Is it worth it? Make your renovation project a success with smart app features

A property manager’s day-to-day work involves many of these small yet important decisions. By way of example, let us take a look at the refurbishment of a vacant apartment. Once the previous tenant has handed over the apartment, the property manager can perform a vacant property inspection. The current actual condition of the apartment and any refurbishment requirements are identified. The documented data then needs to be evaluated and the costs that involved must be calculated with the aid of various lists containing different unit price catalogues. This then forms the appropriate basis for deciding whether to actually perform the work. In this process, valuable time is lost between the inspection of the apartment and the actual commissioning of a service provider. At the same time, the increasing number of individual work steps also increases the probability of potential errors. Would it not be much easier if property managers could simply decide whether to perform the work directly on site during the initial inspection? Intelligent interaction between a mobile application solution and modern cloud technology with an integrated data inventory and data exchange is required for efficient processing of the workflow.  

An end-to-end solution  

When selecting a suitable technical solution, the focus should be on a holistic view of the refurbishment procedure for a vacant apartment. After all, a stand-alone solution, such as one that purely makes the on-site apartment inspection easier, would not be worthwhile if we consider the overall context. The easysquare solution for refurbishment of vacant residential apartments maps the entire process of vacant apartment refurbishment – from sending an employee to the real estate object to completion of the refurbishment work.

Organisation is half the battle  

The flexible solution concept is designed to work both with and without ERP integration. The easysquare solution can thus be used immediately, entirely independently of the ERP system. In this case, you first import all the relevant data (i.e. the addresses and details for the vacant apartments, the various trades and building components and the corresponding unit price catalogues) into the easysquare portal via Excel. From here, you can assign the relevant property manager a task. This simple assignment of an employee to the inspection object in question is the basis for the subsequent inspection of the apartment. E-mails, phone calls and transfers of detailed information between the scheduler and the responsible property manager are unnecessary. With personnel assignment via the easysquare portal, property managers receive all the information required for the task in question as a digital form in the easysquare mobile app on their iPads.  

The iPad as a calculator  

Armed with their mobile work orders, property managers do not need to take any other work equipment with them to the apartment in question. They no longer need a digital camera, log, pen or paper lists with extensive unit price catalogues. Even a navigation device is unnecessary, as the integrated map function in the easysquare mobile app itself takes care of navigation to the property in question. As the apartment data is already stored, this is done almost entirely without any user interaction. On arriving at the location, property managers can record any defects and refurbishment requirements on their iPads one room at a time. The room structures and trades are already stored in the easysquare portal, having previously been imported, so all the property managers have to do now is work through the form intuitively. In addition, they can add photos of the apartment’s condition directly from within the form using the easysquare mobile app, which are then saved in the form automatically. Property managers are shown all services that could potentially be carried out in a catalogue selection directly within the app, allowing them to select and record the activity to be performed simply by tapping on it. Thanks to the stored unit price catalogues, the easysquare mobile app automatically calculates what the required measure will cost. And as if that weren’t enough, easysquare works in the background to total the costs for all the selected services and then shows the total costs for the selected type of measure (e.g., electronics service), the room (e.g., kitchen) and finally the entire apartment. All other calculations are also a breeze for easysquare. For example, if the app stores a formula for calculating amortisation, easysquare automatically calculates whether the identified service should actually be performed from a cost perspective or whether implementing the measure would be uneconomical for the company. Property managers thus receive a sound decision-making basis directly on site based on the stored data records and analysis options in the app, and can immediately make a decision based on their skills and, if applicable, commission the work. At the end of the inspection, the property managers can sign the digital form with all the recorded data directly in the app and then return it.

View all data in the easysquare portal with just one click  

Within a few seconds of sending the data, the administrator can access the inspection results in the easysquare portal. The digital forms that the property managers completed including all photos and signatures are available as clear PDF files for further use. In addition, a target/actual comparison shows where tasks are still outstanding and which assigned tasks have already been completed. The administrator can also export the work results in Excel format.  

All data from a single source  

On request, the easysquare refurbishment of vacant apartments app can be integrated into your SAP^® system easily and conveniently. The data regarding inspections of vacant apartments and unit price catalogues is then generated directly within the SAP^® system and personnel can be assigned to the tasks from there. Once the inspection is completed, the digital forms are sent to the SAP^® system, where they can be processed further and archived. In this way, unnecessary interfaces are reduced to a minimum and your data is always exactly where you need it. Another distinct advantage of SAP^® integration is that property managers can maintain the inventory data for a property on site in the easysquare app and then update the values stored in the SAP^® system automatically.

Conclusion  

With easysquare vacant apartment refurbishment, vacant periods can be radically reduced. Decisive factors for the acceleration of the refurbishment process include the simple and intuitive operation of the easysquare mobile app and reduction of media discontinuities thanks to fully integrated, digital processing. However, above all, the option to calculate the refurbishment costs on site automatically is what makes easysquare vacant apartment refurbishment a unique and pioneering solution concept.