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A property company in north London has just bought the TRAMPS  property management system.  The organisation is both a property investment company, plus they manage properties on behalf of others.  Nothing unusual there you may think, but read on...

The new project is very exciting as the proprietor has investigated very thoroughly the possibility of automating as many parts of the business as possible.  Most organisations are happy to manually start off automatic processes such as rent demanding and the issuing of demands, plus debt chasing and the actual issuing of correspondence.  Once started TRAMPS will run complex process and we have designed them to minimise or eliminate any manual intervention, but most companies still expect to put a note in their diaries and kick the process off at the appropriate time.  However, our North London company will fully automate all of these areas, all of which TRAMPS is capable of but most people do not use.  The processes will run and will issue the necessary documentation whether someone is present or not.  The benefits of this are very clear.

Interestingly, the proprietor contacted many suppliers of property systems and was not successful in finding one that would automate the business sufficiently, including his incumbent supplier, a well known provider of property systems. 

For more information, please contact us.  All of this is available without any bespoke work! 

Following on from my recent news about the potential merger of PISCES and OSCRE (for more information on the PISCES standard, please see my earlier blogs) I am delighted to confirm that the merger has gone ahead.

Stephen Spooner, OSCRE Chairman said the following:

I am very pleased to announce that we have now completed the merger of PISCES and OSCRE Americas.

Retaining the name Open Standards Consortium For Real Estate (OSCRE), and our not for profit status, our unified global consortium can now fully realise the vision of maximising value in the real estate industry through open interoperability among real estate information systems; an effort founded on common business interests and internationally accepted information technology standards.

Operating as a global consortium mirrors the scope and business objectives of OSCRE members. Merging the operations and more closely integrating global standards development and adoption activities to match the increasingly global needs of the real estate industry was always a goal in PISCES and OSCRE Americas development. Now, having reached this milestone, we are eager to provide a setting where consortium members and strategic partners can gain new levels of efficiency and effectiveness....

More of this statement is available via this link:  http://web.pisces.co.uk/OSCREx/eNews/MemberNews20091120.htm

The OSCRE web site is here: http://web.pisces.co.uk/oscrex/default3.aspx

Watch this space.  More information on Trace's involvement with OSCRE will follow soon.

In the past I have mentioned the PISCES standard on this blog.

PISCES is a data exchange standard for the property and legal markets that will enable data to be passed from one PISCES compliant system to another.  This vastly simplifies the old way of importing data which used to be very time consuming.  And if your lawyer also uses a PISCES compliant system, they new leases could be exported and passed into your property system as a new property and lease record. Without further manipulation. Quick, easy, accurate.

OSCRE is the American standard and PISCES and OSCRE have been working together for a time.  PISCES and OSCRE Americas have fomed a joint taskforce to consider a merger.  It is reported that initial talks have been constructive with a merger now expected to take place in early January 2010.

Links:

www.pisces.co.uk

www.oscre.org

Just a quick reminder that the User Conference is now less than two weeks away (Tuesday 3rd November).  If you would like to attend, please contact your Account Manager on 020 7825 1000

Another article from Remit Consulting.  This article discusses some issues to be considered when implementing a property system that is to manage a portfolio that is in more than one country.

Interestingly, our systems do answer many of the issues raised.  For more information please contact us.

To visit the article, click here.

http://www.remitconsulting.com/resources/clients/1/user/resource_44.pdf

To view our brochures on cross border management, follow the links below:

http://www.tracesolutions.co.uk/files/additional/overview_banners/Tramps_CB_Data_Sheet_001.pdf  - for TRAMPS (for managing agents)

http://www.tracesolutions.co.uk/files/additional/overview_banners/BlueBox_CB.pdf - for BlueBox (for investors)

http://www.tracesolutions.co.uk/files/additional/overview_banners/o6ix_Cross_Border.pdf - for o6ix (for corporate occupiers)

Or visit the 'info centres' on ou web site

I think all of us occasionally ponder technology and what is can do for us.  It was not long ago that I wondered what Facebook was all about and asking how it differs from Bebo.  Then of course we have Twitter (and the posts on Twitter called, amusingly, tweets).

Therefore we will from time to time add some technology articles here.  The tone of the articles will be to explain some of these new fangled things and, more importantly, how we can use it to our benefit in the real world.

The link below is to an article written by REMIT Consulting.  REMIT are one of the most respected consultants in the property management world.

http://www.remitconsulting.com/resources/clients/1/user/resource_185.pdf

Today we launched our advertising campaignfor BlueBox, our property management system designed for property investors.

To see the advert click on the following link...

http://www.schoolground.co.uk/basecamp/siv/email/011009-MM/index.html?utm_source=Investors+Oct09&utm_campaign=ff1951ce3f-email0210&utm_medium=email

A short time ago we sent out an e-mail campaign for TRAMPS, our system for managing agents.  The mailer provided links to further information on our web site.  To see our mailer, click here...

http://www.schoolground.co.uk/basecamp/siv/trace/emails/trampsjuly09/index.html?utm_source=Managing+Agents+July+2009&utm_campaign=95533a17d9-TRAMPS0709&utm_medium=email

TRAMPS, BlueBox and o6ix, are now compliant with latest version of the PISCES standard, called PIE.

Don’t know what the PISCES standard is?  Let me explain....

PISCES is a not-for-profit organisation that is setting electronic standards for the property and legal industries.  This means that you will be able to send data from one compliant system to another without the need for re-keying, with all the associated time and errors that this can incur.  And it’s much easier than the traditional way of exporting from one system, ensuring that the data is then mapped to the correct field in the destination system and also making sure that the format of each column is correct.

If you transfer data frequently there are many benefits to PISCES.  If the systems that you are exporting from and to are PISCES compliant systems, the data really will import directly without any manipulation.  Or when your lawyer drafted a new lease he (or she) can simply export a file that can be imported to your property system.  This will create a new property record, new lease, new landlord etc.

There are different standards for different purposes.  The latest standard, PIE (Portfolio Information Exchange) is now here and this will enable portfolios to be exchanged between systems.  The accuracy and time saving benefits to anyone who regularly takes on new portfolios can be huge.

The PISCES standard has been adopted by several of the main property management system suppliers and the momentum that has been created by this has made most of the rest start to follow suit.  It may be worth asking your supplier whether your current property system is PISCES compliant.

For more information on PISCES go to www.pisces.co.uk

As the return to a VAT rate of 17.5% looms (planned for 31st December) we would like some feedback from you.

When the 15% rate was announced, many software suppliers were taken by surprise and had to react quickly.  Information had to be passed to the user base rapidly about how to accommodate it within the system, maybe initially as a workaround until an update to the software was released.  And with an accounting system the implications of changing VAT can be far reaching.

Therefore we would appreciate any feedback as to whether your suppliers coped well or poorly.  If they did well we would be keen to know why they were so good.  And we expect you to include our performance in your feedback.  It's all part of our continous improvement strategy.

Please send any feedback to adam.mackay@tracegroup.com

Many thanks.