In November, Property Solutions distributed a survey to multifamily professionals asking a series of questions about on-the-job technology use. The survey was designed to measure usage, aptitude, and attitudes toward technology platforms used by property management professionals on a regular basis.
The 136 respondents who participated represent a wide range of property and portfolio sizes from 25-30 unit properties to portfolios managing over 130,000 units. The majority of participants described their primary job responsibilities as management, leasing, and marketing, with a number of Accounting, Operations, Sales, and IT specialists participating as well.
Fifty four percent of participants have worked in the multifamily industry over five years, with 30 percent boasting 10 years or more in the industry. Most respondents (62 percent) reported that their current company has “early-adopter” or progressive attitude towards technology, regularly seeking out new tools and solutions. Another 37 percent rated their companies as either average or conservative when it comes to new technology adoption.
Multiple Platforms - Multiple Passwords:
On average, respondents reported using at least five distinct technology platforms or interfaces on a regular basis. Nearly seventy percent reported having to log in to different systems more than 10 times each week. While 17 percent of participants reported using systems exclusively designed for the multifamily industry, the average respondent use approximately 50 percent industry specific technology, and 50 percent third-party software such as Google Analytics, Salesforce, etc.
On-the-job Training:
Perhaps a reflection of the relatively experienced group of respondents, 55 percent of survey participants reported bringing previous training with their technology systems to their current position while 45 percent had no prior experience with the technology systems they are currently using. Forty percent of respondents indicate that, on average, only one hour of training is provided for each system they use. The majority had access to online training and webinars (71 percent), with one-on-one training (38%), manuals, and classroom training (28% each) also used. Fifteen percent of respondents received no training on their technology systems at all.
The relative lack of training seems to correlate to some of the most common problems respondents encounter with technology. Thirty nine percent said the most common problem lies in the frequency of changes to their technology systems. Other frequently encountered problems include buggy software (35 percent), difficulty using the interface, and lack of support (26 percent each).
The Best & the Worst:
Survey participants found the biggest advantages offered by their technology systems to fall in the categories of time savings (71 percent) and operational efficiencies (68 percent). NOI was only cited as an advantage by 26 percent of respondents. Although respondents rated the effectiveness of available reporting relatively high (6.9 on a scale of 1 to 10), better reporting was also cited in 13 percent of the responses given by participants when asked what they’d like their technology to do better.
Nearly forty percent of participants stated the need for an all-in-one, comprehensive system for all tasks or, at least much more effective integration between systems and tasks. One respondent stated, “We just have too many technology systems.” Another noted, “Seems like information has to be entered in three different places to get one outcome.” Seven percent of the responses mentioned the need for tools to simplify communication between property managers and residents.
Take-aways:
While the industry is beginning to adopt a more open and progressive attitude toward technology solutions, there are still a number of common problems. One of the largest seems to be poor integration between systems and an unwieldy number of interfaces, dashboards, portals, and passwords. This issue has become so prevalent that some companies are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to add yet another system to the mix for the sole purpose of managing passwords. There is also a demonstrated need for more effective reporting and better systems training for end-users.
Property management companies who want to realize the most ROI for their technology investment are advised to work closely with vendors to facilitate and streamline end-user training. At the same time, opportunities abound for technology providers who are willing to embrace an open API system and create meaningful integrations that can share relevant information between databases and functions.
We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our technology survey. Congratulations to Christopher Ostrowski, whose name was drawn from all respondents to win a $50 Amazon gift card. We’ll be offering additional surveys in future issues of our newsletter and would love to hear your side of the story. Stay tuned!
