Dan Haefner, the chief information officer at Atlanta-based Lane Co., had a decision to make. With an ever-growing number of projects on Lane's technology to-do list, his own team was already stretched from rolling out a new Web-based property management system at the company. Then, a new request came into his office from CondoLane, the firm's condominium sales team, asking if Haefner's crew could develop much-needed reporting tools for that unit's business operations.
"We wanted to help them, but as a company, we hadn't identified that as a top priority in regard to our IT resources," Haefner says. The problem was compounded by the fact that, even if his team could develop an in-house solution, it would then be faced with maintaining and supporting it. Still,
Haefner didn't want to reject the request outright. "What we did instead was help them identify an off-the-shelf solution that met the majority of their needs and alleviated our internal workload," Haefner says. "It wasn't perfect, and we had to give up a few things to pull it off. But hopefully, our condo team is much more operationally efficient now."
Haefner and Lane's condo team aren't alone. That kind of IT triage is taking place at multifamily firms nationally when it comes to prioritizing and implementing new tech requests. The reason is as ubiquitous as technology itself: As the scope of technology and Web-based solutions has expanded to automate everything from lease-up initiatives to maintenance requests and electronic rent collection, IT staffs are feeling increasingly pinched to respond to new service requests while maintaining the systems they've already deployed. "We have a list of approximately 70 projects that we're either doing or planning to do at any given time," says Jamie Teabo, a senior vice president at Atlanta-based Post Properties, who sits on the REIT's technology steering committee. "Every time we get one completed, it seems like another one pops up to take its place."
Tech Tracks
A big part of the heavier tech load comes from a need to deploy those Web-based systems, which allow geographically spread-out firms to cull their data from a central location. Offered by companies such as Yardi Systems, Intuit's MRI Residential, and RealPage, the programs can improve customer satisfaction on the front end with portals and service options for residents, while providing more in-depth and up-to-date financial reports for the back office. Given those advantages, the systems are quickly becoming a must-have to maintain a competitive edge, and multifamily firms are scrambling to get them up and running now.
"You've got to do it in order to compete and to run your business the way you want to run it," says Pat Gregory, chief information officer at Richmond, Va.-based United Dominion Realty Trust, which has been rolling out RealPage's OneSite software in the last year. "It's certainly becoming a common theme that almost all of us are facing right now, because good, Web-based programs have just recently become available."
Combine that trend with the penchant among go-getting department heads to view their own initiatives as everyone else's top priority, too, and you've got a potentially acrimonious, three-way tug-of-war between corporatewide strategic initiatives, pressing departmental needs, and limited technology resources. More often than not, the tech guy is left playing referee in the middle. "When the IT guy becomes the gatekeeper, that's a losing proposition," Gregory says. "You end up in a position where at least one person hates you. Then sometimes, everybody does."
Given that conundrum, it's OK to pity the poor tech guy, especially if that guy–or gal–happens to be you. But you can do more than just feel sorry for yourself. While technology pros are feeling the strain industrywide, they're also developing strategies to cope with those growing challenges, while fulfilling their mission to keep their firms on the leading edge of an accelerating technology race.
Top of the Charts
At many firms, the growing need to select and deploy new technologies quickly while improving business practices has yielded a more formal process for prioritizing IT projects. That means high-level executives, including department heads and CEOs, are taking part in deciding what gets developed and what gets left on the back burner. While that can result in more bureaucracy–and another meeting in your monthly schedule–it also takes the IT executive out of the corporate crosshairs.
Chicago-based Equity Residential, a REIT that owns and operates more than 200,000 apartments nationally, now holds quarterly meetings among its top executives and managers to review IT priorities. "I've got the CEO and the COO sitting there, along with all the department heads, so it's not just the IT department telling the marketing department they can't have this one thing," says Jay Kurtzman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Equity. "I may still end up being the bad guy, but at least it's everybody, sitting down as a group, determining how each initiative fits in strategically to what we're doing as a whole."
Other multifamily tech pros stress the importance of those group strategy sessions, too, while underlining the importance of transplanting the technology decision-making process from the server room to the business suite. "It used to be an issue for us, until this past year, when we created a team to look at any new technology initiatives," says Brian Galla, director of technology at Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co., a third-party fee manager that oversees 112,000 units nationally. "We sit down with representatives from all the different business lines and say, 'OK, let's all take a look at what these programs are.' From an IT perspective, we're able to communicate that we have a lot on our plates and make the business folks understand that they need to tell us which projects are the most important for the direction of our organization."
At Dallas-based BH Management Services, which manages more than 30,000 units nationally, director of information technology D. Thomas Figert says the key during the process is to act as an adviser, and not a dictator, on all things tech. "I try to position myself not as a gatekeeper but as the voice of reason," Figert says. "If it's a question of regional value versus enterprise value, I'll just lay that on the table."
Making the List
Of course, monthly meetings and steering committees alone won't solve your tech prioritization blues. While tech watchers stress time and again that the driving force behind any technology decision should always be a compelling business need, every organization must determine for itself what those needs are and which ones it deems most important. Many firms conduct a detailed ROI analysis to determine which technology initiatives get funded, but hard-dollar returns aren't always the bottom line on what gets approved and what doesn't.
"I'll tell you what we don't do. We don't sit down and compare 30 projects' ROIs," says Haefner. "Not only do we not have the resources to do that, but you need to look at process improvement, too."
Intangible benefits, such as making operations more efficient and providing better resident services, need to be taken into account as well. "We have five rules for any technology project," says Carl D. Bonner, senior vice president of information technology at Post Properties. "It has to increase revenue, decrease expenses, improve resident or employee satisfaction, or–since we're a public company–improve our compliance. If it doesn't do one of those five things, we don't do it."
Assigning points for the different needs a project meets, especially those that don't fit into a clear-cut ROI analysis, can be particularly effective to alleviate the tension of office politics and bruised egos. "You can assign values to things like ROI, viability, risk, and how many people at the company it impacts," says Figert. "In my mind, there are any number of factors that go into it."
And of course, that scoring process will differ for different types of multifamily companies. For instance, at Lincoln, Galla says the justification equation for a fee-based manager diverges from that of an owner-operator. "For a fee manager, we make our money on the increase in revenue at a property and not necessarily on a reduction in expenses," Galla says. "The first thing I look at is what the technology is going to cost versus what type of revenue it's going to generate at the property level."
As with any multidepartmental initiative, communicating company priorities and managing expectations ahead of time are crucial to avoiding tension and disappointment among the department heads you serve. At Lane, Haefner says he has recently focused on broadcasting the company's technology priorities ahead of time to the entire firm.
"You need to say, 'Here are our top three technology initiatives that we're going to do this year,'" Haefner says. "That way, you can say, 'Listen, my budget is already locked down for these priorities that we've defined as an organization.'" At the same time, though, as he did for his condo sales team, he stresses the importance of offering a stand-in solution for the business lines that didn't get everything they wished for at the technology table.
"You've got to give them a choice and say to them, if you can find it in your budget, we'll manage the contractor process for you," Haefner says. "That's still going to put some extra stress on your IT department, but at least you can give them an alternative."
–Joe Bousquin is a freelance writer in Newcastle, Calif.
Hand In Hand
Ironically, technology is the key to setting tech spending.
When it comes to prioritizing your IT spending, don't underestimate the power of technology to help determine your company's needs. At Dallas-based BH Management Services, executives use Client Centric Solution's ClientConnect online collaboration tool to discuss and set priorities for various IT projects.
"It allows us to track projects we're looking at and encourages and fosters communications," says D. Thomas Figert, BH Management's director of information technology. "It's proved to be of significant benefit to us."
For instance, using the Web-based collaboration software's workspace feature, users can post comments or updates on a project. If a consultant's evaluation of a given technology has been delivered to the company, it can be added to the online dialogue.
"It very much takes on the persona of a blog," Figert says. "It gives you a repository for all the meaningful literature and information associated with a project, and you can add it right there in the form of attachments."
For projects that are already in the works, ClientConnect's messaging system allows all participants to see progress as it happens, while prompting them to complete their own tasks and keep things rolling.
"Whenever there's an update, or something has been added to a given project's workspace, everyone involved receives a trigger," Figert says. "It has really allowed us to organize and work our way through the process of the project development life cycle."