Case studies

Countrywide plc choose tramps - for a second time!

Countrywide plc is well known as Europe’s largest estate agency operation, but its business is considerably broader. Its property management arm, for example – Countrywide Managing Agents (CMA, formally trading as Countrywide Property Management) – is unrivalled. It employs 230 staff in 15 offices, and manages 40,000 properties in the UK and Ireland, ranging from residential blocks and houses to industrial estates, shopping centres and multi-occupied office buildings.

As you might expect, Countrywide Managing Agents is also one of the longest established users of TRAMPS, Trace Solutions’ market leading software package for managing agents. In fact, they began using TRAMPS as long ago as 1976.

Back then, of course, it ran on a steam-driven mini-computer with a proprietary operating system. But it certainly proved highly resilient, because (despite a number of ports to more advanced hardware) it has continued to be the bedrock of CMA’s management business right up to the present day. It has of course been updated and regularly maintained by Trace over the years to provide the huge expansion of Countrywide’s Database and business demands.

However, no company can rest on its laurels and in 2007 it was decided to put the contract for property management software out to tender. Countrywide wanted to test the market and ensure that it was benefiting from all the latest advances in software, hardware and ‘best practice‘ in property management.

And so began a period of intensive research by a dedicated project team from Countrywide with experience and expertise. This led initially to a shortlist of 6 potential suppliers, which in turn was whittled down to 4 – and then 2. Trace, unsurprisingly, was one of the finalists – and TRAMPS (the latest, greatest, Windows-based version) was the eventual winner.

“The new Windows-based TRAMPS is a real step forward for us”, says David Walton, CMA’s associate director, who led the tender process. “It will help us to improve our business processes dramatically and bring a real increase in efficiency to both ourselves and our clients, and importantly facilitate our growth plans. I wish we’d upgraded years ago!”

Trace are also adding numerous enhancements and extra facilities to the system, including industry-leading web services for both tenants and clients. And, naturally, CMA’s many years of experience of the reliability and support they have come to expect from Trace has been highly influential in the decision making process.

Ultimately, though, it is the power of the underlying code that has most impressed David Walton. “Trace really do understand property management, and their software reflects that at the deepest level. This new contract represents a massive upgrade in our management capabilities, as well as a massive vote of confidence in Trace Solutions.”

John Lewis Partnership buys O6ix to manage their property

With leases that include castles and country clubs as well as the Waitrose supermarket chain and numerous department stores, the property needs of the John Lewis Partnership are many and varied – and growing.

So when management restructuring gave them the chance to upgrade their systems, they quickly opted for a property management solution that was modern, robust – and above all, highly flexible. That system was o6ix.

Says Programme Support Manager Hilary Davidson: “we operate around 560 leases and they’re all astonishingly varied. We wanted a system that could record all those details, but that was also flexible enough to adapt to our existing systems and the various companies we have within the group”.

As o6ix installation and training proceeds, its more advanced features are growing in importance. Flexible reporting and the ability to export to Excel will allow optimisation of items like maintenance charges. The software’s Insight module will give branch managers easy internet access to the property database. And eventual integration with other systems will cut down dramatically on paperwork.

“We’re eager to use O6ix to its full capabilities”, says Hilary. “It’s not merely a case of adapting the software to the way we work. We also want to take full advantage of the system’s more powerful features.“

Langtree Group plc employ bluebox to help grow their business

Industrial estate developer, the Langtree Group plc owns some 4 million square feet of space in business parks and office blocks across the North of England. From its offices in the North West, the Midlands and Yorkshire, Langtree successfully manages a portfolio with around 1,500 tenants using the flexible, fully integrated and Windows-based BlueBox system.

Phil Duckett, Langtree’s Finance Director, says the decision to buy from Trace was an easy one: “We looked at a lot of other systems when choosing BlueBox and have a product that we are perfectly happy with.”  Langtree is very careful to keep on top of all aspects of its business, from development projects and hands-on property and lease management to sensible financial control – all of which is well supported by the BlueBox software. Phil feels that the option to implement BlueBox “was a very practical decision for us.”

Good after sales support is one of the most important areas to consider when getting a new system and when Langtree experienced one small problem, Trace’s engineers were quickly on the case - scrutinising both the software and the hardware. “They listened carefully to us and they sorted it out very quickly,” says Phil. “Trace has the best reputation in the marketplace for supporting its clients”

And does the flexible BlueBox system now provide Langtree with the speed and features it needs? “I was always confident that the product could deliver what we wanted.” Says Phil. “BlueBox gives us the platform from which we can successfully grow our business.  It supports our business processes very well and because it is always being developed and upgraded, we should never have to change systems again.”
“Overall it’s a very good product indeed. I’m very happy with it.”

Bluebox increases management efficiency at St John’s College Cambridge

St John’s College owns approximately 18,000 acres of agricultural land around England as well as a large and diverse property portfolio encompassing shops, offices, leisure facilities, industrial units, residential properties and ground rents.

Prior to purchasing BlueBox, the St John’s team used a Dolphin system. The primary concern they had with their old system was that it was not Y2K compliant. However it also had a couple of other problems: it was not capable of holding the full range the property data that they required for their portfolio and so a paper filing system had to be run in parallel. This meant that updating and searching for information was very time consuming and involved duplication of effort. Even when the information had been found, the system’s basic reporting functionality meant that outputs from the system were limited.

The team looked at other systems including ECS (Qube) and Manhattan. They compared a number of factors including functionality, flexibility and ease of use. In the end they decided that BlueBox was the best fit for their needs as it covered the full range of their requirements and provided flexibility for growth in the future - without being unnecessarily complex.

St John’s College is an owner-occupier as well as a landlord for different parts of its portfolio. The team use BlueBox for all their properties and for the wide range of tasks associated with them. Financial processes include preparation of budgets, rent billing and forecasting the rental income they expect to get in the forthcoming year. They also record repairs and improvements, track rent reviews, store contact details, property descriptions and ERV's and use the Custom Data feature of the system to record very specific aspects of the portfolio such as a house purchase scheme. They make use of the extensive reporting facilities and find the smooth links to Excel a particular bonus.

“Overall the staff at the college find the system provides a huge time saving benefit” said Carol Ingram, Bursar’s Agent for St John’s College. “It also offers us better flexibility and the option of expanding our use of the system in the future.”