Lucernex expert and EVP Ken Brown’s (see Ken’s management summary here) discusses why its time to upgrade your Lease Administration Software.
Real estate organizations have been using lease administration systems for years. What started out as a replacement for clunky, file-based records that were often misplaced and decentralized, modern lease administration systems have turned into centralized, decision-support databases that are critical to maximizing ROI of real estate assets. When these systems first appeared, simply having all of the key leased and owned data in one place and sharable across the organization was the primary goal.
I recall back in 1983, I worked as a consultant for XEROX, developing an in-house database to track the details on their 1,000 owned properties and approximately 2,500 leases. XEROX had just come out with a “rigid disk” option for their line of personal computers. Having a whopping 10MB of storage, it became feasible to create a database capable of storing all of the information in one centralized place. The system I designed, referred internally as LeaseAd, was written in Dbase II, stored over 900 unique attributes about each location and ultimately became the first commercial Lease Administration software available.
Today, lease administration software remains a valuable and effective tool for any real estate organization with a sizable portfolio. But, as is this case with all technology, the original conception of this software has changed many times over. Older systems are outdated and no longer as relevant as they once were. If you are a company using an older lease administration system, it is time to take a step back, look at what you have and determine if it is truly meeting your overall real estate goals and objectives and providing an efficient platform to execute your real estate strategy. There several reasons why this may not be the case.
Technology that was purchased and installed 10 or more years ago is now outdated and, in many cases unsupported. What happens if the software breaks? Who is going to fix it? And does it truly matter since the software is probably no longer compatible with current operating systems and browsers?
Integration is also an important factor. Current lease administration systems offer an integrated suite of products that can add infinitely more benefit and value to a real estate portfolio than its lease administration predecessor. What would have been several individual real estate tools years ago is now integrated into a suite of products that provide cross-portfolio analysis and reporting to give the 2010 versions of lease administration a significant advantage over older versions.
Another benefit to upgrading lease administration software is that today’s products are entirely Web-based and/or available as an on-line service. This is important because Web-based products mean less IT investment and typically better data security. It also means inclusion of features that old client server applications could not offer like integrated lease analysis and comparison, providing access from anywhere, along with real-time alerts and notifications, real-time data updating, true data transparency, access via mobile devices and integration into other modern Web-based applications like IWMS.
Working with a single vendor is another benefit of today’s lease administration software system. Why not work with one vendor who can supply all products you need rather than a host of different vendors? Support from a single vendor eliminates finger-pointing and holds them accountable. Finally, there are new laws and industry standards that did not exist years ago, that were put in place to hold software companies accountable for the performance of their products. These standards for data and programming help obtain interoperability and standard look and feel across multiple applications.
All of these benefits, from being able to service the software to compatibility, integration, web-based access, working with a single vendor and the enactment of new standards and procedures make the benefits of upgrading lease administration software a no-brainer. It is almost impossible to make the case that older versions of the software are just as effective and useful in today’s marketplace.
Shameless Plug
At Lucernex Technologies, we have just launched our newest version of lease administration software – Lx Contracts – which is the most technologically advanced, lease administration, rent accounting and real estate contract management software available in the market today with fully integrated Lease Analysis and Comparison. I’ve learned a few things since I created LeaseAd back in the 1980s and SLIM in the 1990s, along with over 600 implementations. Lx Contracts starts where these systems left off and provides a platform that will be meeting your needs for many years to come.
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