2020 was the year for businesses to embrace remote working and technology has played an important part in making this possible for everyone. Whether it be meeting your team over Zoom or building a shared knowledge base for new starters our reliance on the availability of our data online has never been more important.
For a specialist industry like block management what does that technology look like? And what features are the most important to users?
Web access
For block managers, being able to access data on the go is crucial in order to get tasks actioned quickly and improve customer satisfaction. With Propman’s WebUI you can review and approve tasks on the go, so you and your team can get started right away; be that when you’re on site, working from home or out and about. Web access also lessens the pressure on your IT team as you have the ability to move between home working and the office easily.
Online collaboration
Keeping up communication channels with your various team members can become a lot more difficult when you’re not in the same room. Propman will help you to ensure tasks are followed up by generating event reminders and also streamline your invoicing process by notifying the right team members for invoice review and approval (including the ability to see a scanned copy of the invoice) as the invoice status changes. Users can create an unlimited number of workflows for different invoice types or for the value to be approved. Workflows are helpful to see what tasks are slowing down your response times which can then be adjusted to improve productivity.
Maintenance works and service charge
Working from home has not only changed the way block managers are working, but also the nature of their work. There have been reports of an increase in the number of building issues reported as residential clients are spending more time in their spaces and noticing/reporting more issues to building managers.
That brings us onto service charge, which is a really important piece of functionality for block managers. Propman has been built to ensure quick and easy service charge reconciliations, and solid financial reporting.
From Propman you can manage the whole maintenance works process from the initial customer report through to issuing works orders to contractors (including supplier compliance and approval) and invoicing.
New functionality in the latest release, X4.07 means that users can now store an unlimited number of expenditure item lines on maintenance works, enabling them to cater for complex jobs. The expenditure analysis is automatically pulled through when linked to the corresponding invoice for authorisation purposes and flagging up if the invoice amount is different.
Looking forward, there is a real need for businesses to be ready and agile for whatever happens next. Remote working will be here to stay for the time being, but there will be much bigger implications for the property industry and how people interact with the residential and commercial spaces around them in the future. By harnessing technology, block managers can streamline time consuming processes and provide much more in-depth reporting for key stakeholders, which is crucial in being able to make quick, informed decisions in times of change.
