‘normal’. For many in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors, it could be months before trade returns to pre-lockdown levels. Many are already struggling to pay rents and, with less revenue coming … Continued

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While there are hopeful signs of relief from the COVID crisis thanks to new vaccines, we’re still some way from a return to ‘normal’. For many in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors, it could be months before trade returns to pre-lockdown levels. Many are already struggling to pay rents and, with less revenue coming in, there’s no easy fix on horizon. The health crisis has hit these businesses hard, and their landlords are feeling the effects, too.

Anonymised data from more than 150,000 live leases managed via MRI Software’s enterprise property and accounting solutions paints a picture of millions of pounds of commercial rents outstanding – and it’s clear that the tenant/landlord relationship is being tested to its limits. But it’s not all doom and gloom: the data also shows that many real estate owners are being flexible and working with their occupiers to get through the crisis, with an increasing number offering rent reductions. It’s clearly an uncertain time, but the evidence of cooperation brings hope.

Data shows true scope of the problem

Our analysis reveals that the proportion of outstanding rent payments in the commercial sector (retail, shopping malls, logistics, warehouses and office spaces) is growing at an alarming and unsustainable rate.

Current data shows that for March, when the government introduced the first lockdown, 19% of the total rent invoiced remains outstanding. Since then, the amount due has peaked at nearly £400 million for September (33% of the total owed), with the proportion rising to 58% in October (a little over £200 million). It might not be a surprise in the circumstances, but the sheer scale proves there will be no easy way out.

Another key finding from the data is the significant decrease in the number of new leases signed since the pandemic struck. New leases being set up in the MRI solutions were down by a third (33%) from March to August this year, compared to the same period in 2019. In April, May and June specifically, the figures dropped to 433, 268 and 406 respectively, compared to 599, 524 and 630 during the corresponding months of 2019.

Early steps on the road to recovery

The headlines give some concern, but dig deeper into the data and there are positive takeaways. Analysis of the figures indicates that the continuing uncertainty around COVID is leading to commercial tenants and landlords working together to find ways to make it through the pandemic.

There are encouraging signs that landlords are supporting tenants through rent reductions, rent deferrals and agreements for shorter leases. From March through June 2020 there were 30% more rent reductions compared to the same period the previous year. Additionally, the length of new leases has declined by 25% year-on-year over the same period – dropping from 69 months to 52. These both point towards landlords offering a greater degree of flexibility, and being willing to negotiate key terms and conditions to ensure at least some continued income rather than risk it disappearing altogether.

New normal, new opportunities

However, despite the best efforts of many commercial landlords to help tenants and ease the burden, there are changes ahead. In some form, social distancing restrictions will continue into the spring at least, and that will put serious pressure on businesses and their performances. As landlords plot their routes forward out of the pandemic and beyond, they will need to consider ways of keeping their operations financially viable.

For many, the answer will be diversification – and branching into last-mile logistics and/or mixed-use residential redevelopment could help them avoid being left with empty commercial space generating low income. Owners with city- or town-centre portfolios, for instance, will surely begin to explore opportunities to turn some commercial spaces into campus-style developments combining retail, space as a service and Build-to-Rent, student accommodation and senior living. Previous research from MRI has shown that, before the pandemic and lockdown, two-thirds of property professionals already believed that former retail premises could be the UK’s biggest untapped resource for new residential development. Another option, driven by the growth-upon-growth in ecommerce, will be to redevelop space for warehousing and fulfilment centres. The beginnings of this movement could be seen before coronavirus, and the resulting uncertainties around the performance and returns of traditional commercial will accelerate the trend. It may not be the panacea for the high street conundrum, but building communities could contribute to arresting years of decline.

Navigating change with flexible tech

Ultimately, regardless of the changes that happen and the speed at which they take place, technology will play an increasingly important role in the strategic planning, execution and ongoing validation of landlords’ strategies. Connected digital solutions that can quickly and accurately identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities are required. Those that embrace software to take decisive, data-driven actions will find routes to success. Those that continue to operate reactively, and don’t effectively use the insights at their disposal – they will fall behind in an environment that will remain uncertain, and often volatile, for some time to come.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/whats-been-going-on/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 16:33:35 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32288 Over the past few months, we’ve been sharing MRI’s vision for Social Housing, our plans to bring ‘services to the sofa’, unlocking the power of your data and more across a range of recent industry event platforms. In case you missed our seminar sessions and keynotes, here’s a recap of what we’ve covered. Data Transformation … Continued

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]]> Over the past few months, we’ve been sharing MRI’s vision for Social Housing, our plans to bring ‘services to the sofa’, unlocking the power of your data and more across a range of recent industry event platforms. In case you missed our seminar sessions and keynotes, here’s a recap of what we’ve covered.

Data Transformation before Digital Transformation?

A key topic emerging is the importance of data, how we keep it, how we gather it and more importantly what we do with it! Our Client Strategy Director, James Massey, opened DTL’s UnCon conference with a thought-provoking keynote on the data challenges in the sector and how MRI’s solutions and vision are aligned to help social housing providers to overcome them. Putting tenants first and aligning digital capabilities to business outcomes seemed to be high on everyone’s agenda.

We also engaged in a great panel discussion and conversations with delegates throughout the event. It was a good platform for us to share and hear about new and exciting ideas in the sector.

New approaches to income management and creating sustainable tenancies.

We’ve also been discussing how to maximise income, sustain tenancies and support residents through the intelligent use of data and predictive analytics, at recent HQN Rent Network events.

During our sessions, we’ve demonstrated scenarios where we are working with social housing providers to identify correlations between arrears, repairs and domestic abuse cases; the relationship between ASB and financial vulnerability and much more. Again, data is at the forefront of these discussions and it is essential it is accurate and up to date in order for predictive analysis to be effective. Taking advantage of all the information held on your tenants, across all of your business systems, allow you to best serve them based on their specific needs and will ultimately help you to create sustainable tenancies and protect revenue.

Has lockdown tested your IT capabilities?

We hosted a seminar at NHF’s Smaller Housing Association’s Conference discussing how lockdown has tested the IT capabilities of social housing providers; alongside two members of staff from Squared, a smaller housing association we are working with on their digital transformation.

It’s no surprise that technology and cloud-based solutions have played a crucial role in enabling home working and digital self-service, however being able to offer a consistent user experience for staff whether at home or in the office has been a challenge for some. Remote working is here to stay so making sure your IT systems can facilitate this is now a key part of IT strategies across the sector. Squared shared their own experiences and reasons for why they have chosen MRI’s Housing Community solution and integrated, digital tenant engagement solutions as part of their forward-thinking, IT strategy.

Strategic Asset Management

At recent NHF and HQN Asset Management Conferences, we’ve been discussing how asset management solutions can assist with the challenges of compliance, the zero-carbon agenda and active asset management. With the changes in regulations and government targets, now more than ever, it is essential that you are strategically planning and using your data sources effectively to make well-informed decisions about your properties and assets. Find out more in our White Paper: Taking a Strategic View of your Housing Stock with an Asset Management Solution.

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-role-of-housing-providers-in-tackling-domestic-abuse-2/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:45:53 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32281

Domestic abuse is not a fringe issue; it ruins families, permeates communities and is happening on many of our streets up and down the country. Since the lockdown, domestic abuse cases have skyrocketed; frontline and leadership teams across the sector are having to learn and adapt quickly. In 2017/18, 2 million adults across England and … Continued

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Domestic abuse is not a fringe issue; it ruins families, permeates communities and is happening on many of our streets up and down the country. Since the lockdown, domestic abuse cases have skyrocketed; frontline and leadership teams across the sector are having to learn and adapt quickly.

In 2017/18, 2 million adults across England and Wales experienced domestic abuse and in the UK today, 2 women each week are killed by an abusive partner or ex-partner. The criminal aspect of incidents can make it easy to view as a matter for the criminal justice system to solve in partnership with a specialist response. However, this is just where survivors of domestic abuse can fall through the cracks.

Housing providers are uniquely placed amongst organisations to intervene in suspected cases of domestic abuse by establishing relationships with victims and ensuring their safety. 85% of domestic abuse victims will seek help an average of five times in the year leading up to when they receive effective support to stop the abuse; having clear records of these interactions is key to protecting those involved. Technology has a role to play in addressing suspected cases, being used by housing providers to show a clear trail of evidence, disseminate information and report on incidents.

Dr Kelly Henderson, Co-Founder of Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) and co-author of the forthcoming book, ‘Domestic Abuse – Policy into Practice’ identified one of the main hurdles that housing providers need to overcome in order to tackle domestic abuse in their homes as the reporting and strategy implementation of the issue. Her research found that 65% of housing providers didn’t treat domestic abuse as an issue in its own right. It often sits under the same remit as antisocial behaviour (ASB), opening it up to be treated as a nuisance, in which the victim and perpetrator are effectively treated as equals.

Housing Partners, now part of MRI Software developed a domestic abuse and ASB case management system alongside Housing Association, Gentoo. The Streetwise solution establishes patterns for housing officers and safeguarding teams, which can then be evidenced to third parties, such as the police. Any interactions or incidents that occur can then be recorded on the system against a case to build up a much fuller picture of an individual or household.

Streetwise customer, Poplar HARCA have adopted a proactive and victim-led approach to domestic abuse, which prioritises removing perpetrators of abuse from their homes and from their estates by seeking injunctions in partnership with the police.

Chelsea Kelly, Poplar HARCA’s Head of Community Safeguarding describes how they protect their customers:

“Poplar HARCA recognise that domestic abuse has a significant impact on those who experience it. We feel that often survivors are faced with the option of leaving their own home and seeking emergency accommodation which can be highly disruptive to their life. We feel that there should be an alternative. By working with survivors of domestic abuse, we help them to obtain legal orders to remove the perpetrators from their home. This could be a Non-Molestation Order or an Occupation Order; allowing the survivor to remain at the home and meaning the perpetrator needs to seek alternate accommodation.”

To evidence their decisions, Poplar HARCA uses complaints from neighbours, criminal damage reports and community impact statements, as well as their own records to ensure that the abuser is removed but the victim does not need to go through the trauma of giving evidence unless they choose to. Streetwise gives officers the tools to join the dots in patterns of behaviour and keep in contact with the victims on how their case is progressing. By centralising ‘isolated’ incidents and flagging up repeat disturbances, officers have the tools at their hands to create safer communities and homes.

MRI Software supports its customers in providing the support needed to help families escape abuse. Director of Finance, Lesley Westwood sees the Streetwise module as having the ability to help curb this behaviour. Speaking on the current climate and the lessons society can learn from the escalation in domestic abuse cases, she explains:

“Sadly, one of the many negative impacts of Covid-19 has been an increase in domestic violence. Lockdown has and will continue to intensify tensions within homes; it has been reported by one customer that domestic abuse cases have nearly tripled during this period. Our Streetwise solution supports landlords by keeping records and enabling them to evidence where interventions need to be taken. Domestic abuse risk is not static. Streetwise offers a chronological record of incidents, enabling officers to adopt a personalised approach to support.”

As of April 2021, there will be new legislative obligations for local authorities to support victims of domestic abuse. For housing providers, the time to act is now; to stamp out this toxic behaviour that has lasting ramifications for those who experience it and reverberates through communities.

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-role-of-maracs-in-tackling-domestic-abuse/ Fri, 27 Nov 2020 15:05:29 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32259

Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences, or MARACs are a well-established approach for creating pathways for the victims of domestic abuse in the UK at risk of serious harm. As the name suggests, these involve multiple agencies coming together and in some cases, housing providers will be invited to be part of the MARAC process. Their … Continued

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Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences, or MARACs are a well-established approach for creating pathways for the victims of domestic abuse in the UK at risk of serious harm. As the name suggests, these involve multiple agencies coming together and in some cases, housing providers will be invited to be part of the MARAC process. Their presence can ensure that action is taken to safeguard the victim and any children in a home against violence and abuse. The uniquely close and long-term relationship many housing providers have with their customers means that their insights and records have the potential to save lives.

MARACs were first set up In Cardiff in 2003 in response to a safeguarding environment where sharing information and co-operation amongst agencies was minimal. Developed by the UK domestic abuse charity, SafeLives In the wake of some shocking cases of domestic homicide, domestic abuse and violence, sexual violence, stalking and harassment, MARACs were set up to reduce the risk of harm to victims. So effective was the work in Cardiff, that MARACs were rolled out across the whole of the UK in 2007 and the majority now meet on at least a fortnightly basis.

The central presumption of a MARAC is that for one agency alone it is impossible to build a full picture of the experience of a victim. A cross-agency group working together engaging in open and transparent information sharing will have insights that could save a life. As domestic abuse occurs largely behind closed doors, it can take visits to A&E, police reports of disturbances or housing association repair logs to build a clear idea of a victim’s experience.

Domestic abuse is often a gendered crime, disproportionally affecting women and girls. However, the impact of the abuse has effects beyond the experience of the victim and any family members in residence; it also has far-reaching impacts on wider community safety. Beyond this, a high-risk domestic abuse case costs on average up to £20,000 of public money when pooling the efforts of multiple agencies; the emotional and financial costs of this crime are high.

How does a MARAC work?

MARACs are led by a police MARAC coordinator and held fortnightly. MARAC meetings assess multiple high-risk cases of domestic abuse in one sitting to consider risk identification and action planning. The victims do not attend; in their stead an IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Advisor) will attend to vouch for their best interests. Other agencies that might be present are the police, mental health services, housing, homelessness teams, probation, children’s social care and related voluntary organisations.

The duty of a MARAC is to determine the level of risk and identify the services and organisations that will provide the right support and the actions they will take going forward within a clearly defined timeline. This may manifest as identifying the types of abuse being experienced, such as violence, sexual abuse, economic abuse or coercion and control. Specialist help can also be designated by identifying whether there are other outlying factors that might need attention, such as drug and alcohol abuse, an LBGTQI+ victim or faith-based abuse, such as the risk of honour-based killings and forced marriage.

What is the purpose of a MARAC?

• At its heart, to reduce domestic abuse
• To prevent re-victimisation
• To build an effective risk management plan
• Child protection
• To promote agency accountability
• To share information for a better working environment
• To determine if immediate action needs to be taken against a perpetrator
• Through joint working, to establish support for staff involved in high-risk domestic abuse cases

Why do housing providers matter for MARACs?

Housing providers are uniquely placed to identify at-risk victims and give support in cases of domestic abuse. Being part of a MARAC referral can help housing providers achieve results more quickly and effectively than they may have done alone, in turn helping housing providers reach their domestic abuse targets.

MARACs give us the opportunity to put in support earlier so that we don’t get to the point at which a victim turns up in a taxi with children and all their belongings on a Friday night.

Housing Advisor, Gloucestershire

A housing representative at a MARAC will bring any information the organisation holds about the known parties in an individual case. However, it may not be a frontline support worker with first-hand knowledge of a case briefing the MARAC, but an individual at managerial level. It is therefore, imperative for housing providers to have easily organised and accessible records for each case of domestic abuse. Our MRI Streetwise solution is the only commercially available case management system in the UK that has been developed by a housing association to record cases of domestic abuse and is able to identify escalating risk.

When you go to MARAC, the value with MRI Streetwise is you’ve got a full history of that person’s needs; at the touch of a button, you’ve got your MARAC notes ready. They’re all in chronological order, everything’s there and we’ve got a true picture of what’s actually happening. When you’ve got everybody round the table, you’ve got a full history there to engage with all of the other professionals. Therefore, that means that you can then give a much more in-depth response. I might be a person who is going to MARAC and I might not know the case. By pressing that button on MRI Streetwise, I’ve then got all of the notes.

Dr Kelly Henderson, Co-Founder of the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance

 

Information that a housing provider may bring to a MARAC includes whether there have been antisocial behaviour allegations made against a household, any rent arrears and the records of who is named on the tenancy and as such, is legally allowed to live in the home. At the meeting this evidence will be considered alongside that brought by the other agencies in attendance and a safety plan will be developed that outlines the requirements expected from each attending agency.

Do MARACs make a difference?

• In Cardiff, repeat victimisation fell from a rate of 38% to just under 10% following a MARAC
• In 2010 it was found that every £1 invested in MARACs yield £6 of savings to the public purse. This cost-benefit ratio means in terms of public investment, only 16% of MARACs need to be proved successful
• 40% of survivors did not experience further abuse in the 12 months following being subject to a MARAC
• Those who suffered further abuse were much more likely to report early before the situation escalated further 

Published in July 2020 by the University of Suffolk, the research of domestic abuse practitioners in the South West of the UK questioned whether a decade on, MARACs are still fit for purpose. They do, like any other system, have some challenges. However, they are by far the most entrenched strategy for protecting those at the highest risk of domestic abuse and are currently the best option for engaging in a co-operative multi-agency approach that can safeguard a victim from many sides, providing proven cost benefits. Housing providers are poised to support this; at the centre of people’s day-to-day lives, they have a huge amount to offer from the relationships that they build and the records that they keep.

MARACs are important because in some localities they remain the primary route for responding to high-risk cases of domestic abuse

 University of Suffolk

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/supporting-hoarding-tenants-through-covid/ Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:06:25 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32120

Officially, an estimated 5% of the UK population suffers from hoarding disorder, however the number is likely to be far higher than recorded. Hoarding is exemplified by the proliferation of objects and the inability to let go of them, that over time makes life within a household limited or impossible. Last month Chelsea Kelly, Head … Continued

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Officially, an estimated 5% of the UK population suffers from hoarding disorder, however the number is likely to be far higher than recorded. Hoarding is exemplified by the proliferation of objects and the inability to let go of them, that over time makes life within a household limited or impossible. Last month Chelsea Kelly, Head of Community Safeguarding and Danielle Bishop, Safeguarding Manager at London housing association, Poplar HARCA ran a virtual best practice-sharing event introducing their approaches to supporting hoarding tenants during COVID-19.

Building meaningful relationships with hoarding tenants is key to making progress and ensuring a tenant’s wellbeing. With difficulties gaining access to properties during lockdown to work with their hoarding residents, safeguarding teams across the country have had to adapt the way that these relationships work.

Hoarding is a big part of what we do; due to the nature of hoarding and the support that needs to be put in place for hoarding tenants, it’s probably one of the longest pieces of work we do.

Danielle Bishop, Safeguarding Manager, Poplar HARCA

A particularly sensitive issue, the effects of hoarding not only disrupt an individual’s life, but also those of their loved ones and surrounding neighbours. The causes of hoarding are widely varied, but can include the sudden bereavement of somebody close, or underlying mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety or OCD.

The approach

Hoarding may initially be dealt with by a housing association as an antisocial behaviour (ASB) issue, with neighbours reporting pest control problems or bad odours from a home. However, due to some of the identified causes of hoarding, Poplar HARCA approach the issue from a safeguarding perspective.

No two cases of hoarding are the same and the housing team take an individual approach to hoarding disorder by building strong relationships, gaining trust from those needing help and identifying their needs.

We tackle hoarding from a safeguarding position first before taking any other actions. The main thing we do is build a relationship; we start from the bottom, make sure that the tenant knows they can trust us. Initially we tell them that we know that this isn’t going to be a quick fix, it’s going to be long-term issue.

Danielle Bishop, Safeguarding Manager, Poplar HARCA

For Poplar HARCA, transformation begins with short-term goals. Setting these ensures that the individual is not overwhelmed, that results can happen slowly and that the action is theirs. Small steps are particularly effective because for hoarders, each item is invested with meaning and can be extremely difficult to discard.

Many cases of hoarding dealt with by Poplar HARCA are established by the repairs team, with hoarding tendencies often spotted when conducting electrical and fire safety inspections. Following the Grenfell tragedy, across the UK inspections led to properties being visited that hadn’t been accessed for years. As such, in 2018/2019 Poplar HARCA recorded 18 new cases, two thirds of which are still being actively worked on.

Prior to COVID, the approach was to gain entry to the individual’s home, working alongside them and giving them access to the estate services team so that any discarded items could be removed. One method of working with hoarding tenants was to create physical photo diaries of the progress made in a home. Approaching a hoard can be overwhelming and using a visual tool to evidence progress can really spur an individual on to make further progress.

Partnership working

A key partner for Poplar HARCA is their ‘Parkguard’, a service that patrols the estates they manage to make them safe from ASB. They also conduct welfare checks on residents that have been highlighted as a concern, with the safeguarding team taking a proactive approach and training their contractors to look out for signs that a household needs support.

Now more than ever, Poplar HARCA have been relying on multi-agency partnership co-operation to assist in safeguarding cases. No longer able to be ‘on the ground’ means that strong working relationships with Social Services and The London Fire Brigade have been reinforced, with both bodies continuing to undertake home visits. While on visits the safeguarding team at Poplar HARCA have been able to request that social workers set up video or phone calls when they are physically in the property, meaning that the team maintain a level of contact with the tenant.

COVID challenges

For some, hoarding is a method of exercising control and the events of this year have led to more people than ever feeling a loss of their normal control. There is a worry for Poplar’s safeguarding team about the long-term impacts of distanced working with their hoarding tenants. A lack of physical contact has presented challenges, with residents more able to avoid contact. In some of the hoarding cases where the team were making good headway, lockdown brought on added levels of anxiety and stress, following which the engagement process has slowed. The primary concern in cases such as these is the situation getting beyond help.

When this happens, the risk to the property can become too high. At that point action would move towards getting an injunction to clear the property. This is not a route taken lightly; while it may seem like a quick solution that is beneficial to a housing provider, in the long term without proper support it’s likely that an individual will return to living with a hoard in an ultimately, unsustainable tenancy.

Solutions

Poplar HARCA use the MRI Social Housing solution, Streetwise as their case management system. Being cloud-based, it has facilitated teams to continue to monitor cases whilst remote working. The system contains both ASB and Domestic Abuse modules but as well as this, Poplar have been using the system to record instances of hoarding and any progress in cases.

Images can be uploaded to the case file and as with the idea of physical photo albums, officers are able to track and illustrate any progress to their hoarding tenants. In unfortunate and extreme cases, Streetwise also allows the team to track any legal actions that may need to be taken.

Streetwise is fantastic. From an Officer’s point of view, all the information you need to add and manage a case can be done so quickly and from a Manager’s perspective, you are able to run reports and easily check Officer caseload to see who is working on what.

Chelsea Kelly, Head of Community Safeguarding, Poplar HARCA

Looking forwards

As the approach to many services becomes ever more reliant on technology, Poplar HARCA have been investigating the viability of providing customers with dongles to ensure a connection is maintained and customers can continue to submit photographic evidence and keep in contact. Virtual support groups and one-to-one sessions have been set up to provide the much-needed support to an emotional problem with a physical manifestation.

It’s been fascinating working with Poplar HARCA to see how their approach to working with their tenants to build trust has led to a significant decrease in hoarding cases. The Safeguarding team rely on Streetwise to effectively manage their cases of hoarding by uploading clutter scale and support plans and are able to instantly view linked cases. Poplar HARCA also use Streetwise to manage cases of antisocial behaviour and domestic abuse and I look forward to continuing our excellent relationship to support them with these highly important matters.

Greg Andrews, MRI Software

Watch the full best practice-sharing session here.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/sustainability-and-transformation-partnerships-their-impact-on-the-housing-sector/ Fri, 13 Nov 2020 10:58:19 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=32033

Our NHS (National Health Service) is facing colossal challenges to deliver healthcare from the beginning of our lives until the end. Bringing care out into the community along with implementing preventive health measures across the UK will prove vital to achieving quality care for all. Housing providers have a role to play in collaborating with … Continued

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Our NHS (National Health Service) is facing colossal challenges to deliver healthcare from the beginning of our lives until the end. Bringing care out into the community along with implementing preventive health measures across the UK will prove vital to achieving quality care for all. Housing providers have a role to play in collaborating with the NHS on transformation partnerships and sharing expertise to improve health outcomes through improved housing provision.

The evidence that quality housing supports good health is well established; the challenge lies in healthcare provision and housing providers working together to improve health and make valuable savings on precious services. Across the UK the greatest example of the future integration of the built environment and healthcare is in the building of NHS Healthy New Towns; the creation of communities that put people’s health at the centre of their design.

As of yet, there is no overarching set of policies that architect an integration of housing and health. This is in part because like the housing sector, the NHS is not one body but a collection of NHS providers across varied organisations that have specific roles and circumstances to comply with depending on the local population. However, work is being done to establish more connected working between housing and health. Inside Housing has suggested that healthcare and social services alongside housing services should take “equal status” in Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships.

In theory there is everything to be gained from the health and housing worlds working closer together, all too often they operate in silos and are disconnected and detached from each other.

The Smith Institute

What are Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships?

A planning framework for NHS services was introduced in 2015 for 44 local areas to develop a 5-year plan from 2016-2021. The ambition was for 44 areas representing on average 1.2 million people each to transform how they meet the national criteria for public health.

For Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) to succeed, the NHS, local government and service providers have had to engage in joint working and break down silos to offer greater efficiency. According to think tank, the King’s Fund, 26 housing and health organisations alongside NHS England and local leaders have collaborated to reduce health inequalities and build a framework to provide healthy homes through cross sector partnerships.

What are the aims of STPs?

1. To address the health and wellbeing gap, by addressing health inequality and focusing on prevention
2. To harness innovation and technology to ensure quality improvement of local care is fairly distributed across the UK
3. To apply funding where it is most needed to achieve financial sustainability and to transform services

It is clearly in the interests of the NHS to work more closely with housing.

The King’s Fund

Where does the housing sector fit in?

Of the three aims, addressing the health and wellbeing gap is the most pertinent to the housing sector. Housing providers are already adept at providing those in housing with extra support but there is a contribution to be made in utilising their entrenched relationships with and knowledge of local communities, and their ability to manage multiple assets and interests and to raise capital for development and investment.

As part of a long-term STP strategy, Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes have committed to building local centres where health and housing services are co-located. One Housing Group, in partnership with the Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust provide supported housing for residents living with mental health issues that might otherwise see them in hospital beds. Exploring these models of care can achieve significant savings to the public purse. Their claim is that the equivalent support in hospital costs the public purse £3,000 per week as opposed to £600 per week in supported housing.

Of the 44 STP plans submitted, 75% include housing in their strategy to deliver health and social care, with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire being the areas whose 5 year plan named housing as a core element. This included ill health prevention measures, such as ‘warm homes on prescription’ to ensure heated homes in the winter are more affordable. Housing providers who can identify tenants at risk of fuel poverty would benefit from these schemes being available to protect their residents and properties.

The STPs – in their current form and as they evolve in accountable care systems – won’t succeed if they are driven by an approach that looks only to the immediate future and seeks only to alleviate financial pressures. Equally, they will fail to achieve their vision if they omit working with key partners, such as housing organisations. Of all providers in the housing sector, housing associations are ideally placed to help relieve pressures on the NHS, and are ready and willing to be involved.

David Orr, Chief Executive
National Housing Federation

The role of technology in STPs

For housing providers, technology can be an essential tool for delivering targeted support to those at risk. Public health issues ranging from fuel poverty to domestic abuse can be identified by harnessing the power of data. Getting a picture of the individuals living in housing stock and understanding when interventions need to take place to support wellbeing is key to any wider health initiative.

Our tenancy analytics solution draws on multiple internal and external sources of data to piece together a full picture of the living situation of social housing tenants, enabling housing providers to proactively identify those at risk and intervene early.

The domestic abuse module within our Streetwise software meanwhile, gives safeguarding teams the ability to tackle domestic abuse in their homes. Housing Association, Poplar HARCA uses this to manage cases and identify repeat offenders so they can take action to protect their tenants. Using the case management system, “You can see linked incidents through the perpetrator and victim tab when you click on the address. This is really helpful when deciding on action to take against repeat perpetrators and also when considering what other support can be put in place for someone who may have experienced repeat victimisation.”

It is essential that local authorities, housing associations and the services that assist them articulate what they can offer in partnership with the NHS in terms of life-long health. Long-term joint working is becoming embedded across social housing to address societal challenges like domestic abuse and antisocial behaviour. This could take the form of building more opportunities for integrated care to happen in the home, conducting repairs for ageing residents to stop preventable falls or utilising technology and data to identify residents at risk of preventable ill-health. Sustainability and transformation plans are a springboard for an integrated care system, where good quality housing is central to life-long health.

MRI solutions to support your communities

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/tenant-mobility-why-are-people-moving-now/ Fri, 23 Oct 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31025

Data from our HomeSwapper system that caters to tenants in social housing has correlated with reports from the private sector; priorities have changed.

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The motivations people have for moving to a new home have shifted this year. The lockdown, changes in working environment and the looming threat of further restrictions this winter have mobilised tenants to look for more space and a greater sense of community. Data from our HomeSwapper system that caters to tenants in social housing has correlated with reports from the private sector; priorities have changed.

What the UK desires is being shaped by a life defined by the four walls we live in. Half of renters looking to move have said that the events of 2020 have impacted and changed the reasons they have for moving. Gardens and outdoor space – both private and public – have gained top priority, with more space and the ability to have pets in the home growing in popularity.

Rightmove has reported that searches have doubled for homes in towns and villages with a population of less than 11,000. Our findings from HomeSwapper have been similar, with required features and desired locations changing over the past months. Within social housing, tenants may find it more difficult to access properties that suit each of their shifting needs. Access to HomeSwapper can empower tenants to find the home that improves quality of life in this uncertain time.

What have we learnt from HomeSwapper?

The top 5 features that HomeSwapper tenant users, known as swappers, want from their new home hasn’t changed but the order of their importance has. Unsurprisingly, having a garden is now the prime desirable feature for a new home.

HomeSwapper Account Director, Eddy Irvine has been gathering insights on motivations for moving since March. “From the landlord’s point of view, it was quieter because they’re not doing as many exchanges. Yet, what we’ve found throughout COVID-19 was tenants were more active; swappers were more active in updating their photographs, changing their preferences and speaking to each other.” Part of the reason for this activity could be the result of many of us having more time on our hands across this period, however we can also see this data as an indication of shifting preferences for what was required in a new home.

From cityscape to countryside

The areas that those using HomeSwapper are looking to move to have changed as well. These now stand as:

1. Essex
2. Hertfordshire
3. Kent
4. Hampshire
5. Surrey
6. West Sussex
7. Cornwall
8. Birmingham
9. Devon
10. Oxfordshire

The top five locations indicate that those using HomeSwapper to move have been desiring a move out of the city centre whilst still staying within the commuter belt of the capital. Private property sector data supports this trend. Hamptons International estate agent found that 63% of properties bought in Sevenoaks, Kent and Tandridge, Surrey were by Londoners.

Eddy notes that the new additions to this list of “Cornwall and Devon are interesting. You’d expect the others in the list because of the number of swappers in those areas, but now people want to move to the seaside!” Research across this period has shown people want more space, with 26% wanting to move to the seaside and 23% now considering the peace and quiet of the countryside.

Across the media, anecdotal evidence suggests movers seek out the community spirit of the countryside and smaller towns, however at risk of disillusioning movers, evidence suggests that this is just ideological. Tests carried out across the UK found that perhaps surprisingly, the helpfulness of strangers didn’t differ from urban to rural settings.

The ‘Work from Home’ shift

As work for many became easier and safer to execute at home, many of us in that position will have to examine what home means and how we can adjust it to make home working viable. For some, that may mean changing location entirely. Before lockdown it was estimated that 1.7million of us worked from home; in April that jumped to 50% of workers and for many of us that setup is likely going to remain in one form or another. But homes are not the entire stories; evidence is suggesting that people are also looking to work outside of the city, a group dubbed ‘reverse commuters’.

Space both inside and outside of the house is becoming a premium. For social housing tenants, housing policies like The Bedroom Tax and the fact that the UK has the smallest requirements for a dwelling space in Europe may forecast difficult years ahead. In 2016, MPS rejected legislation that would require landlords to make their properties ”fit for human habitation”. Seen through the most objective of eyes, it might seem remiss that private landlords are not subject to the same regulations, rent controls and duty of care that housing associations and local authorities shoulder.

Some local authorities are intervening. Cornwall Council research revealed that 50% of homes in Cornwall did not meet the ’decent home’ standard, compared to 30% nationally. They already run a Responsible Landlord Scheme, but are now considering a licence for landlords to ensure responsible property management. Taking these actions can improve the health and wellbeing of families and individuals, as well as children and young people’s outcomes.

“A lack of space affects quality of life. As well as simply allowing people to have a comfortable standard of living, additional space can also reduce stress by allowing members of the same household to engage in different activities at the same time, and ease feelings of claustrophobia experienced in small spaces.”

Cambridge University

What should the future look like?

Social housing will be key to a fair recovery that leaves nobody behind. Looking forward, these trends will inform the services, infrastructure and housing policies that should be delivered next. Recommendations from the National Housing Federation believe £10bn a year needs to be spent on social housing, enough to build 90,000 homes.

Moving forward, continuing to activate HomeSwapper across a robust and growing social housing network in the UK would allow for social housing residents’ control over tenant mobility, equal to that of private renters – without the possible dangers and pitfalls of a lack of social rents and protections.

MRI Software build a number of solutions for the social housing sector, including HomeSwapper. If you would like to know more about what we do, please drop an email to socialhousing@mrisoftware.com

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-great-disassociation-impact-commercial-real-estate/ Tue, 29 Sep 2020 16:54:29 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=29983

In our previous blog, we discussed the role of technology in the “Great Disassociation” and how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated existing trends in remote activity and created new challenges for industries where a consumer’s presence is traditionally required. We covered the many ways in which activities like work, banking, retail, dining, entertainment, fitness and … Continued

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In our previous blog, we discussed the role of technology in the “Great Disassociation” and how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated existing trends in remote activity and created new challenges for industries where a consumer’s presence is traditionally required. We covered the many ways in which activities like work, banking, retail, dining, entertainment, fitness and education have become more and more disassociated from the locations in which they normally take place.

Commercial real estate owners, operators and investors have some analysis to do as they seek to determine a path forward amid these shifts. This analysis should take place across two dimensions: change drivers and population trends.

Drivers of change

The disassociations listed above should be put into context by assessing if they are a result of the acceleration of pre-existing trends or if they are created by an acute impact of the pandemic – expected vs. unexpected, natural vs. unnatural. The acceleration of an existing trend, like a continued rise in ecommerce, is wholly different than the sudden and drastic impact on restaurant businesses.

The dissociations largely fall into the categories of impact as follows:

The fundamental difference between the two columns is one of transaction vs. experience. While the rationalization of retail stores and bank branches is being driven by retailers and financial institutions, the underlying motivations should be used as a guide for future planning.

If shopping or banking experiences only offer a commoditized transaction, today’s consumers will prefer automation. A more personal experience can, and will, win shoppers, much like Nordstrom, where the guest experience is part of the culture.

Acute disassociations are more challenging to forecast as there is not a point of reference from which to plot a trend in order to determine what the future may look like. The most prevalent driver for these disassociations was the need to be socially distant. The path forward will mostly be defined by changing guidelines and societal norms for what is deemed safe. Eventually, however, the experiences provided at these locations will most likely be desired over what can be done from a distance.

Much like retail and banking, less personal and more commoditized experiences will continue remotely. Collaborative needs for professionals will move back to physical spaces where interactions happen differently and where teams work toward common outcomes. Culture is also created more fully when teams are physically together. More personal experiences in dining, entertainment and fitness will also return as specific capabilities and facilities simply cannot be fully replicated at home.

Impacts of population changes

The other dimension of analysis that needs to be explored is how the population’s post-pandemic habits could alter the locations in which they spend their time, and how changes in the locations themselves could conversely alter the population’s habits.

The number of people commuting into a city for work is sure to decrease. New-found comfort with work from home combined with an aversion to public transportation and the need for social distancing will reduce the daily population in offices without requiring a commensurate reduction of office space as employers reduce office density and create more collaborative space.

The population of city dwellers, especially in dense, major metropolitan areas, is showing some signs of erosion as well. Empowered by the ability to work from home as well as low interest rates, some are seeking more private space in suburban areas and smaller cities. Populations of fans and patrons of sports and the arts remain unable to enjoy these experiences live. Populations of business travelers and tourists remain grounded.

Location, location, location is the mantra of real estate, and typically a great location is a combination of population proximity, access to transportation, convenience of amenities and access to a vibrant cultural scene of dining and entertainment. Unfortunately, each of these elements is under pressure as the pandemic continues to impact the economy.

Most importantly, owners, operators and investors will need to assess if the foot traffic in a building, block, or city will decrease as fewer people transit the area daily, especially when considering the future of service and dining-related establishments.

Moving forward

With a bead on the future, plans for redevelopment, renewal and reinvention will come. Recent strategies will continue, like the combination of retail and entertainment, and new strategies will emerge. Creative thinkers and entrepreneurs will define new uses for current spaces much like they have been doing for years. Factories and warehouses become lofts. Industrial sites get reclaimed for waterfront green space or redeveloped into apartments. Big box retail sites get transformed into a wide array of uses for boutique retail or community programming. The options are virtually endless. With interest rates continuing at historical lows, access to capital should not be a barrier for renewal. The largest challenge will be finding the appropriate use and optimal timing given ongoing uncertainty in the economy due to the pandemic.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/great-disassociation-accelerating-separation-activity-place/ Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:23:59 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=29969

The first quarter of the 21st century may be remembered as the time when technology finally allowed people to stop doing specific activities in specific places and enabled us to do most anything from basically anywhere. The COVID-19 pandemic will be seen as the accelerator of a “Great Disassociation”: a time when the relationship between … Continued

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The first quarter of the 21st century may be remembered as the time when technology finally allowed people to stop doing specific activities in specific places and enabled us to do most anything from basically anywhere. The COVID-19 pandemic will be seen as the accelerator of a “Great Disassociation”: a time when the relationship between an activity and where it took place was changed forever.

Separating activity from place

The earliest forms of technology started us on the path of separating activity from place. The telegraph and its successor, the telephone, allowed communication between two people regardless of their vicinity. The radio and then the television brought news, sports and entertainment directly into our homes.

The launch of the Internet and the persistent progress into the digital superhighway of today has allowed the disassociation of activity from place to grow and accelerate.

The disassociations impacting Commercial Real Estate

As we leverage technology to separate activity from place, we continually reshape commercial real estate with rapidly changing conditions and short-term uncertainty.

Work vs. the office

In a study from June 2020, Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found that 42% of the US workforce was working from home full time, accounting for more than two thirds of all US economic activity.

The last time the US workforce worked from home in such high volumes was in 1900, when work was literally at home because home was a farm. Around 40% of the US population lived on a farm, and 11.7 million people of the 29 million in the workforce worked in agriculture.

It took more than a century for the work and home paradigm to blur again. Corporate leaders are learning from their current experiences, and they are starting to question what the post-pandemic office needs to look like. Should density be relaxed? Should collaborative spaces be added, and should individual work-from-home practices increase?

Banking vs. the bank

The automated teller machine became mainstream in the late ’80s, creating a convenient way to withdraw and deposit funds at any hour of the day. This would later be seen as the first step in a digitally powered movement toward self-service banking. With direct deposit, online bill payment, mobile check deposits, and the use of electronic signatures, we are making fewer visits to our local bank branch to do the same banking we used to do in person. A recent report by Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a New York investment bank, found that teller transactions are down 30-40% this year, and they conservatively estimate up to 30% further branch consolidation.

Shopping vs. the store

For the past 25 years, ecommerce has grown by creating frictionless buying experiences, next day deliveries and hassle-free returns. This continued growth forced retail center and mall landlords to rethink their strategies and offer more comprehensive experiences. More dining and entertainment venues have been added to the shopping experience, as well as more special events and attractions.

COVID-19 caused many malls, shopping centers and non-essential retailers to close, driving even more business online and accelerating an industry-wide correction. Further, the experience-driven components of shopping centers, including restaurants, have been greatly impacted by social distancing needs, thwarting the most common strategies used to combat ecommerce.

Announcements of permanent store closures continue to pile up and have well surpassed any historical peaks…and the year isn’t over yet.

Essential shopping still takes place in the store (grocery, pharmacy, home goods, home improvement, etc.), and technology is being introduced to allow for the use of a mobile device to scan products and check out in an independent manner. Additionally, the activity of grocery shopping can be outsourced through apps like Instacart and other grocery pick-up and delivery services.

Dining vs. the restaurant

A 2019 study commissioned by the National Restaurant Association found that off-premise dining (drive thru, takeout and delivery) had claimed a majority and was growing. Then the pandemic struck, increasing the importance of off-premise dining for restaurateurs seeking ways to recover revenues in the face of social distancing measures. Expanded services also allowed customers to continue to support their favorite establishments throughout the pandemic. The off-premise model, however, does not facilitate alcohol sales like the in-store model does, placing an upside damper on off-premise revenue streams.

Growing services like Grubhub and DoorDash have contributed to this trend, allowing delivery from more than the traditional delivery sources like the local pizza shop or Chinese restaurant.

While the maintenance of food quality from kitchen to table remains a challenge, more and more people are trying to enjoy restaurant-prepared meals at home. As the colder months approach and the demand for outdoor dining decreases, more reliance will be placed on off-premise dining.

Recent reports estimate that up to one third of America’s 660,000 restaurants face permanent closure this year as a result of the COVID-19 fallout. Embracing a mixed model (on and off-premise) is likely the best go-forward path for survival as revenue is not solely a factor of dining room size and table turns.

Entertainment vs. the venue

Once the pandemic hit, the lights went down on Broadway and on every other theater across the country. Movie premiers have been rescheduled and stage productions halted. Some content, however, found its way onto streaming services instead of waiting for a return to traditional theaters. A recording of the hit musical Hamilton, as well as movies like Frozen II, The Invisible Man and Bill and Ted Face the Music all landed on streaming services and Video-On-Demand (VOD) formats well before their original home release dates.

Traditionally, it would take 90 days for a hit movie to reach VOD platforms, a window that is surely shrinking on the heels of Universal’s optional 17-day release agreement with AMC, the largest theater chain in the country.

While you might expect sports to be in this category, most professional leagues have already been reaching audiences in their homes with live broadcasts for years via radio and television. Bundesliga, Premier League, NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLB have all proven that they can separate the game from the fans, playing in “bubbles” and empty stadiums. Other professional sports such as cricket and rugby have already resumed play in Australia, while the UK is taking a measured approach and South Africa rugby is currently restarting in September. The NFL season in the US has begun with vastly limited attendance in most cases. The NCAA is currently fragmented on its approach. Unlike movie production companies who can postpone the release of a movie for better times, sports leagues have heavy fiscal incentives to play on, even without the fans in the stands.

Outlying disassociations

Among all of the disassociations we’ve seen over the past few months, there are a few scenarios that are in a unique position. For example, home fitness has been around since Jack LaLanne in the 50s, but companies such as Peloton, and competitors like Mirror, FightCamp, NordicTrack, and Tonal have become more popular as they create live and on-demand classes that participants join from home, avoiding the gym altogether.

In an entirely different situation, however, are teachers and students, who have been forced to resume education separately from a classroom. With the onset of the pandemic, all students were sent home to finish the 2019-2020 academic year. As the 2020-2021 school year launched, a variety of in-person and remote options were made available to students and parents. In many cases, the teachers are in their classrooms doing their job for a decentralized class. The higher education situation is more fluid with a variety of colleges and universities all trying their hand at continuing to deliver content across an array of in-person, on campus and fully remote options. Given the individual costs associated with higher education, the entire system could be destabilized by prolonged distance learning.

Renew, rethink, redevelop

Work, banking, retail, dining, entertainment, fitness and education cover a broad array of commercial real estate assets, many utilizing large or purpose-built locations. Unfortunately, the pandemic has greatly impacted the current use and state of many real estate assets. As the disassociation between “activity” and “the room where it happens” accelerates in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, owners, operators and investors need to undertake analysis to figure out what a technology-driven path forward will look like.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-journey-from-street-to-home/ Fri, 18 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31019

To avoid people becoming long-term homeless, rapid response by outreach teams in hand with structured planned pathways to tenancies are needed.

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MRI Rise: The journey from street to home

The more nights an individual spends homeless, the further exposure they have to multiple risks; from deteriorating physical health and mental health, to the misuse of substances and the possible violence associated with rough sleeping, these are circumstances fraught with danger. To avoid people becoming long-term homeless, rapid response by outreach teams in hand with structured planned pathways to tenancies are needed.

Within the context of homelessness, the term ‘pathway’ covers the journey from first contact with a customer, through an initial assessment of needs to identifying and accessing appropriate support and eventually gaining secure accommodation. For each individual, this journey will be different and could have many steps that overlap and even repeat. For different local authorities, pathways for those rough sleeping often differ and need to be tailored to the demographic of those accessing housing services. This could include young people aged 16/17, care leavers experiencing homelessness, single homeless people being discharged from hospital, prison leavers, those who have fled domestic violence or those with substance misuse issues.

Understanding the full spectrum of needs an individual might have, as well as the support on offer to assist them into a home, we have built our Housing Jigsaw rough sleeping module, Rise.  The module constructs a workable, traceable and shared pathway for local authorities to overlay onto their existing services, all of which can be accessed by third party joint-working partners.

Pathways into housing

A pathway to long-term housing is made up of a multitude of touchpoints, from street outreach to social care and help with health and wellbeing. Those that an individual encounters will depend entirely on the circumstances that have led them to homelessness. Elements along the pathway can include:

Hotels and Bed & Breakfasts: Using local rooms to bring someone in from the streets – used extensively at the beginning of lockdown as part of the ‘Everybody In’ scheme

Short-term Accommodation: Privately rented homes, University accommodation or housing association properties that are temporarily vacant and available to briefly house someone coming in from the streets

Modular Housing Units: Self-contained single occupancy homes normally built with temporary planning permission.

Reconnecting with friends and/or family: Helping those accessing services to build up a loving support network. For example, Tesco Mobile and Crisis giving rough sleepers mobile phones and laptops during coronavirus

PRS Access: These include deposit schemes, incentives from local authorities to landlords, guaranteed rent, support and training for landlords and tenants

Supported Housing: Accommodation which caters for an issue or situation that an individual may be experiencing, such a fleeing domestic abuse, poor health or substance misuse

Immigration advice: Having expertise and networks available for those with no recourse to public funds

Employment support and training: Raising up the skillset and self-esteem of customers to build a resilience and independence in order to make a return to the streets less likely

Housing First: This scheme puts people into self-contained permanent homes as soon as possible after they access services. Once in accommodation, wraparound support is given to assist their efforts in building a healthy, sustainable lifestyle

“More good research on the health gains that result from investment in housing is needed, but it also needs to be relevant to the context within which both housing and health practitioners work.”

Care Services Improvement Partnership

Case Study: Coventry City Council and Citizen Housing

Housing Association, Citizen Housing in partnership with Coventry City Council, converted a former care-home with self-contained units into homes for rough sleepers. Since April 2020, 44 people experiencing homelessness have been housed through this scheme. The units are short-term, giving a tenure of three months that can be extended to nine if needed. Transition into permanent move-on accommodation is built into the services, the bulk of which is set to be provided by Citizen Housing.  Ensuring that individuals experiencing homelessness have a roof over their heads as a priority, is key to supporting them into long-term accommodation and reducing rough sleeping figures. However, without additional support to address some of the issues that may be the cause of homelessness, such as trauma or drug and alcohol misuse, those same people brought in off the streets may fall back through the cracks into street homelessness. Homelessness charity, Homes for Cathy reported that in Manchester, 20% of those sleeping rough and brought in at the beginning of the Coronavirus lockdown were now living on the street again. It is essential that consistent support be provided to ensure that the pathway from street to home becomes a one-way system.

Central to this conversation and to avoid an increase in rough sleeping across England is the application of long-term thinking by central and local government, investment in local housing and people-centred services that understand that pathways from street to home are long and winding, with unexpected ‘weeds’ along the way. A clear history of evidence from all touchpoints in an individual’s route out of homelessness is key to understanding that person’s pathway and ensuring that services can work with a truly collaborative approach to ensure a successful end to that journey.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/mri-software-wins-third-stevie-award/ Mon, 14 Sep 2020 13:21:54 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=29770

MRI Software is thrilled to announce that we’ve won a Stevie® Award in the Large Computer Software Company of the Year category at the International Business Awards for the third year in a row! We’ve spent the last year and a half delivering on the promise of innovative solutions for the real estate industry, and … Continued

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MRI Software is thrilled to announce that we’ve won a Stevie® Award in the Large Computer Software Company of the Year category at the International Business Awards for the third year in a row! We’ve spent the last year and a half delivering on the promise of innovative solutions for the real estate industry, and we’re proud to have won this Stevie Award that acknowledges those innovations.

An innovation-driven approach

In 2019, MRI Software introduced several new products designed to further enable clients to transform the way their communities live, work, and play with an open and connected ecosystem of software solutions. One such product was MRI Application Gateway, a consumer-friendly homepage that allows users to access all of their MRI and third-party applications through one point of entry.

MRI also introduced a comprehensive payment solution that supports online and check payments for residential properties. Since the introduction of this product, MRI clients have been able to utilize its dashboard that tracks payment trends, alerts, and notifications for complete visibility into all transactions. MRI’s payments solution has served as an intuitive addition to the platform with the potential to expand into global markets in the coming years.

Delivering for our clients in times of crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged companies across the globe in ways they never thought possible. As North American companies were starting to see impacts to their business, MRI developed new features for our software solutions to help clients rise to the many challenges. Driven by a belief that leveraging technology was one of the best options property owners and managers could take to ensure business continuity while observing social restrictions, MRI introduced tools to help multifamily and commercial landlords account for deferred rent payments, outbound call routing capabilities to assist property leasing agents working remotely, and new analytics dashboards to give clients deeper insights into risk.

In addition to these product offerings, MRI also formed and mobilized a Market Insights team to monitor key indicators of health in the multifamily, affordable, and public housing industry. Every month since May, the Market Insights team has released data on how these industries compare to one another in terms of move-in rates, new application rates, and lease term statistics. These trends help to paint a picture of how the three housing sectors are faring amid a volatile environment. The report covering data through August 2020 is available here.

Market expansion and growth

In addition to all of this, MRI has been greatly expanding into underserved markets and building upon our own product offering to better serve people in these markets. In the past year alone, MRI has made several acquisitions to boost our offerings for the social housing industry on a global scale, extending the reach of our solutions in the UK and Australia. MRI has also taken on a greater role in the real estate occupier space, broadening our solutions around lease management, lease accounting, space management and more.

At MRI Software, the past several years have seen a team of highly talented professionals execute on a mission of strategic growth and innovation, and this award is only one of the latest indications that this approach is working. Recently, MRI Software’s growth was recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies, and our success in expanding the reach of MRI’s product offerings was acknowledged with a Stevie Award win in the APAC region. MRI Software is proud to have received all these honors, but in terms of innovation, expansion, and growth, the best is yet to come.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/rise-why-evidence-matters/ Fri, 11 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31018

As we launch RISE the rough sleeping intervention, support and evidence module from Housing Jigsaw, our partners NPSS explain the need for recording evidence and how it leads to better commissioning of services.

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MRI Rise: Why Evidence Matters

For those experiencing rough sleeping and homelessness, engaging with services and beginning on the path towards permanent accommodation can be a complex journey. It is the responsibility of all service providers involved in this pathway to work together to produce the best outcomes for their customers. Beyond an individual level, the records a local authority keeps of the journey from street to home serve to build and commission better, more robust services. A clear trail of evidence is essential to ensuring that progress continues to be made and funding can be allocated appropriately. Estimates made in 2018 worryingly predicted that if the status quo on homelessness continued in the UK, that by 2041 the number of people experiencing homelessness could double. 2020 has undoubtedly shaken these forecasts, but there is still much to be seen as to the impact that emergency schemes such as ‘everybody in’ have had in moving rough sleepers into more stable accommodation.

“If you are passionate about making a difference to mankind, you will only succeed in that by following the evidence of what works.”
RT Hon Norman Lamb MP

MRI developed Housing Jigsaw Rise, the UK’s only software module for managing the rough sleeper pathway from end-to-end. A core element of this module is to facilitate and evidence partnered work between housing, health and social services. Joint working between LAs, for example and the NHS and CCGs (Clinical Commissioning Groups) can produce outcomes that show the benefits of making these relationships more seamless.

“Improving the consistency, detail and breadth of data collected would be of considerable value and contribute to a much better understanding of the costs of homelessness, which would benefit policymakers, local authorities and others involved in the tackling of homelessness.”
St Mungos

Five commissioning principles

1. Assess Needs:
Engage with third sector organisations and experts well in advance of commissioning to understand the needs of service users and the wider community.

2. Design Services:
MRI takes advantage of different skillsets to build solutions that put outcomes for an individual at the heart of a service, whilst making the process as practical as possible for frontline workers.

3. Source Providers:
Building relationships with a broad range of suppliers who conduct work in hard-to-reach groups, making sure processes for tender are fair, transparent and balance quality of service with cost.

4. Deliver to users:
Engage with those seeking permanent accommodation, recording steps in the process and measuring outcomes as individuals make their journey from street to home.

5. Monitor and Evaluation
Seek feedback from organisations, services and communities. Evaluate it alongside available data to recognise shortcomings and spot good patterns to establish long-term contracts with services that work.

The Rise pathway

Rise is a pathway module, fully supporting the rough sleeper and single homeless journey from street to home. Rise is the “ability to determine your commissioning, to look at the cost effectiveness of your commissioning, to pinpoint on a map where your rough sleepers are, to capture all your evidence around your counts and estimates. Rise is there to capture how you deliver SWEP, how you work in partnerships, how your partners record their SWEP provision – what’s included, what isn’t, who stays where on what night – how you then move your rough sleepers into supported accommodation, the support that’s provided for them whilst they’re in that accommodation, and whether that’s stage one, stage two or stage three, and then how you move them on from that into their own accommodation that they can sustain. That’s Rise.”
The Rise pathway facilitates the management of individual journeys; a vitally important element, but not the whole story. Analysing all those journeys together against uniform benchmarks can help local authorities set clear objectives to get people safely from street to home.

“Administrative data may represent the best single option for understanding rough sleeping and tracking the experience and extent of rough sleeping over time and may be more effective than street counts.”
Centre for Housing Policy 2018

Local authorities hold the responsibility for improving the lived experience of us all. Achieving this within tight funding restrictions is an ongoing challenge and when it comes to homelessness services, cannot be done without strong partnership working with other public agencies and third sector organisations. Rise facilitates multi-agency working to contribute to the outcomes of an individual’s journey from street to home. The data that is collected along the way can be used to evidence commissioning outcomes, set priorities and determine funding. As the Centre for Homelessness Impact wrote at the beginning of 2020, “Now more than ever local leaders need support to think big, use evidence, be bold, and uncover and test inventive and shareable solutions.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/cafm-software-reduce-real-estate-costs/ Thu, 10 Sep 2020 15:09:44 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=29646

The COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty in nearly every aspect of our lives. But, for those managing real estate, your CAFM (computer aided facility management) software can help provide some clarity. Now more than ever, it’s imperative that your company has accurate, real-time information about costs, space requirements, remote workers, and asset management. Think about … Continued

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The COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty in nearly every aspect of our lives. But, for those managing real estate, your CAFM (computer aided facility management) software can help provide some clarity. Now more than ever, it’s imperative that your company has accurate, real-time information about costs, space requirements, remote workers, and asset management.

Think about costs – property and facilities management are an organization’s second-biggest expenditure after its people. During times of flux, it’s essential to have a deep understanding of what these costs are. Likewise, whether expanding or contracting in space and/or personnel, you need to know exactly what space is available and needed. You should also know the location of your assets, whether these are assigned to a person or not, and be able to quickly run an inventory report.

To help you tackle the immediate impacts of the pandemic and to plan further ahead, here are 15 key questions you should be asking:

1. If 40% of our employees are remote working for an extended period, how does that impact our real estate costs?
2. How will our portfolio look when our employees return?
3. Are we able to temporarily shut down some of our facilities to reduce costs?
4. What is our company’s standard RSF (Rentable Square Footage)/person?
5. What is our company’s RSF/capacity?
6. If we have to shed space now, where can we increase occupancy in the future?
7. What floors can we shut down to reduce costs?
8. Where are the opportunities for restacks?
9. What spaces can be doubled up?
10. What spaces can be used as workrooms?
11. Is the shift to remote working reducing the need for work, meeting, cafeteria, amenity and other support spaces?
12. Are we utilizing or considering flexible workspaces?
13. Where are our assets located?
14. Are remote workers taking their office and mobile devices home?
15. What assets are employees responsible for?

Your CAFM solution can help you answer these. The data-driven metrics generated provide you with a deeper understanding of your portfolio utilization, vacancy, occupancy, department allocations, asset management, and personnel management – and should allow you to report to senior leadership in minutes, not days.

Relational databases, such as CAFM systems, can also bring disparate information together into one centralized location. Employee data, asset data, and space information can all be integrated together. When one set of data is updated, all of the associated data is updated too. For example, if an employee moves, all of their assets are moved with them automatically. The space allocation chargebacks are updated, as is occupancy/vacancy information, all without even having to log into the system. These efficiencies free up your facilities teams so they can focus on the most pressing issues and deadlines.

Additionally, Software as a Service, or SaaS, provides a centralized solution for managing your facilities without you having to take on backups, redundancies, or servers – the provider does that for you. And the best part is your employees can access the system anywhere, anytime, whether working remotely or in the office, or visiting another building off site.

Our clients have relied on our solutions to help them in times of uncertainty for more than 20 years. This might be the greatest challenge we’ve all faced in that period, but we are here to help and advise you in any way we can. If you feel there are aspects of your CAFM solution (or any of the applications you use) that can help you address essential processes at this time, or could inform your ongoing strategic approach, then please leverage our experience and expertise. Our team is ready to support you!

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/housing-as-a-public-health-issue-coronavirus-and-housing/ Fri, 04 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31017

The United Kingdom’s current housing crisis and the health issues linked to it have been fatally exposed during this difficult time. Those living in high density urban areas on lower pay have suffered disproportionately during this emergency.

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Housing as a public health issue: Coronavirus and housing

Since March the relationship we all have with our homes has changed and intensified; those with space and safety have largely fared well, whilst others have come to noticeable harm. Last week we gave an overview of the topic of housing as a public health issue. This week we will take a closer look, investigating the links between the Covid-19 crisis and housing, links so strong that Newham Council branded the coronavirus pandemic a “housing disease”. The United Kingdom’s current housing crisis and the health issues linked to it have been fatally exposed during this difficult time. Those living in high density urban areas on lower pay have suffered disproportionately during this emergency. Often those who inhabit the lowest quality housing in a city and surrounding areas have compounding issues that have exacerbated their risk factors for coronavirus.

Those issues have included overcrowding in households – making it difficult or impossible to isolate when experiencing symptoms, low income and insecure employment – which has the potential to build rent arrears, as well as higher levels of stress and anxiety. Struggling to pay bills and growing rent arrears and been directly linked to reduced health. Those in poor housing are overrepresented in rates of poor diet, diabetes, chronic cardiovascular conditions and respiratory issues. Those in urban areas also have to contend with higher levels of air pollution. All of the above represent risks to health in normal times, but are compounded by the presence of a highly infectious disease.

In 2018, The National Housing Federation in partnership with NHS England suggested the development of a Housing and Health Alliance model to tackle existing issues affecting the UK and strengthen the links between policy and practice to enable stronger local working. In the coming years a formal – and many informal – alliances between health and housing bodies will be necessary to avoid a repeat of the suffering felt across 2020.

At this time, non-statutory guidance for local authorities has been given to encourage the enforcement of standards in rental accommodation, whether social or private, during Covid-19. These include a duty for private landlords and housing associations to inspect a property if it poses an imminent risk to a tenant’s health. If an identified serious hazard pre-dating the pandemic exists or if the tenant is already flagged as vulnerable and in need of extra support during this time, the duty exists to identify and begin emergency repairs on any existing hazards to health.

“There is evidence that our failure to get to grips with the housing crisis has helped make our society vulnerable to coronavirus. If the pandemic is not the wake-up call policymakers need to ensure our homes and health are treated as intrinsically linked, then nothing will be.”
Nathaniel Barker, Inside Housing

Overcrowding

One of the single most pressing housing issues in relation to the coronavirus outbreak has been that of overcrowding. As of 2017-18 around 3% of the UK’s housing stock was overcrowded, representing around 750,000 homes – a rate that has remained stable in owner occupied homes, but risen in both private and social rented properties. Children are the most affected by this, with 1 in 10 in the UK living in overcrowded households – that figure leaping to over a third in London.

The impact of Covid-19 is not just an issue that is affecting the UK during this crisis. A set of nine public housing tower blocks in Melbourne, Australia, home to 3000 people, were put under harsh lockdown conditions to tackle the recent Victoria outbreak. The acting Australian Chief Medical Officer described this type of housing architecture as “vertical cruise ships” in relation to the capacity of infectious diseases to spread within them.

Back in the UK, new lockdowns at a local level are starting to be enforced by local authorities. In Oldham, Manchester a high number of the most recent cases were attributed to multiple occupants of single households, often those living in shared accommodation or within large families. Of those new cases, two-thirds were represented by the town’s Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.

Race, Housing and Coronavirus

Stark figures have emerged over the last six months documenting the disproportionate levels of coronavirus cases and deaths within BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) communities in the UK. The story these numbers tell is that of prior existing inequalities across the UK. In terms of overcrowding in households, the English Housing Survey found that 30% of Bangladeshi households, 16% of Pakistani and 15% of Black African households in England were overcrowded in comparison to 2% of their white counterparts. Alongside overcrowding, 32% of BAME Britons live in poor housing compared with 26% of White Britons.

“The risks associated with COVID-19 transmission, morbidity and mortality can be exacerbated by the housing challenges faced by some members of BAME groups.”

Inside Housing

Case Study: Looking to the Future

Under the current housing crisis, building new homes for health is essential. However, the time, resources and funding required to address the scale of the problem can seem insurmountable. Retrofitting existing blocks fit for modern habitation, therefore poses new opportunities for municipalities, social landlords, developers and the construction industry alike.

In 2019, Grand Parc Bordeaux was awarded the Mies van der Bohe architecture prize for a complete retrofitting of a 1960s housing block, which added a balcony to every dwelling on the estate. Following some people’s experience of lockdown, balconies have become a potentially necessary element for any household living in a flat.

Moreover, these units were prefabricated to ensure residents were not removed from their homes during renovation. The project also installed large glass doors and windows to provide better ventilation and light for each of the inhabitants.

“For social housing to work, it must provide enough stock to meet housing needs. It must also receive enough funding to manage and maintain the housing.”

The Conversation

Newham Council’s packaging of Covid-19 as a ‘Housing Disease’ neatly sums up the effects the coronavirus has had in tearing off the sticky tape holding together the UK’s housing crisis. Research from the House of Commons Library points towards the provision of social housing being the key for improving people’s wellbeing within the home, with those on low income in the social rented sector less likely to live in poor housing than those in the private rented sector. Home should not be a place that damages mental and physical health, but a safe shelter. Moving forward, a networked response between legislators, health and housing providers will be necessary to ensure good quality housing is not a luxury but an essential for each and every one of us.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/housing-as-a-public-health-issue/ Fri, 28 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31016

In the UK, 20% of homes present a risk to their inhabitants, with the leading causes of ill-health in the home being the cold and falls. In 2015, it was estimated that poor and sub-standard housing was costing the NHS £1.4bn per year.

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Housing as a public health issue

Public Health is commonly understood as, “The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organised efforts of society.” In the UK, 20% of homes present a risk to their inhabitants, with the leading causes of ill-health in the home being the cold and falls. In 2015, it was estimated that poor and sub-standard housing was costing the NHS £1.4bn per year, statistics that pre-date even the Grenfell tragedy and COVID emergency.

Housing: Not just shelter

The UK has long documented and sought to improve the causal link between sub-standard housing conditions and poor health outcomes. In 1846, amendments to the ‘Nuisances Removal and Disease Prevention Act’ introduced the first legislated definition of unfit living accommodation to entrench procedures and responsibility upon landlords and developers and curb the spread of infectious diseases like cholera.

An unacceptable amount of the housing stock in England is unsatisfactory; up to a third fails to meet the Decent Homes Standard, with a failure to meet the thermal comfort criterion being the most common shortfall. The data and insights from our flagship product, HomeSwapper has shown that central heating is a leading concern for those looking to move house using our platform. In previous articles, we have explored the notion of ‘Housing as a Human Right’ and the links between ‘Housing and Happiness’. Understanding housing beyond bricks and mortar results in building better services and software for the sector and most importantly of all, the improved health and wellbeing of residents.

The impact of poor housing on physical and mental health is clear. In the UK, the most common effects include respiratory problems, such as asthma and lung cancer, injury from preventable accidents or fire, skin and eye irritation, hypothermia, and depression and anxiety. Health and housing are intertwined; housing may not be the sole cause of a person’s bad health, but poor housing will almost certainly exacerbate existing conditions, ultimately causing more networked costs to society.

“Our home is not just a dwelling place. It should be a place of comfort, shelter, safety and warmth; a place to raise family, welcome friends, and a springboard for all our other daily activities. In short it is the main setting for our health throughout our lives.”
Public Health Matters

A review of studies by Sheffield Hallam University showed that a failure to invest in improving health by providing safe, healthy housing ‘exports’ costs across services. Examples of exported costs include the excess energy used by inefficient homes that impact energy companies and the environment, as well as days lost at school and work by those living in cold, damp or overcrowded homes.

Exported cost: Damp

Damp homes pose a risk to health across the UK; in Wales 18% of homes are damp enough to be a risk to health. Dust mites and mould can exacerbate and cause allergic reactions and respiratory problems. Children growing up in these homes are twice as likely to suffer from coughs and wheezes than their peers in dry homes. For adults, social stigma, shame and depression have also been linked to living in damp housing. Thinking about poor housing and health in the context of exported costs helps prove the need for investment in those four walls. According to the NHS, every £1 spent in Wales on central heating is estimated to generate 42p in health benefits.

The cost of poor housing to the NHS

In 2016, The Building Research Establishment (BRE) calculated that accidents and diseases related to poor housing in the UK costs the NHS £1.4bn a year and a further £18.6bn to wider society. If the government were to release £10bn to address the 3.5million homes in England that pose a risk to public health, the investment would pay for itself in costs to the NHS alone within seven years.

Falls in the home due to prevention measures, such as rails and ramps not being installed are one of the leading reasons why poor housing can impact public health. As our ageing population grows, the 25% of ambulance call-outs for older people as a result of falls in the home is set to rise. What’s more, once in hospital older people use 65% more hospital days than others.

For the NHS, the gains that would come from further partnerships with housing providers is stark. For every £1 spent on adaptation in the home prior to a hospital discharge from a fall, £7.50 of savings are made across health and social care.

Bath falls in numbers
Number of Category 1 hazards: 78,132
Average repair cost per dwelling (£): 521
Total cost to repair (£): 40,679,153
Savings to the NHS per annum if Hazard fixed (£): 15,739,628
Payback years: 2.58

Local authorities have understood the NHS’s need for partnership and assistance to provide healthcare beyond hospitals and are embracing spaces where housing and health services are co-located. Housing providers already have a strong record for building wraparound services; there are up to four million social housing sector homes and 400,000 of them are supported or specialist units for those with extra care needs.

“More good research on the health gains that result from investment in housing is needed, but it also needs to be relevant to the context within which both housing and health practitioners work.

Care Services Improvement Partnership

Case Study: Nottingham City Fund

Nottingham City Homes (NCH) wanted to make headway addressing health inequalities in their homes by bringing down the levels of childhood asthma in Central England – which has the highest level in the UK at 21%.

NCH undertook to replace 10,600 boilers, benefitting 21,200 of their residents. 28% of those residents were under 18. Following the installation of new boilers, the numbers of children suffering from respiratory illnesses halved. This example evidences how intervention can quickly improve physical and mental health.

“Housing associations provide a wide range of services that help alleviate the overall economic burden of ill health linked to a range of conditions.”

The King’s Fund

Housing provided by local authorities and registered providers is more likely to be of a decent standard and fit for human habitation then their private rental sector counterparts. In turn, typically those with more health or social care needs are housed within the social sector. More funding for existing homes and pressure to provide more social homes could build a healthier United Kingdom; “Our homes are the cornerstones of our lives. Without a good home, there can be no good health.”

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-can-we-use-technology-for-good/ Fri, 21 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31015

Tech for good, tech for social good or responsible tech are some of the terms given to organisations adopting a business model that tackles social issues.

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Tech for good, tech for social good or responsible tech are some of the terms given to organisations adopting a business model that tackles social issues.

Technology has permeated almost every service we touch; this has meant that the services at the heart of our day-to-day are now having a greater social impact. Tech for good, tech for social good or responsible tech are some of the terms given to organisations adopting a business model that tackles social issues. In 2018, choosing to address social sector challenges in housing, healthcare, finance, education and sustainability was a practice worth £2.3 billion to the UK economy. Firms in the UK are in fact, global leaders for developing socially responsible technology.

When tech companies choose to engage their expertise and create technology solutions to address society’s most pressing problems, they can adopt a variety of business models. These can include acting as a social enterprise, a non-profit organisation or a profit making business that works closely with frontline practitioners to deliver the services they need – or in the case of some, a mixture of all of the above. Software partnerships with non-profits and charities are imperative for social action and have the ability to digitally transform these organisations. 49% of non-profits believe they don’t have the skills and technology necessary to be efficient and 72% think that improved tech would help them deliver their basic services more effectively.

Big business is recognising its ability to assist in the delivery of tech in the social good landscape as part of their business strategy, putting people and outcomes at the heart of the organisation alongside commercial interests. JPMorgan Chase use this process to get to know how prospective employees work, testing their digital skills while ensuring they share the values of the company. They hold an event called ‘Tech for Good’, where students and existing JPMorgan technologists take 24 hours to solve real problems for non-profits.

The make-up of self-identifying ‘tech for social good’ firms is interesting; according to tech nation, the largest majority of these tech firms (17%) work within Adtech, focused on marketing and reach. Following behind are Edtech (10%), Fintech (9%) and AI (8.0%).

“With the right approach, technology represents not only an opportunity to grow our business and enhance the services we provide to clients, helping them to deliver commercial success, but also to solve the important problems of our time.”

PwC UK

What is ‘Tech for Good’?

Tech for Good is a UK-born phenomenon within the sphere of socially responsible technology. It came out of hack weekends in the hey-day of Shoreditch’s Silicon Roundabout, supported by Paul Miller, CEO of Bethnal Green Ventures, where socially-focused web developers can lock heads with third-sector and public sector professionals, using tech creativity to find solutions for social problems. Running since 2014, Tech for Good matches expertise across the technology and the public sector and accelerates digital solutions with the end-user central to considerations.

One Tech for Good contributor, Harry Harrold of NeonTribe outlines why software development in consultation with frontline experts should be central to building technology in the social good sector:

“I think that Tech for Good should also imply an egalitarian approach to its development; collaboration between those who develop and those who use. Rather than only those who develop.”

Here at MRI Software we embrace this strategy of consulting diverse and inclusive voices in order to build technology for the social housing sector. Our tenancy and income management suite was built – and continues to be developed – with our customers’ input.  Our Product and User Experience teams undertake a strategic process to iterate and innovate constantly in partnership with our customers.

 “we can make sure technology is shaped for the common good, because technology shouldn’t just drive a healthier economy but a healthier society too.”

Rt Hon. Jeremy Wright MP

Can a business be to scale and have social impact?

It can sometimes feel like the world of business is split in two; there are those that are feckless and profiteering and those who address a higher purpose and are social entrepreneurs. Profit making and social entrepreneurship shouldn’t have to exist in binary; more businesses owners and software builders should be both encouraged and driven to create services that have positive, real-world implications, as well as making money. More pragmatic are innovators recognising that a thriving business model should be founded on a responsible approach. Talking to Doteveryone, one Start-up founder put it as such: “This is not about being a good person — this is about building a big sustainable company.”

“For a technology to be responsible, it needs to understand and respect the ecosystems it operates within.”

Doteveryone.org

Case Study: ALERT

At MRI Software, many of our products are built alongside social housing practitioners and as such, are constantly evolving to adapt to an ever-changing sector. In this environment, we released ALERT as a free software module under the Housing Jigsaw umbrella, understanding that the impact of this product on the sector outweighed any profits.

ALERT is now the No.1 online tool designed specifically to meet the s213b Duty to Refer requirement of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (HRA). Under the HRA, specified public bodies have a duty to refer at-risk households to a local authority housing team. ALERT securely and efficiently sends referrals and notifications between local authorities and their wider partner agencies.

Working within the sphere of public services does not necessarily make a company driven by ethics and social consciousness. However, the consequences of acting irresponsibly within the public sphere are far too great not to be considered. Social good organisations are on the rise and in 2018 the turnover of these firms was £732m; community interest companies harnessing the power of technology are the ones to watch in UK tech. Increasingly, how the success of a company is judged will depend on how much social impact it has, and its sector’s ecosystem will be looked upon beyond balance books and efficiency.

 “It’s not anti-social to solve real problems at scale using capitalism if that is the best approach to do so. Likewise, it’s not particularly social to decide to stay small by principle when you could insert more capital into your production process, generate those increasing returns to scale, and thus solve the problem for more”

Nicolas Colin, Cofounder & Director at The Family, Sifted 2020

 

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/space-planning-occupant-comfort-cost-cutting-biggest-drivers-commercial-real-estate-before-covid-19/ Thu, 20 Aug 2020 13:00:15 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=28216

There is little doubt that COVID-19 and lockdown have had a profound and lasting impact on how commercial tenants are viewing their real estate. The devastating global economic impact of the crisis has left a huge proportion of corporate occupiers looking for ways to control and even slash costs – whether retailers struggling with shuttered … Continued

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There is little doubt that COVID-19 and lockdown have had a profound and lasting impact on how commercial tenants are viewing their real estate. The devastating global economic impact of the crisis has left a huge proportion of corporate occupiers looking for ways to control and even slash costs – whether retailers struggling with shuttered stores and then a sobering lack of footfall, or enterprises with large parts of their office spaces, warehouses and other properties now painfully underutilised.

Furthermore, as lockdown is eased, other factors come into consideration: the requirement for social distancing, stringent hygiene measures and other restrictions; the urgent need to ensure employees, customers and visitors all feel safe and reassured as they go about their work in business settings. These now put space planning and space usage, well as occupant comfort and efficiency, at the heart of conversations about changes businesses are facing in light of the pandemic.

Space planning as a portfolio strategy

But it’s not all about COVID. The priorities and trends shaping strategies for real estate occupiers were already firmly on the radar of organisations, according to a report from MRI Software and independent research and consulting experts Verdantix. We spoke to top real estate and financial decision-makers at a broad range of organisations just at the time the global pandemic led to a wholesale shift to homeworking and impacted other ways in which businesses operate.

Interviews with leading executives from global enterprises such as ABB, Oracle and Vodafone showed that 72% identified space usage maximisation as a major trend affecting their property strategies, while 67% named occupant comfort and productivity. The respondents ranked their most important real estate priority as cost reduction (47%), with a further 37% identifying it as their second biggest priority – for a total of 84%. We would expect these numbers to now be even higher, given the stark reality of the coronavirus crisis and the havoc it has wreaked on households and businesses.

It is clear that COVID-19 has placed significant financial pressure on companies around the world and efforts to control spending will only intensify, leading many organisations to examine how they can use space – not only safely, but more efficiently going forward. Technology can play a critical role here, providing data that can be used to make informed and accurate decisions while space management can be optimised to create both a healthy and productive work environment.

Tooling up to deal with lease management as more than just a COVID priority

Lease flexibility to support operational agility was third on the list of top real estate priorities (19%), behind presence in prime locations (25%). Lease flexibility, however, will likely now be seen as a more urgent priority by many corporate occupiers as they take stock of their property portfolios and assess their options in the current climate – looking at where they are making a profit, where they are not and what they can do about it.

But again, the challenges go far beyond the impact of COVID. Many companies are still looking for help in navigating the challenges of lease management and ongoing compliance under new and tighter lease accounting changes (ASC 842 and IFRS 16), and the vast majority are looking for technology to help them, our research showed.

The in-depth interviews, which took in the 53 decision-makers’ views on proptech investments, looked at how they were using technology to deal with the requirements of the new lease accounting standards. Nearly two-thirds (63%) said software was an indispensable or effective means of speeding up compliance, while just 6% failed to see it as essential to meeting their reporting obligations.

In discussing how to maximise value from these investments, the respondents identified the leading critical or strong benefits of software for lease data management as:

• Data centralisations and scalability (70%)
• Enabling data-driven internal discussions (66%)
• Reduction in erroneous data/ ensuring data consistency (64%)
• Process control via data change tracking (59%)
• Speed of data capture via automated data extraction (53%)

Commenting on how real estate software provides value, the interviewees offered key insights:

• “The core benefit of software is that it massively helps co-ordinate the data reporting process, saving time and improving internal communication. If you have more accurate data, you make better decisions faster.” – Finance Director at an oil and gas firm
• “By putting everything in one place, the opportunity is to avoid complications when assembling data. You can compare location, as well as payment and escalation terms, all in the context of IFRS.” – Senior Finance Manager from a retailer
• “Software standardises and centralises data storage practices and gives us more time to double check accounting calculations. I can have peace of mind when reporting the results to key stakeholders outside the finance department.” – Chief Financial Officer of an electrical and electronic manufacturing firm

Pulling teams together moving forward

It is evident that real estate and finance teams the world over need to pull together to meet the many challenges they now face. Once again, the research showed this was the direction businesses across the Americas, APAC and EMEA have been taking. The interviews revealed that, going forward, 70% of the respondents saw their teams either collaborating more closely or merging together. As one head of real estate at a telecoms firm told the researchers: “We are working to make the property team more financially astute and the finance team more portfolio-aware.”

The more organisations enable cooperation across departments, geographies and teams – and provide technologies and approaches to support that – the better equipped to mitigate the impacts of the global financial crisis and put in place strategies for future success.

Download the report here to see the full results of our research.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/swaptracker-streamlining-mutual-exchange/ Fri, 14 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31014

Eddy Irvine, Account Director for HomeSwapper and one of the minds behind SwapTracker explains why now more than ever a uniform, distanced approach is an asset to any social landlord.

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SwapTracker is the sister software to our flagship product, HomeSwapper; the system that completes the mutual exchange journey. Once a tenant has found a suitable swapper through HomeSwapper, SwapTracker has been designed to simplify and streamline the process of mutual exchange – from application to acceptance. 

Eddy Irvine, Account Director for HomeSwapper, works with our 700 HomeSwapper customers, building relationships with them and ensuring that they get the most out of HomeSwapper. As of 2019, SwapTracker became an addition to that offering. “The idea of SwapTracker is that while HomeSwapper is brilliant for customers to find someone to swap with, that’s essentially where it ends. Then when a tenant has found someone they want to swap with, it’s a very manual process for the landlord.“

SwapTracker digitises a process that for many social landlords, can consist of a series of paper forms, phone calls and face-to-face meetings. Before the world changed, it was important to us here at MRI Software to integrate the full process into one dashboard in order to save time for housing officers and give their customers transparent access to the application process. However, since the start of lockdown in March 2020 it has become apparent that SwapTracker has an even bigger role to play – that of supporting landlords to ensure that their mutual exchange processes are COVID safe.

For many customers, Eddy describes a working situation for mutual exchange delivery which is simply no longer tenable. “They [tenants] would have to contact the landlord to fill in a form, which nine times out of ten is paper. Mostly this is sent by post to the tenant and the tenant fills it in. It’s also sent out in the post to the incoming tenant; the person they’re swapping with. In the worst case, this can take two or three weeks to get both forms completed, full and correct. It can go missing, or have incorrect or missing information and have to be sent back, so it can be quite a long process.”

“We did a survey 18 months ago with some landlords and the feedback we got was that they can take between 5 and 15 calls for each exchange they do. The tenant calls during the process to say, ‘where are we in the process’, ‘what’s happening?’ and ‘when can we move?’. What SwapTracker provides is a two-way dashboard. The two big wins for using SwapTracker are that it takes away the manual forms and filing and secondly, saves on time and resources; the tenant can see the full process, so they stop making phone calls.”

From the point of an application for mutual exchange being accepted, it needs to be completed within a statutory 42 days (28 days in Scotland). A lot needs to be done by a provider from that point, from property inspections and gas and electric checks, to collecting references from the other landlord(s) involved. We built SwapTracker in consultation with our existing HomeSwapper customers, “Off the back of feedback from a lot of our customers saying: ‘Why can’t HomeSwapper do that process for us?’.”

When using SwapTracker, Eddy tells us, “Rather than the tenant being sent an application form, if the tenant finds someone to swap with, they press a button on HomeSwapper and it takes them to a registered provider’s specific application form because we upload everything each organisation needs – that’s part of the process when they join SwapTracker. That’s a big tick for a landlord. SwapTracker takes away the paper form and it becomes an online process. Now, when we relate that to COVID, it’s very apt at the moment because everyone is of course, trying to do less face-to-face contact.”

A word from Eddy on mutual exchange in the current climate

Mutual exchanges and other housing allocations all but stopped during lockdown, but with the UK tentatively reopening, they are now making a resurgence. “I have had four or five sign-ups this month, people are signing up to SwapTracker because they know it will take away some of the stress.”

The lockdown has also seen a change in the behaviour of tenants. “From the landlord’s point of view, it’s quieter because they’re not doing as many exchanges. Yet, what we’ve found throughout COVID was that tenants were more active. Obviously, they couldn’t swap but they were more active in updating their photographs and changing their preferences and speaking to each other. Through April, May and June tenant traffic using the system was really busy. It’s getting back to some form of normality now, so landlords are opening up again to do mutual exchanges.”

At the end of March through to early April as lockdown came into force there was, understandably a downturn in new registrations to HomeSwapper. Following this however, as the graph below shows, registrations began to pick up, increasing to levels greater even than before lockdown.

As far as our evidence shows, people are stepping up their hunt to move homes. Overcrowding has been linked to higher rates of Coronavirus and with many having faced lockdown without a balcony or a garden, they are now looking for a change with outdoor space. Equally, fuelling the move in the other direction are those looking to move into more densely populated urban areas for economic opportunities. Whatever the reasons may be for tenants, an increase in renter mobility seems inevitable. This rise comes at a time when the funding and resources of local authorities and registered providers have been hit once again. We designed SwapTracker in consultation with our customers to facilitate a friction-free, as well as mainly contact-free mutual exchange process. When we designed the software, it was to streamline and simplify processes; in the current climate we believe it has become a necessity.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/meeting-government-energy-efficiency-targets/ Tue, 04 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31214

Within the social housing industry improving the energy efficiency of the housing stock is a key objective for all organisations. Properties that are more energy efficient mean lower energy bills for tenants, which in turn can help them pay their rent. This leads to less rent arrears and less empty properties, as low energy bills … Continued

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Within the social housing industry improving the energy efficiency of the housing stock is a key objective for all organisations.

Properties that are more energy efficient mean lower energy bills for tenants, which in turn can help them pay their rent. This leads to less rent arrears and less empty properties, as low energy bills make properties more attractive to tenants in general.

Another key driving factor for the focus on energy performance are the targets which have been set by the various UK Governments. They are as follows:

• England – properties to have at least an EPC rating of Band C by 2030
• Scotland – properties to have at least an EPC rating of Band C by 2040
• Wales – all new homes to be heated and powered only from clean energy sources from 2025
• Northern Ireland – don’t have any home related targets but are aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 35% by 2025.

More to be done

However a recent report found that two thirds of homes in the UK are below the required C grade.¹ This shows the level of work which is still to be done in this area.

Additionally, when you factor in the secondary target that Great Britain has of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, you can see that this is going to be a hot topic for decades to come.

Within the UK social housing scene there are a lot of older homes which means a lot of retrofit measures are going to need to be taken in order to get properties up to the required level outlined by the Government.

Making these improvements represents a significant financial outlay for social housing organisations. One which could pose a big challenge for some providers whose budgets are already stretched due a range of factors including losses caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of building new homes and the rapidly increasing cost of repairs. A recent survey found that the cost of repairs was up 7.7% year on year (around £250m).²

To help with this, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak recently announced a £50m fund for social housing providers looking to carry out such retrofit projects which will improve energy performance.³ Priority to the fund will be given to the least energy efficient properties with heat pumps, insulations and double glazing the key areas of improvement.

However this fund is currently only available for one year so it doesn’t represent a real long-term solution. Also a recent report found that the cost of making improvements to a home in order to make it carbon neutral was £22,000 per home⁴, so on this basis the £50m fund would only cover improvements on 2,272 properties.

Intelligent Energy

To help social housing providers work towards meeting these targets we’ve introduced some new functionality into our MRI Housing Asset Management solution.

Customers can now upgrade their Auto Assessor Pro to Sava’s new Intelligent Energy software. The key benefit that Intelligent Energy brings is that it analyses your data and provides data-driven recommendations for cost effective improvements to help boost the energy profile of your housing stock. All data is synced back into MRI Housing Asset Management giving you a single view of the truth for your data.

Having access to these recommendations can help you make long-term plans about which properties you should address and what method of improvement will have the most impact.

Intelligent Energy also provides customers with:

• A visual interface where you can interrogate your data.
• Automatically plots properties onto a Google Map (including Street View functionality) – a great way to visualise your housing stock.

If you would like to find out more about Intelligent Energy or MRI Housing Asset Management, get in touch with us today to arrange a demo.

Sources:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50573338
2. https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/repairs-and-maintenance-tracker-2020–how-much-is-your-housing-association-spending-64427
3. https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/chancellor-announces-50m-social-housing-retrofit-programme/5106864.article
4. https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-association-says-zero-carbon-will-cost-20000-per-home-66885

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/britains-empty-homes-strategy/ Fri, 24 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31011

With hundreds of thousands of empty properties available in the UK, is there a ready solution for housing providers?

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In March of this year, Zoe Banks highlighted the importance of ‘Advertise a Void’, a free tool for landlords on HomeSwapper to get empty social properties back into circulation. This week we’re exploring the national picture further. It is estimated across England, Scotland and Wales that there are around 280,000 long term empty homes (empty for more than six months); just under the amount the government has pledged to build each year. Whilst filling these empty properties may not be a ‘fix all’ for affordable housing provision, they represent homes that could be brought up to scratch with less work and resources than building new.

Calls for action on the empty homes issue in the UK are not new; in 2011 a Channel 4 program, ‘The Great British Property Scandal’ stirred the public’s consciousness. The amount of empty homes represents around 3% of the total housing stock in England. Predominantly, these homes are privately owned, but local authorities (LAs) are being given new enforcement options to take action on empty homes. From April 2020, LAs were given powers to charge a premium of 200% council tax on properties that have been empty for over 5 years and were not engaging with the LA’s action plan.

The waste of a potential home is not the only impact that empty properties have; they can be magnets for antisocial behaviour, squatting, fly tipping, pests and damp. Without LAs adopting a proactive strategy and action plan, many of these issues then become a problem for the wider community and housing providers themselves. Those living nearby normally bring an empty home to Council attention; these houses are “usually highlighted through neighbour complaints, councillor enquires or referrals from other council departments such as Environmental Health.” Many local authorities now hire specialised Empty Homes Officers to implement housing strategies with owners, landlords and next of kin to bring these homes back into the community; as the longer a home has been empty, the harder, more expensive and less attractive a prospect it is to make it liveable again.

Concerted action and funding are needed from government and the housing sector to identify and tackle the growing issue of empty homes. It’s a missed opportunity that there are 200,000 empty properties that could house people desperately needing a home of their own.

Joe Garner, Chief Executive, Nationwide

West Dunbartonshire Council also put forward a compelling argument for having a strategic housing plan for empty houses:

“There are other cost-benefits to the council, which are less direct but no less important. When a home is occupied, the household will, depending on its size, spend thousands, potentially tens of thousands of pounds in the local community. From buying groceries locally, going to local pubs/restaurants, buying clothes, furniture and other goods local. Lots of empty homes in a particular area costs local businesses a huge amount of money.”

Across the UK, the amount of empty properties is rising at around 2-5% per year. The place in the UK with the largest amount of empty homes is Portsmouth – and this rose at the alarming rate of over 100% last year.

This remains a national scandal that isn’t going away, pointing to a collective failure to really get to grips with this problem. The stubbornly high number of empty homes is compounding the housing market’s deeply entrenched problems with lack of supply remaining a key driver of high prices and low affordability. New homes are not being built fast enough and the constant spectre of abandoned properties aggravates an already tough market, particularly for first-time buyers who desperately want to claim the keys to their first property.

Joseph Daniels, CEO of Project Etopia

National Empty Homes Strategy

Councils and local authorities across the UK are actively employing different empty homes schemes and offering empty home assistance to tackle the problem in their wards. Birmingham City Council consider Compulsory Purchase Orders on any empty property in their ward that is vacant for more than 2 years. In Luton, private owners have access to a grant of up to £30,000 on a matched funding basis if their property has been empty for at least two years and on the condition that their property is then rented to a local Registered provider (Luton Community Housing Association) at affordable rent for the following five years.

Partnerships between LAs, HAs, private owners and the private sector can bring much needed stock into play for council waitlists. Derby City Council, through these types of partnerships, helped renovate and reoccupy 70 properties as affordable housing. In June 2020, Kent County Council pledged £12million for their ‘No Use Empty’ scheme. Cabinet member Mike Whiting said, “With the UK experiencing challenging times and the impact facing the construction industry, initiatives such as ‘No Use Empty’ are becoming increasingly important.”

Case Study: Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SHEP)

SHEP in one decade managed to bring 5,766 homes back into use; 26% of those were earmarked for affordable housing and 17% were acquired through council buybacks. SHEP has been funded by the Scottish Government for the last three years and works closely with Shelter Scotland. 44% of the houses were brought back into use since the start of their government partnership, proving that clear vision and support from legislators can really boost the agenda of an organisation.

They aim to have an Empty Homes Officer installed in every LA in Scotland by the end of 2021 and make work on empty homes the mainstream in all LAs across the UK in order to deliver affordable housing.

HomeSwapper, Advertise a Void

If a housing provider has a void property within their stock, it can be listed on HomeSwapper for free as part of the HomeSwapper package for tenants to view. These homes might be in need of a little TLC or have previously proved hard to let, but may be the perfect fit for someone desperately trying to move. It’s always lovely to hear where HomeSwapper has successfully matched a void property to a tenant in need.

Zoe Banks, Customer Experience Team

In the coronavirus information given in the Government’s recovery plan, home building took centre stage. But while empty homes were not specified within that plan, vacant offices and commercial properties will be having planning red-tape cut for ‘repurposing’. There is still a question as to whether these plans will result in quality affordable housing. Bringing empty homes back into use presents a chance to house families, employ a local workforce to bolster the community and through strategic partnerships and funding, bring affordable homes under RP and Council management.

MRI Software build a number of solutions for the social housing sector including HomeSwapper. If you would like to know more about what we do, please drop an email to socialhousing@mrisoftware.com

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/updates-for-your-mri-housing-finance-enterprise-implementation/ Fri, 24 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31212

At MRI, our expert team are always working hard to stay on top of the latest tax and accounting changes, to make sure that clients are able to make the changes they need to their MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise implementation. Here, we explain a few recent legislation changes and what they’re likely to mean … Continued

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At MRI, our expert team are always working hard to stay on top of the latest tax and accounting changes, to make sure that clients are able to make the changes they need to their MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise implementation.

Here, we explain a few recent legislation changes and what they’re likely to mean for MRI customers:

HMRC Making Tax Digital Legislation – Are You Prepared?

In light of the disruption to businesses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, HMRC has again delayed the deadline for the latest stage in the implementation of its Making Tax Digital for VAT rules.

While Making Tax Digital requirements came into effect in 2019, HMRC will shortly require businesses to ensure that there is an end-to-end digital trail from source systems to the submission of VAT returns, allowing for all data manipulation to be recorded from accounting through to the final VAT return.

The deadline for compliance was previously April 2020 (or October 2020 for complex businesses), but the deadline has now been extended to 1 April 2021 for all businesses.

While the extension will take pressure off housing associations still working to make the necessary changes to their finance system, it’s important not to delay – there’s very likely to be a backlog of organisations requiring system changes near the deadline, so we would urge our customers to ensure they’re making the necessary preparations as soon as possible.

Here at MRI we’ve been working with one of our consultants, Damian Irisarri, to assess the changes our clients are likely to need to make. Depending on the version of our submission portal they’re using, we’re hoping that most clients won’t need to carry out major changes – so if you’re still waiting to get your system in shape to handle Making Tax Digital for VAT, please contact your account manager as soon as possible! – We won’t be able to effectively accommodate a large number of our customers needing help at the same time, so please act early.

5% VAT Rate Change

Another recent change that has come about with the advent of COVID recently announced by HMRC is the introduction of a reduced 5% VAT rate for certain industries, particularly those related to hospitality.

As this is a temporary measure that won’t affect our customer too much, we’re recommending that MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise customers simply use the existing 5% VAT rate code for utilities as an interim method of dealing with this.

Financial Forecast Returns

We’ve also recently been discussing the requirements for Financial Forecast Returns, and how best to pull the data required for these from MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise. From our conversations with clients so far, we believe that it should be possible to use the existing Executive Desktop Reporting Toolkit within OpenAccounts to access the right data for Financial Forecast Returns.

To make the process easier for all our clients, we’re encouraging anybody who’s also working on gathering data for Financial Forecast Returns to join the discussion on our communications portal Basecamp – this way, we can all work together to share tips and ideas, and come up with the best possible solution.

If you’re an MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise customer, you can join the discussion on our Basecamp to collaborate with other housing organisations to get the most out of our systems and OpenAccounts. If you’re interested in finding out more about how MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise could help improve your organisation’s reporting, contact us today to find out how.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/track-monitor-performance-commercial-real-estate-business/ Thu, 23 Jul 2020 14:53:50 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26674

Tracking the health of your commercial organization enables you to measure your business’s performance against its competition, the state of the market, and its own expectations. With MRI @Work, your commercial organization can leverage connected solutions to make data transparent across the company and improve your reporting and decision-making to prepare for tomorrow’s challenges. While … Continued

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Tracking the health of your commercial organization enables you to measure your business’s performance against its competition, the state of the market, and its own expectations. With MRI @Work, your commercial organization can leverage connected solutions to make data transparent across the company and improve your reporting and decision-making to prepare for tomorrow’s challenges.

While commercial organizations might excel at attracting the right tenants, maximizing the information in their leases, and running their businesses smoothly, they also face additional challenges that can hinder greater success. Different internal stakeholders need to see different types of data, information needs to be pulled from disparate sources, and at the end of the day, all this data needs to be reported to investors and acted upon in order to know the score and drive the business forward.

Stay ahead of the curve with accurate data and reporting

Ensuring your business is on track to meet its short-term goals and long-term strategy starts with utilizing your key data and making it transparent across the organization. MRI @Work helps you get that data into the hands of those who need it through actionable dashboards that are tailored to fit the needs of any given role, helping your commercial organization stay ahead of the curve and easily identify and weed out areas of operational inefficiency.

With budgeting and forecasting tools, MRI @Work also gives you the ability to test different scenarios and anticipate market shifts. Easily bring your forecast into the general ledger to compare actuals vs. forecast to understand how you are performing against your initial expectations. Other accounting tools in the suite can be used to develop reports that are tailored and timely, from the investor level to the property level to keep all your stakeholders happy.

Streamline and integrate your financials

One of the biggest challenges in reporting, however, is mitigating the risk for errors in the manual data entry process. Integrating your accounting system with your property management system helps reduce errors, maintain accuracy within your data, and eliminate any chance for duplicate data entry.

This integration, made possible by MRI @Work, can also streamline your procure-to-pay process by automating your invoices, helping you manage your purchase orders, route your workflow, and consolidate your financial reporting. Your finance team may also want a better method to manage fixed assets and ensure compliance. This can be done through creating and managing capital assets for their full life cycle, meeting international accounting standards, reducing overall tax obligation, and more.

Ascertaining the health of your business isn’t a one-time solution – it requires constant attention to keep your commercial real estate organization functioning at its best. MRI @Work can make this process easier by giving you better access to the data hidden within your books to track performance and prepare for any challenges that the future may hold. Learn more about MRI @Work in this webinar.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-cost-of-domestic-abuse/ Fri, 17 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31010

Aside from the physical, emotional and mental scars that domestic abuse victims suffer, there is also the overall cost to society in managing its pernicious impacts.

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Domestic abuse costs. It costs victims of domestic abuse and their families their safety, wellbeing and security through the very real harm caused by the incidents and threats of violence and intimidation by abusers.

And as well as the real price of the suffering to the 2.4m adults who experienced domestic abuse last year, there is also cost to society as a whole. In 2017 the UK government estimated that the emotional and physical effects for victims of domestic abuse (DA) amount to £47 billion per year, the highest consideration out of the estimated £66 billion per year cost to society.

Assigning a financial cost to domestic abuse is something the Home Office undertakes as part of its overall approach to the cost of crime to society. And what these numbers represent is the ripple out from a household throughout the community and wider society – and one of the stark reasons why society needs to take action.

When governments and organisations evaluate the costs of a crime to the criminal justice system, domestic abuse is unusual because events tend to happen over a sustained period of time, comprising multiple incidents. Those experiencing domestic abuse may endure repeated attacks over time or ongoing abuse with insidious tactics that make it hard to split out into ‘events’. However, the structure that the UK uses to evaluate the costs of crimes is broadly the same. According to the 2018 paper ‘The Economic and Social Costs of Crime’, they are split into three strands.

Anticipation: These are processes implemented to protect people from and prevent crimes from happening. In terms of domestic abuse, this may mean a local authority supplying information and education to customers and carefully monitoring for signs of abuse. Implementing Safeguarding strategies, resourcing teams and training key staff to spot signs of potential abuse.

Consequences: This relates to the tangible damage, such as physical injury or property damage, or intangible damages like the emotional and mental suffering, lost days of employment and education.

Response: These might be services from the police, NHS charities and housing providers, for example in helping to restore public order, punish perpetrators or rehouse victims.

While some forms of domestic abuse are more insidious and seemingly invisible, such as  psychological or economic abuse and control, others will involve more visible behaviours like physical abuse, harassment and stalking. As well as the bruises or worse, there is also the cost of criminal damage to property – including goods or the home – such as holes in walls, doors ripped from fittings or locks broken through.

In 2018, software company Gentoo released a comprehensive and stark insight into the impact these incidents had on housing associations in their report, SafeLives. Between 2015 and 2017, they calculated that 13% of property repairs and 21% of repair costs could be traced to domestic abuse, costing around £8.4 million. They also believe that the number of evicted tenants may hold hidden costs with an eviction costing around £5,700.

As well as the unquestionable moral need to deliver safeguarding measures for tenants, the SafeLives report also laid bare the case for housing providers to employ early intervention domestic abuse strategies. ‘The criminal damage that results from violent behaviour is a cost that the housing provider (and in many cases, the tenant) must bear. Therefore, tackling domestic abuse also makes good financial sense for the tenant and the housing provider.’

Using the Streetwise Domestic Abuse system, Gentoo were able to calculate the staffing cost of dealing with 423 domestic abuse perpetrators. The total came to a shocking £140,000 and 262 days of staff time. This rings true across society at large. In 2018, the Government estimated that 12.8% of the population were experiencing DA and applied this figure to the total amount spent on getting people into emergency accommodation. This tallied up to around £119 million per year spent on crisis accommodation.

Housing providers have a significant financial incentive to identify and support customers affected by domestic abuse at the earliest opportunity.

SafeLives 2018

For those experiencing or fleeing domestic abuse or violence, the cost of housing is an additional stress on top of their abuse. Housing costs for many, increase steeply after leaving an abusive situation and fear of these costs can lead to victims staying in their situation. The Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) report that survivors are up to seven times more likely to be in arrears.

The psychological and physical consequences of abuse in the home can also lead to multiple days per year being taken off work and education. After physical and emotional damage, the Government estimates that time lost from work costs the UK the second largest amount per annum – up to £14 billion.

The Vodafone domestic abuse survey shows that between 41% and 88% of those who had experienced domestic violence and abuse during their working life reported that it had impacted their career progression.

The Workplace Impacts of Domestic Violence and Abuse, Vodafone and KPMG

Only in 2016 was financial abuse officially recognised as a feature of domestic abuse. This is where an abusive partner takes control of a household’s finances, steals the other party’s money or denies them access to their own funds. End Violence Against Women also cited Universal Credit payments for an entire household’s budget being paid into one family member’s bank account, as a potential risk for financial abuse.

[It] reinforces the need to tackle domestic abuse, ideally through preventative efforts that stop the abuse from happening in the first place. It also highlights how domestic abuse impacts on many sectors of society, suggesting that the response should be similarly wide-ranging.

UK.gov

Case study: Vodafone and KPMG

Whilst an internationally focused report, the findings show how cross-sector thinking about the ramifications of domestic abuse could facilitate society-wide early intervention.

In 2019, Vodafone teamed up with KPMG to identify the impacts of domestic violence and abuse in their workplaces across nine global markets. Their rationale being that as an employer of 104,000 people, DA would certainly be an issue affecting some of their staff. Vodafone used the report to springboard a company-wide policy to support employees experiencing domestic abuse.

Days lost and loss of productivity due to domestic abuse in all its forms, was estimated to cost the organisation $2.1bn. When Vodafone engaged with employees self-reporting abuse, 38% of employees who had experienced it said that they were less productive in the workplace, with 33% saying that they couldn’t fulfil their potential. Furthermore, 9% of UK staff who self-reported abuse believed that they missed out on a promotion as a result of the abuse.

When we look at domestic abuse in these stark terms, it makes the issue more tangible – and we make it the issue of society at large. The less tangible consequences, such as low self-esteem and the time needed to emotionally and physically recover from abuse can have far reaching effects, but are harder to see clearly.

The cost of broken property borne by housing providers is just one in many cogs that start turning in an unhealthy relationship that causes suffering to so many.

Globally, the UN estimates abuse against women alone (not to mention domestic abuse directed at other genders) cost the global economy $1.5 trillion in 2016 or 2% of global GDP.

Tackling these problems can have profound effects on the individuals directly involved, but also upon the wider network of services, communities and organisations that may too be touched indirectly by the impact of domestic abuse.

The post The cost of domestic abuse appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-lockdown-has-changed-financial-management-for-the-better/ Wed, 15 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31210

Lockdown has made remote working and working from home a necessity for housing organisations across the country. It has forced many people to adopt digital technologies and adapt their processes to ensure stability throughout the pandemic. For finance teams in housing associations this has highlighted a number of areas that can be improved not only … Continued

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Lockdown has made remote working and working from home a necessity for housing organisations across the country. It has forced many people to adopt digital technologies and adapt their processes to ensure stability throughout the pandemic. For finance teams in housing associations this has highlighted a number of areas that can be improved not only for the duration of lockdown, but for the long-term running of the business, too.

Since the lockdown was announced, many people have been forced to work with technologies that they previously hadn’t used – virtual meetings, video calling and cloud-based co-working are all technologies that have been readily available for some time, but only now are organisations taking full advantage of their potential.

These tools are a useful way for teams to work together remotely – however, the necessity for home working has also inspired many organisations and finance directors to rethink their working processes on a much deeper level. For us at MRI, this is a particularly busy time as many finance directors are seeking digital solutions like MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise to allow their teams to work effectively from home as well as provide huge resource-saving efficiencies for the long-term.

An all-in-one solution

Financial management systems are designed to connect your team, simplify reporting, inputting and recording, and connect with the wider organisation to redistribute workload and reduce paperwork.

Using OpenAccounts as the core accounting engine, MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise provides an all-in-one solution, which centralises your data to ensure your whole team is on the same page, and provides flexible reporting required for key decision making at board level. The system integrates into any housing management software you’re already using, and can be used alongside eBIS, which allows for further streamlining of work processes.

Facilitating Remote Working

While remote working is essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to allow your teams to work remotely in the future can be incredibly beneficial. Over this period of lockdown, I’ve noticed teams working more efficiently than ever, with at least one financial director questioning why they invest in large office spaces when their team can work just as well, if not better, from home.

For many it has become clear that paper-based work processes do not work – many people aren’t able to access paper invoices or reports without being in the office. Even widely used systems like invoice barcoding aren’t viable even when staff are able to work in the office, due to the amount of resource required to maintain them.

A digital financial management system allows your whole team to work remotely by streamlining the digitisation process of invoices. With MRI’s OpenAccounts integrated EDM, pdf invoices can be dropped into the system, automatically scanned using optical character recognition, the relevant information extracted, and automatically inputted into the OpenAccounts system. This means no printing, adding barcodes or scanning, and is ideal for remote working situations.

Additionally, the system also works on an alert basis, sending tasks and email notifications that can be easily picked up team members wherever they are.
Clients who have already adopted the system are reaping the benefits throughout lockdown:

“For distance working and remote working, eBIS is a perfect tool to have in place. We’d had agile on the agenda for quite a while and wanted to make it possible for staff to work remotely, and the opportunities the current situation has presented will make it likely that we’ll work far more flexibly in future. We need the right workflows to support this, and eBIS is one of these.”

Andrew Crompton, Director of Finance and Resource at Habinteg

Long-term benefits

While it’s still unclear exactly how long remote working for office-based workers will be necessary, it can be difficult to justify an investment into a system that is only going to be used temporarily. However, the wider benefits of digitising your financial operations make it unlikely that, once implemented, you’d ever be returning to paper-based processes.

While the automation of invoices is useful for as long as the office is off-limits, it’s also an incredible time-saver, workload reducer and paperwork eliminator. When, in the past, invoices would need to be manually printed, barcoded, scanned and inputted, now it’s all done at the click of a button.

The process is so effective that housing association Onward managed to eliminate their average 1-week backlog in invoice processing and have significantly reduced the amount of administration and paperwork for their finance team since implementing the system earlier this year.

One of the most revolutionary elements of the system, however, is the shift in responsibility it brings across housing association departments. There’s been a shift in recent years towards budget holders within social housing being more financially accountable, spending more time managing their own budgets. eBIS makes self-service possible, handing the ability to raise purchase orders, file expense requests and manage suppliers to individual departments rather than leaving this to a central finance team. This allows for the devolution of financial responsibility to the wider organisation and helps the members of staff who are responsible for the money to become more finance-savvy, able to create and access the reports they need to become more financially oriented.

These benefits not only help your finance teams to keep on top of their workload, they also help to connect the entire organisation, making processes faster and more efficient across the board and inevitably allowing your housing association to deliver a better service to your clients, and service-users.

Making the Transformation

While lockdown has been difficult and frustrating in many ways, it has kickstarted the digital transformation of lots of housing associations across the country, allowing them to streamline their processes and work more effectively for the long-term. This is true both for organisations exploring finance process automation for the first time, and for those who’ve found a need to take a fresh look at existing systems.

At MRI, we find that housing organisations can struggle to get the most out of their existing financial systems, particularly if they’ve experienced staff turnover or structural change since they were first implemented. This can lead teams to believe that the system isn’t right for them, when in fact it’s far more likely that processes just need to be retooled to fit your changing needs.

Finance directors who are as yet undecided on making the investment into an all-in-one finance management system, or who think they might need to adapt their existing implementation to get more out of it, can speak to our community of existing clients to find out what other customers are doing and communicate their experiences, experiments and future plans. At MRI, we know our community is invaluable, and our customers agree – not only does it allow us to gather feedback and requests, but it allows organisations to learn from each other to get the most out of MRI Housing Finance – Enterprise, OpenAccounts and eBIS.

If you’re looking to implement a system to help your team work more effectively wherever they are, get in touch with MRI’s expert team of consultants.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-role-of-housing-providers-in-tackling-domestic-abuse/ Fri, 10 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31009

Since the lockdown, domestic abuse cases have skyrocketed. Frontline and leadership teams across sector are having to learn and adapt quickly. Moving forwards they will be more front and centre in supporting victims.

The post The role of housing providers in tackling domestic abuse appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

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Since the lockdown, domestic abuse cases have skyrocketed. Frontline and leadership teams across sector are having to learn and adapt quickly. Moving forwards they will be more front and centre in supporting victims.

The ability to end an abusive relationship is often barred by a lack of access to safe, secure housing when a survivor is ready to take that leap. In 2018, 253 landlords representing 2.4 million homes (around half of all social housing in the UK) signed up to the Make a Stand campaign. This pledge, developed by the Chartered Institute for Housing (CIH), the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) and Women’s Aid aims to bring the tackling of domestic abuse front and centre of a housing provider’s policy.

Domestic abuse is not a fringe issue; it ruins families, permeates communities and is happening on many of our streets up and down the country. In 2017/18 the Office for National Statistics reported that 2 million adults aged 16 to 59 years across England and Wales experienced domestic abuse – that’s around 1 in 18 working age adults.

The criminal aspect of domestic abuse can make it easy to view as a matter for the criminal justice system to solve in partnership with specialist response. However, this is just where survivors of domestic abuse can fall through the cracks. This comes in part, because many victims often do not want to prosecute the perpetrator, while abusers are rarely convicted of their crimes; in 2019, across the UK prosecution rates for domestic abuse fell by 24%. Yet, as the well-documented astronomical rise in reports of domestic abuse over lockdown have shown, rates of these crimes are not falling but in fact, rising.

One of the greatest injustices that pervades is that the “prevention or cessation of domestic abuse in a family context will almost always require the woman to leave that home.” Housing providers are uniquely placed amongst organisations to intervene in suspected cases of domestic abuse by establishing relationships with suspected victims and ensuring their safety. Research by SafeLifes showed that 85% of domestic abuse victims will seek help from an organisation an average of five times in the year leading up to when they receive effective support to stop the abuse. With this in mind, the particular, long-term relationship that a housing provider can build with their customers is of huge importance in the tackling of domestic abuse.

“Housing providers are in a unique position to be able to identify domestic abuse and prevent escalation through offering support and guidance to victims of domestic abuse.” SafeLives

Taking a stance to ensure that all survivors who want to stay in their homes can do so also serves a practical societal purpose. As of 2014, the number of refuge spaces in the UK was 3,660 – a number consistently far lower than the amount needed. If perpetrators, rather than the victim were removed from social housing, pressure could be taken off these venues to continue serving those that need to flee in a moment of crisis.

For many families, a refuge will also not be the right answer for practical reasons. Some victims may put off leaving an abusive situation in order to keep children in secure educational environments, stay in familiar communities, and be around other family members and support networks. According to SafeLives, there is an “over-reliance” by housing services on refuges as the route for making victims safe. It is for these reasons that organisations such as DAHA are dedicated to training frontline housing staff in the nuances of abuse and ingraining a victim-led approach in their processes. With a greater level of understanding, action can be taken by housing providers against perpetrators, minimising the disruption caused by moving a whole family unit.

According to Co-Founder of DAHA, Dr Kelly Henderson (2019), as outlined by N8 Policing Research Partnership, one of the main hurdles that housing providers need to overcome to tackle domestic abuse in their homes is in the reporting and strategy implementation of the issue. She found that 65% of housing providers asked, didn’t treat domestic abuse as an issue in its own right. It often, in fact sits under the same remit as antisocial behaviour (ASB), thereby opening it up to be treated as a nuisance, in which the victim and perpetrator are effectively treated as equals in an ASB complaint.

Case Study: Gentoo

Alongside her role at DAHA, Kelly Henderson works as Business Manager (Domestic Abuse) at housing provider, Gentoo. As a housing professional she works tirelessly to give women safe routes out of abusive situations. She spoke with us about a proactive initiative that Gentoo employs, whereby staff are trained to recognise domestic abuse. Gentoo sets out clearly in its interactions with residents that they are there to support them.

Kelly explains the role that Gentoo played in supporting one resident out of an abusive situation:

“On a general visit to the property the housing officer explained the different services available to residents, as outlined in the customer handbook. The tenant had not realised that her housing provider could help. So, she had lived with domestic abuse for over 40 years – and it was only having that conversation with the housing officer, just in passing, and then reading the handbook saying what we could do that changed that.

“It really shows that those people who might not be reaching out for help, are still in our properties. As housing providers, we can often be the conduit to support for somebody saying, ‘this is happening in my life’.”

Case Study: Poplar HARCA

Streetwise customer, Poplar HARCA have adopted a proactive and victim-led approach to domestic abuse, which prioritises removing perpetrators of abuse from their homes and from their estates by seeking injunctions in partnership with the police.

Chelsea Kelly, Poplar HARCA’s Head of Community Safeguarding spoke with us about how they protect their customers:

“Poplar HARCA recognise that domestic abuse has a significant impact on those who experience it. We feel that often survivors are faced with the option of leaving their own home and seeking emergency accommodation which can be highly disruptive to their life. We feel that there should be an alternative. By working with survivors of domestic abuse, we help them to obtain legal orders to remove the perpetrators from their home. This could be a Non-Molestation Order or an Occupation Order; allowing the survivor to remain at the home and meaning the perpetrator needs to seek alternate accommodation.

“One family who were living with their adult son were living in constant fear of his verbally and physically abusive nature. Being their son, they were worried about taking action against him, but they knew they needed support. We helped them to obtain a Non-Molestation Order against their son, which not only banned him from their property, but also the local area. Whilst this was a difficult decision to make, we supported them every step of the way to help ensure that they could enjoy their home once again.”

To evidence their decisions, Poplar HARCA use complaints from neighbours, criminal damage reports and community impact statements, as well as their own records to ensure that the abuser is removed but the victim does not need to go through the trauma of giving evidence unless they choose to. Poplar HARCA are backing up their policy with tough action, including petitioning the court to commit an abuser to prison who breached their injunction.

Here at MRI Software we want to support our customers in providing the support needed to help families escape abuse. Our Director of Finance, Lesley Westwood sees our Streetwise module, developed by Gentoo as having the ability to help curb this behaviour. Speaking on the current climate and the lessons society can learn from the escalation in domestic abuse cases, she explains:

“Sadly, one of the many negative Impacts of Covid-19 has been the increase in domestic violence. Lockdown has and will continue to intensify tensions within homes; it has been reported by one customer that domestic abuse cases have nearly tripled during this period. Our Streetwise solution supports landlords by keeping records and enabling them to evidence where interventions need to be taken. Domestic Abuse risk is not static. Streetwise offers a chronological record of incidents, enabling officers to adopt a personalised approach to support.”

There is, as of yet, no legal or legislative obligation for housing providers to act upon domestic abuse in their homes. However, most of us feel a compulsion to stamp out this toxic behaviour that has lasting ramifications for the adults and children who experience it and reverberates through communities. Housing providers reaching out could have a profound impact on the lives of these individuals, as well as their wider families and the communities they live in.

MRI Software build a number of solutions for the social housing sector including Streetwise. If you would like to know more about what we do, please contact us.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/psychologically-informed-approach-to-homelessness/ Fri, 03 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31008

Following recent reports looking at the UK homelessness system, an empathy led approach is being called for by professionals.

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Following recent reports looking at the UK homelessness system, an empathy led approach is being called for by professionals.

In 2018, a point in history so close in proximity but seemingly unrelated to the world we live in now, the Government set a bold goal to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it by 2027. There is no set pathway to achieving this, due mainly to the unique and complex needs each person facing street homelessness may need support for, but one practice that is gaining traction in the UK is the Psychologically Informed Approach.

A few weeks ago our CEO, Jonathan Prew read an article in the Municipal Journal, De-traumatising the sector and was struck by the approach “that homelessness is a social problem with a housing dimension, and not a housing problem with a social dimension.”  That article gave exposure to a new report, ‘A Traumatised System’ from Riverside Housing. The report underlines the impact of a ‘bitty’, underfunded and politically ‘incentivised’ approach to homelessness across the last decade on housing and homelessness services, leaving in its wake a largely de-humanising system for tackling complex human problems.

The report calls for an empathy-led approach to de-traumatise the system, naming the three most significant innovations which can be adopted to tackle homelessness in the UK:

1. Wrap-around services for Multiple Complex Needs
2. Housing First
3. Positive Psychological Approaches

What is a Psychologically Informed Approach?

There is no single way to implement a Psychologically Informed Approach into homelessness services, or any other social focused sectors. With homelessness it involves building services primarily based on the understanding that an organisation is dealing with individuals with complex, sensitive needs. A growing body of research suggests that those who are rough sleeping experience a higher level of mental health problems. The University of Southampton estimate that 60% of those living in hostels will have a diagnosable personality disorder, with other mental health problems significantly over-represented in this segment of society in comparison to 10% within the general population.

Building services around psychological considerations of these challenges has historically been difficult, as individuals will often be presenting themselves at services at a point of crisis. In these situations, the help provided is necessary, urgent and immediate, such as sourcing shelter, but less focused on future recovery. A Psychologically Informed Approach will not see urgent services disappear but will mean that many of those who approach in times of crisis would then have access to follow-on care.

Five Elements of a Psychologically Informed Environment (Homeless.org)

1. Relationships
2. Staff support and training
3. The physical environment and social spaces
4. A psychological framework
5. Evidence generating practice

When a homelessness service or environment is designed with a Psychologically Informed Approach, it is thought about in terms of the emotional and psychological needs of the individuals accessing the care, as opposed to first and foremost, the practical elements of cost, convenience and material provision.

Of course, these logistical pressures still exist and consistent case management that tracks interactions between housing providers, charities, institutions and those rough sleeping is key for building up a true picture of the ‘full circle’ needs of an individual. Having a detailed record of a person’s behaviours and movements can be the beginning of tailoring an approach that works for them.

“Training all staff within an agreed framework, or combination of frameworks, will help them work more effectively with clients experiencing complex trauma. This approach will help clients who often behave chaotically to gain an understanding of their behaviour, take responsibility for themselves and develop negotiated, positive relationships. This in turn will help them move away from a street lifestyle and rough sleeping.”

Psychologically Informed Services for Homeless People – Good practice guide Dept of Communities and Local Gov 2012

Two weeks ago we spoke with Dr Kelly Henderson about domestic abuse as a pathway to homelessness. Taking this particular complex need as an example, in a Psychologically Informed Environment the staff supporting these individuals would have training and an understanding of trauma and its ramifications. Alongside careful and consistent case management, this would allow for support to be picked up as users make their way along the rough sleeper pathway, perhaps dropping in and out of services along the way. To achieve any level of continuity, an ‘elastic tolerance’ needs to be encouraged. What this means in practice is instead of a rigid set of provisos accompanying any help given, individuals would be viewed for what we all are: fallible and prone to inconsistency.

“To be effective, there needs to be corporate commitment to the introduction of a psychological informed approach, which ideally should then become part of an organisation’s service commissioning or business plan.”

University of Southampton

In order to truly tackle rough sleeping and homelessness, each person approaching services needs to be given a tailored and consistent approach. Understanding and recording the experiences of those involved can help connect multiple agencies and address rough sleeping as a social issue spanning health, addiction, opportunity and education – as well as simply the roof over someone’s head.

MRI Software build a number of solutions for the social housing sector including Housing Jigsaw, RISE, Streetwise and Housing Analytics. If you would like to know more about what we do, please drop an email to socialhousing@mrisoftware.com

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/60-of-organisations-cyber-attacks-are-spread-by-their-own-employees/ Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?post_type=news&p=31414

This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release. When you think of cyberattacks, the assumption is that it’s a simple matter of “the bad guy sends an email, the user gets fooled, the user clicks malicious content, and the badness happens.” But the State of … Continued

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This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

When you think of cyberattacks, the assumption is that it’s a simple matter of “the bad guy sends an email, the user gets fooled, the user clicks malicious content, and the badness happens.” But the State of Email Security 2020 report from Mimecast sheds some light on some of both the how and why attacks are still successful.

According to the report:

• 51% of organizations have been impacted by ransomware in the last 12 months
• 58% saw phishing attacks increase
• 60% have seen an increase in impersonation fraud
• 82% have experienced downtime from an attack

These numbers aren’t good – too many organisations are feeling the pain of email-based cyberattack, despite knowing the problem is only getting worse. So, why are organisations proving to be such easy targets for email-based cyber attacks?

According to the report, it’s a problem-riddled combination of issues involving your people, processes and technology. In essence, the lack of sufficient presence of all three play a role. From the report:

• An average of 41% of orgs don’t have a system in place to monitor for and detect malicious content in emails (Technology)
• 55% of orgs don’t provide security awareness training on a regular basis (Process)
• 60% of orgs have experienced their own employees being responsible for spreading a malicious email (People)

With 60% of orgs believing they will be the victim of an email-borne attack in the coming year, organisations need to be taking steps to protect themselves with a security strategy that addresses all three issues. But, because no solution is 100% foolproof, it’s equally as important to ensure users are continually educated using Security Awareness Training, to keep them from participating in the spread of malicious emails.

Request A Demo: Security Awareness Training

New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. Continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilise users as your last line of defence.

Request your one-on-one demo of our security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and see how easy it can be.

Contact us today for your FREE security pack & STAY SAFE from the cyber-criminals.

 

The post 60% of Organisations Cyber attacks are Spread by Their Own Employees appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/automate-leasing-lease-abstraction-cre-tech/ Tue, 23 Jun 2020 14:00:09 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/automate-leasing-lease-abstraction-cre-tech/

Automating leasing and the lease abstraction process can enable commercial real estate firms to better manage data across the business and effectively integrate data across multiple systems. Today, as the commercial real estate industry navigates uncertain times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is certain: continuing to rely on what worked yesterday no longer … Continued

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Automating leasing and the lease abstraction process can enable commercial real estate firms to better manage data across the business and effectively integrate data across multiple systems. Today, as the commercial real estate industry navigates uncertain times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is certain: continuing to rely on what worked yesterday no longer works today. Modern commercial real estate organizations should be looking for new technologies that enable them to shape innovative strategies, work more efficiently, and stay competitive during and post pandemic.

Problems that can arise during manual workflows

In a recent webinar, industry experts from MRI Software, Leverton, and VTS discussed the challenges of manual processes and how technology can streamline leasing and lease abstraction.

Manual leasing processes have several obvious disadvantages including time-consuming work for the in-house lease admin team, the expenses associated with lawyers, and outsourced abstraction teams. However, there could also be profound effects on your organization that may not be immediately apparent in your every-day process, but can hold your organization back nonetheless.

1) Disconnect between the pipeline and in-place leases. When inputting new in-place leases, it may take some time to get your systems updated for a variety of reasons, and when the new lease is finally uploaded, information may have changed or might get entered incorrectly, which could lead to errors. The longer this process takes, the longer your reporting could be inaccurate.

2) Missed opportunities through lack of data-driven insights. There are many strategic advances that you can make by surfacing the data buried within documents and folders, and users often don’t even know it’s there. By missing these critical data sets, your organization can miss out on key opportunities.

3) Manual data migration. Oftentimes, double data entry can occur when manually uploading data into an ERP system, which then leads to errors and inconsistencies. Getting data out of a contract and into a document that is then added to an ERP can lead to discrepancies that affect revenue. With that, there’s also limited or no data analysis in an ERP system, or aggregation with other data sources.

Using technology to automate leasing processes for commercial organizations

Automating your leasing processes with technology from VTS, a leasing and asset management platform that focuses on workflows and functionality, can make reporting easier and more trustworthy. With so many stakeholders handling the lease data at the center of your business, the data is at risk of becoming disparate and unreliable. Do you trust that the data in your reports is correct? Do you trust that it’s been verified? Do you have data coming from the source system? Technology that integrates with an integrated ecosystem can pull from one source of data, providing you and your stakeholders with trustworthy reports.

Additionally, automating your lease abstraction with MRI Lease Intelligence, an AI tool powered by Leverton, An MRI Company, can establish good data governance within your organization. Automating lease abstraction cuts out the manual effort of pulling data from leases and manually uploading them into target system. Instead, it pulls specific data sets, including those that a manual lookover might not have found, into one central source for all of your lease data.

Using automated leasing solutions can help ensure the accuracy of your data and eliminate manual, error-prone data aggregation and entry. They also give users the ability to make more informed, data-driven decisions by utilizing source data rather than conjecture or stale information. With these benefits, commercial owners and operators can utilize automated lease tools to bolster their businesses in uncertain times and gain a competitive edge, even in challenging circumstances. Learn more about how automating your lease processes can prepare you for the future in this webinar.

The post Automate leasing and lease abstraction with CRE tech appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/cloud-adoption-is-it-mission-critical-for-your-organisation-yet/ Tue, 23 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?post_type=news&p=31412

This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release. How ready are you? We no longer live in a world where we are planning for things that may or may not happen. It has happened and the question is where do we go from here? … Continued

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This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

How ready are you?

We no longer live in a world where we are planning for things that may or may not happen. It has happened and the question is where do we go from here? How do we prepare and protect our organisations?
Cloud technology is becoming more and more prominent, with Gartner’s most recent research estimating a 19% growth in 2020 for cloud services. Cloud transformation projects are becoming mission critical and therefore priority number one for many IT departments across Housing Associations.

You’re preparing for cloud but is your path straight-forward and clear?

This really depends on a Housing Associations own resources, confidence and of course budgets. Quite often these become the determining factors as to whether you choose a public, private or even a hybrid route. Or even whether you decide to do nothing and shelve your cloud projects for next financial year (or the next!).

Our approach (driven by our experiences!)

Castleton operate specifically in the Social Housing sector and have over 100 managed services customers successfully running on some form of Cloud service.

EXPERTISE
We’ve been through many cloud migrations with our customers, so we know the hidden ‘pitfalls’
that often result in added stress and cost. Castleton build-in staging posts during this transition, so
there are no unwanted surprises along the way.

CLARITY
We believe in simplicity, consistency and one point of contact for all your solution and cloud-based
needs. We have the capability to host your entire solutions infrastructure under the same umbrella.
Providing one point of contact and one point of ownership for all your IT issues.

UNITY
We ask you what you want and need. We also understand the answer to this isn’t always straightforward
and simple, so we are happy to guide you through your choices and identify and align your organisation
requirements to the right, most cost-effective solution.

TRANSPARENCY
We believe in collaboration and connecting our customers with each other. Quite often, sharing
other Housing Association’s experiences help to alleviate the perceived risks around Cloud Technology.
We are here to help connect you with our customers who are successfully on our public, private, hybrid or
multi cloud deployments. Helping to ensure your decisions are assured, not a blind leap of faith.

For a planned approach to cloud migration, let’s start talking about it. We want to know about your current IT environment, your challenges and where you want to get to. Cloud adoption in our view is ‘mission critical’, our customers who have been through the process have been better positioned to handle the unexpected. For many it’s a huge leap, but don’t do it in blind faith – we’re hear to help.

Contact us today

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/understanding-domestic-abuse-as-a-pathway-to-homelessness/ Fri, 19 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31006

The link between domestic abuse and homelessness is evident says Kelly Henderson, co-founder of the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance

The post Understanding domestic abuse as a pathway to homelessness appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

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Policy makers and those working to end homelessness across the UK are grabbing the opportunity of the ‘Everybody In’ order as a chance for our country to seek to end homelessness for good. But what of the root causes of homelessness? According to the Central and North West London NHS Foundation, 70% of female rough sleepers have experienced abuse from a partner or ex-partner and 40% of those women said that they had also experienced domestic abuse within their family home; as one of the pathways to homelessness, the correlation is stark.

Last week the Daily Telegraph reported each fortnight in the UK, at least three women are killed by their partner or ex-partner – and since lockdown began that number has jumped to five women a week. In reaction to this very real threat, it can be surmised that more women will leave their homes and without access to safe, secure properties, a proportion of these women could well end up on the street. We spoke to Dr Kelly Henderson, Co-founder of the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA), an organisation providing training and best practice to housing providers with regards to domestic abuse policy and methods of intervention.

Lockdown has – and will continue to – exacerbate tension in homes; the matter is without doubt, pressing. Kelly has seen this first-hand at Gentoo, where she also holds the role of Business Manager (Domestic Abuse). Gentoo reported a three-fold increase in the number of referrals for domestic abuse since lockdown, when compared with a three-week period at the same time last year. As Kelly puts it, this rise in calls direct to Gentoo, “just shows as a housing provider, we are a source of support and help.” Applying this jump nationally, without a concerted, multi-agency effort, the rise in referrals could be a homelessness disaster waiting to happen.

“There are so many different routes into homelessness for women; domestic abuse being one of the key ones,” Kelly explains. “If you can imagine, if you’ve been the victim of domestic abuse and you’ve been isolated, you don’t have a ready-made group of family or friends to seek support from, you might not work anymore because of the perpetrator. So, you don’t have that range of networks that you might have once had. Slowly but surely, you’re an isolated person with little confidence to reach out and seek that support that you need.”

With many services stretched thinly, housing providers are well placed to be a port in the storm for tenants experiencing domestic abuse, mitigating the risk of survivors falling through the cracks in the system.

According to government figures, rough sleepers in the UK are predominantly male. MHCLG estimates that women account for only around 12% of rough sleepers, meaning that many of the provisions in place are designed for men or along mixed sex lines. According to the University of York, proximity to men mean women are less likely to access homelessness services and are therefore, less likely to be detected in rough sleeper counts, choosing to sleep in more hidden spots to avoid the potential for further abuse.

Early intervention and access to secure housing is necessary to prevent those suffering from domestic abuse slipping through the net. There is currently however, no specific regulatory requirement for housing providers to have a stand-alone domestic abuse policy; one of the core aims of DAHA is to encourage housing providers to adopt one. Giving context to the current state of play, Kelly explains: “Housing providers are required to have an antisocial behaviour policy (which might include domestic abuse) but I think the whole point is that it’s very different from antisocial behaviour and we don’t want it to be lumped in with that, making it easier for people just to ignore domestic abuse. We want clear regulation to say that housing providers must have a policy in terms of recognising and responding to domestic abuse.”

Regulation

Housing providers are a central piece of the puzzle for addressing domestic abuse as a route into homelessness. Kelly explains: “If you’re a housing provider, you should do all you can to support a tenant to either stay in the home (when it is safe to do so), or provide them with a move to a different property in another area, but on the same tenancy type, as well as supporting them to move into safe emergency accommodation and again, ensuring they keep their tenancy status on being re-housed.”

Establishing patterns of abuse with co-ordinated case management is another provision for supporting tenants experiencing domestic abuse. Easy access to evidence of abuse can make the difference that emboldens housing providers to intervene. MRI Streetwise, a system developed by Gentoo in partnership with MRI Software, is there to start the work of joining up the dots and keeping records that can be used to evidence why intervention needs to be taken. Every survivor of domestic abuse has different needs; MRI Streetwise offers a chronological record of incidents, enabling housing officers to create a tailored approach to support.

The system comes as two modules; one relating to antisocial behaviour (ASB) and the other to domestic abuse. Kelly takes us through the ways in which a domestic abuse case management system can prevent further abuse that can lead to homelessness:

“Having a domestic abuse module or system as opposed to just an ASB one that incorporates domestic abuse, means quite often the case actually being seen as Category 1. The value with MRI Streetwise is that you’ve got a full history of a person’s case. In terms of MRI Streetwise and MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference), where you’ve got a range of partners round the table to safety plan for the victim, it really is essential to ensure you’ve got a comprehensive set of notes and a victim’s full history to make sure that they get the best response. That means that you can then give a much more in-depth response. At Gentoo, we’ve also got the Risk Indicator Checklist (RIC) built into MRI Streetwise meaning that we can see at a glance that person’s level of risk. It is worth pointing out that risk is not static, and the RIC should be completed after every new incidence of abuse. This gives a chronological order – everything’s there – and we get a true picture of what’s actually happening.”

With five women dying per week and the public’s attention being refocused on what can largely be a hidden crime, the urgency to intervene and prevent further trauma is making its way to the front of the agenda. Housing providers have a unique relationship with their tenants that can be used to establish themselves as a trusted source of help to their customers. Nurturing these relationships, paying attention and having strong and accurate records of incidents will lead to a fuller picture of the abuse that exists in homes up and down the country and could ultimately be the cornerstone for addressing this particular pathway to homelessness.

MRI Software produce a series of platforms to support frontline teams. If you want to know more about MRI Streetwise, or any of our solutions, email us on socialhousing@mrisoftware.com and we will have someone get back in contact with you.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/streetwise-support-against-antisocial-behaviour-and-domestic-abuse/ Fri, 12 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31005

Limiting and reducing the harm antisocial behaviour (ASB) and domestic violence (DA) can cause families and environments is essential for our communities and with our Streetwise solution, is an outcome we aim to support.

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Safer communities build more sustainable tenancies. Limiting and reducing the harm antisocial behaviour (ASB) and domestic violence (DA) can cause families and environments is essential for our communities and with our Streetwise solution, is an outcome we aim to support. Product Owner, Mel Bridge explains the need for Streetwise and how it supports housing providers to protect the victims of antisocial behaviour and domestic violence.

In 2016, we partnered with Sunderland-based housing association, Gentoo Group on a case management system, which would become Streetwise. Mel takes us back to the beginning: “Streetwise was developed originally by Gentoo in the wake of some serious incidents across the country, either to do with ASB or DA. It became apparent to Gentoo that there wasn’t a particular system that helped practitioners make sure that they had all of the information in one place.

“With antisocial behaviour, there are set timescales that you have to respond to, depending on the severity of that antisocial behaviour. With domestic abuse it’s a bit different because it depends on the level of risk for the victim of that abuse and what type of abuse it is.”

Gentoo “developed Streetwise from their perspective and when they were talking to other practitioners in the country, what they found was that there was an appetite for such a system. Consequently, they sold it on to a number of different housing associations and local authorities,” including Sunderland, North Tyneside and the City of London Housing Service. The system supports the recording of incidents to enable the provision of support and safeguarding for victims of ASB and DA.

At MRI Software, we are dedicated to forging partnerships with practitioners in order to create solutions that truly work for those working in the sector. Gentoo built Streetwise themselves, tailored around the lived realities of their customers and moving the product forward meant the perfect opportunity for a partnership with a software house such as ourselves.

 “Customers will now have access to data, which will enable those on the front-line to make faster and more informed decisions about how to make our communities safer. Streetwise is the only commercially available Case Management System that has been developed in-house by a housing association for others within the sector. We are proud to work with another organisation that puts customers and communities at the heart of everything they do.”

Michelle Meldrum, Managing Director, Gentoo Operations

In reaction to changing legislation regarding Domestic Abuse, Mel tells us, “We got involved with Streetwise. I was involved in the onboarding process and did all the due diligence around bringing Streetwise on: What was good about the program? Why did people use it?”

“For me the case for Streetwise, is having that ability to record all of the different people who are affected by a behaviour. This could be the victim, the perpetrator(s), or witnesses. You tend to find, particularly with antisocial behaviour, whilst one person might report that they are the ‘victim’ and accuse a ‘perpetrator’, if you talk to the ‘perpetrator’, a lot of the time they will say they’re the ‘victim’ – and it goes to-ing and fro-ing.”

Recording incidents with Streetwise provides a more comprehensive, holistic view of the customer’s circumstances, so the most appropriate person-centred support and interventions can be put in place. ASB issues are often complex and feature interpersonal relationships that a housing association or local authority doesn’t witness. For housing providers, having a long-term, big picture view of these cases can help establish as close as possible, the reality of a complaint. We took a look at this complex topic in our 2019 ‘Building Sustainable Tenancies’ series and the role of housing providers in supporting the building of cohesive communities.

The current lockdown has seen a well-documented rise in reported incidents of domestic abuse because, Mel thinks, “people are living on top of each other. I think people are becoming more intolerant, particularly of noise, which is perceived as being an ASB problem.” Often however, housing providers are finding that the lines between reported ASB and DA are blurred; a general noise complaint can be discovered as resulting from an incident of domestic abuse.

The main function of the Streetwise system is to document incidents, which Mel explains is crucial; “particularly in the more serious cases. The ability to have the information so you can then download it and pass it on to legal channels, should you need to actually progress it is vital”. The software guides housing officers “through a framework so everybody is consistent over time. I think probably more important now than previously is making sure that you’re gathering all of that evidence, which is of course, more challenging, because you can’t go to people’s houses – but cases still need to be investigated because it’s making people’s lives miserable.”

Evidence

Using Streetwise establishes patterns for housing officers and safeguarding teams, which can then be evidenced to third parties. Any interactions or incidents that occur can then be recorded on the system against a case to build up a much fuller picture of an individual or household. Housing officers “can work through a case to find the detail; have all of their notes, recordings, meetings and letters that have been sent out in one place, to actually work out what the issue is and the steps that need to be taken to address it.” Streetwise gives officers the tools “to evidence back to the victim, keeping in touch that something is progressing. A lot of victims of ASB or DA will often feel like nobody really cares; Streetwise flags up to officers to keep in touch with victims and shows when progress has been made on the case. Witnesses can also come across anonymously and be recorded within the system.”

Good case management support is not the only feature of Streetwise that can help with building safer communities. Mel explains, “you can actually pull off information to be able to show hotspots of ASB within an area.” Users can then access this information and “dig down into the detail to see the different levels of crime etc., because what you’ll actually tend to find with an ASB hot spot is that there could be a root cause against it.”

The ability of Streetwise to capture the bigger picture can help protect individuals and strengthen communities. Where ASB is concerned, the sustainability of tenancies hangs in the balance and early intervention can be the difference between a swift resolution and the escalation of disturbances to unliveable conditions. For those suffering domestic abuse, an inability to join the dots in patterns of behaviour can lead to consequences that are graver still. By centralising ‘isolated’ incidents and flagging up repeat disturbances, officers have the tools at their hands to create safer communities and homes.

If you want to know more about Streetwise, email us on socialhousing@mrisoftware.com and put Streetwise in the subject header and we will have someone get back in contact with you.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/using-space-management-software-post-covid-19/ Thu, 11 Jun 2020 20:02:50 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26330

This article was written by Philip Lehrman, MRI Software. Every business has been affected in some way by the COVID-19 crisis. Successful businesses will see this as an opportunity to re-imagine their workplace and adapt to changing times. Space management tools are essential when it comes to managing costs during normal business cycles, but it’s … Continued

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This article was written by Philip Lehrman, MRI Software.

Every business has been affected in some way by the COVID-19 crisis. Successful businesses will see this as an opportunity to re-imagine their workplace and adapt to changing times. Space management tools are essential when it comes to managing costs during normal business cycles, but it’s even more vital in times of change like we’re seeing now.

Space management tracks people, places and things. Combining floor plans with data makes space management systems extremely powerful, consolidating disparate information into one system. Department, personnel, and asset information can work together with your CAD drawings to create powerful color-coded plans and reports which will inform your business decisions going forward, saving your company valuable time and expense.

5 questions to ask when reopening your facilities post-COVID-19

As companies start planning to reopen their facilities, there are several important factors to consider. Here’s how implementing a space management system can help:

• Will much of your workforce continue to work from home, or is your company reducing headcount? If so, will your company look to shed space to save money? A benchmarking report that returns the rentable square footage (RSF) per person, and RSF per capacity of each floor and building, can be used to calculate potential reductions in your real estate portfolio. If you decrease 10% of your in-office workforce, for example, you will be able to calculate the corresponding square footage should you decide to reduce it. Once these portfolio reductions have been determined, a space management system would be essential for planning restacks and portfolio consolidation. Moves can be scheduled in phases and set to future dates.
• Are employees going to return to work on a part-time basis? Some companies are bringing their employees back into the office part time, with the remainder of their work week spent at home. With a space management system, you can track which employees work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and which work Tuesdays and Thursdays on alternate weeks.
• How are you implementing social distancing at your offices? We can help you put 1×1 grids on all of your CAD drawings so you can assign employees to desks at least six feet away from each other. Using move management tools, this information can be combined with alternate day office worker schedules and office evacuation plans to maximize social distancing while still meeting safety requirements. In addition, directional arrows can be placed on the floor plans to show foot traffic direction in common areas such as hallways and corridors, which can be easily printed and posted, as well as distributed electronically to your staff.
• What about employees that will still be working from home? For those employees, regional maps can be added that show where these employees are located, and those maps can be automatically color-coded by department or personnel type. Maps can be created by country, state, city, or whatever region you require. Assets can be assigned to remote employees, giving you the ability to track all mobile devices, laptops, or other company equipment that your personnel have brought home.
• Do you need flexible space planning? Spaces can be designated as free spacing, hoteling desks, and drop-down desks, setting those aside from permanently assigned spaces for occupancy planning.

Companies that already have space management tools in place have access to all of this information at their fingertips. It does not take much effort to adapt a tool for post-COVID-19 planning, and companies that don’t currently have a space management solution would be well served to implement one now. The MRI ProLease Space Management module can be implemented quickly, within weeks, providing you with a detailed understanding of your real estate portfolio to inform your business decisions going forward.

Learn more about MRI ProLease and request your free consultation here. We’ll help guide you through these turbulent times.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-rise-of-digital-assistants-at-work-and-at-home/ Tue, 09 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31207

I’ll confess, before starting this article I did try asking “Alexa write me an article on the rise of Digital Assistants” but Alexa isn’t that good…yet. In the world of smart speakers and live chat (or Digital Assistants as we call them) things are looking very positive. For smart speakers, the rise in usage has … Continued

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I’ll confess, before starting this article I did try asking “Alexa write me an article on the rise of Digital Assistants” but Alexa isn’t that good…yet.

In the world of smart speakers and live chat (or Digital Assistants as we call them) things are looking very positive.

For smart speakers, the rise in usage has been dramatic and the global market continues to grow (up 44.7% yoy last year¹). As too does the amount of websites offering live chat facilities and these are generating the highest levels of customer satisfaction (around 92%²).

Tech savvy users now want companies to communicate with them in real time, whether via a reply to a tweet or a live chat. Consumers want things now and in real-time, which in turn leads to improved customer satisfaction, which is around 12% more than email communication³.

Today users are less concerned about speaking directly to a human face-to-face (or over the phone) instead preferring to carry out interactions with companies in one window while they’re doing something else at the same time on their phone or tablet. Multi-tasking is now the norm.

Digital assistants provide an accessible way of communicating for those who find gathering information a challenge such as disabled customers or those who suffer from anxiety, where talking one-to-one over the phone can be a stressful experience. They now have alternate avenues to use.

Our Survey Said…

But what is happening in the social housing industry? As part of our recent technology survey we asked respondents, who work in this sector, what their views and usage habits of digital assistants were. This was split into home use and business use.

The findings for home use were:

• 58.57% owned a smart speaker and their usage habits were:
  • 34.29% – Multiple times a day
  • 12.86% – Once a day
  • 4.29% – Once a week
• Only 11.27% of smart speaker owners had ever used them to make a purchase
• 78.87% preferred to use live chat instead of calling or emailing a business

The findings for usage in the workplace were:

• A 50:50 split right down the middle with 50% saying they would use a smart speaker in the workplace if one was available to them. These respondents indicated they would use a smart speaker to help them with the following tasks:
  • 23.94% – Book meetings
  • 18.31% – Looking up information
  • 8.45% – Data Entry
  • 1.41% – Ordering Materials
• 47.22% said that their organisation offered tenants a live chat option on their website.

Not a replacement but an enhancement

Within the social housing industry we have tenants from a wide range of backgrounds with a range of different personal circumstances. Due to this it would be difficult to cut ties with the traditional contact methods of email and telephone calls, as some will always prefer these ways of getting in touch.

Instead, digital assistants should be seen as a great way to enhance your customer service offering. Your next generation of tenants will already be tech savvy and ready to use a smart speaker or a live chat to find out their rent balance for example. Also the COVID-19 situation has forced people who usually might have been adverse to technology to embrace it (e.g. online shopping or video conferencing to keep in touch with family and friends). This means there is definitely an appetite out there for these alternate and real-time ways of communication.

(source: ContactBabel March 2020)

They can also prove to be great ways of improving operational efficiencies too, by giving your call centres less volume to handle. Accenture stated that 80% of all enquires can be answered by using voice based AI call centre assistants.⁴

Find out more

At MRI we’re keen to offer our customers the best solutions so they can in turn provide a great experience to their tenants. So we’ve teamed up with customer experience and communication specialists converse360 to bring customers Digital Assistants. They have been designed to provide a great new way for your tenants to securely get access to information instantly and at a time that is convenient to them, either through web, messenger or speech without waiting in a queue. If you would like to arrange a demo please drop us a line.

You can read more about this topic in a recent Insight article written by one of our Product Managers Graham Hopson – Delivering the next wave of customer experience with a winning AI technology strategy.

Sources:

1. https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/13/google-and-amazon-ceded-smart-speaker-market-share-to-chinese-rivals-in-2019/
2. https://99firms.com/blog/live-chat-statistics/
3. https://acquire.io/blog/live-chat-winning-customer-support-race
4. https://www.accenture.com/hu-en/insights/artificial-intelligence/reinventing-service-ai

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/using-technology-to-help-and-empower-vulnerable-tenants/ Tue, 02 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31199

In social housing ensuring the wellbeing of all tenants is always a priority for every local authority or housing association. Now with advances in technology, it means that there are a wide range of solutions available which can help with this. These can be used to help support and protect vulnerable tenants in order to … Continued

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In social housing ensuring the wellbeing of all tenants is always a priority for every local authority or housing association.

Now with advances in technology, it means that there are a wide range of solutions available which can help with this. These can be used to help support and protect vulnerable tenants in order to improve their quality of life and make sure they are kept as safe as possible.

What’s more, as everyone is different and vulnerable tenants have a variety of different requirements the various solutions can be adapted and personalised to meet specific needs, it’s not a one size fits all approach.

This all sounds great right?

Yes but, the reality at time of writing is that the amount of organisations actually implementing technology to support tenants in this way is not as high as you might think.

Uptake is currently slow

In our recent Technology Survey we asked users questions on this subject and the results were telling in terms of lack of adoption within our industry.

• Only 36.62% of respondents said that their organisation was offering any health-based wearable technology for vulnerable tenants.
• Only 13.04% are currently using smart-homes, 36.23% said they were looking into them and 50.72% said they had no plans at all around this area.

A growing appetite

Despite the current low uptake, this is an area that should not be overlooked. As more and more tenants adopt technology it means there is a growing appetite to use tech to help improve their way of life.

Look at the current COVID-19 crisis; due to the lockdown conditions many people, including older people who have never used a computer before, found themselves using video calls and more in order to keep in touch with family and friends during this period. Being forced into this has made many realise that technology can bring many benefits and their previous fears have been put aside due to easy-to-use touch screen software interfaces.

Exciting opportunities

So what are the ways in which technology could be used to assist your tenants?

Here is a list of just a few solutions currently on the market which would immediately improve tenant satisfaction and wellbeing:

• Smart speakers/smart hubs can be used to:
  • Set reminders to pay rent, put bins out etc
  • Turn the kettle on
  • Program timings for the heating (includes manually adjustments too)
  • Program when lights go on and off – as well as manually change lighting via voice commands
  • Open curtains or blinds
• There are a range of solutions and adaptations available which aid visually impared tenants e.g. video magnifiers, digital voice recorders, reading aids to scan non-braille embossed documents.
• Monitors to see if the kettle has been boiled in the morning or if the heating has been switched on in winter which helps you monitor if a tenant is as active as they usually are.
• Personal alarms to warn about falls, heart rate monitors and lifeline alarm services.
• Dementia memory aid solutions including – clocks with time and date reminders, locator systems to prevent losing items like keys and digital pill dispensers.
• Facial recognition door entry systems

The list could go on and on! It’s an exciting time.

Is it a bit Big Brother?

One of the common pullbacks about technology relates to privacy and some of the above ideas could in fairness be seen as being a bit Big Brother.

However in certain situations, monitoring a vulnerable tenant is the best way to safeguard their wellbeing. There are ways in which you can do this which can soften the approach and seem a bit less like spying and intruding on their independence. For example we spoke to one of our customers who are already using technology to support their tenants and they are offering a choice for their customer. They can choose to have a family member receive the alerts rather than the housing association and ‘check up calls’ after an alert will be from a more familiar face/voice.

Let us know your views

Whether you’re for or against this type of technology we feel the introduction of it across our industry will begin to grow over the next few years, as it provides a cost-effective way of ensuring tenants are safe due to it not requiring hours and hours of staff time.

What are your organisation’s plans around smart-homes, IoT and tech for vulnerable tenants? Get in touch with us and let us know if you have plans to implement any of the above or if you’re already using them.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/mri-round-table-round-up-how-can-mobility-help-housing-associations-through-coronavirus-recovery/ Mon, 01 Jun 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31205

With early tentative relaxation of some lockdown measures, and this week’s announcement that schools and some shops are expected to re-open in June, we spoke to our MRI Round Table members about mobility. As the government’s earlier “stay at home” messaging becomes more nuanced, housing organisations face a number of complexities to ensure that their … Continued

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With early tentative relaxation of some lockdown measures, and this week’s announcement that schools and some shops are expected to re-open in June, we spoke to our MRI Round Table members about mobility. As the government’s earlier “stay at home” messaging becomes more nuanced, housing organisations face a number of complexities to ensure that their teams are able to continue to work safely as movement increases and the country moves towards a new normal.

Here are some of the areas our Round Table members were looking at:

Reinventing Tenancy Sign-Ups

As strict lockdown measures begin to roll back, the housing organisations on our Round Table were beginning to look at how to start the process of transitioning tenants into and out of properties. While for many, this process was paused through late March and April, some of our participants discussed the ways they were resuming this activity, and they had some creative ways of doing so.

Successfully letting a property whilst maintaining social distancing has been a challenge for many of our Round Table members – unsurprising given the need to arrange viewings, share documents and get tenants’ signatures on tenancy agreements. While simple social distancing is an option – for example, letting tenants into a property to view it while housing officers wait outside – digital is already playing a role for some of our participants, who talked about carrying out “virtual” viewings as well as video calls for tenant introduction meetings.

In particular, digital document services were a popular option, allowing our Round Table members to collect and store copies of tenant documents required for identification and proof of income. Digital signing services were also a popular option for managing tenancy agreements, allowing signatures to be collected remotely without needing direct contact.

A New Normal for Tenant Comms

As well as introducing new tenants, our Round Table participants were also looking at equivalent, socially distanced processes to cover the entire span of a tenancy, from initial sign-up to payments, inspections and managing voids.

Historically, many of our participants found that a high percentage of tenants preferred in-person interactions – either visiting offices directly to make rent payments, or communicating with housing officers through in-person visits. With lockdown making these interactions impossible, virtually all of our participants have had to walk tenants through setting up alternative payment processes and introduce them to new communication methods. While for some tenants this has naturally been disruptive, many of our Round Table members have found that the exceptional circumstances have made tenants more willing to embrace change than they may otherwise have been.

Our participants with digital self service platforms have noticed significant increases in both new registrations and existing member interactions, and for many the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the process of migrating tenants onto these platforms.

Agile, Mobile Teams

This is also true for working practices within our Round Table members’ own businesses – across the board, the urgency of the current situation has forced teams to move much more quickly along existing roadmaps for increasing mobility within their own workforces, or to create new processes from scratch where these weren’t already in place.

Key to all these initiatives was the ability for teams to be able to access and share data on properties from wherever they were working. Maintaining a central view of information was vital, ensuring that all team members were working off accurate information, and this has prompted increased focus on data governance and cleansing across many of our Round Table participants.

MRI’s range of mobile working solutions were a popular way of centralising information and keeping records consistent across multiple, disparate teams.

Building for Long-Term Benefits

While many new processes were being put in place quickly, our Round Table members were optimistic about the long-term benefits of new digital approaches to improve not just the current situation, but to allow for greater efficiency in future.

For the majority of participants, shifting activity from paper and in-person interactions was already a priority, and the current crisis has helped to lend urgency to existing plans. While obviously the COVID-19 crisis remains an uncertain and harrowing situation, housing associations are doing their best to ensure that their teams and processes are leaner and more agile as a result of the actions they’ve been forced to take, resulting in better outcomes for tenants in future.

To find out more about our future round table sessions and how to take part, please contact us. Read round-ups from our other round tables here:

• How are Housing Organisations managing tenant relationships during COVID-19?
• MRI Round Table round-up: Engaging Tenants During COVID-19

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/real-estate-investment-valuations-post-covid-19/ Wed, 27 May 2020 16:38:26 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26277

Ah, 2019, you wily rascal you. You strung us along with your record-breaking rental growth and transaction volume. The people I met in 2019 were either giddy with celebration of another year of strong performance, or eyeing the situation with utter skepticism, asking “what’s the catch?” I found myself speaking at several MRI and industry … Continued

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Ah, 2019, you wily rascal you. You strung us along with your record-breaking rental growth and transaction volume. The people I met in 2019 were either giddy with celebration of another year of strong performance, or eyeing the situation with utter skepticism, asking “what’s the catch?” I found myself speaking at several MRI and industry conferences around the world, discussing both the lucrative exploits of real estate investors as well as the likely timing, severity, and characteristics of the next downturn.

We of course considered the cyclical nature of the real estate cycle – the transition from recovery to expansion to hyper supply to recession – and predicted that this cycle, like the last one that came to an abrupt end during the 2008 global financial crisis, would likely be a short cycle…though, with a much milder downturn that, for many, would be barely an inconvenience.

Oh, but how wrong we were. Enter 2020 – 2019’s evil cousin. If I had stood up at those conferences and said “Adjust your investment valuations, my friends, and hold onto your cash, because your real estate investments, regardless of asset class or location, are going to see sharp declines in KPIs due to a global pandemic in Q1,” I’m sure I would have been booted out of the building with no buffet lunch to show for it. I might as well have been saying that aliens in giant spaceships will hover over each major city on the 4th of July and destroy all the real estate in a 10-mile radius with green lasers!

But here we are, and whilst the real estate industry dedicates a lot of attention to managing receivables and their financial run rate, there is much to consider in terms of property valuations and the cap rates that are on the rise. Sure, transaction volume has nosedived, with the exception of distressed assets that the PE community are lapping up, so perhaps folks are willing to ignore the near-term volatility. But what about the longer-term effects of this pandemic on how our valuation market chooses to function in the future? Let’s look at a few possibilities:

1. A renaissance for discounted cashflows?

Many regions of the world do not standardize their portfolio and investment valuations around the DCF methodology, and perhaps that will need to change. The consideration of NOI and NCF over a prolonged hold period means you can reduce the impact of any cashflow volatility that occurs within that timeframe, or even offset it by applying a stabilization factor at different points in time to negate anomalies.

On the other hand, the standard 10-year hold period itself may need to change, since the once-lauded steadiness and predictability of real estate investment is now a debatable concept. The modern real estate market is forced to evolve more frequently, primarily due to tenants and residents adopting new technologies and innovations, which in turn alters their expectations of where they live, work, and play. This type of flux is extremely difficult to predict over a 10-year timeframe, thus potentially discrediting any portfolio valuation based on assumptive data that extends that far into the future.

So how do you address this dilemma? One option is to leverage reliable software. For example, MRI Valuations has the means to navigate this issue and accommodate any eventuality. In one tool, property and portfolio valuations can be generated using multiple valuation methodologies – DCF, Equivalent DCF, Capitalization, Cost, Hardcore, Term & Reversion, and more – and the results can be compared to one another on a rolling monthly basis. The hold period for a DCF calculation can also be adjusted to any number of years, or automatically tapered to the end of your forecast timeframe as you roll from one period to the next.

2. An evolving dataset to manage the big picture

The current pandemic has also proven that cashflow and tenancy data alone are insufficient to determine a property’s true value. Other data points, and qualitative data in particular, are becoming more and more pertinent, such as sales and footfall in retail, automated communications and facilities in conventional residential, environmental metrics across the board, and so on.

This was already a changing landscape ahead of COVID-19, but appraisers now have the additional challenge of limited access to the physical site due to social distancing. Those responsible for collecting and reviewing all this information will rely more and more on third-party data providers and virtual/augmented reality to visualize the site from afar.

Services like MRI’s Data Management Services that make data collection, normalization, and aggregation a quick and simple proposition – regardless of data source and format – are emerging as essential services for most medium to large-scale real estate businesses. Asset/portfolio management tools like MRI Investment Central and MRI Analytix that empower users to visualize this data, including custom attributes, begin to deliver even greater value and ROI.

3. Not just an appraisal…an advisory service

Pre-COVID, third-party investment valuation service providers were primarily responsible for delivering a current appraisal based on tenancy data and cashflows. Today’s job description is greatly expanded. In addition to managing many more data points, which in many cases are client-specific, the market will likely look to these seasoned professionals to provide more than just today’s value – they could assume the responsibility of an advisory service to help maximize value over time and weather the storms ahead.

This means performing sensitivity analyses; shocking a portfolio with pessimistic hypotheticals, such as tenant insolvency, reduced sales activity, government restrictions that impact cash flow, stricter lending criteria or higher margins, market rent and inflation fluctuations, and more. MRI Asset Modeling and Fund Modeling solutions build on the fundamentals for producing a property or portfolio valuation by layering on scenario modeling capabilities to deliver valuations, returns, yields and other metrics based on any number of potential futures. We will likely see valuation service providers being asked to become more and more savvy in this area, thus adopting more sophisticated tools than before.

Does 2020 have more curve balls up its sleeve? All predictions aside, the best path forward for real estate firms is to create business agility through flexible tools and processes. New challenges may have long-lasting effects on the approach to real estate valuations in a post-COVID-19 market.

The post Real estate valuations in the post-COVID-19 era appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/housing-associations-focused-on-software-integration/ Tue, 26 May 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31197

In our recent 2020 Technology Survey one word kept coming up from respondents of the survey: Integration. We asked respondents what were the most important factors they consider when choosing a new piece of software to implement in their organisation. 58.33% said that integration was a key factor (just behind the cost 61.11%). The survey … Continued

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In our recent 2020 Technology Survey one word kept coming up from respondents of the survey: Integration.

We asked respondents what were the most important factors they consider when choosing a new piece of software to implement in their organisation. 58.33% said that integration was a key factor (just behind the cost 61.11%).

The survey also asked what was the biggest pain point users had with the technology they use in the workplace and again integration loomed large. Lack of integration was the number one pain point – 65.28%, far ahead of ‘software running slow’ which was the second biggest pain point (52.78%).

But it didn’t end there.

At the end of the survey we asked what would be the one thing users would change about the IT setup in their organisation. Below is a selection of the responses:

• “Better integration between business systems OR one integrated system which provides the functionality we require.”
• “Make data consistent across all systems.”
• “Needs to be updated and identical for all staff”
• “Fully integrated across all systems”
• “Less duplicate systems”
• “Easier system integration”
• “Make it all talk to each other”
• “More focus on integration”
• “Have every system talk to each other”

All of the above answers from our survey go to show the growing importance users are placing on software integration.

However many organisations find themselves using a wide range of solutions to meet their various business needs. Our survey also found that 35.21% are required to use more than 10 systems each week.

The problem with this is that fragmented systems have lead to the following issues for organisations:

• Poor productivity – users are working hard but not smart by having to duplicate certain tasks when using unintegrated software.
• Bad data management – getting a clear single view of your data is near impossible when stored in multiple systems.

At MRI we don’t want our customers to be spending unnecessary time duplicating tasks and entering data over and over into different systems. We want them to have the time they need to focus on their tenants which is why our approach to our software has always been to integrate and seamlessly pass data across all our solutions.

By doing this it means our customers benefit from:

• Real time – as data is passed between systems you can see the latest data in real-time.
• Operational efficiencies – integration removes the need to replicate certain tasks into various systems which brings with it productivity improvements and cost savings.
• Better customer service – you can provide your tenants with the best service by ensuring all staff can see the latest information e.g. notes, rent balances etc across all of our solutions.
• Powerful data – integration allows you to see one version of the truth for your data.

The video below shows our approach to integration:

To find out more about our integration solutions get in touch with us today.

Also if you would like to read the full results from our 2020 Technology Survey you can download a copy here.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/engaging-tenants-during-covid-19/ Tue, 26 May 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31203

In our latest Round Table event, participants from housing organisations across the UK talked about how the lockdown has changed the way they’re interacting with tenants. COVID-19 restrictions have made it impossible for tenants to meet in-person with housing association representatives, and this has posed a number of challenges. With tenants no longer able to … Continued

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In our latest Round Table event, participants from housing organisations across the UK talked about how the lockdown has changed the way they’re interacting with tenants. COVID-19 restrictions have made it impossible for tenants to meet in-person with housing association representatives, and this has posed a number of challenges.

With tenants no longer able to visit offices and housing officers no longer able to make visits, telephone communication would usually be expected to pick up the slack. However, with housing organisations also forced to make rapid changes to their processes to allow teams to work at home, many have also struggled to maintain even pre-lockdown call volume levels, and have had to limit the number and type of calls they were able to take as a result.

This has led to many of our participants testing new communication methods, in particular stepping up activity across digital channels to keep tenants engaged as efficiently as possible. Here are a few ways our Round Table members have been managing tenant communications during lockdown:

Broaden communication methods

As some organisations now find that their call centres are only available for emergency situations, most of our participants have broadened their communication methods of choice from in-person and telephone communications to include a much wider range of tools.

Email is the new first choice for most teams as a method of communication with tenants. Text messaging was also a popular choice, both for one-on-one comms and mass updates to all tenants. Many of our Round Table participants had stepped up text messaging activity significantly, finding it a useful method of engaging with tenants and getting quick responses compared to email.

Our participants also mentioned that they’d been testing a number of creative approaches, including requesting pictures for repair requests via WhatsApp and managing end of tenancy inspections via Facebook Messenger or Skype.

Manage documents effectively

A communication method which many participants have found difficult to replicate is post. With offices closed, many of our housing organisation representatives mentioned that they were having difficulties printing and sending documents to tenants, as well as managing incoming post effectively.

To handle this, many of our participants are shifting to PDF attachments as an alternative to physical post, as well as systems which will scan incoming post (such as MRI’s Financial Management module) and make digital copies of documents available quickly and easily.

Build communities via portals and social

Participants who offer their tenants a digital self service platform found this a useful method of helping their customers stay up to date with their accounts. Some participants had noticed an increase in registrations since the lockdown, while others had seen existing tenants start to use the platform more often.

While self-service platforms were a useful tool for helping tenants maintain their accounts, our Round Table participants also saw value in building engagement on other digital platforms, particularly Facebook.

While our participants valued digital portals for “transactional” needs like paying rent online or checking balances, many found Facebook pages a more immediate method of broadcasting information and updates, since tenants were likely to access this much more frequently than they might login to their self service account.

While this has led to housing organisations building their following on platforms like Facebook, they were also aware of the potential need to have a more secure platform for comms which were only intended for tenants, however. Some participants discussed the value of a self service portal as a way of engaging with tenants, and only tenants, on some topics, for example seeking feedback on existing services and ideas for improvements.

Future approaches – live chat and bots

Our participants also talked about their plans for the future. Most expect a large increase in call volume after the lockdown period, as teams work through a backlog of less urgent requests which have built up.

To that end, many are trying to look into more efficient methods of communication to help ease the load on their teams, and some are particularly interested in the opportunities offered by live chat.

Housing associations already using live chat managed by customer service teams found it had some uptake, particularly amongst younger tenants, but that it could take longer to solve an issue via a live chat than a telephone call. The potential to automate these chats using artificial intelligence was something that several participants were interested in as a way to make this process more efficient, removing the need for customer service teams to manage simple queries.

All participants were keen to maintain a “human” feel to their comms, and thought that options like Alexa-style voice chat would be more accessible than a traditional text-based live chat, particularly for older tenants.

MRI Software solutions to engage with tenants

MRI’s suite of housing management tools gives your organisation everything they need to effectively manage relationships and sustain tenancies. Our Customer Self-Service solution lets tenants manage rent, report repairs and easily send messages back and forth with their housing association. To find out more about our future round table sessions and how to take part, please contact us.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/the-future-of-data-in-housing/ Fri, 22 May 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31201

Guest post by Stephen Thorlby-Coy from Yorkshire Housing: Data, when put to good use, can revolutionise the way a housing association works. At Yorkshire Housing, we’re capturing and utilising data in new ways to transform our organisation from one that is reactive, to one that is proactive. I started my career working in the manufacturing … Continued

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Guest post by Stephen Thorlby-Coy from Yorkshire Housing:

Data, when put to good use, can revolutionise the way a housing association works. At Yorkshire Housing, we’re capturing and utilising data in new ways to transform our organisation from one that is reactive, to one that is proactive.

I started my career working in the manufacturing industry where one of my very first projects was in data. It revealed to me how powerful and useful data can be to transform a business and streamline operations.

Fed up with producing shift reports manually, I implemented an automated reporting system which did away with the previous reporting method of capturing information on paper.

The automated reports were a revelation to the company. Reports could be accessed by production managers at the start of their shift, providing them with all the information on what had happened on the previous shift. While it was a fairly basic data capture and output system, it meant that decisions could be made much more quickly and reject rates and scrappage was reduced considerably. What had come about partly through my own laziness produced something that the operational managers found fantastically useful.

Over the years I found myself working with data in much more complex and beneficial ways, including managing analytics and online service development for charities, where the recognition of patterns in their call centre’s call volume meant they could adapt their resources to manage the peaks and troughs of busy-ness. One charity I worked with used data to track grant applications which allowed colleagues to see in real time the status of applications and what this meant for their output spend.

My move into housing, however, felt like a step back in time, back to my experiences in manufacturing.

The housing sector had not technologically kept pace with the rest of the world. Even the basic data capture and output of automated reporting, which had transformed the manufacturing business I’d worked for 20 years ago at the start of my career, had not been adopted.

My move to Yorkshire Housing presented a huge ambition – to elevate the organisation from one that is reactive (like much of the housing sector is) to one that is proactive. The idea is to be able to fix problems before they occur, and provide a seamless service for tenants and customers. Data is at the core of this aim.

Data Governance

Starting from the ground up, the foundations need to be laid first and foremost. For me, this means ensuring a clear organisation-wide data governance policy, which is understood across every department and at every level.

This means not only that ensuring the terminology is fully understood, but also how we measure different processes, how we determine the ownership of those processes, and the end to end execution of them – not just doing a job but recording it, too.

A plumber, for instance, needs to record their jobs, the time taken and any parts used. This information allows us to analyse spending and resource usage in much more detail and optimise our operations to cut costs and improve efficiency. Designing a data capture method that makes this process easy and efficient will help us to capture accurate data without impeding on day to day operations.

Expertise

We’re also investing in expertise through the recruitment of a data architect, BI developers and analysts to build a team with a higher calibre of data expertise than I’ve ever worked with before. The team will work alongside other departments to make the data we capture accessible and allow our colleagues to be analysts, too.

We’re aiming to build a relationship across the organisation in which our analysts are working as business partners with our colleagues. This integration of data across the whole organisation opens up more possibilities for improving and automating processes, meaning that our agents can concentrate on adding value to the business and focus their attentions on providing services and extra support for those who need it.

Reporting

We’re currently working with MRI Software on improving our data warehousing, with the aim of integrating MRI Data with other tools and systems we’re using, as well as with our finance and accounts systems, to bring data into a structured space so that we can consistently deliver the right reporting at the right time.

Working visually is often the best approach to ensure that data can be understood and analysed quickly, and we’re introducing various software and tools which will allow us to create efficient and comprehensive reporting. We’ll build the reporting to allow us to drill down to more in depth data to allow colleagues at all levels, not only managers, to understand the context of what they’re doing day to day.

From Reactive to Predictive

The move from a reactive to predictive model requires a different sort of data. Using our current data capture techniques, we have lots of data that tells us what’s happened, but we need to get to the data that predicts a future event and prompts us to take action.

A classic example is smart home technology. Smart boilers, for instance, have the ability to transmit data back to tell us what’s happening. If there’s a blip, or something unusual in the pattern of data we receive it could be an indication that something is about to go wrong, and we could use this to trigger a preventative maintenance appointment with the customer automatically, so they’re not left without heating or hot water.

Another example could be the frequency by which somebody is logging in to check their rent statements. An increased frequency could be an indication that something is occurring that might be affecting them financially and that might be an early-warning signal that they’re about to go into arrears. Looking for these sorts of trends and triggers can help us to elevate our customer service to a new level. Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a proactive call or conversation with that tenant to provide reassurance, prevent them from going into arrears, and take action before they find themselves in real crisis?

Another avenue we’re beginning to look at is how to care for older people. As part of our work with an independent living scheme for older persons, we’re trialling IOT devices that monitor movement in people’s homes. These include detectors that are able to register if someone has walked past a monitor, or a device that plugs into an electrical socket which can recognise when the kettle has been boiled. Using these devices, it’s possible to analyse the pattern of behaviour and understand when people need support, telling us when we need to do targeted intervention and proactively make well-being calls to vulnerable people. The more we can implement these sorts of smart technology the more we can start to understand how people live and fit our services around that to make the most impact.

Of course, this sort of technology has its legal, privacy and ethical implications, and the more insight we gather into how people are living, the more how we handle data governance plays on my mind. Just because we can tell that every day a tenant gets up and puts the kettle on a 8am, doesn’t mean we should use that information. Questions surrounding what the information is being used for and where freedoms and privacy is being infringed on is a huge grey area. With this in mind, we’re establishing practices so that we are continually reviewing data capture methods and working out ways in which they can do good for our service users without crossing a line. For instance, in our trials with IOTs that track movements in independent living properties, the data produced is accessed by the tenants’ relatives via an app, rather than the housing association, with full permission from the tenants themselves.

The Future

At Yorkshire Housing, we still have a lot of work to do to lay the foundations and put systems in place to ensure we’re capturing the right data and structuring it in a way that produces useful and insightful MI reports.

We’re working closely with MRI to develop systems that meet the needs of the organisation and our tenants, including the development of automation within our operations, and how we manage and structure the data we gather with a data warehousing solution to consolidate our systems. The aim is to have everything closely integrated with data flowing quickly and seamlessly between systems. MRI’s absolutely fantastic technical teams are putting square pegs into round holes to make this happen.

With MRI, we’ve also begun to take advantage of the increased processing capability that comes with using the cloud, which puts us about 18 months away from adopting machine learning and AI technologies – something we’re already talking to Microsoft about to work out how we do this. MRI’s roadmap is leading in the same direction, which will complement our own ambitions.

In terms of the housing sector as a whole, Yorkshire Housing is in the middle of the pack when it comes to the level of sophistication of our data capturing and usage. We’re not at the back, but we’re not at the front either. We’re seeing across the industry lots of little experiments and trials with smart homes and IOT devices happening, and we need to keep doing these to understand exactly what the data can tell us. Housing, however, is behind lots of other industries in the data revolution and it’s time we embraced the possibilities and influenced the development of new data-based systems and innovations.

About our contributor

Stephen Thorlby-Coy is the Head of ICT at Yorkshire Housing where he delivers high quality services and transformational change which add value for tenants.

The post The Future of Data in Housing appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/getting-started-commercial-real-estate-reforecasting/ Fri, 15 May 2020 17:46:47 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26246

Performing a complete reforecast for your commercial real estate business is not a common task. It typically takes place only in the event of sudden economic shifts, like the one triggered by COVID-19. When your commercial real estate firm went through the budgeting process in Fall 2019, you probably didn’t account for the impact of … Continued

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Performing a complete reforecast for your commercial real estate business is not a common task. It typically takes place only in the event of sudden economic shifts, like the one triggered by COVID-19. When your commercial real estate firm went through the budgeting process in Fall 2019, you probably didn’t account for the impact of a global pandemic on your business. For many properties, it’s time to throw your best laid plans out the window and create a new forecast, but where do you start? What are the main areas to consider?

Here are some tips to keep in mind when diving into commercial real estate reforecasting:

A new basis for assumptions

The whole point of budgeting is to make an educated assumption as to where your business is going to land at the end of the calendar year based on lease contracts, actual and historical data. But what historical data can serve as a reference for something as unpredictable as COVID-19? You will have to use your actuals from March and April and incorporate timelines from your property reopening plans. MRI Budgeting and Forecasting software can distribute variances from what actually happened through March/April over the rest of year for the whole workbook or, as is more applicable now, differently from account to account.

Finding the variables of new importance

You’ll need to identify areas of your commercial business that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, which are likely to vary based upon property types, locations, and tenant mix. Certain categories of maintenance, such as cleaning, might actually go up in terms of keeping the property running. Rent will play a bigger role, especially if tenants have trouble paying or need to negotiate deferred payment agreements. If you won’t be able to rely on certain revenue streams, then everything from landscaping costs to capital projects may need to be reevaluated.

Commercial real estate budgeting software from MRI offers an efficient way to draft a new budget and start pulling levers like these to test for different outcomes.

Budgeting and forecasting for what lies ahead

You might be inclined to keep some or all of your leasing assumptions in the new forecast, but many properties will need to start over. Will more deals trend toward shorter lease terms or smaller footprints? The future of commercial office space could look very different than it does today if corporations decide to reevaluate their needs. Effective space management tools and forecasting based on new assumptions can help your business reassess the different best and worst case scenarios in a market that looks completely different than your previous assumptions. A short-term plan will impact the long-term strategy for your business, and technology can provide the agility to respond to change while driving the business forward.

Commercial real estate organizations need to make reforecasting a priority for the business. Even with continued uncertainty in the economic environment, evaluating the impact of different scenarios on your organization will influence strategic decisions for the business. The ability to leverage technology to operate with agility has never been more essential, and MRI’s Budgeting and Forecasting software can help you pivot efficiently and stay focused on running your business.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/tech-to-produce-accurate-repairs-costings/ Tue, 05 May 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31191

Accurate costing of maintenance and repair jobs not only allows you to ensure your workforce is being compensated fairly, but also makes it possible to identify areas where costs can be reduced, and operations can be streamlined. Improving the accuracy of your costings involves gathering detailed data of where costs are being incurred throughout your … Continued

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Accurate costing of maintenance and repair jobs not only allows you to ensure your workforce is being compensated fairly, but also makes it possible to identify areas where costs can be reduced, and operations can be streamlined.

Improving the accuracy of your costings involves gathering detailed data of where costs are being incurred throughout your operatives’ daily processes, including van mileage to different appointments, on-site time, parts and replacements, as well as administrative costs incurred through placing orders to replenish stock.

A robust repairs and maintenance management system can provide extra features to help you not only provide accurate costings for specific jobs, but also to streamline operations and reduce costs. In future, there’s also the potential for automation of some aspects of cost tracking using RFID tags.

The present day: using repair and maintenance management software to reduce costs

A repair and maintenance management system such as MRI AccuServ can provide invaluable information on the real term costs of specific repair and maintenance jobs. The system itself can also help to cut costs and identify areas for improved streamlining:

Manage parts, stock and ordering more effectively

When parts are logged against a repair job, they’re logged against the UPN number of the property they’ve been used on. This means that they be automatically costed against the specific job, providing an accurate record of exactly what parts have been used for each specific assignment and automatically adding an exact cost to the overall total of the job.

When a part is removed from the van, it is automatically added to an order list for restocking, meaning that time and resource spent compiling order lists is reduced and the risk of over or under ordering due to human error is minimised. Order lists can be automatically turned into a regular replenishment order to suppliers, with operatives only needing to collect their order rather than spending time building a replenishment list.

Additionally, when an item is removed, both van and overall business stock level information is automatically updated, eliminating the need for manual stock take, saving time and ensuring accurate records.

Streamline future jobs and track part locations

When a part is used on a job, its location is listed as the UPN of the property where the job was carried out.

Knowing exactly where specific parts were used can help improve the efficiency of future repair work – for example, if you’re replacing windows in a property, you’ll already have information from the stock that has been issued previously, meaning there’s no need to visit the property to take measurements or assess which parts are required.

Streamline purchasing and approvals

The system features full EDI integration with most big suppliers including Travis Perkins, Jewsons and Buildbase. Purchase orders can be auto-approved by validating product codes, quantities and prices on every line item, eliminating the need for supervisors to review orders, meaning more time and resource can be focussed on more complex cases. Using this method, up to 93% of purchase invoices can be auto-approved, saving time and resource.

Manage employee resources and reduce resource costs

Alongside the costs relating to materials, accurately calculating the costs associated with labour and travel is also important. Using a repairs and maintenance management system, travel time to each job as well as labour time on-site can be recorded, including time spent on no-access visits. Jobs allocated to sub-contractors and other costs can also be added to the total cost of a job. For example, quotations can be captured plus the cost of plant hire e.g. scaffolding etc.

As well as being able to calculate the full cost of a job, the ability to break it down into individual costs is vital for identifying where savings can be made, as well as being able to identify discrepancies or mistakes.

Not only does this mean your costings for jobs are accurate, it means that administrative duties such as stock-take, placing orders and managing stock are automated, and your teams can refocus their energies into areas where they can make a difference and provide excellent service to tenants, customer and service users.

The future: using RFID tags for even greater accuracy

At Orchard, we’re in the process of working on exciting new technology to help make repair and maintenance costings even more accurate and streamlined. By using RFID tags, we’re planning pilot projects with a select number of clients to increase automation and accuracy by tracking part usage automatically.

What are RFID tags?

Radio Frequency IDentification tags are chips attached to items, that can then be tracked using readers that utilise radio frequency technology. When used with repair and maintenance parts, RFID tags can transmit data about each part and can be used alongside software to manage stock and record maintenance and repair data.

Using RFID alongside repair and maintenance management software

A repair and maintenance management system such as MRI AccuServ can work alongside RFID tags to provide invaluable information on the real term costs of specific repair and maintenance jobs. The system itself can also help to cut costs and identify areas for improved streamlining.

Parts that are tagged with RFID are automatically registered with the system when they’re used. This means that they can be automatically costed against the specific job, providing an accurate record of exactly what parts have been used for each specific assignment and automatically adding an exact cost to the overall total of the job.

When a part is removed from the van, it is automatically added to an order list for restocking, meaning that time and resource spent compiling order lists is reduced and the risk of over or under ordering due to human error is minimised. Order lists can be automatically turned into an order to suppliers once per week.

Additionally, when an item is removed, both van and overall business stock level information is automatically updated, eliminating the need for manual stock take, saving time and ensuring accurate records.

Want to learn more about what we can do to help? Find out more about our MRI AccuServ.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/commercial-rent-payments-decision-time-landlords-tenants/ Mon, 04 May 2020 20:49:21 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26169

The month of May 2020 finds many commercial landlords and tenants stuck between a rock and a hard place. The need to mitigate business risk resulting from COVID-19 is front and center, and decisions regarding expenses, cashflow, and operating costs can no longer be delayed. During April, many landlords and tenants were looking forward to … Continued

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The month of May 2020 finds many commercial landlords and tenants stuck between a rock and a hard place. The need to mitigate business risk resulting from COVID-19 is front and center, and decisions regarding expenses, cashflow, and operating costs can no longer be delayed.

During April, many landlords and tenants were looking forward to receiving capital from government programs such as Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), and they kept an eye on their respective state’s plans to reopen. Tenants behaved in a variety of ways during the month – some paid the rent, others asked for deferment, abatement, other agreed-upon options, or remained silent.

The month of May will bring tougher challenges and complexities. Many businesses will get their PPP/EIDL or figure out alternatives to ensure their own business continuity. They may still ask for forgiveness in May, but if their state has officially re-opened, their legal claim to abatement may be nonexistent, especially if they have received government funds. Will May 10th be a day of reckoning, as most rents will be due at the end of a 10-day grace period?

Leverage the lease to determine negotiation options

In terms of payments, the month of May represents a turning point where conversations between landlords and tenants begin in earnest. Landlords deal with delinquent tenants and decide whether to forgive, or send them packing. Tenants explore the types of protections they can receive based on their lease – if their state still allows them to utilize the space.

Landlords – If your tenants have not paid, you may need more insight on your lease terms to understand what rights you have during a negotiation.

Tenants – If you plan on asking for continued forgiveness or deferment, ensure that you’re in compliance with your lease. Understand your risk of getting kicked out, especially if your state has re-opened.

While both parties have different motivations and challenges, they have one thing in common: the lease is the governing document that forms the basis of negotiations and legal assertions.

Identify lease liabilities and exposure

Landlords and tenants need to review the lease thoroughly to determine liabilities and exposure. Before any legal work begins, important items in the lease need to be identified. These include, but are not limited to: condemnation, force majeure or act of god, SNDA, casualty, damage and destruction, co-tenancy and go-dark provisions, deprivation of services, late fees, notice of default & right to cure, beyond landlord’s control, constructive eviction, breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment, right to injunctive & equitable relief, and many more.

Uncover lease insights with smart OCR

Since time is of the essence, commercial landlords and tenants need to focus on evaluating their options and making decisions, instead of spending days reading through complex lease documents to find relevant clauses. Traditional lease abstraction involves manual search of key clauses across leases and other contracts, which takes up valuable time and has a high risk of error. MRI’s Lease Insights solution leverages smart optical character recognition (OCR) to quickly and accurately uncover lease data, identify key clauses, and save significant time.

At MRI, several of our clients are using Lease Insights to determine the best way forward for their business. Here are some negotiation options being offered by US landlords that use the solution:

1) Pay no rent for three to four months, and spread the accumulated balance out over the remaining life of the lease

2) Pay no rent for three to four months, and the accumulated balance is added on as a bullet payment at the end of the lease (last month)

3) No payment for three to four months, but the lease is extended by another 12 to 60 months at a rate that is higher than the usual rent

4) Pay a 50 percent reduction in rent for six months, with the remaining 50 percent spread out or tagged to back end

5) Enforcement of lease terms, drawing on security deposit or line of credit, and then terminating the lease

Ready to start using MRI’s smart Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to search key clauses across your portfolio of leases and other contracts? See how you can get started today.

The post Commercial rent payments: Decision time for landlords and tenants appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/will-offices-be-same-after-covid-19/ Fri, 01 May 2020 07:00:19 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26155

Earlier this week, Barclays boss Jes Staley admitted that the banking giant will be looking closely at how it uses its global office space, given the recent widespread shift to remote working. Perhaps his most telling quote: “The notion of putting 7,000 people in the building may be a thing of the past.” In a … Continued

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Earlier this week, Barclays boss Jes Staley admitted that the banking giant will be looking closely at how it uses its global office space, given the recent widespread shift to remote working. Perhaps his most telling quote: “The notion of putting 7,000 people in the building may be a thing of the past.”

In a previous blog, we discussed some of the immediate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on office workspace, and also considered some of the longer-term trends that might emerge. It’ll be no surprise that we suggested a potential rethink when it comes to the future use of central, large-scale corporate offices – but such a statement from the leader of a major, international organisation hints at that potential becoming a reality sooner rather than later. But, while it seems certain there’ll be change, what does that actually mean and what will be the wider impact?

Space as the new frontier

Across all types of real estate, particularly for businesses occupying large office portfolios, there’s going to be a huge focus on space management and the utilisation of space. This will come to the fore in two main areas – how occupancy can be optimised to better control and even reduce costs, and the best possible allocation of space for health and safety purposes. But, let’s be clear, we’re talking about the possibility of more than just a few tweaks around the edges. There could be some seriously significant shifts here, driven by open, innovative and out-of-the-box thinking as to how office space is occupied – or redeployed entirely. In the last couple of months, we’ve seen that it’s possible for various organisations – even large multinationals like Barclays – to run at something close to usual capacity and output despite their teams being at home. Now that method has been somewhat ‘proved’, and given that COVID-19 will continue to impact all of our lives for some time to come, having teams spread across various locations (whether smaller offices or even their homes) with remote-working capabilities may well become a new normal.

A geographic rebalance

For the purposes of this blog, let’s accept the premise and say that there is going to be a wholesale move by companies away from huge office complexes with thousands of employees in one place, to a setup that is much more dispersed. That would have deep social and cultural implications, fundamentally altering the makeup of our communities – particularly in large cities. Struggles in the retail sector have drastically altered the landscape of those urban centres in recent times anyway; if offices also move out of those areas then the effects could be seismic.

But, it’s by no means all doom and gloom, because where there’s change, there’s opportunity. Here at MRI, our own research has demonstrated a widely held view in the industry that empty retail space could be transitioned to residential – could it be the same case for offices? And what of large office campuses on the outskirts? Were organisations to move away from these locations, could they be turned into facilities for last-mile services and logistics, perhaps? There’s also an impact on the residential sector to consider – because if more people are going to work from home more often it will undoubtedly affect where they want to live and will almost certainly change their priorities in terms of what they want from their homes and the amenities nearby. In smaller pockets these are not completely new trends, but we haven’t yet seen them emerge industry wide. If we take Barclay’s thinking as a barometer, then we could be on that precipice.

Collaboration (and technology!) will be key

Another question – and an important one – what will landlords do? If the way businesses occupy office space changes then those that own, operate and invest in it will need to consider their approach. This is where ‘opportunity’ is the optimum word. Landlords that are flexible, those that are willing to listen to the needs of their tenants and work with them to provide space that meets their needs, will have the best chance of maximising occupancy – and therefore revenue. Those that don’t, won’t. Not a ground-breaking realisation, but one that will definitely be heightened in the changing and challenging environment. Where today’s organisations have an advantage that previous generations didn’t when navigating such deep-seated change is in their use of technology. Digital innovations for space planning, online forms of communication and the power of software to process and interrogate huge swathes of data should, if harnessed correctly, make for better-informed and smarter decision-making than has ever been possible before. To achieve a truly collaborative approach, and to effectively manage the sorts of strategic decisions that both landlords and tenants may choose to make or be forced into, then technology will be a non-negotiable option.

For more insights, opinions and resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit one of MRI’s regional content hubs: North America, EMEA, APAC.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/best-features-mymri-client-portal-youre-not-using/ Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:00:14 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/best-features-mymri-client-portal-youre-not-using/

Clients of MRI Software are equipped with powerful tools that may not always get the attention they deserve. We’ve decided to break down the details of some of our most useful tools in the myMRI Client Portal. Make sure to visit the myMRI Client Portal today to experience our newly released, streamlined interface! The myMRI Client … Continued

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Clients of MRI Software are equipped with powerful tools that may not always get the attention they deserve. We’ve decided to break down the details of some of our most useful tools in the myMRI Client Portal. Make sure to visit the myMRI Client Portal today to experience our newly released, streamlined interface!

The myMRI Client Portal includes features such as:

• Reporting and Dashboards – View your case activity at a glance on the home page with our real-time Support dashboards.
• Our Chatbot Leo – Looking for the answer to a quick setup questions or maybe you have received an error when running a report? You can interact with Leo to search through our existing self-service library of resources or if you cannot find what you are looking for you will may be prompted to open a support case with our team.
• Knowledge Articles – If you have any questions regarding the functions of the software or how to perform a task, there are over 2,500 knowledge articles to help you through your questions. You can sort and filter these articles by product family, generate PDFs, and share with your colleagues.
• MRIFLIX Support Videos – View our library of client support videos designed to help you find the answers to frequently asked questions. The support team at MRI Software analyzes all of the data from our support cases selects the most common support requests. We have 220+ videos available for clients to get the support they need, without having to call their support team. These voice videos are paired with screen captures, making it simple for you to answer your questions and get on with your day.
• Support Cases – Through the portal, clients are able to submit support cases, view the status of cases, and see the history of previous cases. This is also a great place to interact with your support team.
• Product Documentation – Find user manuals, release notes, system requirements, and more.
• Incident Reports (IRs) – The IR section allows users to view IRs submitted by themselves, or by MRI. Users now have the ability to view the status of IRs in real with estimated fix times.
• Product Ideas – Help make our software better by sharing your ideas with our product management team. Users can submit their own enhancement requests or vote on other ideas submitted by the community.

MRI’s client portal aims to provide clients with the support they need to leverage their MRI solutions in a way that best suits their business. If any client has questions, they’re also free to contact the support team for additional assistance.

The post The Best Features of myMRI Client Portal You’re Not Using appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/three-rs-commercial-tenant-communication-property-managers/ Wed, 29 Apr 2020 20:04:25 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26049

March 2020 was a month none of us are likely to forget. As the COVID-19 outbreak continued to spread around the world, all of us were confronted with a flood of information on a daily basis. In many cases, these communications focused on travel restrictions, closures, and other precautions that we should take against the … Continued

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March 2020 was a month none of us are likely to forget. As the COVID-19 outbreak continued to spread around the world, all of us were confronted with a flood of information on a daily basis. In many cases, these communications focused on travel restrictions, closures, and other precautions that we should take against the virus. When information is communicated efficiently, it has the power to change the behavior of billions of individuals across the world.

At the same time, communication within our smaller, local communities remains extremely important as information changes and evolves daily, if not hourly. The ability to quickly and easily reach large groups of people with a specific message has never been more of a requirement. And, this is certainly the case as we consider commercial real estate and the relationships we have with our tenants.

Commercial tenant communication

Traditionally, communications between landlords and tenants have fallen under the umbrella of ‘planned communications’. Property events, preventive or planned maintenance, billing or policy notices, or work order requests are common examples. Occasionally, more urgency is needed – power outages or water main breaks can have a significant impact and require a rapid response. While each touch point serves a different purpose, it’s clear that information delivered in a timely and transparent manner benefits both the landlord and tenant and helps solidify the ongoing relationship between the two.

So, if improved commercial tenant communication benefits both parties, how can today’s modern property owner or manager build and execute a productive communication program to drive tenant satisfaction? The most effective plans have common elements that can be distilled down to the three Rs: Reliable, Relevant and Rapid.

Reliable – Establishing relationships begins with open, honest and transparent communication that tenants can count on to make decisions about their own operations. These communications should continue through the entire course of the lease, not solely during the sales process or around renewal time. Messages should be delivered consistently across a variety of channels so that important information isn’t missed.

Relevant – Today’s tenants are constantly bombarded with messages – from customers, vendors and their landlords. To break through the noise, landlords should focus on delivering personalized messages that directly impact specific tenants and filter out others for whom the information doesn’t apply. Relevant messages are far less likely to be missed or ignored when not buried in a pile of general or unimportant messaging. You might even consider different channels for different notifications – text, email and voice messages can all play a role in reaching your tenants and extending that personal touch.

Rapid – Empowering commercial property managers with tools at their fingertips removes friction from the communication process. With a variety of channels to choose from, they are able to deliver the right message to the right recipients in a timely manner. This need is emphasized when information is time-sensitive and notifications must be distributed immediately.

Utilize tools to get the word out

As mentioned above, using multiple channels of communication to get the word out is critical, but this can put a great deal of stress on the property management or facilities teams. With a tool such as MRI Tenant Communications, your team can easily record voice messages and distribute them to select groups, while at the same time craft SMS and email messages to ensure delivery. But it isn’t simply the outgoing process that should be efficient – receiving feedback on the messaging is important, too. A productive communications tool should provide reporting features that help the property manager understand how a message was received so that future communications can be improved. Additionally, MRI Tenant Communications enables recipients to answer questions and provide status updates back to your team. In this way, the communication loop is closed and building management and tenants can send and receive important information as effectively as possible.

The fourth “R”: relationships

While the three Rs provide a framework for a communications plan, the ultimate goal is to achieve the fourth R. Establishing reliable, relevant and rapid communications creates an openness and trust that strengthens the relationship between landlord and tenant, opening the door to mutually beneficial business strategies that can last for years to come.

Watch the webinar to learn more about effective communication for commercial property managers.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/tenant-relationships-during-covid-19/ Wed, 29 Apr 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31186

With over 6 weeks of lockdown complete and weeks more uncertainty likely to follow, housing organisations are having to reinvent the ways they manage tenant relationships to deliver the best outcomes for both their business and the individuals whose lives have been affected.  At a recent MRI Round Table event, we discussed the impact of … Continued

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With over 6 weeks of lockdown complete and weeks more uncertainty likely to follow, housing organisations are having to reinvent the ways they manage tenant relationships to deliver the best outcomes for both their business and the individuals whose lives have been affected. 

At a recent MRI Round Table event, we discussed the impact of COVID-19 with representatives from 18 housing organisations across the UK. Here’s what they told us about how tenant relationships have changed since the onset of the crisis:

Many tenants are experiencing difficulties for the first time 

COVID-19 has affected people in all walks of life, whether through sickness or loss of income. This means that tenants who were previously financially stable with up-to-date accounts could be falling into arrears for the first time. 

This could be a frightening experience, with tenants feeling embarrassment or shame and finding themselves unsure of how to ask for help. Tenants who previously held steady employment might also find themselves navigating the UK benefits system for the first time, with limited knowledge of what help is available or how to go about claiming it. 

For housing organisations, this means dealing with a group of tenants who they may never have spoken to before, and supporting them through unfamiliar processes to apply for the help they need.

Older and vulnerable tenants may be suffering 

For many older or more vulnerable tenants, the lockdown has already been going on for much longer than six weeks, since the government recommended that older people and those with health problems which made them susceptible to COVID-19 shield themselves entirely.

The requirements for social distancing could mean that isolated tenants like these have lost their previous lifelines, whether that’s a church, community organisation or just regular catch-ups with neighbours or relatives. 

With loneliness already a problem amongst older or more vulnerable tenants, this could quickly lead to mental health or other difficulties, affecting tenants’ wellbeing significantly. In extreme cases, some tenants who are shielding could be struggling to arrange deliveries of food or medicines, requiring urgent support to ensure their safety. As a result, housing associations are reaching out to vulnerable tenants directly to check they’re coping well, and helping them to access additional support where required. 

Solutions aren’t always clear

With the UK government scrambling to put entirely new systems in place for furloughed or self-employed workers, tenants face a long wait before promised support starts to arrive, with others forced to navigate longer-than-average delays for Universal Credit as an unprecedented number of applications takes its toll. 

This could leave many tenants facing an acute shortage of funds, affecting their ability to pay rent in the short term, but also their confidence in the longer term. With so much uncertainty, it’s vital that housing organisations handle arrears issues sensitively, and work constructively with tenants to help them put plans in place. 

Building strong relationships with tenants now not only helps them make the right financial decisions in the short term, but improves the chances of arrears being cleared quickly when support payments do arrive. 

Myths and misunderstandings are common

At MRI, customers have told us that tenants don’t always understand the government’s announcements around financial support for COVID-19, and that this can lead to misinformation becoming rife. 

For example, tenants in some areas have cancelled their direct debits after hearing news about the government’s proposals for mortgage holidays, incorrectly believing that their rent would be waived for three months. 

For housing associations, it’s obviously important to correct these misunderstandings when they happen, but also to support tenants to ensure they have access to accurate information and advice so that they can make the right decisions for themselves and their families. 

How are housing associations responding?

With so many changes, housing associations are adapting their communications to suit the new types of problems they’re facing. In particular, our Round Table participants identified the following as priority areas:

Increasing proactive communications

Rather than waiting for tenants to get in touch, many social housing organisations are contacting tenants directly. 

While targeted communications are preferred for those considered at risk of falling into arrears, some of the organisations we spoke to are also sending out mass communications via email or text message, finding that this is an effective way of clearing up misconceptions, reassuring tenants, and those who do need help to reach out. 

Changing communication style and tone

The participants at our Round Table had all suspended arrears enforcement activity, as a result of the government limitations on new evictions during the lockdown. In addition to this, many others had changed the tone of voice of their arrears letters to acknowledge that tenants are likely to have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and to provide more targeted support where appropriate. 

From enforcing to sustaining tenancies

With no immediate end to the lockdown in sight, and the likelihood of severe disruption in the months to follow, our Round Table members frequently referenced a change of approach in their arrears management processes, with a focus on sustaining relationships with tenants and supporting tenants in accessing the right support. In doing so, our participants all hoped to maximise the chances that arrears could be resolved quickly once the initial phases of the lockdown are over, even if an immediate resolution is not currently possible. 

Sustain relationships with MRI Housing Management

MRI’s suite of housing management tools gives your organisation everything they need to effectively manage relationships and sustain tenancies. With cloud-based interfaces accessible on any device and a range of powerful case management features, MRI Income Analytics helps you deliver proactive support to tenants when they need it most. To find out more about our future round table sessions and how to take part, please contact us.

The post How are Housing Organisations managing tenant relationships during COVID-19? appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/new-proptech-features-combat-uncertainty-created-by-covid-19/ Tue, 28 Apr 2020 11:59:32 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=26008

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced tremendous uncertainty into the the economy. From determining how essential and non-essential business will operate and take steps to re-open, there isn’t a clear path to navigate. As the impact continues to expand throughout the multifamily and commercial real estate sector, thoughtful and responsible action will be required to support … Continued

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The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced tremendous uncertainty into the the economy. From determining how essential and non-essential business will operate and take steps to re-open, there isn’t a clear path to navigate. As the impact continues to expand throughout the multifamily and commercial real estate sector, thoughtful and responsible action will be required to support landlords, residents, tenants and clients.

As our MRI Software team looked at market conditions, spoke with clients and evaluated our solutions, we were able to identify some specific ways we could help. The team focused on how to surface relevant information to support decision making, track significant changes in tenant payment agreements, and even enhance communication with tenants as conditions and directions change rapidly.

One of the most significant challenges that both Residential and Commercial property owners face is balancing the occupancy of their spaces with their residents’ and tenants’ abilities to pay. As individual business conditions changed, these owners and managers are often negotiating alternative payment options with those tenants and residents. And, given how variable these agreements can be across a portfolio, they needed a way to track and process these new terms.

Deferred payment agreements

The deferred payment agreement feature in MRI allows the user to select the amount of rent and/or other charges to be paid by the resident or tenant at a future date based on the number of payments and frequency agreed upon between the management company and resident. Users can also choose the relevant deferment charge code to allow for transparent reporting between the accounting suites in the Commercial, Residential and General Ledger solution. Joining forces, team members from our UK and US offices worked together to develop a payment agreement feature that could be localized within the MRI Property Management solution.

New analytics dashboards

Information that is sourced from key metrics like Accounts Receivable volume or tenant retail sales numbers can provide a great deal of insight into the risk faced by an organization and their tenant base. Armed with this data, more informed decisions can be made and accounting, leasing and management teams can react more efficiently. To deliver this visibility, our Analytix team created the Advanced Retail Insights dashboard and the Accounts Receivable Insights dashboard to provide a view into this data. Since conditions vary across markets, the information can roll up to the portfolio level or drilled down to the property level. These dashboards can be implemented quickly and leveraged to support the business.

Effective communications tools

As this crisis evolves, there has been a growing need for communication from properties to residents and tenants. For timely messages regarding new procedures or updates to building or community operations, MRI has developed products and programs to ensure that the right automated communication tools are available during this time. Multifamily properties can quickly send messages to residents using our Callmax Automated Communications software. In addition, commercial property managers can leverage tenant communications tools to share information via text, voice or email.

With the focus of keeping employees and residents safe, we added capabilities for our clients to further define what constitutes an emergency service request and the ability to ask additional questions during the online service request submittal process. Additionally, to help limit the number of requests coming in, maintenance teams can create DIY videos to display in Resident Connect, the resident portal.

The business challenges that have come to light during this pandemic are far-reaching, so we have enlisted the experience of industry experts to offer recommendations and best practices. In our COVID-19 Resource Center, MRI clients can learn more about reforecasting budgets in a time of uncertainty, how to provide virtual tours, and send Callmax bulletin communications.

As we transition through different stages of this crisis, we anticipate that the only constant will be change. The MRI team is committed to enhancing and evolving our products to support the needs of our clients.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/a-new-normal-uk-residential-sector/ Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:00:04 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=25748

How does that saying go? The only certainty is uncertainty…? A sentiment we all associate with right now. ‘Business as usual’ is anything but – and we find ourselves in the strange situation of a ‘temporary normal’. But, while the light at the end of the tunnel may seem far off, enforced social distancing, mass … Continued

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How does that saying go? The only certainty is uncertainty…? A sentiment we all associate with right now. ‘Business as usual’ is anything but – and we find ourselves in the strange situation of a ‘temporary normal’. But, while the light at the end of the tunnel may seem far off, enforced social distancing, mass remote working and the virtual shutdown of the UK housing market will eventually come to an end. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic will have long-lasting effect – and rather than going ‘back to normal’, it’s becoming clear that we’ll all have to get used to a ‘new normal’. So, what might that near-term future look like for residential property managers and estate agents?

A digital-first strategy

It’s 2020. Tomorrow’s world is here today and technology is absolutely embedded in our everyday lives as consumers and professionals. Property managers have traditionally been seen as slow adopters of tech. I’d argue that’s changing, has maybe even changed already – but it won’t be a choice anymore. Businesses that haven’t adopted technology, those that see it as an inconvenient expense rather than a sound investment, will surely be left behind by forward-thinking operators utilising digital solutions to provide a better service and drive greater staff efficiency.

Customer relationship management

Going forward, it’s highly likely that we’ll see some limitations on face-to-face interactions, with encouragement to take appointments and meetings online where possible. There may be further periods of lockdown to prevent spikes in the virus that overwhelm our incredible NHS. And even without these measures, the current crisis will undoubtedly result in an initial natural reduction of in-person social interaction. Agents, operators and managers will have to find ways of attracting and retaining residents through online methods. Virtual viewings will surely become more popular, increased numbers of businesses will adopt digital tools for document storage and exchange, and prospects will expect to quickly and easily interact with companies online.

Self-service is THE service

Even if you can overcome the obstacles to bring new residents into your vacant properties, you’ve still got to find ways of maintaining the high levels of service they expect. The adoption of resident portals has grown significantly in recent years across the private rented sector, student housing, leasehold and the lettings industry. Portals can help maintain clear and consistent lines of communication with your communities, can help to build a sense of togetherness in your developments (the importance of which should not be underestimated right now) and, crucially, allow you to offer residents the option of raising maintenance requests or issues from the comfort and safety of their own home. Enabling online rent payments has many obvious benefits for customers in the context of social distancing, and it means you can potentially maintain a cashflow that might otherwise be restricted. With the right property management solution in place, you can also maintain full visibility and control of your operations if payments are being deferred.

These aren’t trends that have just emerged overnight. The demands and expectations of a tech-savvy generation of renters has been driving this gradual change in residential property management for half a decade or more. It’s now reached a critical mass.

We explored these topics in our recent webinar – Prioritising resident safety: What agents, operators and landlords need to consider in respect of COVID-19. The recorded version is free to download and available here.

A reminder also to existing MRI clients that the products you use can be leveraged for the requirements outlined here. We are here to offer our help, support and guidance as much as we can, so if you have questions or queries then our teams are ready and waiting to help.

MRI Sales & Lettings – a fully featured CRM solution for sales and lettings, with integrated property management and accounting.

MRI Engage – a web-based resident portal with self-service features such as maintenance requests and online payments.

MRI Qube PM – a widely adopted and adaptable property management software, with deep capabilities in block management, PRS and other residential sub sectors.

MRI Property Management X – an enterprise-grade residential suite that provides an end-to-end offer for the evolving UK Build-to-Rent market.

And all of our resources related to COVID-19 are available on our resources hub.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-technology-can-minimise-the-costs-associated-with-missed-repairs-maintenance-appointments/ Fri, 17 Apr 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31190

For housing associations and landlords, the impact of a missed maintenance appointment due to no access incidents can be huge – our customers report that each incident can cost a minimum of £100, and with an average of 67 appointments missed per day, the costs add up quickly. Not only are costs incurred through the … Continued

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For housing associations and landlords, the impact of a missed maintenance appointment due to no access incidents can be huge – our customers report that each incident can cost a minimum of £100, and with an average of 67 appointments missed per day, the costs add up quickly.

Not only are costs incurred through the time and mileage of the repair and maintenance operatives, but also through the administration involved in booking appointments and rescheduling, and with one of our clients using over 160 operatives per day, each with a list of 8-10 jobs to complete, the costs that no access incidents can incur can be considerable.

Implementing a repairs and maintenance management system into your business’s operations can provide solutions to reducing costs incurred through missed appointments as well as improve your repair and maintenance service and streamline your operations.

Some of the ways in which this can be achieved include:

SMS Reminders

A simple yet surprisingly effective concept, sending SMS reminders to tenants of their upcoming appointments has a significant impact on reducing the number of no access incidents and therefore minimising missed appointment costs. With a digital management system, tenants receive an automated text message when the appointment has been confirmed, one the evening before the day of the appointment, and another when the engineer is en-route to the property. This reminder helps to minimise the number of appointments missed due to the tenant forgetting, and the information on when the tradesperson is on their way to the property means that tenants are able to ensure someone is at the property to allow access.

At MRI Software, we’re currently working on enhancing this concept even further by providing a live map view of where the driver is on the day of the appointment as well as an accurate estimation of when they will reach the property. This will allow tenants to plan their day around the appointment and the inconvenience of having to wait in for the tradesperson is eliminated, reducing further the number of missed appointments.

Appointment Booking

Repairs and maintenance management software offers a digital self-service option, through which tenants can book their own repairs and maintenance appointments and choose an appointment slot that works best for them. Using MRI’s Digital Self-Service solution, customers are directed through a diagnostic system to identify the tradesperson required and are offered a series of available appointment slots direct from MRI AccuServ. Tenants can choose the appointment that works best for them, and can claim one immediately, as well as receive confirmation via email and SMS. This helps to minimise no-access incidents as it allows customers to take control of their appointments.

This system also helps to reduce the time associated with managing appointments within your internal team, meaning they can concentrate their resources on dealing with more complex cases or providing personalised support to vulnerable tenants.

Mobile Working

A repairs and maintenance management system also provides the opportunity for mobile working. Providing operatives with access to the system via a mobile device means that a large portion of administrative work can be completed immediately. Operatives can work with the tenant to book in further appointments where necessary – either for a return visit or for another trade to attend – and can order parts that are not contained in their van stock and have them delivered to the property. Not only does this mean that administration duties are fulfilled quickly and accurately, it also provides excellent levels of customer satisfaction, as it means that tenants will know exactly what the next step is after each appointment, and have confirmation of their next appointment and what actions have been taken.

This also provides your internal teams, planners and schedulers an accurate view of exactly what your operatives are doing throughout the day and provides strong tools for planners to schedule in emergency jobs and other appointments as they come in, which can be instantly communicated to operatives out on the job.

It also further relieves your internal staff of administrative duties such as booking future appointments and processing orders for parts.

Automated Scheduling

As part of the MRI AccuServ solution, you can automatically assign jobs to operatives, using the most efficient routes and minimising total mileage using Google maps integration. Google Maps is also used to “bulk assign” tomorrow’s appointments and takes each operative’s home address into account to assign jobs according to the most cost and time efficient plan. This is all done at the press of a button, and helps to maximise the efficiency of your operatives and reduce overall costs.

The system also integrates with your operatives’ mobile devices, and using Google Navigation shows the most efficient route to their next job with real time accounting for traffic conditions.

Benefits Across the Board

By implementing a repairs and maintenance management system into your organisation’s operations, you have cost saving and service enhancing tools at your fingertips. Using technology such as automated SMS reminders, self-service appointment booking, mobile working and automated scheduling as part of your repair and maintenance output, you can not only reduce the number of missed appointments, but you can improve your customer service, streamline your operations and cut costs.

At MRI, our team are experts at helping housing associations to implement technological solutions into their operations. Want to learn more about what we can do to help? Find out more about our MRI AccuServ system.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/navigating-uncertainty-real-estate-investment-management-software/ Thu, 16 Apr 2020 17:48:26 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=25730

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create volatility in the market and impact the performance of real estate portfolios for investors, analysts, asset managers and fund managers. During uncertain times, Investment Management software and services can help MRI clients keep their finger on the pulse of change, stay in contact with investors and external stakeholders, and … Continued

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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create volatility in the market and impact the performance of real estate portfolios for investors, analysts, asset managers and fund managers. During uncertain times, Investment Management software and services can help MRI clients keep their finger on the pulse of change, stay in contact with investors and external stakeholders, and make adjustments to new processes and needs. Below are some Investment Management software solutions that can help.

Deferred Loan Payments: Debt Management

As debt service becomes increasingly challenging amidst the economic impacts of COVID-19 and we continue to see dips in operating income across multiple asset classes, borrowers and lenders alike may consider deferring loan payments. For users of MRI Debt Management, adjusting or deferring scheduled payments becomes a simple administrative task – the ‘Adjustments’ tab in the Loan Details allows you to adjust or override any calculated principal and/or interest payments, as well as fees and escrow charges. It will also recalculate the new forward-looking amortization/payment schedule as soon as the adjustments are entered, so you can review your future commitments once operations return to normal.

Assessing Refinancing Opportunities

For years, users of MRI Asset Modeling and Fund Modeling have been able to leverage the refinancing tools in these solutions to identify ideal refinancing opportunities and assess the impact of refinancing on key performance metrics. However, you may not have realized that Debt Management can also be utilized to support these kinds of decisions, especially in the current climate of reduced interest rates. Loans can be copied on the Loan Contracts list page and then flagged as “Speculative” to indicate that they are not executed contracts. Such speculative loans can then be manipulated with different terms, interest rates, and other relevant parameters to allow you to assess the viability of a hypothetical refinance and how it might positively impact your cashflow, without impacting reporting over your in-place contracts.

Investment Accounting: AP and Corporate AR Integration

As offices are closed in response to public health guidelines, many of our clients are facing the predicament of not being able to print paper checks or do mailouts. Thankfully, users of MRI Investment Accounting can leverage its integration with the MRI Accounts Payable and Corporate Accounts Receivable modules to facilitate automated banking transactions for both the receipt of contributions and the payment of distributions.

Investor Communication: Investment Central and Investor Connect

While MRI Investment Central is best known for its Asset Management reports and workflows, it is important to remember in these challenging times that the system has robust CRM and communication tools to support the dissemination of information regarding changes in the key performance indicators of investor portfolios. The Investor Connect portal provides 24-hour access to investor-specific data, but email communications can also be automated with templates and workflow-driven triggers. This empowers Investment Managers to communicate portfolio performance to their investors and add insightful notes to aid in buy/sell/hold investment decision making.

Strategic planning tools

For real estate firms with larger portfolios consisting of assets in multiple classes, regions, and investment structures, reforecasting portfolio-level strategic plans and assessing sensitivity to a prolonged period of market volatility can be an extremely daunting task. Users of Asset Modeling and Fund Modeling can mitigate this challenge by copying their base case model and using portfolio level scenario wizards to flex assumptions like interest rates, market rents, capitalization rates, inflation rates, and more across the entire portfolio. Refinancing assumptions and acquisition/disposition/development scenarios can easily be layered on. Don’t forget that a scenario model can become the source for a subsequent scenario, so you may continue to build model upon model to stress your portfolio iteratively and push it beyond previous optimistic/pessimistic outlooks in light of these unprecedented times.

Learn more about MRI’s real estate Investment Management solution.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/a-new-world-where-working-from-anywhere-is-possible-with-the-right-connectivity-of-course/ Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?post_type=news&p=31404

This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release. Recent events have introduced new challenges for Housing Associations, some of whom who aren’t used to supporting a remote workforce or even doing the majority of their work digitally. We’re all in this together and have … Continued

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This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

Recent events have introduced new challenges for Housing Associations, some of whom who aren’t used to supporting a remote workforce or even doing the majority of their work digitally.

We’re all in this together and have shared responsibilities’ to make remote work productive. With the right tools, everyone can continue to feel engaged, included and empowered.

Thankfully, innovations in cloud infrastructure have led to major advancements in communication to allow us to be productive despite being in different locations. Collaboration tools as MS Teams, Skype and Zoom have been adopted quickly and successfully and we’ve also seen digital self-service tools get more use, such as online chatbots and customer apps/portals.

The greater challenge right now is to provide staff with good connectivity so they can work effectively. For those with limited bandwidth, there are ways of overcoming poor connectivity; with remote-working devices that help deliver a ‘plug and play’ premium and reliable networking experience.

Our consultants are working to help everyone get better connected, so if you want some free advice about how to get the best from remote working now, or in the future.

A final thought; Remote work is not one-size-fits-all, and no doubt once this is all over, organisations will be taking a close look at what the future workplace will look like. Whether that’s moving everyone back to the office, being office-based with remote flexibility or having partially remote or co-located-teams. We can look forward to a world where working from anywhere is possible!

 

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/cinnaire-overcoming-adversity-covid-19/ Wed, 15 Apr 2020 19:20:32 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=25726

As the COVID-19 situation has unfolded over the past few months, businesses across the real estate industry have been faced with the need to swiftly respond to a rapidly evolving set of circumstances. Given the face-to-face nature of the industry, many organizations struggled to adopt work-from-home policies while still effectively serving their clients, constituents and … Continued

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As the COVID-19 situation has unfolded over the past few months, businesses across the real estate industry have been faced with the need to swiftly respond to a rapidly evolving set of circumstances. Given the face-to-face nature of the industry, many organizations struggled to adopt work-from-home policies while still effectively serving their clients, constituents and stakeholders.

Cinnaire is an MRI client that moved quickly to figure out what a “new normal” would look like amidst this crisis. The company planned its response long before much of the country went into lockdown, taking all necessary measures to protect its employees, clients and partners. Their response is an example of how communication, collaboration, and community can help an organization rise to the challenge that faces us all at this time.

An introduction to Cinnaire

Cinnaire is a full-service financial partner that supports affordable housing communities and economic development initiatives through creative loans, investments and best-in-class services. The company has an unwavering belief that all people deserve the opportunities provided by living in healthy communities, and as a part of their work, they match exceptional community investment opportunities with community-focused investors.

As a user of MRI Software’s Investment Central for more than 15 years, Cinnaire has been able to centralize their data and save significant time for fund managers. Boosting operational efficiency while maintaining data integrity has been crucial to Cinnaire’s ability to scale.

Business continuity in the face of change

When the pandemic first started affecting institutions and daily lives across the globe with shutdowns and closures, uncertainty spread fast. As many were trying to figure out what the next day would look like, the executive team at Cinnaire formed action plans to ensure business continuity and to stay focused on raising equity and closing deals. After reaching out to investors and assuring them that they’d be in constant communication, Cinnaire learned that investors were still looking for deals, despite the slowdown caused by the pandemic. The company has begun adjusting its financial expectations for the upcoming year but continues to stay the course.

Responding to adversity with the 3 Cs

In addition to external communications with investors and shareholders, Cinnaire has also taken steps to ensure the safety and continued productivity of their internal staff. Throughout the duration of this situation, Cinnaire has dealt with the challenges using a three-pronged approach.

1. Communication

During the week of March 9, identified by many as the tipping point of the pandemic’s effect on the US, the executive team of Cinnaire made the decision that all staff should prepare to work from home for the foreseeable future. Already equipped with the necessary technology and innovations that would allow their workforce to continue operating remotely, such as video conferencing built into their daily schedules, Cinnaire staff had several days to collect any remaining hardware to perform their duties at maximum capacity in their own homes.

The executive team also began taking the necessary steps to assure staff that even though they would no longer be in one centralized location, they would remain in constant contact about high-level decisions and other strategic communications. In short, Cinnaire made sure that their staff knew they’d be kept in the loop. In practice, these communications came in the form of a long-running and consistently updated Frequently Asked Questions document.

2. Collaboration

The Cinnaire executive team identified six high level questions critical to understanding the current industry environment and drafted a memo to keep staff updated. This was a fluid document that enabled leadership to address concerns surrounding the question, “How do these circumstances affect our goals?” and it was updated on a weekly basis. Instead of simply compiling this FAQ and sending it out to staff once, the executive team instructed each team leader to walk through the FAQ updates with their respective teams and report back with any results or issues.

Essentially, Cinnaire set up a clear chain of communication and feedback across the organization. The executive team would update the FAQ and team leaders would help the members of their teams understand the document and put it into practice in their week-to-week operations. If a team member had a concern or other valuable feedback, that feedback would travel back up the chain, from the team leader to the executive team. The feedback gleaned from the previous week’s updates would then be included in the next update of the FAQ. This clear workflow stream helped put staff at ease and has also helped them understand their place in the current situation.

3. Community

Lastly, Cinnaire has encouraged a sense of community and fellowship outside the confines of industry-related matters. Over the past several weeks, teams have been partaking in virtual happy hours in their own homes, encouraging only “non-work-related” conversation. They’ve also been using Yammer to establish a communal break room of sorts, where the marketing team creates regular challenges for the staff. These activities help keep staff engaged in a time when everyone largely finds themselves in a similar situation – stuck at home, but working to make the best of things.

These are uncertain times for organizations across the real estate industry. However, responding with continued work towards shared goals, communication between team members and leadership, and a resolve that we can get through this will help businesses across the industry overcome the challenges.

The post How Cinnaire is overcoming adversity in the face of COVID-19 appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/impact-covid-19-commercial-real-estate-future-office-workspace/ Thu, 26 Mar 2020 15:52:38 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/impact-covid-19-commercial-real-estate-future-office-workspace/

The impact the COVID-19 virus is having on the commercial real estate sector is immense. We recently looked at how the pandemic is specifically affecting retail landlords and tenants, as they struggle in the face of self-isolation, social distancing and regional lockdowns. In this, the second installment in this two-part series, we look at how … Continued

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The impact the COVID-19 virus is having on the commercial real estate sector is immense. We recently looked at how the pandemic is specifically affecting retail landlords and tenants, as they struggle in the face of self-isolation, social distancing and regional lockdowns.

In this, the second installment in this two-part series, we look at how the sudden change in work patterns is affecting the use of office space and the impact that will have on corporate property owners, operators and occupiers going forward. The blog examines what they need to understand to more effectively deal with the fallout from the worst global health crisis we have seen in the modern age.

New modes of working

Social distancing and remote working are being encouraged by businesses around the world, and for many it has become corporate policy. However, there are still a number of companies where remote working isn’t possible, for a variety of reasons, and the short-term action occupiers or landlords – whomever is responsible – need to take is making sure the regularity and intensity of office cleaning is increased and ensuring there are a number of sanitizing stations available to workers. Additionally, if any workers or visitors infected with coronavirus have been in the building then offices need to be closed down in order for a deep clean to take place.

For the companies where staff are working remotely, the current situation is likely already prompting them to rethink office space in the long run, questioning how they have previously utilized and occupied office space. Many modern offices are now open plan to help boost collaboration and encourage workers to socialize more, but it’s a double-edged sword because it means employees who are working closely together are more likely to transmit viruses between one another.

Assessing the new future for the workspace

As long as the COVID-19 crisis is having its current impact, the use of space and proximity of workers will have to be assessed and addressed in offices and other workplaces where people are still required to come in. Using data and technology to do this in the quickest, most accurate, effective way will be critical to organizations that need to move fast. On the facilities management side, having the technology to register and track which visitors are in a building when and for how long may also be critical to managing the number of people at a particular site at any one time and tracing any contact if that were to become necessary.

In the near term, landlords need to be prepared for tenants looking to break leases early, seek reduced rents or longer payments as the ongoing impact of coronavirus becomes clear. Many businesses are facing the possibility of having to reduce their workforces during the crisis, so landlords should look to work with these tenants to find alternative solutions that bridge the gap during the crisis.

Looking further forward, we are likely to see increased demand for things that will make open plan office environments healthier, like fans, filters, and dehumidifiers – and spaces that ensure people have enough social distance even in better times. We are also likely to see the trend toward working from home become a stronger consideration in workspace planning, as companies choose to provide more flexibility in this area on a longer-term basis. This may require greater flexibility within offices and other workspaces – and in the leases that occupiers seek moving forward.

Working together to ensure the future of commercial real estate

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting the commercial real estate industry with unprecedented challenges and the best way to overcome them is to put in place plans for a worst-case scenario and hope it doesn’t come to that. Another key will be using the right technology to regularly create clear and consistent updates for investors, partners, employees and other stakeholders, which will help ensure their cooperation as businesses adapt to the rapidly changing conditions they are facing and prepare for a less turbulent future.

To come out on the other side of the coronavirus crisis as strong as or stronger than ever, landlords and property managers – whether dealing with retail properties or offices – need to work closely with tenants to find creative solutions; leveraging technology to understand your business situation in terms of leases and assets will be critical. The industry was already starting to recognize the importance of this type of collaboration, and the drive to survive the COVID-19 crisis might just push cooperation to a whole new level – and that can only be a good thing at the moment.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/impact-covid-19-commercial-real-estate-future-of-retail/ Thu, 26 Mar 2020 15:42:04 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/impact-covid-19-commercial-real-estate-future-of-retail/

COVID-19 is dominating the news agenda, and while the immediate effects are clear, the long-term impact is still very much an unknown – and that’s giving everyone in the commercial real estate industry reason to consider both the near- and long-term future. While under the current circumstance it’s difficult to predict what the commercial real … Continued

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COVID-19 is dominating the news agenda, and while the immediate effects are clear, the long-term impact is still very much an unknown – and that’s giving everyone in the commercial real estate industry reason to consider both the near- and long-term future.

While under the current circumstance it’s difficult to predict what the commercial real estate market will be like next week, never mind in six months’ time, there are steps investors, owners and corporate occupiers can take to prepare for likely eventualities. With the right planning and technology support they can help protect themselves and, just as vitally, their industry from some of the impact from this rapidly evolving health crisis.

In this, the first of two-part series looking at the impact of the coronavirus, we look at how the uncertainty caused by the pandemic is affecting a retail sector already in crisis – and what retail landlords and occupiers need to keep in mind as they navigate the accompanying business challenges.

The surge in home shopping

It’s no secret that retailers in shopping malls and main street alike have been facing intense pressure in recent years. Online only retailers, like Amazon, have leveraged the ease and convenience of technology to empower consumers to browse and purchase goods without having to leave their house. Already we are seeing ramping up to meet new home shopping demand spurred by the crisis, with the company hiring thousands in markets such as the UK and up to 100,000 in the US.

Coronavirus, which has spread across the world at unprecedented speed, is an additional challenge that retailers do not need. The need for “social distancing” and in some cases “self-isolation” is not only reinforcing shop-at-home habits but is spurring some people who’ve so far resisted online buying to try it – if only out of caution. What’s more, major brands such as Apple, Calvin Klein, Nike and Zara have closed stores worldwide temporarily.

The immediate impact of this is a significant loss of revenues, which in the longer term could lead to some staff being laid off and some physical stores being closed permanently, leaving more empty shop space. These are also popular brands that draw consumers to shopping malls and busy commercial centers in towns and cities, so those retailers that don’t close may suffer even more when popular neighbors close shop.

Taking action to reinforce retail on the ground

For now, retail occupiers will need to take stock of their situations – part of which will be assessing their leases to understand their options and restrictions. Are there clauses for breaks or rent holidays or tying rents to turnover they might need to be aware of and leverage? They may also need to take a deeper dive into their data to assess where they can manage with fewer staff, where they might close stores temporarily for now and where they might want to focus efforts when we eventually come out of the current crisis.

And for their part, what can landlords do? Those that want to keep their tenants in place will need to work with retailers to come up with creative solutions that will allow tenants to maintain operations and survive the current crisis. Landlord also have to understand their own property and lease portfolios and be aware of which clauses tenants might invoke and what they as owners and operators need to do to ensure they comply with all their obligations.

Flexibility on the landlord’s side may be crucial, as retailers will likely be looking for lower rents and longer payment periods to help offset the long-term effects of coronavirus. However, landlords could negotiate arrangements that allow them to recoup some lost rent when the economy rebounds — this can be through an agreement to peg rent to a percentage of revenue or a profit-based approach.

No matter what retail property owners, operators and occupiers do on their own, the situation is likely to require unprecedented cooperation between all parties to ensure a they recover to see a brighter future – as all sides want to see their sites survive and eventually thrive again. Working together to ensure this is really the only way forward at this point.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/stay-connected-with-sms/ Thu, 26 Mar 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?post_type=news&p=31401 This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release. Stay Connected – your Internal Comms are more important now than ever As Housing Associations across the country continue to battle the impact of Covid-19, a key priority is to ensure the Health & Safety of … Continued

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]]> This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

Stay Connected – your Internal Comms are more important now than ever

As Housing Associations across the country continue to battle the impact of Covid-19, a key priority is to ensure the Health & Safety of your staff and ensure Business Continuity measures kick in quickly so staff can continue to service tenants remotely.

We are all quickly adapting to this new way of working with major reliance on technology to do its job to help you do yours. During this transitional time, Castleton pledge to support and prioritise our customers who are in need of immediate and effective Internal Communication Measures – that will enable instant, digital contact with your staff when physical contact is not an option across your organisation.

Bulk SMS text messaging is a fast, effective and simple solution. We’ve taken measures to scale back our Communications Manager software to a core workflow that can be implemented quickly and get your internal comms up and running the very same day. We have tried to streamline the costs where possible – so you are only paying for the set-up, a fixed mobile number and the text messages that you use.

Our Stay Connected plan:

• Designed for your internal staff communications only
• No integrations to systems – simply import csv file of all your staff contacts
• 2 -way messaging, so staff can respond back to you
• Fully hosted by Castleton (at no charge)
• No software charge – just text message usage (starting from a 10,000 text bundle – as little as 8.9p per text to use within the 6 months on offer for this version)
• One day remote implementation cost
• Mobile number hosting cost

We ourselves are currently using this very same ‘stripped down’ version of Communications Manager to quickly and effectively communicate with our staff. Our own Business Continuity plan was fully tested and actioned over two working days, and our SMS technology solution played a key role in keeping our 200+ organisation fully informed. We now have our entire workforce fully home-based, equipped with laptops, secure remote access, communication applications and mobile phones to ensure we can connect using multiple digital methods. Our internal Castleton SMS platform is a major part of our own remote-working strategy.

 

What about effective communication with your tenants?

As a technology supplier dedicated to the sector, we are aware you are putting your emergency plans into place but at the same time, responding to immediate issues as critical repairs and gas safety checks.

We’ve been listening to some of our customers over the last few days “Biggest challenge is getting the messages out quickly”, “We need to keep our workforce mobile and ensure they are getting up to date information instantly”, “Tenant reassurance is key to our comms”, Maintaining channel comms is becoming a 24hr operation for us”. If you are working your way through these challenges right now, please pick up the phone to us.

The full version of this SMS platform can extend beyond your business-as-usual comms; use it for daily automated updates and reassurance to your tenants, let your most vulnerable tenants know what services are operating within the community that can directly support them.

For a 20 minute overview of what this SMS platform looks like, you can sign up to our on-demand Communication Manager webinars by contacting us.

Alternatively, contact your Account Manager who will get your internal Stay Connected plan kick-started for you. 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/accelerated-adoption-technology-impacts-real-estate/ Wed, 25 Mar 2020 19:36:59 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/accelerated-adoption-technology-impacts-real-estate/

Change comes slowly, almost imperceptibly, until it doesn’t. Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a moment when substantial change has been thrust upon us, without much warning, without much preparation, and so broadly that it is not hyperbolic to say that it is happening on a global scale. The changes that many … Continued

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Change comes slowly, almost imperceptibly, until it doesn’t.

Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a moment when substantial change has been thrust upon us, without much warning, without much preparation, and so broadly that it is not hyperbolic to say that it is happening on a global scale.

The changes that many of us are adapting to are driven by social distancing practices, stay-at-home decrees and shelter-in-place orders:

• Business: only essential business and employees are working in normal locations with others either working from home or out of work.
• Healthcare: hospitals are eliminating elective procedures and driving more routine visits to tele-medicine.
• Retail: essential brick-and-mortar retail remains, non-essential retail has closed, and online sales are skyrocketing.
• Dining: restaurants have shifted to delivery and take-out or have closed.
• Entertainment: movies whose theatrical runs were cut short were released for streaming while still “in theaters,” and all other live entertainment, including the lights on Broadway, are currently suspended. Some artists have live streamed events to fans.
• Sports: NASCAR held a virtual race driven by actual drivers while all other live events have been suspended, delayed or cancelled, including the 2020 Summer Olympics.
• Education: K-12 schools are closed, having moved online along with most colleges and universities.

Be thankful that it is 2020 and that we are able to move many things online so quickly.

The networking technology of the internet was invented in the early 1980s, the World Wide Web construct came in 1990, Netscape in 1994 and Internet Explorer in 1995. In the early 1990s, we were all using dial-up connections at speeds of 9.6 kbps. By 2000, broadband was emerging, at 244 kbps, a 25x increase in bandwidth. By 2010, we had 10 Mbps in bandwidth, a 40x improvement. And today, in 2020, broadband services are commonly available at speeds of 400Mbps (another 40x improvement) with Google Fiber delivering 1000Mbps (100x over 2010).

In 30 years, bandwidth has increased by at least 40,000x and, while noticeable, it was not an event – it was a gradual change over time. And because of this relatively slow change, we can now leverage greater bandwidth to enable the forced and rapid change in our collective behaviors.

The various applications of technology that we are suddenly using were not just invented. Instead, we have been slowly adopting them on our own terms, as our budgets would allow and where markets demanded. Now, suddenly, we are all in the deep end together, figuring it out and making it work, accelerating adoption.

As a result of this forced change, of the sudden movement of our collective cheese, we are getting over the fear of change. We’re having to adapt quickly, and as we do, some of the changes we now make under duress will stay with us and they will impact commercial real estate.

Business and Healthcare

A substantial part of the non-essential workforce has been working from home, full-time, for a week or more, including those in G&A functions, financial services, software and other knowledge worker parts of the economy. No doubt you’ve seen the screen captures of group meetings that look like a digital Brady Bunch reunion. If you think about it, it is quite amazing that so many people have been able to transition to telecommuting so quickly. Because it has gone well, it may have substantial impacts in the future. Considerations include:

• Will enterprises, bullish on newfound success with telecommuting, begin to reduce needed office space?
• Will apartment demand change, requiring more dedicated work-from-home spaces and better sound proofing?
• Will the urban migration of the millennials shift back to the suburbs so they can live with less expense and be closer to family? This would reshape supply and demand for apartments and also impact the broad array of retail, dining and other service establishments.
• Will enterprises further leverage digital collaboration in place of physical meetings and conferences, taking back travel time to be more productive? Clearly, the hospitality and travel sectors would feel continued impact.
• Will our healthcare “supply chain” be reworked, changing the location and focus of facilities and requiring re-working of facilities?

As an aside, a reduction in people commuting will have a direct and positive impact on the environment, will drive demand for oil lower, resulting in better quality of life by transitioning the daily commute into more home time.

Retail, Dining, Entertainment and Sports

Since Amazon was founded in 1994, there has been great upheaval in retail. Big box retailers have had to adapt or die. Stalwarts, like Sears and K-Mart, cling to life. As retailers have changed, so have the operators of retail centers and malls. There has been a concerted shift away from simply shops and a food court (the quintessential 80’s mall) to a mix of goods and services inclusive of entertainment and a wide array of dining venues.

The diversification of retail was the right move for owners and operators to evolve. Unfortunately, there are few sectors immune from the current state of things, and retail, dining and entertainment are greatly impacted.

Live entertainment and sporting events are a critical cultural component globally, and many retailers, especially restaurants and bars, are in close proximity to theaters, stadiums, arenas and other facilities.

What might their future hold:

• Will “stay at home” directives lead to more home cooking, and a reduction in overall dining out volume? Also, does this spell an end for Blue Apron and other meal prep services? Will apartments need more well-equipped kitchens to differentiate?
• Will drive through and carry out become a new habit? Will some restaurants move to take out or delivery only, limiting their space requirements to only kitchens and pick-up windows? Will landlords scramble to better enable drive through and pick-up for their tenants and customers?
• Will live streaming of events, potentially in a pay-per-view format, find a place in entertainment, leaving venues more vacant and decreasing event venue traffic?
• Will production companies increase simultaneous releases of feature films for streaming and in theaters? Will theaters have to do more than provide popcorn to differentiate?
• Will virtual physical fitness devices and classes accelerate their take of market share from traditional gyms and studios?

Education

Another amazingly fast transition has been the shift from classroom-based learning to online learning. The good news is that the generation of children of current school age have been born with a device in their hands. Notionally, they have been training for this their whole life. Plus, as we know, kids are resilient. Even with success, however, it is unlikely that kids don’t go back to school, as parents’ work schedules are reliant on the K-12 infrastructure as a form of childcare in addition to foundational educational advancement.

College students, also sent home to complete the semester, pose a different situation if they find success in remote learning, raising the following questions:

• Will colleges and universities increase their use of remote learning, especially for foundational classes, keeping control of the curriculum, and their brand, while increasing access at discounted rates?
• Will college students and parents, faced with increasing costs and mounting debt, seek higher quality/lower cost educational alternatives, shunning junior colleges, for remote programs from brand name institutions?
• What kind of impact will a change in delivery of higher education have on student housing operators as well as the other cottage industries that rely on the seasonal influx of population to college campuses?

Technology is the unheralded hero of the moment. We have quickly adapted to a rapid change in our day-to-day life and we are dependent on digital connectivity to maintain a sense of personal engagement and productivity. What is yet to be seen is the degree to which our new behaviors will remain after things return to a recognizably new normal, and how that new normal will drive change in real estate.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/covid-19-uk-residential-sector-social-distancing/ Fri, 20 Mar 2020 19:57:48 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/covid-19-uk-residential-sector-social-distancing/

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is significant and varied across the real estate industry. For organisations operating in the residential space there are a number of challenges. Businesses need to consider the safety and well-being of their employees, of customers they interact with face-to-face, plus the residents, leaseholders, agents, landlords, property managers or other … Continued

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The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is significant and varied across the real estate industry. For organisations operating in the residential space there are a number of challenges. Businesses need to consider the safety and well-being of their employees, of customers they interact with face-to-face, plus the residents, leaseholders, agents, landlords, property managers or other stakeholders they serve in their day-to-day activities. And that’s not to mention efforts to ensure their business continues as close to normal as possible.

Given the current social distancing guidelines from the government, and with more and more companies putting work-from-home policies into action for their teams, those involved in managing residential property will naturally see an increase in their reliance on digital solutions, communication and interaction. Indeed, the residential sector has seen significant investment in technology in recent years, and organisations that have been driving innovation and putting proptech at the heart of their operations should now expect to rely on that software to help them reduce disruption and achieve a degree of business continuity.

Here are some areas to consider, and how your tech can help you as you try to navigate the obstacles and uncertainty the COVID-19 outbreak has introduced:

Customer service

In the midst of so much disruption, is it even possible to maintain expected levels of service without disruption for your customers? Thanks to the tech available today, the answer might actually be yes. It’s highly likely that you’re using digital platforms for mass email, SMS and other forms of direct message – and you’ll certainly be looking at how you can expand that to fill potential gaps. Going further, automation will be key. For example, you can put programmes in place to deliver initial replies to queries, either offering information or providing a first-response before a member of your team goes deeper. This sort of reassurance could prove invaluable in such an uncertain climate. Where software allows (and you should have various options here) you can also look to digitalise processes for your customers. Common options are payments, maintenance requests and document sharing/signing – all of which can be done, end-to-end, with no need for in-person or even telephone interaction.

Customer interaction

With additional focus placed on quickly and effectively responding to queries, it’s important you don’t forget the need to provide customers with a proactive, clear and consistent stream of messages, keeping them fully updated with the latest news and developments. Of course, key communications on the subject of COVID-19 will be front and centre, particularly for those in self-isolation – but so will be sharing information from the wider community and society of which your stakeholders are a part. Of course, this would be paramount were you to find yourself dealing with a case or cases of coronavirus directly. If you use a resident portal, push its capabilities and ensure your customers understand it’s the place to go for updates such as information on planned maintenance, new guidelines on use of common areas, measures being taken to protect residents in buildings, or even the impact of a local lockdown were it to reach that stage. Alternatively, or as well, use your software to push content out through other channels such as your website. Crucially, you should also utilise your solutions to record your broadcasts and interactions so you have complete records of conversations for audit and potential compliance purposes.

Remote working

SaaS is the standard option when it comes to modern software, and it’s not a new trend. The fact that companies and individuals are transitioning to work from home, and are able to do so in such great numbers so quickly, is testament to how far the industry has come in terms of cloud technology. This flexibility is essential, but it goes deeper. There has never been a more crucial time to be fully aware of the mobile capabilities within your solutions. Can everyone in your business log in remotely? Do you have portals you can utilise? Are there integrated apps you can lean on to make remote working even easier? Understanding your full digital offering, and ensuring staff are fully trained and capable to maximise it, may help keep you ahead of the game and achieve full business continuity as the next few months unfold.

Strategic decision-making

These are largely unprecedented times. Across all industries and sectors, businesses will be feeling the effects of the measures introduced to tackle coronavirus – and real estate is certainly going to be impacted. But, directors and managers can be somewhat reassured by the abundance of data and information available today, and with your tech you have the ways and means to undertake quick and accurate analysis to help ensure you remain agile. As you deem necessary, your software should allow you to monitor metrics in real-time or at whatever frequency suits your approach, giving you the opportunity to spot and address performance problems – whether operational, financial or both. This is always important, but certainly something you can leverage in the current climate to help you navigate the challenges ahead.

These are some general thoughts aimed at encouraging some deeper thinking around how software can be relied upon to help you maintain ‘business as usual’ in this wholly unusual period. The list is not exhaustive, and you should definitely consider and interrogate the full capabilities of your digital products in all areas of your company.

And, don’t forget, you can check back on our dedicated page for the latest updates on the MRI Software response to the pandemic.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/covid-19-multifamily-potential-impacts/ Fri, 13 Mar 2020 16:14:31 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/covid-19-multifamily-potential-impacts/

Clearly, COVID-19, aka the coronavirus, is top of mind these days. The World Health Organization has designated it as a pandemic, the number of infected individuals continues to grow, and decisions increase by the day. So, what might we expect for the multifamily real estate industry? Before diving in, it is important to note that … Continued

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Clearly, COVID-19, aka the coronavirus, is top of mind these days. The World Health Organization has designated it as a pandemic, the number of infected individuals continues to grow, and decisions increase by the day. So, what might we expect for the multifamily real estate industry?

Before diving in, it is important to note that the degree of the impact will grow with the duration of the crisis. If things resolve in a matter of weeks, the impact will be much smaller, and we’ll likely avoid a prolonged dampening of economic activity.

Student and senior housing: Early impacts

As it stands, many colleges and universities have either cancelled classes or moved to a fully digital delivery method. Some are extending Spring Break. Some are cancelling the semester. It follows that if students are going home early, then the first segment of the market that will feel pressure is student and student-adjacent housing.

Impacts in the current period may arise from students or parents looking to break leases early as a result of unforeseen school closures. Leasing for future periods may also be impacted as students are no longer in close proximity, making traditional on-campus marketing programs less effective.

Student housing operators will need to be prepared for the eventual questions from current students as university schedules change, causing early move-outs. Digital marketing and leasing will become more important to connect with students for future semesters, driving all aspects of the lead-to-lease process into digital channels.

Senior housing has a different set of challenges to monitor and address, given that mortality rates of COVID-19 typically increase for people over 70. Expect to see changes in community programming and a focus on reducing gatherings of people, coupled with increased focus on cleanliness in common areas.

Conventional, market rate housing: Trickle-down impacts

For conventional, market rate apartments, we must look at likely impacts on current residents as well as potential impacts on future demand.

Risk aversion is greatly reducing large gatherings of people. Governmental guidelines, conference cancellations, sporting body reactions, political rally cancellations, and changing corporate travel policies will continue to drive negative impacts on local economies. Even a coronavirus conference was cancelled due to a local outbreak.

All major sports leagues in the US have suspended play. The NCAA’s flagship event, March Madness, is now cancelled. Broadway is closed. Sporting and event venues tend to be surrounded by a cottage industry of bars and restaurants that will surely feel a disproportionate impact. We can expect a number of business to close or to furlough staff as a result.

In addition to pre and post-game meals and entertainment, impacts will be felt across transit, parking, merchandise, and in-venue vendors. Immediate impacts in the hospitality and travel sector will yield a reduction of incomes, and possibly temporary or permanent loss of employment until we return to normal operations.

If we couple this impact with a survey conducted by the First National Bank of Omaha in 2019 that indicates that nearly half of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and more than half do not have an emergency fund, it is likely that some residents will have a hard time making their rents. Landlords should be prepared to address these situations as they emerge and not be too quick to create vacancy.

Landlords who also manage retail spaces that are reliant on event-based traffic should be prepared to address tenancy issues on that front as well.

Multifamily housing: The impact of staying home

With commercial and educational organizations sending people home, the average number of people onsite at residential properties throughout the day is sure to increase. Much like senior housing impacts, we can expect a reduction in group events. We can also expect fewer users of common areas and amenities as people stay at home.

And that phrase, “stay at home,” may be a clue to resident attitudes as the summer leasing season approaches.

If the coronavirus crisis extends beyond April, we can expect lower demand for vacant units. We can expect more folks to stay in place as economic unrest will cause people to be cautious. Staying in place may be seen in the form of higher renewal rates, at prices capped by rent control measures in some markets, or more folks going month-to-month until they have clarity in their own personal situation.

As mentioned with student housing earlier, we can expect a greater focus on digital marketing to drive demand. Self-guided tours, the trendy topic at recent industry events, will become more pervasive as prospects seek to limit person-to-person engagement. We should also see an increase in 3-D tours, drone footage and other digital mediums to drive traffic. Operationally, online leasing and electronic payments, both widely available technologies, should see increased adoption.

If we do see a drop in demand and an increase in renewal rates, there will be an unmistakable impact on pricing. This change in market dynamics will put revenue management systems and processes to the test. Largely having gained wide adoption in the last decade of continued growth, there have not been many cases of dealing with sagging demand and the impact on pricing.

Development: Supply chain impacts

In August of 2019, the NAA published an article titled “Apartment Completions Set to Spike in 2020,” which shared that there are more than 500,000 units under construction, with nearly 360k of them scheduled to deliver in 2020. It has yet to be seen if global supply chain disruption, as a result of this virus, will impact these deliveries. Materials as simple as an electrical outlet, often produced in China, could become a barrier to delivery if supply lines are disrupted. Developers should assess impacts of potential material shortages and adjust accordingly.

A disruption in delivery plans will put pressure on financing as well as planned operational benefits, creating the potential for a myriad of fiscal issues for developers, owners and operators.

Actual v budget: Expect variances

Most multifamily organizations cast their budget in the fall of 2019 and looked at 2020 as more of the same: strong demand, strong occupancy, strong pricing and a need for more capacity. A straw poll of MRI conference attendees put a potential recession in 2021 or beyond. While we may or may not have a formal recession, the impacts of this virus, if experienced for a protracted amount of time, could create recession-like conditions, undermining the assumptions used to build 2020 budgets. Reforecasting conversations will need to happen. Expectations will need to be reset and the inevitable conversations about expense reductions will likely take place.

Business continuity

Beyond the economic and fiscal dimensions of this crisis, multifamily organizations should update their business continuity plans (BCP), seek new ways to leverage technology since the BCP plan was last updated, and revisit policies in accordance with governmental guidance for health and safety.

American writer Denis Waitley once said, “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.” Sage advice, given the current state of affairs and the uncertainty inherent in not having a clear idea of what lies ahead. Multifamily organizations should already be taking steps to assess changing conditions and plan accordingly.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/ifrs-16-leases-public-sector/ Thu, 12 Mar 2020 13:37:03 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/ifrs-16-leases-public-sector/

IFRS 16 Leases IFRS 16 leases represent the biggest change to lease accounting in decades and will have a significant impact on financial reporting in the Public sector from 1st April 2022. What lessons can we learn from the Private sector since their transition to IFRS 16 on 1st January 2019? In this blog, we … Continued

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IFRS 16 Leases

IFRS 16 leases represent the biggest change to lease accounting in decades and will have a significant impact on financial reporting in the Public sector from 1st April 2022.

What lessons can we learn from the Private sector since their transition to IFRS 16 on 1st January 2019?

In this blog, we look at five areas of best practice to mitigate risky, costly and time consuming IFRS 16 lease projects.

Lesson 1: Invest in the right software

Many private sector companies have started trying to manage IFRS 16 leases via Excel or ‘IFRS 16 calculators’ only to run adrift. Challenges in terms of process, limited automation, security and double handling of spreadsheets and finance systems leads to data integrity problems and overall lack of control.

Investing in lease management and accounting technology ensures that the business-as-usual treatment of leases is managed effectively whilst automatically driving the asset and liability calculations and disclosure reporting for the finance team. If implemented correctly, the technology should meet and then exceed the return of investment over time.

Lesson 2: Have a robust data management strategy

The data required for managing IFRS 16 leases is usually housed in multiple sources and structures. Equally, leases will vary in complexity and these factors can exacerbate the challenge of building sustainable data integrity for meeting IFRS 16 lease accounting standards. Private sector customers who took advantage of AI lease abstraction tools and integrated these with their chosen lease accounting software saw a significant uptick in accuracy. By tasking these tools to manage changes to asset and liabilities on an ongoing basis, organisations avoided having to undertake follow-up data capture projects year on year, which is costly and time consuming.

Lesson 3: This is wider than just a finance issue

What started as a purely finance-based project in the private sector quickly became a wider remit involving process transformation for most core departments. Finance quickly recognised that they needed to actively involve other departments who have touch points during a contract’s lease lifecycle. Departments ranging from Real Estate, FM, IT, Procurement, Legal, and Finance may all play a role. Successful transitions understood the importance of end-to-end processes and controls required to efficiently manage the new IFRS 16 lease accounting standards on an ongoing basis.

Lesson 4: Build the right team for success

Successful transitions in the private sector treated this as they would approach any other business-critical project. They started by assigning a Project Manager who had all the tools and experience to deliver a successful outcome. There should be new policies, procedures and governance applied to support this process which needs to be documented and managed on an ongoing basis. Approaching this in the correct way mitigates risk and needless expense further down the line.

Lesson 5: Keep auditors updated and involved

The ramifications of failing a government audit can be wide-ranging, depending on the circumstances. Examples may extend beyond embarrassment for the individuals, their bosses and the office as jobs can be put at risk. Reputational damage may have long-term impacts, additional expense is likely to be incurred for remediating these failures, and closer scrutiny by the auditor for future audits is an expected consequence.

Many of our clients in the private sector would recommend keeping auditors updated on technology you plan to use in managing obligations for IFRS 16 leases, actively involving them during the procurement process. This allows their perspective on the suitability or indeed any perceived limitations of the technology and adds value to ensuring that entities make informed decisions in selecting the right solution to be IFRS 16 compliant now and for the future.

The government’s application of IFRS 16 is detailed in the government financial reporting manual (FReM) and local authorities under CIPFA.

If you would like to find out more about our Lease Management, Lease Accounting and AI Powered lease abstraction tools, please get in touch today.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/credit-unions-registered-providers-delivering-change-through-partnerships/ Fri, 06 Mar 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=30991

One in ten people living in Barking and Dagenham in East London owe money to the council alone; they are one of many local authorities and housing associations in the country that have teamed up with a credit union in a show of best practice

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Debt is a paralysing issue; on a personal level it can cause anxiety and hopelessness and for Registered Providers (RPs), rising arrears can prevent investment being directed back into customers. One in ten people living in Barking and Dagenham in East London owe money to the council alone; they are one of many local authorities and housing associations in the country that have teamed up with a credit union in a show of best practice. A preventative approach, this partnership aims to avoid debt, encourage sustainable behaviour and stop evictions.  

Credit Unions offer financial products to members, such as small amount, short term loans with fair interest rates, budgeting pots and savings accounts. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, credit unions are the “best placed partners” for local government and housing providers to provide residents with access to financial services invested in their growth rather than punitive profiteering. In fact, there is a historical precedent for partnerships between housing providers and credit unions – with some of the strongest credit unions in the country having grown from first serving the employees of local government.

In England credit unions aren’t a mainstream choice for financial services, despite the benefits being a member could provide, with only around 1% of the population being a member. In part this could be due to a stigma that the function of credit unions is to combat poverty and the mislabelling of them as a ‘poor-man’s bank.’ In contrast, across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland almost half of the population, nearly 2.9million people are members of a credit union.

This difference might be shifting however, as there has been noticeable growth in the credit union sector in recent years. In the UK, credit unions have £900 million assets as of 2016 and 800,000 members. This ‘third sector’ type of lender has gained governmental endorsement, but there needs to be a drive to increase their visibility throughout society. When utilised by housing associations, real change can be achieved. Arhag Housing Association in London partnered with a credit union to offer residents a new way of banking and their homelessness prevention scheme prevented 300 families from facing eviction. Whilst partnerships in Scotland between South Ayrshire and North Ayrshire Councils and the 1^st Alliance Credit Union are helping RPs to avoid 35-40 evictions a year.

Advances in technology have helped break down one of the barriers to joining a credit union. This is because membership of a credit union is often dependant on sharing a commonality – normally location – with the rest of its members. Communication tools have meant shared values can be the chosen commonality for members to organise around instead.

We consider that in this area social landlords can play a key role in assisting tenants find alternatives to high-cost credit when looking to get essential household goods. This can create better options for consumers and could provide them with a cheaper, lower-risk source of finance.

Financial Conduct Authority

Case Study 1: Alliance Homes: Credit Union partnership promotes financial inclusion

Alliance Homes was one of 9 housing providers in the South-West and West Country savings and loans credit union. The scheme aimed to bring wide cover to the region that was previously underserved by credit unions. This meant in the past that residents in financial difficulty were more likely to turn to loan sharks and high-street lenders.

The choice, service and affordable products offered are very competitive and all interest is reinvested for the benefit of its customers. This ethical not for profit model will really help communities and households across the south west.

Martyn Gimber, Alliance Homes Group

Case Study 2: Lewisham and Bromley Credit Union  

This homelessness prevention initiative helped save Lewisham Council over £1m in costs and social care, as well as debt to housing associations through the cost of arrears and evictions. 109 families became members of Lewisham Credit Union and received a homelessness prevention loan. The credit union has 12,000 members, 40% of which are residents of housing associations and of those, 60% signed up because they were able to access a small loan that did not require previous savings with the union. Of the 109 families who were helped, most remained loyal members to the credit union

The report demonstrates the powerful impact that partnership between local government and credit unions can have. An investment of just £85,000 has seen savings of £1.1m for the council and an unquantifiable amount for the families involved. The report is timely as concern continues to grow at the housing crisis in which we find ourselves as a country. This is just one of the areas in which credit unions partnering with key institutions in the community can unlock value and create virtuous circles where everyone wins.

Matt Bland, Head of Policy, Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul)

Case study 3: Unity Enterprise, Yorkshire

Aside from loans, there are other ways credit unions and housing associations can offer direct support to their residents facing financial exclusion. After all the banks closed their local branches in Chapeltown, Unity Enterprise partnered with HSBC to make sure that at the very least, the community had access to a charge-free cash point.

A large proportion of our customers, as well as other registered providers are already engaged in partnerships with Credit Unions to improve access to fair banking and to create sustainable tenancies. There is still a low adoption rate in the UK however, to these life changing services across the country. Technology has helped organisations join forces, but in order to attract members the offering online will need to become as intuitive as those of high street financial service providers. For RPs there is a huge amount to gain by championing and partnering with these organisations to help residents take control of their finances. 

Our credit union is a co-operative, but that doesn’t mean we are a small voluntary project. Credit unions are successful businesses working in partnership with other organisations, in this case to help many tenants manage welfare reform.

Carol McHarg, Chief Executive, 1st Alliance (Ayrshire) Credit Union

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/maximize-leases-for-your-commercial-property/ Thu, 05 Mar 2020 18:38:12 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/maximize-leases-for-your-commercial-property/

Once your commercial property attracts the right kind of tenants, your next step is to move into one of the most important phases of the commercial lifecycle: abiding by the leases you signed. Property and asset managers are challenged to execute against the lease terms and understand the impact of the lease information on the … Continued

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Once your commercial property attracts the right kind of tenants, your next step is to move into one of the most important phases of the commercial lifecycle: abiding by the leases you signed.

Property and asset managers are challenged to execute against the lease terms and understand the impact of the lease information on the broader portfolio, which makes accessing and managing lease data a vital aspect of your business. Maximizing your commercial property leases by getting the right data to the right people in an efficient manner can go a long way in bolstering your portfolio.

Structure the information in the lease digitally

To gain actionable insights from leases, the first step is to digitize the information. If property managers and other users have difficulty accessing lease information, or if the data contains errors, then how can they perform their jobs properly? The lease drives daily activities, and so the data from the lease must flow to the correct users. You need to be able to extract clauses and other data points from the lease, exposing the lease information to appropriate members of the organization. Lease abstraction can be performed in a variety of ways, from using in-house teams to choosing to outsource this activity. Recently, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for lease abstraction has delivered greater efficiency and accuracy for this process, and it enables users to easily link directly to source documents.

If there are any updates on the lease along the way, the last thing you want to do is staple an addendum to the lease and file it away. Often, cumbersome, manual processes are how companies attempt to guarantee that the right people will be notified. Keeping your lease information updated digitally and making sure everyone in your organization is pulling from a centralized database will mitigate the risk of errors down the line.

Mine information in your enterprise data

Making sure that easy access to lease data is available across your organization is only the first step of the process. Only 20% of enterprise data can be found in structured data like leases and contracts. How can your users get their hands on the other 80% of enterprise data – unstructured data in the form of images, audio files, word processing documents, and emails – that help them do their job?

Missing critical information found in unstructured data can cause problems in future operations, but with MRI @Work, your organization can move unstructured data into a central hub that all relevant users can access. Making unstructured data accessible can help you get the right information from both the lease and extemporaneous sources to the members of your organization who need it.

When structuring deals, the right data can shed some light on which decisions will benefit your portfolio the most. For example: If you are giving a tenant two months free rent, how does that impact the deal? If there is a co-tenancy in place and the main retailer shuts down, what is the impact on the other lessees?

Never forget a key term or miss a critical date

MRI @Work provides you with data visualization tools to keep your business efforts organized and focused in the right direction. Along with configurable reporting capabilities, these tools deliver personalized information to the end user in a way that shows only the data they need. With detailed dashboards, users can view accurate, at-a-glance information or dig deep into the data to find all the points they’ll need to do their jobs effectively.

Additionally, the automation found in MRI @Work reduces the role that human error plays in lease abstraction and data management, making it easier for the end user to trust the information that ends up on their desks.

Getting your enterprise data where it needs to go only benefits your commercial property business if that data is visible and actionable – can your team actually keep up with key terms and critical dates based on all the resources you’ve pulled together? Missing key terms can have a negative financial impact on your portfolio as well. Some forward-thinking organizations have begun to utilize AI to audit their existing lease data and have discovered significant under-billings and missing recoveries charges because of inaccurate or inaccessible data.

MRI @Work enables property and asset managers to utilize the important data found in leases faster and with more accuracy. By maximizing the lease, the end user can make more informed business decisions and act upon the information that serves as the lifeblood of the business. Learn more about MRI @Work in this webinar.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/attract-commercial-tenants-mri-work/ Wed, 26 Feb 2020 17:29:51 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/attract-commercial-tenants-mri-work/

Finding the right commercial tenants to fill your property is a process that begins long before a lease is signed, and not every tenant you encounter will be a good fit for your portfolio. What kind of businesses are you trying to attract? What’s your strategy for the next five to ten years? What is … Continued

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Finding the right commercial tenants to fill your property is a process that begins long before a lease is signed, and not every tenant you encounter will be a good fit for your portfolio. What kind of businesses are you trying to attract? What’s your strategy for the next five to ten years? What is the consequence of signing a delinquent tenant? All of these are questions that must be taken into consideration when choosing your commercial tenants, and as such, you’ll need technology to help you evaluate and make decisions along the way.

Curate your tenant mix to maximize performance

The properties your organization owns and operates can maximize success if you’re able to strategically determine the right tenant mix. Your commercial organization needs to sign tenants that will bring value to the overall profile of your property, and your portfolio requirements can change over time. For example, you might find yourself in need of local retailers to balance out your tenant mix one year, but then you might need more national, shared workspace tenants a year or two down the line.

Whether you manage office or retail space, MRI @Work provides the tools to collect, aggregate and report on data appropriately. This information can be used to evaluate prospects and negotiate the lease more effectively. Better data management can help you strategically choose the right tenants that fit with your portfolio strategy.

Make more informed decisions with visibility into your pipeline and prospects

As a leasing agent, you’re tasked with tracking applicants from lead to lease. The prospect to tenant conversion process is more complicated than simply filtering out applicants. Following tenants through each step of the lead to lease process means managing the necessary contacts and documents and making sure that the initial interactions you have with prospects encourage them to do business with you. These are the first and most crucial steps in establishing a solid landlord/tenant relationship.

MRI @Work enables you to streamline the prospect to tenant conversion process by giving you the tools to see clear through your prospect pipelines. Through comprehensive solutions that give you a firm grip over the data in your organization, you’ll be able to keep track of the deals and activities you’re undertaking, the leads and opportunities you’re pursuing, and the amount of space you have to match those opportunities.

Leverage comprehensive commercial management technology

MRI @Work provides you with a comprehensive set of tools that can transform the way you manage your commercial properties. With software that simplifies the prospect pipeline and improves data management, you’ll be able to understand the type of tenants that your property needs, manage the prospect to tenant conversion, and make better decisions that can boost your portfolio performance. Learn more about how MRI @Work can help you attract commercial tenants.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/next-wave-of-customer-experience/ Tue, 25 Feb 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31172

Customer experience is a key differentiator for all brands, and one that is increasingly becoming a priority for housing organisations too. Consumers expect their interactions with brands to be ever more instant, personalised and responsive. Delivering against the sky-high expectations set by brands like Google, Apple and Amazon can be a challenge, though, particularly when … Continued

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Customer experience is a key differentiator for all brands, and one that is increasingly becoming a priority for housing organisations too.

Consumers expect their interactions with brands to be ever more instant, personalised and responsive. Delivering against the sky-high expectations set by brands like Google, Apple and Amazon can be a challenge, though, particularly when resources are stretched.

Many brands are turning to automation via artificial intelligence (AI) to bridge the gap. But how does this work in reality – and is the dream of delivering better experience and achieving cost efficiencies a realistic one for housing associations?

Is the future voice-based, and how do we get there?

Conversational AI is set to change every aspect of when, where and how you engage and communicate with your customers.

Deployed across your business, conversational AI has the potential to allow seamless, synchronous conversations with consumers across whatever channel they happen to be using at the time, no matter where they are. Those conversations could be a short one-off request, or form part of a longer-running customer engagement.

The benefits of conversational AI could be transformational – according to Accenture, it could reduce time spent on low-end, repetitive tasks by as much as 20%. The flexibility of a conversational interface could also have lasting impact on customer experience and satisfaction, as well as offering increased accessibility for tenants with disabilities or who lack digital skills.

So how do housing associations prepare themselves to take advantage of AI technologies?

AI technologies and their applications

When discussing automation via artificial intelligence, it’s important to understand the difference between the types of AI technology currently in use. There are two distinct types of artificial intelligence bots, each with their own potential benefits:

Chatbots

These are probably the most easily-recognisable type of artificial intelligence. A chatbot understands and simulates human conversation, and execute business tasks based on a user’s intent expressed through a conversational interface (via “chat”, whether that’s typed in a messenger-style format or via a spoken interface like Amazon Alexa).

At a simple level, chatbots are used to provide predefined answers to common questions. More advanced chatbots incorporate natural language processing (NLP) and AI technologies to simulate human conversations, perform automated business tasks, and learn from their environment and previous experiences to become smarter over time. This makes them a useful tool for human interactions, as they’re able to learn and adapt to different inputs, handle complexity and provide more relevant responses over time.

For example – a simple chatbot could be implemented on a website and provide canned responses to questions about topics like office opening hours or payment methods. A more advanced chatbot could provide more personalised responses based on information stored on particular users, for example their account status or activity levels. This would allow the chatbot to provide a more relevant response based on the individual user’s circumstances.

Robot Process Automation (RPA)

This type of artificial intelligence is not conversational. Instead of taking data and instructions from a conversation interface, a RPA bot extracts data from documents, files, forms, browsers or other data sources to automate common business tasks.

RPA bots are useful for performing repetitive tasks quickly, efficiently and with minimal input from teams, reducing admin loads. Their processes are more rigid than chatbots, with less flexibility to learn and adjust their outputs, so they’re more suited to carrying out standardised tasks and streamlining workflows.

For example, an RPA bot might be used to automatically review repair requests via a form and create job requests with the appropriate team.

Unleashing potential by combining AI technologies

The real business benefits come from combining chatbots with RPA bots in a process known as bot orchestration. By giving a chatbot the ability to delegate tasks to a variety of RPA bots, it’s possible to make a conversational AI capable of executing a wide variety of business tasks. The key difference between orchestration and RPA bots working alone is that tasks can be completed not just on a schedule or in response to a predefined trigger, but based on a user’s need expressed through a chat.

In bot orchestration, a chatbot can hand off a variety of tasks to other bots, completing multiple tasks off a single request, assessing the output and gathering further input from the user to guide the process as necessary. This combined approach makes conversational AI much faster and more versatile than relying on RPA bots alone.

An orchestrated approach could intelligently deliver an entire workflow without any need for human intervention. For example, a tenant could request a repair via a chatbot, which would ask questions to understand the nature of the problem. The chatbot could then deploy RPA bots to check the availability of repair teams, suggest possible repair dates to the tenant, and book in the repair once a suitable time has been confirmed, providing all the necessary details to the repair team.

MRI Software’s work with Converse360 – and how you can get involved

At MRI, we’re making exciting steps to help housing organisations get the most out of artificial intelligence technology. Our vision is to provide the infrastructure to deploy conversational AI that integrates with MRI’s central data, fuelling highly relevant conversations and integrating with all MRI modules to automate tasks based on conversational input from both teams and tenants.

To help realise this vision, we are working with customer experience technology specialists Converse360 to start the process, initially integrating conversational AI into our Digital Self Service offering.

We’re very excited to explore the potential to offer chat interfaces as a new communication method for tenants, and will be demonstrating some early iterations at the Housing Technology 2020 Conference to show the potential impact of artificial intelligence on housing associations and tenants alike.

As part of this work, we’re keen to discuss potential product development opportunities with current and potential MRI customers. All of our service development is based on close partnerships with housing organisations to fully understand their needs, and our work with artificial intelligence is no exception. If you’d like to discuss possible opportunities for your organisation, we’d be delighted to speak to you at Housing Technology 2020, or alternatively please contact us directly.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/celebrating-the-future-of-proptech-at-ascend-london-2020/ Thu, 20 Feb 2020 08:00:43 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/celebrating-the-future-of-proptech-at-ascend-london-2020/

Software learning, industry insight and business networking were the headline attractions at MRI Ascend London 2020 – our premier, two-day European user event. More than 550 delegates, Partners and industry professionals came together in central London to discuss the latest trends and topics affecting the property industry, as well as explore the newest developments and … Continued

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Software learning, industry insight and business networking were the headline attractions at MRI Ascend London 2020 – our premier, two-day European user event. More than 550 delegates, Partners and industry professionals came together in central London to discuss the latest trends and topics affecting the property industry, as well as explore the newest developments and enhancements to MRI’s comprehensive suite of real estate software solutions.

To launch the event, attendees were introduced to MRI Living and MRI @Work – solution concepts that bring together and leverage the power of existing MRI applications and offer deeper capabilities and greater flexibility to clients.

MRI Living provides an end-to-end, integrated tech stack for all aspects of the residential market across estate agencies, block management, the private rented sector, Build-to-Rent and Housing Associations. It includes back-office property management and accounting systems to help streamline operations for landlords and owners, linked to front-end lettings and portal technology that connects resident communities and enhances customer service.

MRI @Work is a suite of solutions for the commercial sector, covering property management, financials, investment management and tenant relations. It features MRI Lease Intelligence, an AI-powered lease abstraction and analysis tool that enables clients to save time, improve data quality and gain unrivalled portfolio insight.

Some 60 breakout sessions also showcased the latest functionality updates across our product set, and offered in-depth hints, tips and best practices on how users can optimise their systems and achieve even greater efficiencies, additional cost-savings and regulatory compliance. In each of the product areas, regional leaders also showed how MRI’s innovative Platform X is driving technological development and introducing an ever-growing set of shared services and common components.

Celebrating client achievement

Not only does the Ascend users conference give us a chance to share the latest updates at MRI – but 2020 saw the launch of the MRI Innovation Awards in Europe to recognise clients and Partners for their successes. Award recipients were announced at an evening drinks reception to close Day One, and we want to say a huge well done and congratulations to those who were recognised – your honours are well deserved. Here are the winners:

Ambassador of the Year:
Cecilia Crump, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust
Nathan Spitzer, Alliance Managing Agents

Flexibility Award:
Legal & General Investment Management
Knight Frank

Community Award:
Grosvenor Estate

Project of the Year:
The Arch Co and Network Rail

Partner of the Year:
Fixflo

Reaching new heights today, and long into the future

MRI Ascend London 2020 came hot on the heels of MRI Ascend Anaheim, our hugely successful North American client event in California in October, which featured the launch of a number of new products and solutions including MRI Secure Sign, MRI Payments and MRI Lead Management. The APAC installment takes place in Sydney on 13-15 May, followed by Ascend in Johannesburg on 10 June. We’ll be back in London next year – so thanks to all that joined us and we’ll see you in 2021!

 

— Thanks to our Ascend London Partner sponsors —

 

Platinum

Gold

Silver

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/bring-commercial-property-business-back-to-what-matters-with-mri-work/ Fri, 07 Feb 2020 22:45:42 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/bring-commercial-property-business-back-to-what-matters-with-mri-work/

Commercial property owners, operators and investors each face their own set of day-to-day challenges and long-term obstacles. But no matter how wide-ranging their difficulties might be, they all share one crucial commonality: their ability to overcome their challenges is based entirely on how they develop and manage their leases. By seeking to balance occupancy and … Continued

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Commercial property owners, operators and investors each face their own set of day-to-day challenges and long-term obstacles. But no matter how wide-ranging their difficulties might be, they all share one crucial commonality: their ability to overcome their challenges is based entirely on how they develop and manage their leases.

By seeking to balance occupancy and revenue while minimizing risk, commercial owners are trying to maintain the landlord/tenant relationship whose terms and conditions are spelled out in the leases they both signed. Commercial operators need to be able to access data from leases quickly and effectively so that the right people can have all information they need to make decisions. Data must be made transparent, everyday tasks need to be completed in an efficient manner, and information should flow freely throughout the business. All of this comes back to the lease.

MRI @Work is the comprehensive and flexible suite of commercial and financial solutions that address the way businesses interact with the leases they hold. It enables owners, operators, and investors to boost occupancy, mitigate risk, and maximize performance through each stage of the commercial and investment lifecycles.

1) Attract great tenants

Having visibility into both your pipeline and your prospects is important when it comes to making the best decisions possible. Finding great tenants is about more than just filling spaces – you’ve also got to think about what mix of tenants would be best for your commercial property.

By using the tools found in MRI @Work, you can track and manage contacts, opportunities, and documents that help you find the most productive tenants for your property. With the ability to visualize your entire portfolio and perform the proper assessments, you can take a huge step in mitigating risk before you’ve even put pen to paper. And even when you’re finally ready to do just that, the prospect to tenant conversion will be streamlined in a way that maximizes both your occupancy and your profitability.

2) Maximize the lease

As mentioned earlier, the importance of the lease cannot be understated. As the foundation of the negotiation process, it’s designed to mitigate risk for all parties involved by establishing the roles and responsibilities. The lease clearly outlines the financial nature of the landlord/tenant relationship, making it far too important to overlook as time goes on.

MRI’s solutions help you take your leases off the page and into a database, giving you the means to pull actionable insights from the lease and to share the right data with the right people in your business. When your leases are entered into a digital database, your property managers and asset managers can more easily uncover essential lease terms and clauses, helping them make better business decisions.

3) Run smoothly

With the right technology in place, you’ll have the means to simplify day-to-day property operations and make sure your processes live up to the lease agreement. Facilitating tenant billing, effectively communicating with tenants and streamlining facilities management all become easier than ever with the right processes and automation in place.

MRI @Work offers full visibility into your property operations with a single platform, allowing commercial property managers to evaluate risk from bad debt, manage disputes and process billing and deposits with the confidence that the payment history is being logged. With the ability to automate revenue-generating and back-office tasks, you’ll have more time for high value activities. By tracking daily operations and finances to the larger budget, you can identify variations that could derail your projections. Finally, with proactive vendor management and preventative maintenance tools, you’ll ensure that your property is kept in top condition.

4) Know the score

MRI @Work helps you keep track of your business’s health so that you can be better positioned to reach your goals and maximize profitability. With integrated financial and accounting operations, you can streamline your procure-to-pay process, boost your debt management efficiencies, and manage fixed assets.

With an actionable dashboard that is tailored to your needs, you can get insights specific to your role to help you stay ahead of the curve and easily identify inefficiencies. By having the ability to capture operational and occupancy data for investment reporting, you can make data transparent from tenants to investors.

Commercial property management software shouldn’t just help you meet the challenges you face today; it should prepare you for the challenges you may face tomorrow or farther out into the future. MRI @Work is designed specifically to help you answer the question, “What’s next?” with greater accuracy, efficiency, and transparency. Learn more about how MRI @Work helps you own, operate, and occupy at every step of the commercial and investment lifecycles.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/minimizing-risk-in-building-operations/ Thu, 30 Jan 2020 18:36:29 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/minimizing-risk-in-building-operations/

This article was written by Daniel Millstone, VP of Engineering at Enterprise Risk Control, a partner of MRI Software. Building operators and property managers are on the front lines when it comes to mitigating a variety of risks. What many property managers have been slow to realize is that the impact of risk is far-reaching, … Continued

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This article was written by Daniel Millstone, VP of Engineering at Enterprise Risk Control, a partner of MRI Software.

Building operators and property managers are on the front lines when it comes to mitigating a variety of risks. What many property managers have been slow to realize is that the impact of risk is far-reaching, and it can enter the business through each phase of the asset lifecycle, whether it be through equipment, assets, or vendors.

Your organization’s risk exposure

The risk of financial loss, damage to your property’s reputation, and regulatory problems aren’t just secluded to one area of the asset lifecycle. You can be exposed to risk in each phase of the lifecycle.

• Asset acquisition: When acquiring new assets, your company is taking on the risk associated with the asset. Because of the acquisition of risk, it’s important for you to conduct due diligence on the seller, including financial, reputation, and regulatory evaluation.
• Operation and maintenance: When it comes to your organization’s exposure to risk, preventative maintenance measures can minimize financial loss. Additionally, maintaining an accurate fixed assets register with current values can make information more reliable and readily available for all who need it.
• Decommissioning: Proper documentation, maintenance history, and other information can minimize the hand-off risk when assets or equipment are decommissioned.

Imagine for a moment a building operator named John. John has been using Vendor X for one of his properties for several years. Vendor X is easy to deal with, they work well within the set budget, and as far as John can tell, they get the job done. John collected all of Vendor X’s credentials and licensing during the initial vendor onboarding process, but he neglected the ongoing collection and verification of the vendor’s credentialing information as the relationship continued.

One day, John takes a closer look at Vendor X and the work they’ve been doing on the property. The closer he looks, the more he realizes that not only has Vendor X been cutting corners on equipment maintenance, they also allowed their trade license, insurance and other credential information to lapse. If John had monitored and updated vendor data and performance, he would’ve noticed how they were misusing the property, creating unnecessary costs, and not in compliance with regulations. But at this point, it’s far too late. John will pay a heavy cost to fix the damage that’s been done to the property.

Three major ways risk can impact your property

Building operators and property managers often have multiple properties to manage within their portfolio, and many times, things slip through the cracks without anyone noticing. As you may have guessed, this kind of lapse can lead to serious exposure to risk. When an incident occurs, your business is at risk of being impacted in three major ways:

• Financial: Since John hadn’t been keeping a watchful eye over Vendor X, he didn’t see just how far the property had fallen into disrepair. Preventative maintenance measures might have saved money, but John was too late for that. Purchasing new assets or equipment is always more expensive than making sure they’re being managed well.
• Reputational: Since Vendor X was doing sub-par work, the property had developed a reputation over time of being “run-down” and “dilapidated.” Had John done a better job of managing Vendor X, he might have prevented the risk to his company’s reputation.
• Compliance: Vendor X let their licensing and credentials expire, which means that John’s property was not in compliance with certain local laws and regulations. John might have been able to catch this had he been continually reviewing and managing the data he collected from Vendor X.

How automation can help reduce risk

While no method of risk mitigation lets you completely eliminate your exposure, automation can help you better manage the risk, no matter where it can be found in the asset lifecycle.

Most building operators collect vendor data upfront, but some tend to store it in a spreadsheet or binder and then never look at it again. Through automation, this data can be updated and continuously managed as time goes on so that important information, like an expired certificate of insurance, doesn’t go unnoticed.

Barcoding your assets and taking pictures of the equipment when maintenance occurs will help confirm the work was completed on the correct equipment. In addition to this, automating vendor data and workflow can help you establish a consistent process for managing vendors, assets, and equipment to reduce risk.

As a building operator or property manager, risk can be found everywhere, and its impacts can be devastating financially, reputationally, and in a regulatory sense. By automating your processes, however, you can lower your exposure and be better prepared for any problems that may arise. Learn more about how technology can improve your building operations and management.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/cloud-security-5-ways-its-much-safer-than-you-think/ Mon, 20 Jan 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31160

To some IT managers the thought of getting rid of their on-site servers and moving to a public or private cloud based approach because it’s “more secure” seems ridiculous. Surely sensitive company data is better kept on-site under their own control rather than out on the web where it’s susceptible to countless hackers and breaches? … Continued

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To some IT managers the thought of getting rid of their on-site servers and moving to a public or private cloud based approach because it’s “more secure” seems ridiculous.

Surely sensitive company data is better kept on-site under their own control rather than out on the web where it’s susceptible to countless hackers and breaches?

Right?

Well… not so much. The security that is offered from cloud solutions often goes way above and beyond what is possible with an on-premise setup. That might seem like a bold claim but to help convince you the following five reasons should help.

1. Better ransomware resilience

Unfortunately neither the cloud or on-premise setups are 100% immune from ransomware attacks. Recent government statistics show that 2 out of 5 UK businesses have identified a breach¹. Determined individuals will find a way into your systems.

But what matters is how fast you can recover from an attack and that’s where cloud security offers better resilience. Traditional on-site backup tapes will help you recover to a certain degree but this recovery approach takes time to complete giving you large Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO).

On the other hand cloud based backups offer much more effective business continuity. Solutions which offer a constant sync and replication of your servers into virtual servers allow you to measure RTO’s in minutes rather than days and an RPO of just seconds worth of lost data.

Statistics show that up to 60% of companies don’t recover after a cyber attack and go out of business within 6 months² – can you afford to put your organisation at risk by relying solely on an on-site backup and recovery approach?

2. Physical security

For some the idea of their servers being in their office where they can see them and protect them feels like the best approach rather than having it all sit off-site. However by moving your data into a data centre owned by a cloud provider you are getting a level of physical security that you are unlikely to be able to match yourself. This includes (but is not limited to):

• CCTV
• Intruder detection
• Monitoring and logging of every occasion where data is accessed
• Anyone wishing to enter the data centre will be security vetted
• Environmental controls to protect from fire, water and even bombs

With data centres you also get the best availability and back ups. Data centres will anticipate failures and ensure your data will be failed over to another site to prevent any interruption to your service.

3. Unrivalled investment

The budgets of a single company compared to a large public cloud provider are the definition of David vs Goliath, and this has a major impact on security.

For example, Microsoft invest up to $1 billion every year³ to improve the security within their cloud offerings. No in-house IT team can compete with this level of investment and continuous development of security-based skills. Instead many in-house IT teams find themselves working flat-out fighting fires, often unable to focus on the strategic side of their systems and can find themselves forced into situations where they have single-person dependencies.

This environment isn’t conducive to provide the level of constant learning and improvement that is essential to ensure their systems meet the latest security requirements needed to stay one step ahead of hackers. Surely it makes more sense to piggyback on the skills and finances that large cloud providers can provide?

4. Better insider threat protection

Whilst a lot of focus is placed on external threats when it comes to IT security, could it be that a bigger problem could be much closer to home?

76% of companies say they are more worried about insider threats to their business⁴. Disgruntled employees or those who are leaving and want to take certain data with them so they can hit the ground running in their new role can cost companies up to $513,000 on average each time⁵.

On-premise forms of protection such as restricting USB access, blocking file sharing websites, restricting printing and key logging software are good at stopping the majority of insider threats.

But what if you could stay one step ahead and even predict when an insider attack was going to happen? Cloud based solutions now offer machine learning which monitor user activities so that they are able to work out behavioural patterns. Then when a user starts displaying behaviour outside of the norm e.g. excessive accessing of customer records or logging on earlier or later in the day than they usually do, the system can flag this up to you.

So rather than use technology to provide evidence of who typed what or downloaded a certain file after an attack has taken place, by which time the damage could be done, it is ultimately more secure to get ahead and prevent attacks before they occur. This is another example where cloud security offers more than on-site.

5. Compliance

Finally, with a cloud based approach the provider of your data centre will provide you with a level of compliance you would be unlikely to match with an in-house team. With so many compliance programs around including ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials, G-Cloud etc it could realistically be a full time job just to keep up-to-speed with all of them. For organisations with small IT teams this is a luxury they are unlikely to be able to afford but it is something you can benefit from by moving to a cloud provider who has these certifications already.

Conclusion

Hopefully the above 5 reasons help illustrate just a few ways in which the cloud offers your organisation more levels of security than you first thought. To find out more about the range of Managed Services MRI offer please get in touch today.

 

Sources:

1. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/701840/CSBS_2018_Infographics_-_General_Findings.pdf
2. https://www.inc.com/joe-galvin/60-percent-of-small-businesses-fold-within-6-months-of-a-cyber-attack-heres-how-to-protect-yourself.html
3. https://news.microsoft.com/stories/cloud-security/
4. https://securityboulevard.com/2019/11/33-alarming-cybercrime-statistics-you-should-know-in-2019/
5. https://www.ekransystem.com/en/blog/insider-threat-statistics-facts-and-figures#:~:targetText=The%20Ponemon%20Institute%202018%20Cost,to%20%2411.1%20million%20a%20year.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/we-are-mri-achieving-strategic-goals-winning-culture/ Fri, 17 Jan 2020 15:57:49 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/we-are-mri-achieving-strategic-goals-winning-culture/

Anyone who’s ever been employed at MRI Software knows that being a part of the MRI family isn’t just about finding a fulfilling profession, it’s about being an integral part of helping MRI achieve its goals. Over the years, we’ve been honored to receive several awards specifically dedicated to MRI’s unique culture, our outstanding workspaces, … Continued

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Anyone who’s ever been employed at MRI Software knows that being a part of the MRI family isn’t just about finding a fulfilling profession, it’s about being an integral part of helping MRI achieve its goals. Over the years, we’ve been honored to receive several awards specifically dedicated to MRI’s unique culture, our outstanding workspaces, and how the intersection of those two valuable assets has helped MRI grow into one of the best and biggest real estate software providers on the planet.

Attracting top talent

In 2019, MRI was thrilled to win a NorthCoast 99 Award for the 12th time, which recognizes the best Northeast Ohio workplaces for top talent. Winners of this award participated in a rigorous application process that asked for detailed information on how their organization addresses top-performer attraction, development, and retention. While this is not our first time winning, we are proud to have won this award for so many years.

Cultivating health and wellness

One of the ways that MRI Software attracts top talent is by creating a workplace that encourages a healthy lifestyle. Look no further for proof than our Gold awards for Healthy Workplace from the Healthy Business Council of Ohio, which we have won three times since 2016. MRI employees have access to in-office incentives and a rewards program that promote healthy lifestyles across each and every one of the MRI offices throughout the globe, and these opportunities are reflected in this win.

In the summer of 2019, MRI was also recognized by Aetna’s Workplace Well-being Awards. MRI won both a “Changing the World” Award for workplaces in the Mid-Atlantic region and the “Above and Beyond” Award for general well-being in the workplace across the country. We are proud to accept these awards, and we are committed to continuously treating our employees well to promote excellence in the workplace and to foster a community where kindness, honesty, tolerance, and inclusion are part of the culture.

Our strategy of the “MRI family”

MRI’s commitment to its employees runs even deeper than these few awards suggest. We pride ourselves on creating a culture that encourages employees to work hard and achieve the strategic objectives of this company, and we truly do treat them as extensions of our family. Throughout the past few years, we’ve provided increasingly more avenues for personal and professional growth within the organization. Employees don’t just have “upward mobility” at MRI – they have the opportunity to explore the organization in lateral ways that help them pursue career goals instead of simply climbing a ladder. For example, an employee who starts their career at MRI in Sales is not required to stay there – they have the chance to move into a different department should they choose to down the line.

Volunteering in communities around the globe

As you can probably see, MRI has no desire to chain employees to their desks and demand they work on the same things in their entire time here. Growth means exploring new opportunities, and one of the newest opportunities at MRI is our coordinated volunteer effort that takes place in each MRI location. These volunteer events aren’t just a great way to allow employees to make a difference outside the office, they’re an extension of MRI’s mission to transform the way communities live, work, and play.

Global growth and strategic achievements

The emphasis we place on growth for our employees is a core part of MRI’s cultural identity, and it’s absolutely critical in achieving MRI’s strategic goals of large-scale growth. Our employees are beyond talented, and at MRI, we strive to be not just a place where they can work, but a place where they can excel. As such, our company culture has enabled our employees to bring MRI Software into the places it needs to be to expand its market share.

MRI Software was recently honored with a Dealmakers Award from ACG Cleveland that highlights the exact ways in which MRI has been able to achieve its strategic objectives in the past few years. The expansion we’ve experience – 8,500 enterprise clients, tripling of the size of the business, strengthening our product offerings and capacity for future innovation – has brought MRI Software, the open and connected partner ecosystem we’ve cultivated, and the benefits we provide our employees to 30 locations worldwide and over 170 countries.

While the awards mentioned here have been directed towards our headquarters in Northeast Ohio, the MRI family has expanded well beyond the region. It’s made up of every single one of our employees, whether they be in North America, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia or beyond. Everyone has access to the same opportunities and benefits. We are MRI, and the best is yet to come.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/housing-and-happiness/ Fri, 10 Jan 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=30983

Decent housing has long been an established element of a healthy society. Some conditions specific to social housing – in particular, longer, secure tenancies, affordable rents and strong communities – have been directly linked to wellbeing and happiness.

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Over the past two decades policy research and strategy have sought to broaden the measure of a nation’s wealth away from stark GDP and adopt wellbeing and happiness as success parameters.  In 2019 The World Happiness report ranked the United Kingdom 15^th globally. Decent housing has long been an established element of a healthy society. Some conditions specific to social housing – in particular, longer, secure tenancies, affordable rents and strong communities – have been directly linked to wellbeing and happiness.

Renting has become the norm in the UK and will inevitably grow as access to owning becomes less viable for many people. In 2019 the Journal of Public Health consolidated its research to demonstrate “causal links between housing, the built environment and aspects of mental health and wellbeing.” Poor quality housing can cause significant harm to the individual and cost public services dearly.

The good news is that housing associations and local authorities could likely be an antidote to the growing problems linked to renting. With the support and recognition of government, successful models from registered providers could tackle the housing crisis and contribute to the UK economy. Many of the sector’s customers believe that their providers are doing a good job. Shelter presented a ‘Vision for Social Housing’ last year, reporting that a strong majority (85%) of social housing residents, when asked, stated that they are happy in their homes and more than that – 77% said that they felt ‘fortunate to live in social housing.’ In fact, not only are social renters happier than those in privately rented accommodation, but research from the University of Birmingham shows that their happiness levels are on par with those who own their home.

“A safe settled home is the cornerstone on which individuals and families build a better quality of life, access services they need and gain greater independence.”

Jake Eliot, Head of Policy, Money Advice Service

More registered providers are moving into or starting for profit or mixed organisations. These strategies in many cases, are innovative approaches to transform and future-proof the sector, but it remains important that the sector hold itself to account and tenant welfare remain at the core of its deliverables. To achieve this, it will be crucial to ensure all new homes and existing stock are decent, fuel efficient and damp free and that customers are offered secure, long-term tenancies at affordable rents – factors directly linked to long-term happiness according to the Resolution Foundation.

In the main, social customers are more protected from eviction than those with private rental tenancies. Offering secure tenancies enables people to plan for the future, sink deep roots and actively engage with their local community and contribute unquantifiable social value. When asked by Shelter, 39% of private renters felt that they were embedded in the wider community and that their neighbours looked out for one another, in comparison to 75% of social renters.

“Our vision is to provide more homes and bright futures for everyone. The government is making some positive changes with more investment in house building, but there’s a lot more still to be done to really solve the housing crisis. Our research shows that social housing can have a positive impact on measures of wellbeing – more so in some instances than home ownership and as such we challenge the view that everyone should aspire to own their own home.”

Mark Perry, Chief Executive of VIVID

By delivering safe, secure homes at affordable rents, housing providers are responsible for sizeable savings to the public purse across swathes of organisations. According to The Health Foundation, for every £1 invested in housing support for the vulnerable, around £2 of value is delivered in costs saved by the NHS, Social care and the Police.

In the last few decades there has been a worrying shift in how social housing is perceived by the general population. As the provision of stock has shrunk due to Right To Buy policies and stalled building figures (in 2018 just 6,000 social homes were built), the homes have ceased to be for a majority of the populace and instead, are increasingly available only to low-income households or vulnerable people. In turn this has attached a certain amount of stigma to those living in socially rented accommodation.

‘We need to change the culture around social housing… our community has been painted as work-shy… it could not be further away from the truth. We were eloquent, hardworking… we deserve to be respected not treated the way we were treated. Every community living in social housing needs to be treated that way.’

Ed Daffarn, Commissioner, Shelter

Residents, despite self-reporting high levels of happiness and wellbeing in research conducted by the University of Birmingham also reported that they felt judged and that others would not like their home. Changing public perceptions of social housing and its residents would serve to bolster happiness for those residents.  One strategy for the social housing sector is to reclaim its own narrative and tell its stories to the wider public, politicians and businesses.

The evidence that social housing providers contribute to the happiness and wellbeing of individuals and strengthen communities is robust. What needs to happen now is securing confidence from the government, demonstrated through funding to build more homes and deliver greater social value.

“Instead of extending owner occupation as widely as possible which puts many people at the margins of their financial capacity, research shows that growing the stock of social housing and distributing this valuable good to a wider group of people may produce a wider total benefit to society. With new investment welcome and a rush to build more homes. It’s important to make sure the right type of homes and communities are built to give everyone the best chance in life.”

Professor Andrew Lymer Director of the Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management CHASM

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/improving-tenant-engagement-do-you-want-to-spend-8-per-letter-or-8-pence-per-text/ Tue, 07 Jan 2020 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?post_type=news&p=31386 This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release. Reduce your communications costs from £5 per call & £12 per letter to 8 pence per text*. Why every Social Housing Provider should use 2-way SMS text messaging… With smartphone use increasing every day, Social Housing … Continued

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]]> This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

Reduce your communications costs from £5 per call & £12 per letter to 8 pence per text*.

Why every Social Housing Provider should use 2-way SMS text messaging…

With smartphone use increasing every day, Social Housing providers are looking for ways to make their businesses mobile-friendly. Castleton’s Communications Manager two-way SMS text messaging solution will quickly and easily help your organisation on its digital transformation journey; improving tenant engagement and reducing your communications costs.

For a limited-time, Castleton Communications Manager, 2-way SMS text messaging solution is available to Housing Associations on a six-month, risk-free, try before you buy trial – fully managed & hosted by us with 10,000 text messages to get you started. 

The Benefits of 2-way SMS:

• Improves customer engagement with two–way instant SMS texting for personal alerts, appointments & notifications
• Enhances resident satisfaction with quick, immediate access to important information e.g. service updates & rent communication
• Increases resident engagement with news and service sharing –  giving information to customers who don’t want to use apps or websites
• Builds better resident relationships, with instant messaging, surveys & feedback delivered straight to the customers’ fingertips.
• Cost-effective & Eco-Friendly – compared to email, direct mail and visits; a text message has the lowest cost & impact on our carbon footprint.
• Improve tenant responsiveness to communications & reduce rent arrears

Did you know? 

• Mobile phones are used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• 95% of UK households own a mobile phone (Statista)
• 45% of recipients respond to text vs. 6% email (Gartner)
• Higher open rates for texts – 98% of SMS texts are opened compared to 20% of emails (Gartner)
• 95% of all texts are read within 3 minutes (Forbes)
• With open rates of 98%, it’s the most effective communication method in terms of read rate

Text messaging is the best way to get your residents to take immediate action! 

“Our income team had repeatedly tried to reach a tenant using letters, calls and even visits, and had no response; we then sent a rent arrears text message and received an immediate reply, agreeing to make a payment.”

Communications Manager will quickly & easily improve your resident engagement, save you money & kick-start your digital strategy*. 

 

 

*Shaw Consulting & Altair Ltd research

**Terms & conditions apply

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/property-accounting-take-control-general-ledger/ Mon, 23 Dec 2019 14:00:22 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/property-accounting-take-control-general-ledger/

Property accounting can sometimes seem like an uphill battle with lots of opportunities for mistakes. Managing multiple accounts, performing bank reconciliations, and even performing journal entries can leave room for potential errors in your property accounting, which begs the question, “How can one mitigate risk in such a complex process?” Closing your books with confidence … Continued

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Property accounting can sometimes seem like an uphill battle with lots of opportunities for mistakes. Managing multiple accounts, performing bank reconciliations, and even performing journal entries can leave room for potential errors in your property accounting, which begs the question, “How can one mitigate risk in such a complex process?”

Closing your books with confidence is not an impossibility. While many of the challenges faced by your accountants aren’t completely avoidable, you can limit the areas in your process where things are most likely to become broken by taking better control of your general ledger.

We’ve collaborated with our clients and users to ensure that MRI General Ledger software helps you take control of your financials with several key features.

Soft Close gives users greater reviewability

Once all submodules have been closed, the GL Soft Close process can be kicked off and financials can be reviewed prior to formally closing that period. While the Soft Close is in process, users are prevented from making entries. If additional or correcting entries are required, senior accountants can adjust the books themselves or give others the proper permissions to do so. The GL Soft Close can be initiated and reversed as many times as needed. The goal of GL Soft Close is to give property accountants the full amount of reviewability and flexibility needed to make the proper adjustments without causing internal headaches.

Entity Filtering presents necessary data

The Entity Filtering functionality allows users to go beyond simply filtering through different accounts based on different keywords, search terms, locations, etc. This simplifies the accounting process by removing irrelevant options and can prevent manual manipulation of control accounts. MRI clients can use one chart of accounts for entities of different uses, and filter the accounts that are appropriate for certain entities. For example, if you receive an invoice for snow removal services, Account Filtering can exclude snow removal vendors from the chart of accounts for properties located in Florida, which is generally not a place in need of snow removal.

Account Filtering keeps team members on track

This feature is designed to improve user accessibility and reduce the number of areas where mistakes can be made. Account Filtering lets users only see account information that is relevant to them, to reduce certain variables in property accounting and limit the possibility of errors and ensuring that job duties are separated appropriately.

GL Segmentation increases visibility

The GL Segmentation feature allows you to create a hierarchy within your chart of accounts, which helps keep it organized and reduce the opportunity for missteps. You can establish “parent” accounts for a category of expenses, and then group all relevant accounts underneath it, making everything more accessible and understandable. GL Segmentation also gives you the ability to segment expenses underneath the proper account. Reporting detail is significantly enhanced without the proliferation of accounts within your chart of accounts.

Enhanced Variance Notes mark your progress

When tracking budgeting or expenses, this feature gives the accountant the ability to add notes within the MRI solution about why a variance exists. With an intuitive, spreadsheet-like user interface, Enhanced Variance Notes allows users to do much more than simply add comments in the margins, however. It is now much easier to compare a variety of metrics and include the notes in standard reporting formats. The accountant also has the ability to make the variance notes repeatable if they span across months or even years of data to avoid tedious re-entry.

MRI General Ledger is the comprehensive software solution that can put your organization on the right track when it comes to property accounting. Through features that give users increased visibility, you’ll be able to see all the relevant information you actually need, making the review process for your general ledger easier than ever.

Want to learn more about how MRI General Ledger can improve your property accounting? Watch the webinar to learn exactly how you can mitigate risk and cut down on user error by taking control of your GL.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/horizon-in-the-news-mri-solution-not-related-to-stories-about-uk-post-office/ Fri, 20 Dec 2019 10:03:01 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/horizon-in-the-news-mri-solution-not-related-to-stories-about-uk-post-office/

It’s possible you’ve spotted the name ‘Horizon’ in the press recently. We would like to confirm that MRI Horizon, our enterprise real estate management and investment software solution, IS NOT the system which has been the subject of recent news stories relating to the UK Post Office. Articles, such as this one on the Independent, … Continued

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It’s possible you’ve spotted the name ‘Horizon’ in the press recently.

We would like to confirm that MRI Horizon, our enterprise real estate management and investment software solution, IS NOT the system which has been the subject of recent news stories relating to the UK Post Office.

Articles, such as this one on the Independent, refer to a Horizon IT system. To reiterate, and to reassure our many existing clients and potential users, the Horizon in question is in no way connected to MRI Software.

Hopefully, this allays any concerns that may have arisen.

Thanks, and season’s greetings!

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/swan-housing-tackling-discrepancies/ Thu, 19 Dec 2019 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=30981

TAIM InSight Case Study: One year on, we talk with Swan Housing about the strides made using TAIM

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One year on, we talk with Swan Housing about the strides made using MRI Tenancy Analytics
In 2019, Swan Housing marked its 25th Anniversary; 25 years of striving to help as many people as possible to have somewhere to feel at home. In order to achieve this goal, it is crucial to ensure that the right people are in the right homes and where tenancy discrepancies occur, to make those homes available to tenants awaiting a home.

MRI Tenancy Analytics, our powerful tenancy management solution, draws on multiple internal and external sources of data to provide one simple, verified view of the facts, giving landlords clarity over who is living in their properties. One year on from our previous look at how Swan had been using Tenancy Analytics, we’re investigating its progress with the solution for tackling tenancy discrepancies within housing stock.

Tenancy and Fraud Officers at Swan Housing use Tenancy Analytics on a daily basis, checking tenancy discrepancies and deceased records; with automated monthly updates, data is regularly being refreshed, so officers know they have the most up-to-date information. Tracy Kinton, Tenancy and Fraud Officer at Swan Housing tells us, “Our first port of call is always Tenancy Analytics.”

Repossessing Properties

There are often discrepancies between Swan’s housing management system and Tenancy Analytics, Tracy tells us, and it is through Tenancy Analytics that they are afforded a clear view of the true situation. Property succession can often be complicated – and illegal succession can prove difficult to identify. One recent case involved the daughter of a tenant of a one-bedroom property, who upon the death of her mother, attempted to claim succession of the property. A check on Tenancy Analytics identified that she had never lived at the property and that her attempt at succession was therefore illegal. Nor did she have a right to an alternative property of an appropriate size, meaning that Swan had no obligation to house her. This meant that a family in need of housing were able to be housed within the property. Swan is currently going to court for an unlawful profit order and possession of the property.

Repossessing properties in cases of tenancy discrepancy continues to be a major focus for Swan and can at times, result in court proceedings being brought against tenants. Earlier this year, Swan was alerted through Tenancy Analytics to a case of a tenant subletting through AirBnB. They have subsequently instigated court proceedings against this tenant for an unlawful profit order and possession.

In another case, Tenancy Analytics flagged a tenant who was showing as living in a second home in addition to the property rented to her by Swan. Officers discovered that she had married and moved into her husband’s home, whilst illegally retaining her Swan property, for which Swan agreed an out of court suspended possession order and £7,000 costs.

Tracy stresses that without Tenancy Analytics, garnering this level of information would be very difficult and cost a lot more officer time; she tells us, “the tangible information you get from Tenancy Analytics means you can start investigating straight away.”

In addition to ensuring that the right tenants are in the right homes, Swan has also been using Tenancy Analytics to assist their tenants. Swan was approached earlier this year by a tenant who wanted her ex-partner to be taken off the tenancy, as she was unable to move while he was still named on it. However, she had no way of getting in contact with him to request this. Using Tenancy Analytics, Swan was able to locate the person in question and get agreement to remove him from the tenancy. The tenant was then able to move home, freeing up her property for another tenant.

Improvements

Over the past year, it is not only Tenancy Analytics that has been able to help Swan Housing, but Swan has in turn fed back new development ideas to help improve the system. Through its use of the solution, Swan has been able to identify ways in which the system can be enhanced to better support officers in their roles. The need for a new enhancement, a proactive ‘subletting case segment’ was brought to light by Swan Housing earlier this year as a way of helping identify levels of potential subletting. This was fed back to our Product team, who implemented a function whereby Tenancy Analytics would segment data using a combination of a tenant’s residency score and any individual that was leaving a digital footprint at the property, categorising the data into levels of potential subletting. As Tracy says, “MRI Software listened to our needs and developed a solution which will save us time and money.”

Andrea O’Callaghan, Customer Services Director at Swan commented, “The Tenancy Analytics solution is an extremely important tool in helping us work more efficiently to support our tenants and make sure our homes are occupied by the right people. I would recommend it to all social landlords.”

Greg Andrews, Head of Customer Operations at MRI Software echoes this: “It’s fantastic to see the good work Swan is doing to support tenants by using Tenancy Analytics to understand exactly what is happening in their properties. Since 2018, Swan has used Tenancy Analytics to free up 19 homes, with many more currently under investigation, enabling them to house tenants in genuine need.”

MRI Software build a number of solutions for the social housing sector including HomeSwapper. If you would like to know more about what we do, please drop an email to socialhousing@mrisoftware.com

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/survey-says-how-real-estate-tech-experts-feel-about-new-trends/ Mon, 02 Dec 2019 19:34:43 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/survey-says-how-real-estate-tech-experts-feel-about-new-trends/

At the NMHC OpTech annual conference earlier this month, I had the pleasure of moderating the “Ask the Tech Pros” panel. It was a great opportunity to hear from a few top Tech leaders in the industry, including CIOs, VPs, and Technology Directors as they collectively discussed security, operating in the cloud, and enablement through … Continued

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At the NMHC OpTech annual conference earlier this month, I had the pleasure of moderating the “Ask the Tech Pros” panel. It was a great opportunity to hear from a few top Tech leaders in the industry, including CIOs, VPs, and Technology Directors as they collectively discussed security, operating in the cloud, and enablement through software. During the session, we used live polling to get the audience’s opinion on nine buzzwords to find out how applicable they are in the real world. The respondents indicated whether they have already piloted or adopted the particular tech, if it’s slated for 2020 or by the end of 2022, and if they had no plan to adopt or consider it.

Below are the survey responses, and some quick thoughts on them, for nine tech topics with varying degrees of adoption across the real estate industry. The volume of responses ranges from 40 to 51 session attendees, which is a random sampling from the 2300 attendees at the event. So, for full disclosure, this is not a strictly scientific study, but it’s interesting data from a vertically focused audience.

Virtual Reality

Definition: The computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as VR goggles, a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.

Proptech Application: Virtual reality can be used to furnish and explore physical spaces in a digital realm. For example, one could “tour” the digital recreation of an apartment space, whether empty or fully furnished, without actually being onsite.

Results indicate limited adoption currently and through 2022 with a large majority not having plans or simply not considering. As this technology is still maturing, these results are not surprising. The piloting and limited adoption is likely tied to new construction where a foundational digital model (BIM) is an increasingly common tool that can provide a basis for virtual reality applications.

Augmented Reality

Definition: A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.

Proptech Application: With your smart device, and your future smart glasses, one could see leasing advertising, amenity information, potential furniture, or even a virtual tour guide superimposed on physical reality.

These results show that people feel similarly about virtual and augmented reality, with a large majority of respondents not having plans to adopt or simply not considering it. Both technologies are still maturing, but augmented reality will be driven by the likes of Google, creating the visualization layer that real estate operators will leverage.

Digital Twin

Definition: A digital twin is a digital representation of a physical object or system. The twin has the ability to receive input from sensors that gather data from the real world, allowing it to simulate the physical object in real time, in the process offering insights into performance and potential problems. The twin could also be designed based on a prototype of its physical counterpart, in which case the twin can provide feedback as the product is refined; a twin could even serve as a prototype itself before any physical version is built.

Proptech Application: With new construction, it is now standard to utilize a digital, three dimensional model (BIM) to address potential construction issues (collision detection) in the digital realm and not in the field where costs can quickly escalate depending on the magnitude of the issue found. The BIM model is largely a static model, meant to drive development and it can be leveraged for Virtual Reality applications as noted above. A digital twin would take that model forward and use it for a framework to display operational information in new real time. From binary measures like occupancy to real time measures of energy and water consumption, the digital twin will combine the sensors from the Internet of Things (IoT) with the digital representation of the asset.

Results indicate a vast majority of respondents not having plans or simply not considering. With investment required in both creating the digital twin as well as the instrumentation of the physical asset, it is not surprising that most firms do not yet have this on their agenda.

Smart Home/Unit

Definition: A smart apartment is a living space outfitted by smart devices such as smart lights and locks, as well as integrated services like home cleaning and package delivery. Smart apartment buildings are also wired from the inside-out to connect devices, building systems, residents, and management.

Proptech Application: This was one of the more popular topics at this year’s NMHC OpTech. Locks, lights, sensors, gates, and package lockers/rooms are all aspects that can make an apartment “smart” – the definition is quite broad. These technologies are making their way from the single family market to the multifamily market where complexities increase with the number of units and the relationship between landlord and resident. Smart apartments can drive increased rent as an amenity that will attract some residents. Smart technology can also impact risk management (by detecting unusual water usage), utility costs (by programming vacant units to adhere to HVAC and lighting schedules) and staff efficiency (by allowing access for turn activities through the use of digital keys or remote lock actuation).

Given the number of exhibitors and session on this topic, these results are what one would expect – substantial adoption of these technologies through 2022 with many respondents reporting current pilot and production usage. Device connectivity is the most frequent barrier and there are a number of ways to solve that problem as we approach 2020, with more (5G) on the way. The other frequent barrier is involved with ownership, access, and control over the devices. This grey area between the resident and the landlord must be carefully addressed to optimize the benefits for both parties.

Unaccompanied (or Self-Guided) Tours

Definition: This should be pretty straight-forward – it’s a tour where one either navigates a route by oneself or is directed in some way, shape, or form by mobile technology in place of a human guide.

Proptech Application: Imagine prospects touring apartments unsupervised, leveraging digital content as well as staged materials, to explore a model unit without the pressure of a leasing agent being present. Leveraging smart locks, digital keys and other tech, these tours are expanding the self-service possibilities on sites, freeing staff for additional activities.

The popularity of this topic at the conference is reflected in these survey results as well with nearly half of the respondents reporting adoption by the end of 2020. This technology is currently available and, more importantly, the attitude towards this has warmed from skeptical to receptive, as early results are continuing to show a positive impact on leasing.

Conversational AI

Definition: Conversational AI refers to the use of messaging apps, speech-based assistants and chatbots to automate communication and create personalized customer experiences at scale.

Proptech Application: This technology is starting to replace humans in initial interactions for phone calls, chat and text. Leveraging the AI of providers like Google, Amazon and Twillio will provide capability at scale to have natural language exchanges with prospects and residents. While it may start with simple interactions, the complexity and scope will continue to grow.

These results are also consistent with the popularity of this topic at the conference. Combining natural language and artificial intelligence will, in time, provide better customer experiences than generic call centers and can currently handle simple requests and exchange of information.

Robotic Process Automation

Definition: Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform.

Proptech Application: Proptech forms need automation as much as any other enterprise. As a term, RPA is broad in scope and many things can fit the bill, including things you are likely already doing.

As panelists, we were all a bit shocked by this result as we expected more adoption. Consensus is that this outcome is part definitional (the term was new to this audience) and that, considering the large net that RPA casts, many firms are doing something that would qualify as RPA and they just were not aware of the connection. The other thing to consider here is that the customer audience might be looking for more industrial grade solutions from providers as opposed to building something on their own.

Blockchain

Definition: A blockchain is a time-stamped series of immutable data records managed by a cluster of computers but not owned by any single entity. Each of these blocks of data (i.e. block) are secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles (i.e. chain).

Proptech Application: While the idea of separating data across several locations for security reasons may seem enticing to some, there are currently very few actual use cases for this technology. Potential applications for this technology as it pertains to the real estate industry today is abstract at best.

Blockchain, while promising, is still a hammer in search of a nail as it is a generic technology that has yet to find a compelling use case in multifamily proptech that has gained traction.

Venmo-like Payments

Definition: Venmo is a free-to-use mobile payment app that allows users to send and receive money. The app is owned by PayPal and connects with users’ and businesses’ bank accounts or credit cards to send and receive funds online. It is currently only available for users inside the U.S.

Proptech Application: Currently, roughly 50% of residents still pay rent with a check, either because they like checks or because their landlords do. The other half are using some form of traditional electronic payment (ACH, debit, credit). Venmo, as more of a peer to peer payment app, allows the transfer of funds between individuals with little more than an email address shared between the parties.

These results were what we expected. As digital natives continue to be the dominant demographic in our communities, checks will become less frequent and alternative mobile payment methods will continue to emerge. We did a quick show of hands in the room, asking if any residents had already inquired about paying rent with Venmo or a similar vehicle and a large number of attendees indicated that the topic has been raised. As electronic payment providers bring this feature to market as another payment choice in their offering, the adoption of these payment types should increase more quickly.

The results gathered from this informal study are quite clear when it comes to which technologies and trends are making gains in the industry. While adoption for AI-based solutions and smart device compatibility will continue to be strong into 2020 and beyond, technologies like virtual and augmented reality still need some time to mature before they can gain traction. More proven technologies will continue to be leveraged to drive efficiencies and improve customer experiences while a clear application for blockchain has yet to emerge.

Want to learn more about where real estate technology is going in 2020? Catch up on some of my predictions for the new year.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/building-sustainable-tenancies-tenant-scrutiny-panels/ Fri, 29 Nov 2019 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=30978

A tenant scrutiny panel is a voluntary tenant-led group who, working closely with housing providers conduct formal research and feedback of housing provider practices. Through scrutiny, customers can make a substantial and central contribution to the assessment of a landlord’s performance.

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A tenant scrutiny panel is a voluntary tenant-led group who, working closely with housing providers conduct formal research and feedback of housing provider practices. Through scrutiny, customers can make a substantial and central contribution to the assessment of a landlord’s performance.

“The private sector is now more civic minded than ever; largely because they recognise that a more collegiate approach delivers the best outcomes and has a positive impact on their business, their staff, and their reputation.”

Ruth Duston, OBE, OC, CEO of Victoria BID

A tenant scrutiny panel is a voluntary tenant-led group who, working closely with housing providers conduct formal research and feedback of housing provider practices. Through scrutiny, customers can make a substantial and central contribution to the assessment of a landlord’s performance.

Scrutiny is a critical examination of services, underpinned by good quality, up-to-date performance data and reports. The work of a tenant scrutiny panel is informed by customer engagement conducted by residents; tenant scrutiny is an important component of meeting the expectation to continuously improve performance and co-create the future.

Establishing a conversation between housing providers and tenants in which both parties can share challenges, suggestions and compromises can help businesses in multiple fashions. From primary research, organisations can learn more about how strategies actually impact tenants and in turn, tenants can gain a wider insight and understanding of the mechanisms of social housing.

According to the Centre for London, only around 35% of Londoners believe that they can directly influence local decisions, however 65% think that it’s important that they’re able to. As housing is such a fundamental part of people’s lives, it’s likely that tenants will have a lot to share on how it can be improved and when social housing providers are in touch with their tenants closely, scrutiny panels can be a pathway for more people to positively impact their community, while helping housing providers deliver a better customer experience.

Since its inception a century ago, providers of social housing have worked with their tenants to gain insights into their work. In recent years more and more providers have been seeking formal review and criticism from their tenants and in some cases, offering accredited training to equip tenants with the skills and knowledge to better investigate and analyse the work of a housing provider.

In order to build effective scrutiny panels for organisations, the Government of Scotland’s Social Housing Services Team have compiled three ‘Principles of Scrutiny’ to follow:

1. Formality

Clear roles, processes, goals and subsequent methods of reporting should be established within the panels and all new members should be trained in how these work.

2. Independence

The activities of a scrutiny panel should be separate from the management and governance of other tenant participation groups, such as tenant associations and from the housing providers involved – whilst still having a recognised status and support from these organisations.

3. Power

Tenants should feel that their work will actually be able to impact their experiences or others’ experiences of services. Where the panel’s recommendations cannot be enacted the housing provider should take the time to explain why that is the case. 

By inviting tenants to get involved and spend their time trying to identify the pain points of their housing provider, a level of skills exchange should be provided; landlords are asking tenants for their specific viewpoint, but it is also important for the housing provider to share theirs.  A primary issue to address is ‘Jargon busting’; many people will be new to the specific language of the sector and may need assistance on how to engage with publications and data. One tenant group, the People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House (PEACH) practiced shouting “Jargon” in meetings with developers and architects of their estate to make sure nobody was left behind and themes and intricacies were explained in plain language.

Case Study: Phoenix Housing

South London based Housing Association, Phoenix Housing wanted to encourage more residents to get involved at board level. To achieve this, they created a housing academy with three levels of training accredited by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).  The academy describes itself as ‘The School of Social Housing’ and strives to teach residents about the sector and provide organisation and leadership skills to run effective tenant groups. Alongside the academy attendees have the opportunity to visit City Hall and the Houses of Parliament to get closer to how local and national governance work.

Of the 180 graduates of the academy, three became Phoenix Housing board members, with others joining scrutiny committees and other groups for local governance.

“It shows Phoenix is trying to do something to make tenants aware of the situation within social housing. Phoenix has begun to build its own homes, and the course has helped residents understand the implications of this. It’s really useful to have more information behind you – to know the ways social housing is being battered and what we can do to help.”Academy attendee, Phoenix Academy

Case Study: East Ayrshire Council

Scrutiny panels are not a catchall solution to addressing tenant concerns. Sometimes the recommendations brought forward cannot be acted upon. At East Ayrshire Council when this is the case officers will meet with the scrutiny panel to explain in detail why that is. Sometimes legislation, or funding can be the reason objectives can’t be achieved, however unless that’s communicated, tenants may think their views aren’t being heard.

An example of this at East Ayrshire Council was a proposal that all new bathrooms come with vinyl or tile flooring.  This couldn’t be achieved and officers explained to the scrutiny panel that the trade-off would have been fewer households having new bathrooms installed.  A compromise was reached and a promise was made to install level floorboards so that tenants then had the best conditions to install the flooring of their choice. 

At first the Council took a longer time to meet with the scrutiny group than expected, which led to the two groups agreeing on a code of practice to make sure timescales and expectations were transparent from both sides.

‘We know that one of the reasons why some tenants do not take up participation opportunities is they believe their landlord will not act upon what tenants have said they want through previous participation activities. It can lead to complaints such as ‘our landlord never listens to what tenants tell them’ or ‘they ask us for our views, but then do what they want’.

Perth and Kinross Council Tenant and Resident Participation Strategy 2018-21 Developed by The Service User Review and Evaluation Team

Resident participation in how social housing is delivered is a chance for organisations to bring focus to what they do well and their methods of communication with the customer. Co-creation is becoming the norm for consumer products, but it has more important implications when employed in relation to building and planning our neighbourhoods. As government funding continues to shrink, justifying our actions in close consultation with our customers will build trust and transparency and empower our customers to help us.

MRI Software build a number of solutions for the social housing sector. If you would like to know more about what we do, please drop an email to socialhousing@mrisoftware.com

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/ias-17-and-ifrs-16-the-importance-of-dual-reporting/ Wed, 27 Nov 2019 14:41:35 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=33506

The transition from IAS 17 to IFRS 16 The new era of lease accounting is in full force with the introduction of IFRS 16 in early 2019, superseding the previously engrained guidelines of IAS 17. With that comes a shift in business reporting, but the way businesses report cannot completely change overnight – there needs … Continued

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The transition from IAS 17 to IFRS 16
The new era of lease accounting is in full force with the introduction of IFRS 16 in early 2019, superseding the previously engrained guidelines of IAS 17. With that comes a shift in business reporting, but the way businesses report cannot completely change overnight – there needs to be a period of transition. Most businesses plan their budgets and measure growth, performance, success or failure through comparative KPIs, year on year. As the stress of half-year and full-year reporting creeps up to greet finance teams globally, shareholders, key stakeholders and analysts will be waiting in the wings to see the new numbers – and the variations from last year to this – all in order to accurately evaluate company performance, identify trends and inform strategic decision-making.

But, reviewing numbers in the context of the new IFRS 16 guidelines, with no previous benchmark or equivalent to compare, will result in EBIT figures being wildly different and bearing little to no value or benefit. Maintaining the straight-line reporting method of IAS 17, alongside the new mandatory IFRS 16 reporting standard, provides businesses with comparable accounting figures, creates a foundation for comparison when reporting future periods like for like, and ensures compliance.

More insightful reporting may not be the only benefit. Organisations are encountering situations where they are obligated to report under IAS 17 in order to abide by the specific measures outlined in their banking covenant. At MRI, we’ve found, in some scenarios, organisations are required to report to GAAP at the time their agreement was signed – and the impact of entering renegotiations to change this to the new IFRS 16 standard would incur significant legal costs that businesses are, naturally, keen to avoid.

There are other factors and reasons we’ve encountered as we’ve supported the journey of more than 400 clients transitioning to IFRS 16. For instance, some continue to adhere to IAS 17 for tax accounting purposes. In these instances, we’re seeing organisations effectively producing two sets of books, dual reporting to both the current and previous standard. When we speak to companies looking at our IFRS 16 lease accounting software, there is often a requirement for IAS 17 reporting capabilities.

When it comes to the actual task of dual reporting to both of these standards, it’s easy to see how this can place a strain on finance teams. For organisations using manual methods such as spreadsheets, it can be a case of duplicating the data set to produce a different set of values for each standard. It’s a complex enough task to undertake once, let alone twice. The ongoing maintenance can become increasingly arduous as the portfolio evolves, with exercised lease options, fluctuating rental values, indexation uplifts and back-dated charges, for example, all impacting the reporting figures.

Depending on the size of the organisation and the lease portfolio in question, these constant recalculations can very quickly result in dedicated full-time roles for individuals within the finance function. Maintaining two sets of lease data, sometimes on separate software solutions, also creates problems. Not only is it inefficient, but reconciling between the two creates significant doubt around the accuracy and integrity of data.

Any organisation searching for software to manage its leased portfolio and report to IFRS 16, with a continual focus on dual reporting to IAS 17, should place significant importance on ensuring that a single lease record drives and produces the required. At MRI Software, our end-to-end solution captures lease data at source and automates key lease processes to produce both IAS 17 and IFRS 16 calculations from one a single master data set. It can also create alerts, notifications and judgements for effective cross-departmental collaboration.

We may well be entering a new era of lease accounting and reporting but, in the short-to-medium term, we anticipate a continuing prominence of IAS 17 in the way businesses evaluate, report and make evidence-based decisions. This only emphasises the importance of effective lease management, and the adoption of technology to reduce the burden.

 

IFRS 16 software: Enabling compliance with new lease accounting standards

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/8-real-estate-technology-trends-2020/ Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:41:57 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/8-real-estate-technology-trends-2020/

Real estate technology in 2020 will present an opportunity for both residential and commercial firms to differentiate themselves through relationships. In the coming year, we predict that technology will be a catalyst that enables firms to drive tenant satisfaction, keep occupancy rates high, and build stronger relationships with everyone from residents to investors. We’ll see … Continued

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Real estate technology in 2020 will present an opportunity for both residential and commercial firms to differentiate themselves through relationships. In the coming year, we predict that technology will be a catalyst that enables firms to drive tenant satisfaction, keep occupancy rates high, and build stronger relationships with everyone from residents to investors. We’ll see continued technology adoption in the industry as more firms gain real value from their software.

1. The most anticipated downturn still won’t happen… or will it?

Spoiler alert – no one has a crystal ball that will predict when “the most anticipated downturn in history” will happen. The only thing we’re certain about is that speculation will continue regarding the timing of the downturn. But, based on a very unscientific survey that we conducted at the MRI Ascend Users Conference in Anaheim, a room full of industry leaders thinks that the downturn will take place in the second half of 2020 or early 2021.

Pro tip: Regardless of when the real estate cycle ends, firms that leverage technology to mitigate risk and drive efficiency will be better positioned to weather the storm.

2. AI gets (more) real

Building on the momentum of prior years, 2020 will bring more pragmatic applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to the real estate industry. All new technology goes through an initial hype cycle, and AI is no longer a shiny new object but has moved closer to actual implementation. As tech adoption gains strength, and more firms embrace the use of data and analytics, AI can optimize traditionally manual processes such as lease abstraction and also impact the business in more strategic ways – enabling faster decision making, increased visibility and transparency, and improved tenant satisfaction across the portfolio.

Pro tip: Exploring the use of AI to automate manual processes, make data more easily accessible, and empower your staff will help firms evaluate opportunities more quickly and grow the value of the portfolio faster. There will also be AI opportunities in customer-facing arenas where natural language processing is become more of the norm.

3. Big data becomes smart data

Deloitte’s 2020 Commercial Real Estate Outlook says “real estate is no longer about ‘location, location, location;’ it has evolved into a new mantra: ‘location, experience, analytics’.” Real estate firms have long been enamored with the idea of gaining insights from data, but the groundwork required to actually achieve ROI from it has historically been difficult to put in place. In the coming year, the real estate industry will be better equipped to leverage data with the help of proptech solutions that enable integration and standardization. In the past, firms have looked to data for short-term insights, but over the coming year, technology will provide ways for firms to analyze data as part of a longer-term strategy.

Pro tip: Data science and analytics will be a prominent feature in the future of the industry, and real estate professionals should educate themselves on basic data science as it will become an integral part of daily jobs at all levels in the organization.

4. New consumer privacy regulations will surprise many

Real estate firms, particularly multifamily owners and operators, will need to put processes in place to comply with new consumer privacy regulations. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect in 2020, and it will have an impact far beyond just California. The recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enacted in Europe has had a global impact. Other than NMHC, there are few industry voices talking about GDPR or CCPA yet. The requirements of these new regulations and the fines for non-compliance will catch many off guard.

Pro tip: Multifamily owners and operators need to have a detailed understanding of how their organization manages data, so they will be better prepared to comply with potential changes to consumer privacy practices.

5. Proptech is more than a buzzword

The term “Proptech” is no longer just a hashtag – it’s an industry, and it refers to more than just the tech startups that are disrupting real estate. As we predicted last year, VCs are no longer throwing money at ideas — the companies that provide real value to clients have emerged as successful. But with a broader array of technology tools to choose from, real estate owner/operators will be challenged to sift through the noise and effectively evaluate the available options.

Pro tip: Real estate firms with tech-savvy leaders who can distinguish between disruption and innovation will be better equipped to evaluate the technology providers vying for their business.

6. Digital amenities for renters are table stakes

Multifamily property managers know that today’s renters expect digital services and amenities, from the time they start searching for a new apartment, to signing the lease, and moving out. Most renters are Millennials and Generation Z, and virtual tours, electronic lease signing, online rent payments and package management are table stakes now.

Pro tip: Multifamily properties that embrace the shift to a more resident-centric approach will be able to attract and retain residents more efficiently by providing digital services.

7. Increased focus on the customer experience

Most multifamily operators have already shifted from a lease-centric approach to a more wholistic resident-centric mindset to increase occupancy and resident satisfaction in their community. But commercial firms will soon experience a similar trend. The landlord/tenant relationship will become a vendor/customer relationship, making metrics around tenant satisfaction, appreciation, and turnover more important than ever, especially as commercial leasing continues to become more fluid.

Pro tip: At the property level, landlords will need to proactively invest in their properties and monitor them more closely to keep tenants happy.

8. Affordable Housing will still be a conundrum

As interest rates continue to go down, money will be cheap. This allows developers to get financing more easily, but they will likely continue to focus on high-dollar development opportunities instead of low income and affordable housing. For affordable property managers, efficiency and automation will be key to achieving results with limited resources.

Pro tip: Purpose-built software can help affordable property managers automate compliance, manage multiple funding types, and streamline operations so they can better serve the community.

We may not have a crystal ball, but as a pioneer of the real estate software industry with nearly 50 years of experience, we’ve seen many changes over the decades. 2020 will certainly bring some challenges and opportunities, but real estate firms that leverage technology to manage their relationships and their assets will come out ahead.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/navigating-the-changing-face-of-britains-high-streets/ Mon, 11 Nov 2019 16:26:09 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/navigating-the-changing-face-of-britains-high-streets/

The British high street is going through a period of incredibly dynamic change. But it need not be all doom and gloom, because diversification could lead to reinvigoration of our town and city centres – a shift in which proptech will play a pivotal role. For instance, an MRI Software survey of chief executives, directors … Continued

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The British high street is going through a period of incredibly dynamic change. But it need not be all doom and gloom, because diversification could lead to reinvigoration of our town and city centres – a shift in which proptech will play a pivotal role. For instance, an MRI Software survey of chief executives, directors and top managers in the property sector revealed 72% see the development of residential properties in former retail premises giving the British high street a new lease of life.

It is a change that’s badly needed. According to research by PwC and the Local Data company, the retail slump hit record levels in the first half of 2019 with a net decline of 1,234 chain stores – an average of 16 stores closed each day – on Britain’s top 500 high streets. With changing consumer habits, new technologies and the rising business costs continuing to hit retailers, a growing number of real estate investors and landlords are evolving their strategic outlook to look at how multiple asset types and mixed developments can deliver success.

At MRI we are seeing roughly three-quarters of major retail investors now looking at diversifying developments to feature residential and leisure space, as well as more traditional commercial components. This growing trend is demonstrated by major players such as Intu and Redevco announcing major moves in the residential sector within the last 18 months. The problems posed by retailer closures and a chronic lack of new housing are coming together to create a solution for both, with the MRI research showing that 82% of the senior property professionals surveyed see mixed use developments with a strong housing component as a lucrative opportunity – and it could ultimately lead to a healthier high street.

More residential property on the high street then opens opportunities for leisure, hospitality and other related projects such as health clubs, specialty cafes, entertainment venues and other non-retail businesses. We’ve seen recently, for instance, that gyms are one of the few types of business growing in city centres. Indeed, the future of high streets will be areas where people are able to live, work and play – changing the way companies that own, develop and rent out those spaces operate. In order to gain a competitive edge in this changing marketplace and identify suitable new opportunities quickly, they will need to adopt a data-driven approach supported by technologies that enable them to manage increasingly complex property portfolios.

The key will be to employ technology, the kind provided by MRI, that equips businesses to gain actionable insight into their holdings and operations, helping inform business strategies and activities. We can see the growing importance of property technology in guiding this transition from the results of the MRI survey, with half of the respondents seeing it as critical to growing their business, boosting productivity and tackling regulatory challenges. The research also revealed that the overall uptake of proptech in the UK is strong, with two thirds of the companies surveyed already adopting a solution.

As high streets evolve into more complex and rounded communities, owners, developers and property managers will need digital tools that allow them to engage with residents, commercial occupiers and stakeholders in a more complete, in-depth and consistent way than they ever have before. Taking this more customer-centric approach will require specialist technology such as self-service online portals for tenants of all types, and even maintenance teams and contractors. MRI’s own suite of portals enable access to data, the ability to share important information with residents and automated business processes – from managing payments and simple enquiries to handling amenity bookings and ensuring maintenance requests are fulfilled. The result is community collaboration that will suit these mixed developments.

Those who invest in the real estate at the heart of the UK’s towns and cities need to equip themselves to manage the shift to an altered mix of occupiers and new business models. Investing in technology to manage property assets, as well as changing customer relationships, is quickly becoming essential for businesses to leverage the data and insight they need to take full advantage of the growing opportunity to reshape Britain’s high streets.

Learn more about property trends and the overall state of the UK market in this MRI Software survey.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/building-sustainable-tenancies-tackling-fuel-poverty/ Fri, 08 Nov 2019 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=30975

With nearly 15% of the population at risk of fuel poverty, campaigning politicians have this firmly in their sights. What is being done to combat the cold?

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With nearly 15% of the population at risk of fuel poverty, campaigning politicians have this firmly in their sights. What is being done to combat the cold?

Across the UK there are 4 million households at risk of fuel poverty this winter. The inability to protect yourself from the cold can seriously affect physical and mental wellbeing and is responsible for an extra 32,000 deaths in the UK each winter. Poor housing is the biggest culprit for causing fuel poverty in the UK and perhaps surprisingly, it is tenants of privately rented accommodation and owner-occupied properties that are faring the worst. Interestingly, social housing providers in comparison, have fewer occupants living in fuel poverty; we’re doing well, but there’s still room to improve.

The numbers are stark; over 10% of the UK’s population are facing poor health due to living in cold, damp homes. It’s an issue that affects people across the UK, with the likelihood of experiencing fuel poverty around equal for those living in both urban and rural areas. To be defined as fuel poor in the UK a household has to incur energy prices above the national median – which is £1200 per annum – and if they were to spend that, be left below the poverty line – which is currently measured as being 60% below the median household income. 

Overwhelmingly, housing is the most prolific cause of fuel poverty and dedication to physically improving housing stock is the primary strategy to prevent associated disease and deaths. Of the UK’s fuel poor homes, 96% are poorly insulated. By 2020 the government has compelled landlords to upgrade all properties in efficiency Band F and G to an E85 rating, or spend at least £3,500 on improvements to their properties, whilst by 2030 all fuel poor homes must be brought up to at least a Band C. It is estimated that to deliver the 2030 target, £1.2 billion per year will be needed, which as it currently stands, will not be government funded, meaning that housing providers are bearing the weight of the social cost of fuel poverty. According to the End fuel Poverty Coalition, if all houses were to meet the 2030 target of a Band C rating, the economic return to the UK would be £8.7 million and we could reduce our gas imports by 26%.

To meet these targets means putting co-current strategies in place for housing providers. First on the list is identifying existing stock with poor efficiency ratings and applying a 3R plan: Repair, Retrofit, Re-home. While waiting for one of the 3R solutions, residents can be made aware that they are eligible for a Warm Home Discount whereby any property in Band E or below can get £140 deducted from their energy bill. Looking forward, all new builds need to be built to Code 4 Sustainable Homes Standards, which would ensure that they are highly energy efficient, have low carbon emissions and in turn, give residents direct savings on energy bills.

The welcome news, according to the government department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, is that social housing properties tend to be more energy efficient than other types of property. This is predominantly because of the prevalence of purpose-built blocks that are up to twice as energy efficient as converted flats.

CASE STUDY: Secure Warm Modern Programme, NCH

Nottingham City Homes worked with partners to install 280 solar roof panels on customers’ homes, as a result of which, residents were able to make a saving of up to £200 annually on their electricity bills. Three large tower blocks in Nottingham were given a complete retrofit, including new windows, external insulation and roof insulation. All three of the blocks reduced their carbon footprint and 270 residents reported reduced fuel bills, with many being lifted out of the fuel poverty band and some saying they were saving up to 50% on their energy bills.

CASE STUDY: Look after my bills

Look after my bills offers auto switching for consumers to the cheapest energy suppliers. When each deal comes to an end, they will check the market again, seeing if they can save the customer money on their bills. This service rolls on indefinitely and remains free because they take commission from the energy companies they switch customers to. Unlike traditional price comparison websites however, the commission they take is the same amount for each company. To sign up, customers need an email address, address information, latest energy bill and direct debit details.

CASE STUDY: Beanbag, Smart heat meter

Beanbag offers long-term investment in connected home products. It is an app-enabled thermostat that allows social housing tenants to control their heating and hot water remotely. Participating housing providers get access via the Beanbag portal to see how properties are using their energy and in turn, identify those at risk of fuel poverty due to poor quality housing stock or those overheating their property and spending more than necessary.

For housing providers, data is the key to identifying tenants at most risk of suffering because of the cold weather. Getting a picture of exactly who is living in housing stock, paired with their financial situation could be the key to putting an intervention in place. Something as simple as the ability to quickly find out the ages of those living in your properties, alongside the repair requests for a particular issue can offer a bigger picture of who is at risk this winter. Our Tenancy Analytics software draws on multiple internal and external sources of data to piece together a full picture of social housing tenants’ situations. Coastal Housing Group have been using Tenancy Analytics to provide personalised, informed support for their customers:

 “Tenancy Analytics equips us to proactively support tenants, ensuring we use evidence not opinion in our work. Our staff access the data immediately and proactively and then have informed one-to-one contact with tenants. The alternative is manually acquiring and scoring public records and then, typically, it would only be in our second or third visit with a tenant that we might fully understand their financial situation. With Tenancy Analytics, we turn up at the first visit with the information at our fingertips. This is significant in terms of resources, both time and money.”

Coastal Housing Group, MRI Software customer

A government report this year using 2017 data reported that in real terms, the fuel poverty gap has fallen £812million, or 4.3% in the UK since highs in 2011.  It is worth noting however, that the parameters used to define fuel poverty were amended by the government in recent years to be less stringent. In Western Europe, the UK is ranked a disappointing 14/16 in terms of fuel poverty.

Rather than the numerical indicators described in the introduction of this piece, the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act reads a lot more loosely: ‘A person is to be regarded as living “in fuel poverty” if he is a member of a household living on a lower income in a home which cannot be kept warm at reasonable cost’”

These numbers are not falling as rapidly as reported and without adequate government funding the social housing sector has been given sole responsibility of ensuring their residents remain safe and well in the winter. Adoption of innovation, alongside physical overhaul of housing stock has meant that the social housing sector is now outperforming the private rental and owner-occupied homes in protecting its residents and with tools that can give a more accurate view of tenants’ situations, this situation can only improve.

If you want to know more about how we are supporting housing providers maintain their sustainable tenancies, contact us.

Please note that MRI Software s do not advocate the commercial products used as examples in this article. Please ensure that you check that these are the best options for you before using.

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/inside-housing-roundtable-business-transformation/ Thu, 07 Nov 2019 13:13:01 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=31231

Senior sector figures gather at an Inside Housing round table, in association with MRI Software, to discuss how technology is likely to change their businesses – and how they are preparing. Photography by SWNS Businesses across the board have been transformed by technology in recent years. Customers are now able to interact with everything from banks … Continued

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Senior sector figures gather at an Inside Housing round table, in association with MRI Software, to discuss how technology is likely to change their businesses – and how they are preparing. Photography by SWNS

Businesses across the board have been transformed by technology in recent years. Customers are now able to interact with everything from banks to utility providers, and retailers to schools, in a fast, streamlined way.

On the flip side, businesses are, in general, better able to understand their market and respond more quickly to demand.

Housing is no exception – and from logging repairs to paying rent, many tenants expect a much more responsive service than would have been the case even a decade ago.

To find out more about how landlords are using technology to drive change – and how it is likely to transform their businesses moving forward – Inside Housing brought together a selection of leading players in the sector for a round table discussion, in association with MRI.

We wanted to find out where the sector is now by speaking to organisations at various stages of transformation journeys – and examine how those responsible for driving change are planning for the next steps.

Summary

Lots of topics covered during the session ranging from staff mobility, user experience, data analytics, AI and automation.

Being more user-friendly, inclusive and focused is the driver for many organisations upgrading their systems. Tenant demands are increasingly driving the pace of change. Residents are citizens of the 21st century and they expect to be able to transact with us in the same way that they do in other areas of life.  Housing providers and suppliers need to look at other sectors and to match the customer service expectations.

Transformation is no longer an efficiency exercise, social landlords now focus on providing a seamless customer service to residents, how they engage and changing the internal culture to be customer centric.

When thinking about new systems it is important to clearly define what data you have and any gaps that need to be filled, the use of technology to predict rather than react is important going forward, through predictive analytics tools.  Analysing tenant behaviour to improve the support they offer to customers.

It is this last point that is most important. If landlords are serious about providing a better service to tenants, they must get smarter about how they engage and the information they gather.

Read the full article in Inside Housing –How has technology transformed your organisation?

 

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]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/how-crm-is-the-new-core-system-for-social-housing/ Mon, 04 Nov 2019 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?post_type=news&p=31378 This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release. How CRM is the new ‘core system for Social Housing – An interview with James Massey COO Castleton Technology plc Digital enablement solutions are already delivering tangible business advantages to Social Housing; from enhancing customer communications … Continued

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]]> This blog post relates to Castleton, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

How CRM is the new ‘core system for Social Housing

– An interview with James Massey COO Castleton Technology plc

Digital enablement solutions are already delivering tangible business advantages to Social Housing; from enhancing customer communications & services to improving organisational efficiency and managing the impact of Universal Credit. The sector is starting to see real benefits from the data and intelligence its gathering; as more and better data is helping drive business transformation based on well-informed decisions.

A key part of this digital revolution is putting the customer at the centre of everything, whether that’s improving resident interactions, providing better, more tailored customer and self-service or modernising processes to facilitate a flexible, mobile workforce to manage customers in real-time. It’s also true that as part of this drive, Housing Associations (HA’s) need to make cost savings wherever possible and automating the engagement process will help towards achieving this.

To enable real digital transformation, HA’s must look at the power of data and how effective customer relationships and customer experience management will help set them on their business transformation journey. I think historically, people view a CRM solution as simply a ‘records management tool’ for recording telephone calls and customer interactions. However, as the sector moves away from traditional call handling, paper processes, letters, paper forms, and onsite visits; towards online chat, Unified communications interactions such as WhatsApp for business, Facebook Messaging other digital media channels, CRM will come into its own; with far less paper and much more digital recording. This evolution is giving CRM a new lease of life, and with all the additional information gathering, HA’s will have the opportunity to build true relationship management with their residents; CRM will provide a 360-degree view of each one, enabling quicker call handling, first-time resolution of issues, on-time payments, and mobile working.

With such an important decision, how can HA’s be sure they choose the right CRM for them, one that integrates with their existing software and delivers the business goals cost-effectively?

Sector-specific CRM systems vs Off-the-shelf, what’s best?

With some great CRM platforms on the market, it’s important to consider before embarking on such an important project, the outcomes you want to achieve and how each solution differs.

A good CRM system should bring together all the disconnected solutions and communication methods that an HA uses into a single pane of glass, it’s the glue that holds them all together and is the key enabler to quick entry of contacts, tenant records, export of records and notices for any legal matters such as eviction notices. Generic CRM platforms such as Dynamics 365 provide a blank canvas from which organisations can build a bespoke CRM platform.

Sector-specific solutions such as our CRM solution, have been developed specifically for HA’s in conjunction with the sector. It’s an out of the box CRM solution that puts your customer at the core of your system and provides a complete 360° visibility of your residents, properties, and services on a single screen. Designed to bring together historically disconnected solutions and put them into a single clean and clear user interface (UI), it simplifies and updates information that’s relevant to the user, quickly and efficiently. Its speed combined with the ability to orient specific data very quickly to relevant job roles within the HA, makes a significant difference to the user, providing instant access to all the information they require for a successful and efficient customer interaction

It’s this UI, designed specifically for HA’s that makes Castleton CRM different; our collaborative approach to its development has, working with organisations such as Connect Housing, ensured that our CRM has integrated sector-specific features into the solution such as campaign management for targeted customer interaction and validation checks to ensure the security of sensitive data. A key feature is the intuitive UI that can be personalised to each user, to show only relevant information, pulling data from disconnected systems onto a single screen, helping office staff speed up response times to customer queries and giving field operatives real-time access with its mobile-enabled functionality.

Resident interactions and updates are also in real-time, and CRM when combined with our Castleton .DIGITAL solution and Alexa platform, allows them to perform a whole host of ‘self-service’ tasks, including; accessing and updating their details online, viewing rent statements, making payments, reporting a repair and checking on its progress.  The latest version of CRM also allows users to build their custom digital dashboards from any of the information that is available whether that is resident engagement channel uptake, resident details or account information.

What about the data?

The bigger question can then become, “how and where do you store all that data to remain GDPR compliant?”, “How can you ensure that information held in the system is up to date?”, and that the data you have gathered in your CRM system feeds and integrates into other systems, and ultimately “what are you going to use that data for?”. It’s not just about information gathering, simply to put a tick in the box, but to apply Business Intelligence to the data to help HA’s landlords become more efficient and more closely relate to their customers by enhancing their service offering; which could include improving their customers’ life experiences, health, and wellbeing.

Sounds great, but what is the real cost of transitioning to a new CRM?

Transitioning costs to a new CRM solution depend on the size and complexity of an organisation, and a sector-specific solution will always deliver the best value to HA’s. How long a CRM implementation will take and ultimately cost depends on several factors including: How many apps are you implementing? How many users do you have? Is it an upgrade, or a completely new solution? Are you moving from on-premise to the cloud? How much legacy data needs to be migrated? How much integration work is necessary to make the solution meet the users’ needs?

As with many solutions, integration can often be the biggest challenge. It’s important to check how easily your new CRM solution integrates with other systems and what the anticipated cost to do this would be. MRI’s Social Housing CRM ensures easy integration by using customisable Data-Driven Services and fully open and documented web services, whereas Dynamics 365, Salesforce and other ‘vanilla’ solutions project timeframes can be difficult to predict, and often take much longer to implement than initially forecast, with complex integration and functionality builds.

We would always recommend organisations compare what comes with an out of the box solution such as Castleton CRM and how much a more bespoke solution will cost, and whether the business case stacks up.There is a bigger challenge than costs – and that’s managing the organisation’s ‘Business Transformation’ – CRM software is simply part of this and is an enabler to driving this transformation. We have seen that technology isn’t the biggest challenge, it’s often changing the culture of the organisation!

How does Castleton help in this project evaluation?

Before embarking on an implementation of this type we would always recommend end-user involvement as being a crucial first step, even before the project even starts. Exploring what it is they want to get out of a CRM solution, how they want to use it, features they would find helpful, what the pain points are in for example the contact centre? Real-life research is also invaluable; listening to and observing how real customer interactions work, by sitting amongst call centre staff –  to check whether a new CRM solution is the answer.

We can offer upfront clarity about what our CRM solution does and are willing to go into POC solutions to build confidence with the customer to give them a view of what a minimum viable solution will look like, we don’t want people to commit to something and then the outcome isn’t what they expected or hoped for. This process also helps identify ‘quick wins’ and ‘actions’ and ensures the project teams focus on the outcomes, which should include what role Business Intelligence (BI) will play. All stakeholders should be certain of what reporting they want to achieve as this will help create the best CRM build possible, that comes into its own.

What are the risks of moving to a new CRM solution? Is the organisations resident data as secure in ‘The Cloud’? There are risks in all IT projects, however, if you think about the potential pitfalls e.g. you don’t record an interaction, the fact that you’ve visited a tenant, etc., these are also possible risks. The biggest risk, however, is the non-adoption by staff and that all they see is a new system they must use, one that’s being imposed on them, rather than a system they want to use that will deliver greater benefits to them and the residents.

So, if I want to implement a new CRM solution, where do I start?

Collaboration is key, understand your organisation’s pain points and why you want to undertake a CRM project? Decide what the ‘future’ looks like, how will CRM impact the business, be clear on your project goals. Do you want to facilitate customer self-service, improve customer service & interaction, will you want to drive targeted marketing from it, develop more robust service improvement methodology, better tenant sustainment, etc., because you understand your customer better?

It’s often a far bigger transformation project than you think as organisations have to consider what the organisation wants for itself, its staff and ultimately its customers. Think about the budget and look at other social landlords using a great CRM solution, one that’s affordable and satisfies your wish list, then talk to us and see how our solution fits the bill.

Once I’m up and running, what can I expect going forward?

As an organisation, our ambition is to develop solutions that are the best they can be and deliver real business transformation to our Social Housing customers, so post-implementation we set up regular review sessions to look at the BI and establish that we are on track to meet expectations. Working in partnership we will establish ways to measure customer satisfaction, agree on what improvement looks like and work together to ensure the new solutions deliver the best value to the business.

Article Featured in Housing Technology.
View Castleton CRM

The post CRM for Social Housing appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/simplify-residential-lifecycle-mri-living/ Thu, 31 Oct 2019 17:58:28 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/simplify-residential-lifecycle-mri-living/

The expectations of today’s renters have changed, and multifamily property managers must be prepared to meet those expectations to stay competitive. Being able to maximize occupancy with the right residents, retain them with a high-end experience, and keep track of progress toward business goals are crucial to property management in the digital age. MRI understands … Continued

The post Simplify the residential lifecycle with MRI Living appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

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The expectations of today’s renters have changed, and multifamily property managers must be prepared to meet those expectations to stay competitive. Being able to maximize occupancy with the right residents, retain them with a high-end experience, and keep track of progress toward business goals are crucial to property management in the digital age.

MRI understands that multifamily property managers must excel across each of these areas. MRI Living represents our comprehensive suite of end-to-end residential software solutions designed to help multifamily property managers rise to the latest challenges facing the industry.

A day in the life of a multifamily property manager
Keeping residents happy isn’t just one of a dozen ways to protect your bottom line – it’s the lifeblood of your business. You don’t just manage units and buildings; you manage people’s homes, and the best way to build a good relationship with those people – your residents – is to offer them the best experience you possibly can.

The development and preservation of a landlord/resident relationship is the story that lies at the heart of the residential lifecycle, and the tools provided through MRI Living and our extensive partner ecosystem can help you develop that relationship and excel at every step of that lifecycle. Through MRI Living, you’ll be empowered to attract great residents, simplify living, run your properties effectively and efficiently, and utilize your data to plan for the future.

1. Attract great residents

Prospects are consumers by nature, and every consumer today starts the search for their desired purchase online. Did you know that 73% of renters in the United States are younger than 44 years old? On top of that, nearly 100% of them have a cell phone, and over 90% have a smartphone. This means that it’s more important than ever that your property and brand has online visibility so that prospects can find you.

After you get a prospective resident engaged with your property, you’ll want to get a lease signed in a way that makes things as easy as possible for both your prospect and your leasing staff.

Utilizing the proper software solution can help you get your organization out in front of the right prospects at the right time, and it can also help fast-track the leasing process in a convenient and effective manner.

2. Simplify living

Property Managers aren’t just in the business of real estate; they’re in the business of taking care of people. Astonishing residents with your services, amenities, and general “customer service” skills will increase the likelihood that they will renew their lease.

Considering that many of today’s residents are from younger generations, traditional amenities such as pool access and workout areas don’t hold as much clout as they used to. Today, providing convenient digital amenities, transparency, and tools that make life easier for you and your residents can go a long way.

At the same time, providing a satisfying and easy resident experience doesn’t rest entirely upon your shoulders. There’s a balance between the two extremes of overbearing communication with residents and forcing them to go searching for information. The proper tools can help you on your quest to find the best way to simplify living for both your residents and your property staff.

3. Run smoothly

So you’ve automated the lead-to-lease process and are providing self-service tools for your residents, but how well are you automating your back office processes?

If your property isn’t running smoothly, inefficiencies can reverberate across your organization and negatively impact the resident experience. Simplifying your day-to-day property management tasks with tools that maximize operational efficiency and minimize risk can help alleviate your worries.

At this stage in the residential lifecycle, you as a property manager can put your best foot forward with your new residents. Getting a new lease signed is one thing but providing a satisfying experience for an existing resident is another. Even if you feel that you’ve built a solid foundation of trust through the leasing process, residents often spend a greater amount of time adjusting to their new homes, and you have a critical role to play in ensuring that process is as smooth as it can be.

4. Know the score

As you’re working towards making your operations more resident-centric than lease-centric, it’s important that you keep track of your data and assess the health of your organization to see what’s working and what’s not.

The health of your business is a critical aspect of property management that you shouldn’t be neglecting. Knowing the score and keeping track of your progress can help you reach your goals and maximize profitability.

The more you provide for your residents, the more you’ll find that their retention will become predictable. This aspect of property management isn’t just good business; it’s a good way to stabilize your bottom line and prepare for the future by keeping your occupancy rate high.

Excel throughout the residential lifecycle
The lead-to-lease process is essential to your property operations, but it doesn’t represent the full scope of your responsibilities as a property manager. The road to success in today’s ever-changing industry starts by firing on all cylinders at every step of the residential lifecycle.

With the right tools at your disposal, you’ll be able to fully commit to your organization’s future. Utilizing residential property management solutions can enable you not only to carry out your daily operations, but to prepare yourself for whatever challenges may lie ahead.

Learn more about MRI Living and how you can excel in every step of the residential lifecycle.

The post Simplify the residential lifecycle with MRI Living appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/mri-ecosystem-celebrating-partners-ascend-2019/ Thu, 24 Oct 2019 20:35:01 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/mri-ecosystem-celebrating-partners-ascend-2019/

The MRI Ecosystem was on full display at MRI Ascend in Anaheim last week. Our users conferences – whether they’re in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, or even South Africa – have always been about bringing together our clients and partners to showcase our comprehensive and flexible technology platform and the open and connected partner … Continued

The post The MRI Ecosystem: Celebrating our partners at Ascend 2019 appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

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The MRI Ecosystem was on full display at MRI Ascend in Anaheim last week. Our users conferences – whether they’re in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, or even South Africa – have always been about bringing together our clients and partners to showcase our comprehensive and flexible technology platform and the open and connected partner ecosystem that supports it.

MRI’s Partner Connect program is at the heart of our approach to real estate software. The sea of exhibitors at MRI Ascend is living proof that openness is integral to our corporate vision and that the momentum of our partner program shows no sign of slowing down.

We’d like to say thank you to all the great partners that helped make MRI Ascend a success, especially our Diamond sponsor, AvidXchange, and Platinum sponsor, Nexus. The conference simply would not be the same without your support!

Partner of the Year: insightsoftware

We’re proud to recognize insightsoftware as the 2019 Partner of the Year. As an outstanding member of the Partner Connect program, insightsoftware has been a true advocate for flexibility and choice, and our mutual clients have benefitted greatly from the integration of Spreadsheet Server and MRI. Congratulations to insightsoftware!

Honoring our partners in the MRI Ecosystem

Our partners have many outstanding achievements, so we were thrilled to hand out even more awards for at the MRI Demo Theater Stage. We want to extend a special congratulations to these partners for your hard work!

Most Active in the myMRI Forums – AJB Consulting
Highest Number of Newley Adopted Mutual Clients YoY – Procore for Owners
Highest Number of Certified Individuals in Certification Program – FitechGelb
Highest Number of Enrolled Individuals in Certification Program – FitechGelb

Of course, this whole event would have been impossible without all of our wonderful sponsoring partners. Through their support, we were able to demonstrate that openness and flexibility are in high demand within the real estate industry, and the success of MRI clients is living proof that it works.

The post The MRI Ecosystem: Celebrating our partners at Ascend 2019 appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/reaching-new-heights-mri-ascend-anaheim-2019/ Mon, 21 Oct 2019 20:25:44 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/reaching-new-heights-mri-ascend-anaheim-2019/

MRI Ascend and the open and connected ecosystem took Anaheim, California by storm last week! More than 1400 real estate industry professionals and 60 partners gathered at the Anaheim Convention Center to network with each other and explore what’s new with MRI Software. We were thrilled to pull back the curtain on several innovative solutions … Continued

The post Reaching new heights at MRI Ascend 2019 in Anaheim appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

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MRI Ascend and the open and connected ecosystem took Anaheim, California by storm last week! More than 1400 real estate industry professionals and 60 partners gathered at the Anaheim Convention Center to network with each other and explore what’s new with MRI Software. We were thrilled to pull back the curtain on several innovative solutions that will help MRI clients do more than just stay ahead of the curve, but also rise above it.

MRI users conferences have always stood as the living embodiment of the open and connected ecosystem, where our clients can leverage flexibility and choice to create the solution that works best for their business. This year, we were excited to unveil a record number of new solutions designed to help real estate organizations in a variety of ways.

This way to comprehensive and flexible real estate software solutions!

At MRI Ascend, we proudly announced MRI Application Gateway, which provides a single point of entry to Platform X. Through an app-based launch screen, users can securely access their MRI and third-party applications, bringing all of the solutions you love and use regularly into one familiar interface.

We also unveiled MRI Secure Sign, which enables clients to efficiently create and send real estate documents for signature with purpose-built integrations from within the MRI platform.
As businesses continue to move operations online, it’s more important than ever to control and protect digital documents and signed contracts.

MRI Living
The MRI Living suite now includes two new innovations: MRI Payments and MRI Lead Management. MRI Payments allows multifamily properties to handle multiple payment types, including online and check payments, through an integrated solution that delivers a complete prospect and resident experience. MRI Lead Management brings leading-edge technology for tracking and engaging potential residents into the MRI Living suite of residential solutions to give owners and operators the ability to manage prospects from lead to lease. Today’s renters expect to be treated like people, not metrics, and the MRI Living suite enables residential property managers to take a customer-centric approach and improve the renter experience.

MRI @ Work
In the same way that MRI Living helps residential property managers meet the needs of their market, MRI @ Work houses all of the products that will help commercial property professionals rise above their industry challenges.

One of our newest products is made possible through the power of artificial intelligence. MRI Lease Intelligence brings AI-powered lease abstraction into the MRI @ Work suite of commercial solutions through the integration of Leverton and MRI. Acquired by MRI in July, Leverton enables commercial property owners, operators and occupiers to efficiently extract lease data and analyze it to gain insights. This solution ensures data accuracy by directly integrating MRI Lease Intelligence with MRI property management solutions.

Congratulations to the 2019 MRI Innovation Awards Winners!

At MRI, we think our partners and clients are pretty great, and we’re proud to be working together to drive transformation and openness in the real estate industry. Our Second Annual MRI Innovation Awards were announced on Tuesday during the general session, and we want to extend a very special congratulations to all who were recognized. Here are the winners:

Community Award: The CT Group
Flexibility Award: Harbor Group Management
Ambassador Award: Cecilia Li, Urban Edge Properties
Partner of the Year Award: insightsoftware

The future of real estate software is here

MRI Ascend is a living, breathing representation of the open and connected partner ecosystem that we strive to create for our clients. It’s an honor to do business with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking real estate organizations across the globe. While this year’s Ascend users conference was a huge success, we hope to see even more of our partners and clients in San Diego next year on October 25-28, 2020!

Don’t just stay ahead of the curve – rise above it!

The post Reaching new heights at MRI Ascend 2019 in Anaheim appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/building-sustainable-tenancies-ending-furniture-poverty/ Fri, 18 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=30972

14 million homes in the UK would struggle to replace an essential item of furniture, making it a real but silent form of poverty.

The post Building Sustainable Tenancies: Ending Furniture Poverty appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

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14 million homes in the UK would struggle to replace an essential item of furniture, making it a real but silent form of poverty.

The household essentials many of us take for granted are not the reality for some vulnerable tenants, an issue that has been brought to the forefront of discussions about what poverty looks like in the UK in the last few years. This so-called ‘furniture poverty’ is not simply a lack of material goods, but affects the ability of a resident to feel like they are living a ‘normal’ life, which is in turn, a threat to long-term, sustainable tenancies.

Addressing furniture poverty at a pre-tenancy stage could reduce tenancy termination; in research conducted by Sheffield Hallam University, early tenancy termination was 15% higher amongst customers with unfurnished tenancies as opposed to furnished tenancies.

“How would you feed your family properly without a cooker? Would you feel comfortable inviting friends around if they had nowhere to sit but the bare floor? For too many people, these are the challenges they face day in, day out”

Paul Colligan, End Furniture Poverty, November 2018

Households that are unable to afford basic items like mattresses and fridges are often those who are in transition such as young care leavers in their first home, those fleeing domestic violence, veterans and refugees. For some, furniture poverty is identified as moving into a home with nothing and living without the basic semblance of a home, while for others it is the inability to replace broken items. In the UK, 14 million homes would struggle to purchase one essential household item if a white good broke down or furniture needed replacing and because it occurs within the confines of shelter – what housing providers supply – it is easy to overlook.

The three barriers for individuals and families to access the help that they need are: low income, funding eligibility and low funding. Indeed, some existing support schemes are particular about those who can access services, meaning that many that would benefit from it are barred from this support, while in other cases, those who can access funding from local schemes find that the sums offered are not substantial enough to source the items that they need.

“Furniture is one of the most important ‘extras’ social landlords can provide to reduce risk of debt with legal sharks, rent arrears and abandonments”

Helen Campbell, Financially Healthy Communities

In November 2016, End Furniture Poverty launched a survey of housing providers, local authorities, charities and tenants to define what items in a household constitute a good standard of living, in the aim of standardising what organisations in the UK mean when they talk about furniture poverty. The aim of the organisations was to influence the social and private sector to enact minimum provisions for tenants, to lobby the government for the release of more funding, to raise awareness of the issue and to bring together service providers in a uniform approach.

End Furniture Poverty believe, based on the result of the research that living without the following ten items constitutes furniture poverty and that providing one, or even several of the items without the others is not enough to build a stable tenancy and suitable home:

The Essentials:

• Bed and mattress
• Table and chairs
• Sofa or an armchair
• Wardrobe and drawers
• Carpets for living room and bedroom
• Blinds or curtains
• Washing machine
• Fridge/freezer
• Cooker
• Television

With wardrobes and drawers listed by End Furniture Poverty as essential household elements, one strategy for eliminating furniture poverty could be to adapt existing stock or build new stock to include built-in storage. One of the more obviously affordable pathways to providing all items on this list is to look for second-hand versions; partnerships with house clearance and second-hand charities could help bring good quality items into homes. When tenants move on, some may leave behind items that can be returned back into the system to help others in need, rather than going to landfill.

Addressing furniture poverty falls under the jurisdiction of addressing financial inclusion. Furnished social housing offerings, in comparison to that of the private rental sector fall dramatically short at 2%, which equates to around 70,000 properties. In the private rental sector, furnished properties are commonplace and for those without these items, it relieves a huge financial burden. For housing providers, offering a furnished tenancy could result in lower tenancy failure and possibly make it easier to rent out historically unpopular properties.

CASE STUDY: Community Furniture Aid, Pontycymer, Wales

Community Furniture Aid is a small charity reliant on donations of second-hand furniture to create ‘starter packs’ for families in need that are referred to them by organisations, such as Womens Aid, the Prison Service, the Salvation Army and ex-service personnel. Started by a local couple, the charity receives no funding, charges no excessive fees and is run by volunteers. Costs are cut to a minimum by using a church that is unused due to a lack of electricity or water to store the items.

CASE STUDY: Orbit Housing Association, Midlands & South East

Orbit Housing started offering furnished tenancies and also leaving existing flooring and curtains for incoming tenants when they would have previously been stripped and sent to landfill. Not only is this cost neutral, it reduces the workload of their property services team and any costs for providing a furnished tenancy can be charged as a small service charge spread across many months to the tenant. Orbit housing found that for every £1, they gained £2.11 in social return.

CASE STUDY: Homestore, London

Homestore have been providing second-hand and new furniture at reduced prices to families in need in East London for over 30 years. Over a decade, the number of families trying to access their service has quadrupled and the main trend is the growth of working families that are seeking out their services.

The increase of working households living without the bare essentials needed to build a functional life should be a feature of the past, not of our present. Teaming up with local organisations that work in furniture provision may also provide customers with opportunities to volunteer or work in situations where they can directly impact their community, with this web between organisations and residents, in turn building better communities.  Having the bare bones of a household can be the difference between a failed tenancy and a long-term home and the impact of this should not be underestimated.

The post Building Sustainable Tenancies: Ending Furniture Poverty appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/two-ways-automate-your-lease-abstracts/ Thu, 10 Oct 2019 17:15:10 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/two-ways-automate-your-lease-abstracts/ This blog was written by Itzik Spitzen, co-founder and CTO of LeasePilot. LeasePilot, an MRI partner, is a context-aware lease automation platform. As the architect of the company’s software framework, Itzik takes a hands-on approach to managing the company’s technology strategy and software engineering teams. Itzik holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science as well … Continued

The post Two ways to automate your lease abstracts (and when to use each) appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> This blog was written by Itzik Spitzen, co-founder and CTO of LeasePilot. LeasePilot, an MRI partner, is a context-aware lease automation platform. As the architect of the company’s software framework, Itzik takes a hands-on approach to managing the company’s technology strategy and software engineering teams. Itzik holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science as well as Practical Software Engineering diplomas from premier academic institutions in Israel.

Of all the things that need to be done during a leasing lifecycle, creating an abstract is far and away the most dreaded task. But because of the abstract’s centralized importance to the daily operations of every real estate business, it’s a necessity. And until recently, it has been a necessity with no shortcuts. But emerging technologies are finally providing viable alternatives to the traditional process.

At a conceptual level, there are only two possible ways that a lease abstract can be automated. But before I can talk about and compare each method, there’s some important background I need to cover first.

Making Breakfast with Structured Data

Computers and the software that runs on them — including the so-called “artificial intelligence” software — are dumb.

Coming from the CTO of a software company, that might sound like a provocative statement. But I don’t believe that it is. In fact, I think most of my peers would agree with me. If you’re skeptical, here’s an experiment you can try right now:

Step 1: Unlock your smartphone and open the Calculator app.
Step 2: Tap the following buttons: 2 + 2 =
Step 3: Observe the result

Hopefully your calculator produced an output of 4. Everything is working as it should. Go ahead and clear that result so we can continue. This time, let’s throw your calculator a proverbial curveball:

Step 4: Type the following sequence: + + =
Step 5: Observe the result

At this point, astute readers may have noticed that Step 4 is impossible. Even WolframAlpha, the most advanced AI-powered calculator available to the public, can’t make sense of the emoji math above. But you probably figured it out instantly. The answer to + + is, quite obviously, breakfast.

The reason why your Calculator app can’t handle EmojiMath is obvious enough: it wasn’t designed to understand emoji-based inputs. To enable a computer to understand EmojiMath, an engineer would need to add new rules to the calculator software specifying the meaning of each new emoji. The important takeaway here is that computers don’t have general intelligence in the same way that human beings do. Even so-called artificial ‘intelligence’ is task-specific; you can’t use a self-driving car’s AI to trade stock on the NYSE.

So what does all of this have to do with lease abstracts? Everything, actually. The purpose behind this exercise is to introduce the concept of structured data as the essential and fundamental prerequisite for software-based automation of any kind. Structured data describes information that is indexed and formatted in a way that a computer can understand. When you and I look at a lease, we see and understand the structure. But a computer does not. To a computer, there’s no structure to a lease beyond the string of words, punctuation, and line breaks that the document contains.

So when we’re talking about how a computer can automate a lease abstract, what we’re really talking about is how we can convert the raw, unstructured data in a commercial lease into structured data that a computer can understand. And there are only two ways that can be done:

1. Machine Learning Analysis
2. Context-aware ‘Snapshot’

The rest of this piece will discuss how each method works and when to use it. Note that these methods are complementary and have very different use cases. A cutting-edge leasing team will be able to use both in its workflow.

Method 1: Machine Learning Analysis

In a nutshell, the Machine Learning Analysis method uses advanced software to “read” a lease and convert it into structured data that a computer can understand. This process requires a lot of time and computing power, and as a result, a Machine Learning Analysis is typically only run after the final version of a lease is signed and executed. There are a handful of different technologies that a Machine Learning Analysis uses, but for the sake of brevity I’ll focus on the most crucial: Natural Language Processing.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) uses an algorithm to convert the unstructured human language in a commercial lease into a structured dataset that computers can work with. The algorithm works by comparing the unstructured language in the lease to a large sample dataset of pre-structured leasing language. Over time, the algorithm “understands” the meaning of the content in the new lease and builds a logical data structure around its findings.

Although these algorithms aren’t perfect—a human still needs to review the results and correct any mistakes—they “learn” more with each new lease and grow more accurate over time. With all of the grammatical oddities and complexities implicit in human language, this feat is nothing short of amazing.

Method 2: Context-aware ‘Snapshot’

Lease abstraction using the ‘Snapshot’ method is relatively new on the CRE scene. This method doesn’t require a complicated NLP algorithm, uses minimal processing power, and can produce an error-free abstract instantaneously (no human review required). Given all of these advantages over the Machine Learning Analysis method, you’re probably wondering why the Snapshot method isn’t common practice. Here’s the catch: a Realtime Database Snapshot can only produce an abstract from a lease that is drafted and revised using software built specifically for creating commercial lease documents.

Although specialized leasing software is relatively new, it operates on the same principles that every real estate lawyer and paralegal already knows reflexively: commercial leases have a logical structure with a predictable framework. For example, when an extension option is added to a base lease form, the lawyer drafting the lease automatically knows that s/he will need to update the term, rent tables, and assignment provisions accordingly. The lawyer knows the broader implications a single change can have because s/he is aware of the larger context.

Specialized leasing software operates on the same idea of contextual-awareness. It’s the equivalent of giving your computer a comprehensive ‘map’ of your base forms and option language before a lease is drafted. When it’s time to draft a new lease, the software uses the ‘map’ to build your lease with data that’s already structured. As default option language is added, removed, or manually modified during the negotiation process, the underlying data is continually updated in real time. With this approach to lease-drafting, creating an abstract is as simple as a ‘snapshot’.

Context-aware lease-drafting tools are relatively new to the industry, and as such the snapshot method isn’t as well known as Machine Learning Analysis. But as more and more landlords begin to take advantage of context-aware drafting tools, there’s no doubt that this type of software—and abstracts created with the Snapshot method—will be the industry standard in the next 5-7 years.

Use the Right Method

Now that you have a better understanding of both abstracting methods, the reasons why these methods are complementary are easier to understand. Let’s bring them into view more clearly.

When to use a Machine Learning Abstract

The primary advantage of Post-Lease Analysis is its flexibility. It can be used to create an abstract for almost any lease, which makes it particularly useful when landlords acquire new assets or wish to gather historical leasing data from their portfolio.

The downside of the Post-Lease Analysis method is accuracy and consistency. After the analysis is run, the abstract still requires human review and correction which limits the scalability of the method and eliminates the feasibility of abstracting each iteration of a lease draft during negotiation.

For these reasons, the general rule-of-thumb is that landlords should use the Post-Lease Analysis method for leases on tenant paper or legacy leases.

When to use a Data Snapshot Abstract

Producing an abstract using the Snapshot method is the future of leasing. Its advantages over Post-Lease Analysis are clear: It’s instant, it can be run with each draft to speed up negotiation, and it’s 100% accurate every time.

The obvious downside is that a Snapshot is only possible with leases that are created with specialized lease-drafting software on the landlord’s forms. But as context-aware lease-drafting software becomes the industry norm, this drawback is becoming less important every day.

The post Two ways to automate your lease abstracts (and when to use each) appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/two-ways-automate-your-lease-abstracts-2/ Thu, 10 Oct 2019 17:15:10 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/two-ways-automate-your-lease-abstracts-2/

This blog was written by Itzik Spitzen, co-founder and CTO of LeasePilot. LeasePilot, an MRI partner, is a context-aware lease automation platform. As the architect of the company’s software framework, Itzik takes a hands-on approach to managing the company’s technology strategy and software engineering teams. Itzik holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science as well … Continued

The post Two ways to automate your lease abstracts (and when to use each) appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]>

This blog was written by Itzik Spitzen, co-founder and CTO of LeasePilot. LeasePilot, an MRI partner, is a context-aware lease automation platform. As the architect of the company’s software framework, Itzik takes a hands-on approach to managing the company’s technology strategy and software engineering teams. Itzik holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science as well as Practical Software Engineering diplomas from premier academic institutions in Israel.

Of all the things that need to be done during a leasing lifecycle, creating an abstract is far and away the most dreaded task. But because of the abstract’s centralized importance to the daily operations of every real estate business, it’s a necessity. And until recently, it has been a necessity with no shortcuts. But emerging technologies are finally providing viable alternatives to the traditional process.

At a conceptual level, there are only two possible ways that a lease abstract can be automated. But before I can talk about and compare each method, there’s some important background I need to cover first.

Making Breakfast with Structured Data

Computers and the software that runs on them — including the so-called “artificial intelligence” software — are dumb.

Coming from the CTO of a software company, that might sound like a provocative statement. But I don’t believe that it is. In fact, I think most of my peers would agree with me. If you’re skeptical, here’s an experiment you can try right now:

Step 1: Unlock your smartphone and open the Calculator app.
Step 2: Tap the following buttons: 2 + 2 =
Step 3: Observe the result

Hopefully your calculator produced an output of 4. Everything is working as it should. Go ahead and clear that result so we can continue. This time, let’s throw your calculator a proverbial curveball:

Step 4: Type the following sequence: + + =
Step 5: Observe the result

At this point, astute readers may have noticed that Step 4 is impossible. Even WolframAlpha, the most advanced AI-powered calculator available to the public, can’t make sense of the emoji math above. But you probably figured it out instantly. The answer to + + is, quite obviously, breakfast.

The reason why your Calculator app can’t handle EmojiMath is obvious enough: it wasn’t designed to understand emoji-based inputs. To enable a computer to understand EmojiMath, an engineer would need to add new rules to the calculator software specifying the meaning of each new emoji. The important takeaway here is that computers don’t have general intelligence in the same way that human beings do. Even so-called artificial ‘intelligence’ is task-specific; you can’t use a self-driving car’s AI to trade stock on the NYSE.

So what does all of this have to do with lease abstracts? Everything, actually. The purpose behind this exercise is to introduce the concept of structured data as the essential and fundamental prerequisite for software-based automation of any kind. Structured data describes information that is indexed and formatted in a way that a computer can understand. When you and I look at a lease, we see and understand the structure. But a computer does not. To a computer, there’s no structure to a lease beyond the string of words, punctuation, and line breaks that the document contains.

So when we’re talking about how a computer can automate a lease abstract, what we’re really talking about is how we can convert the raw, unstructured data in a commercial lease into structured data that a computer can understand. And there are only two ways that can be done:

1. Machine Learning Analysis
2. Context-aware ‘Snapshot’

The rest of this piece will discuss how each method works and when to use it. Note that these methods are complementary and have very different use cases. A cutting-edge leasing team will be able to use both in its workflow.

Method 1: Machine Learning Analysis

In a nutshell, the Machine Learning Analysis method uses advanced software to “read” a lease and convert it into structured data that a computer can understand. This process requires a lot of time and computing power, and as a result, a Machine Learning Analysis is typically only run after the final version of a lease is signed and executed. There are a handful of different technologies that a Machine Learning Analysis uses, but for the sake of brevity I’ll focus on the most crucial: Natural Language Processing.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) uses an algorithm to convert the unstructured human language in a commercial lease into a structured dataset that computers can work with. The algorithm works by comparing the unstructured language in the lease to a large sample dataset of pre-structured leasing language. Over time, the algorithm “understands” the meaning of the content in the new lease and builds a logical data structure around its findings.

Although these algorithms aren’t perfect—a human still needs to review the results and correct any mistakes—they “learn” more with each new lease and grow more accurate over time. With all of the grammatical oddities and complexities implicit in human language, this feat is nothing short of amazing.

Method 2: Context-aware ‘Snapshot’

Lease abstraction using the ‘Snapshot’ method is relatively new on the CRE scene. This method doesn’t require a complicated NLP algorithm, uses minimal processing power, and can produce an error-free abstract instantaneously (no human review required). Given all of these advantages over the Machine Learning Analysis method, you’re probably wondering why the Snapshot method isn’t common practice. Here’s the catch: a Realtime Database Snapshot can only produce an abstract from a lease that is drafted and revised using software built specifically for creating commercial lease documents.

Although specialized leasing software is relatively new, it operates on the same principles that every real estate lawyer and paralegal already knows reflexively: commercial leases have a logical structure with a predictable framework. For example, when an extension option is added to a base lease form, the lawyer drafting the lease automatically knows that s/he will need to update the term, rent tables, and assignment provisions accordingly. The lawyer knows the broader implications a single change can have because s/he is aware of the larger context.

Specialized leasing software operates on the same idea of contextual-awareness. It’s the equivalent of giving your computer a comprehensive ‘map’ of your base forms and option language before a lease is drafted. When it’s time to draft a new lease, the software uses the ‘map’ to build your lease with data that’s already structured. As default option language is added, removed, or manually modified during the negotiation process, the underlying data is continually updated in real time. With this approach to lease-drafting, creating an abstract is as simple as a ‘snapshot’.

Context-aware lease-drafting tools are relatively new to the industry, and as such the snapshot method isn’t as well known as Machine Learning Analysis. But as more and more landlords begin to take advantage of context-aware drafting tools, there’s no doubt that this type of software—and abstracts created with the Snapshot method—will be the industry standard in the next 5-7 years.

Use the Right Method

Now that you have a better understanding of both abstracting methods, the reasons why these methods are complementary are easier to understand. Let’s bring them into view more clearly.

When to use a Machine Learning Abstract

The primary advantage of Post-Lease Analysis is its flexibility. It can be used to create an abstract for almost any lease, which makes it particularly useful when landlords acquire new assets or wish to gather historical leasing data from their portfolio.

The downside of the Post-Lease Analysis method is accuracy and consistency. After the analysis is run, the abstract still requires human review and correction which limits the scalability of the method and eliminates the feasibility of abstracting each iteration of a lease draft during negotiation.

For these reasons, the general rule-of-thumb is that landlords should use the Post-Lease Analysis method for leases on tenant paper or legacy leases.

When to use a Data Snapshot Abstract

Producing an abstract using the Snapshot method is the future of leasing. Its advantages over Post-Lease Analysis are clear: It’s instant, it can be run with each draft to speed up negotiation, and it’s 100% accurate every time.

The obvious downside is that a Snapshot is only possible with leases that are created with specialized lease-drafting software on the landlord’s forms. But as context-aware lease-drafting software becomes the industry norm, this drawback is becoming less important every day.

The post Two ways to automate your lease abstracts (and when to use each) appeared first on MRI Software | UK.

]]> https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/blog/building-sustainable-tenancies-preparing-for-an-ageing-population/ Fri, 04 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/?p=30970 Within a generation, more than a quarter of the UK population will be over 65. How is the social housing sector preparing for this surge in need?

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]]> Within a generation, more than a quarter of the UK population will be over 65. How is the social housing sector preparing for this surge in need?