Optimisation of the rental process at Peach – 12 days faster to conclude a contract thanks to digital signature

Peach Property Group AG

The Swiss property investment company concentrates its investment focus on German rental properties. With around 25,000 residential properties, Peach Property Group is a major real estate company in Germany.^[1] PROMOS has already supported the company in a major digital transformation project in the past; their migration to SAP S/4HANA^® took place at the turn of the year 2019/2020. The new system is ideally suited to mapping the rapid expansion and the various processes at different locations of the up-and-coming Peach Property Group.

Starting point

At a total of 15 Peach Points throughout Germany, prospective tenants have the opportunity to make direct contact with Peach Property employees. Letting, including the conclusion of contracts, also takes place on a decentralised basis in the respective regions of the company and was previously characterised by an individual approach in each case. This led to difficulties in the monitoring and quality assurance of rental processes. However, the traceability of the process was absolutely essential for reasons of transparency vis-à-vis shareholders and auditors. To address this problem, Peach was looking for a digital solution that would guide its employees through standardised steps and ensure consistent quality in the contracts. At the same time, the option of a digital signature using Docusign needed to be created.

The introduction of the digital rental agreement process

In a joint project, a customised digital rental agreement process was implemented for Peach Property. Project manager on the PROMOS side, Tamara Erdenberger, Deputy Director in the Consulting Real Estate department, describes the project initiation as follows: “With its numerous locations and strong growth ambitions, Peach Property stands out for its very specific structure. For us, it was a matter of course to analyse the initial situation in detail and translate the company’s needs into a customised process.” Today, the process is divided into various steps.

The new process is designed so that when a tenancy is initiated, the landlord first enters all relevant data for the tenancy agreement in SAP^® and then the tenancy agreement is created with the help of the OPCC correspondence tool. An automated easysquare workflow process then starts, which has the task of obtaining all the signatures required. The rental agreement is automatically transferred to Docusign, enabling the tenant to provide a digital signature. Erdenberger explains: “Nowadays, we are used to being able to carry out almost every conceivable process online. It’s quick and very easy. The step of enabling contracts to be signed digitally is not only in keeping with the times, but also has important advantages for both sides.” Once the signed contract has been automatically fed back into the project system, it is then signed by two Peach Property employees. Finally, the tenant receives the signed and legally valid contract by e-mail. The process is now complete and the corresponding contract is activated. The signed document is archived within the contract in SAP^®.

back to overview

In addition to the digital signature, Peach Property still offers the option of signing the contract manually on paper. Erdenberger explains the background: “The process is called a digital tenancy contract, but of course we also had to take into account tenants who either can’t or don’t want to do this or who are standing on site and say, ‘I’m here right now, I'll sign my tenancy agreement straight away’.” In this way, the new process combines the advantages of modern technology with the preferences of a diverse tenant base.

What successes has Peach had to date?

When we talk about process digitalisation, we always talk about time savings. Peach Property’s figures clearly show how significant this can be. Instead of the previous average of 14 days to sign a contract, Peach was able to reduce the process to 1.9 days – an achievement to be proud of. The company also benefits from a standardised process across all locations, improved data quality and significantly reduced printing and postal costs. Automatic process control also simplifies workflows and reduces the workload of employees. A success all along the line!

The role of the PROMOS rental solution

Peach Property’s signature process is customised to their specific needs. Similarly, other PROMOS customers use the rental solution to digitally map the initiation and conclusion of a rental process. The rental solution with the associated potential tenant app also integrates the option to provide the required signatures digitally. It differs in that it also offers the option of generating exposés, maintaining prospective buyer data, automatically arranging appointments and reservations, the self-disclosure process and much more digitally in the portal. The data (e.g. the automatic adding of business partners) is seamlessly integrated into the SAP^® system. Erdenberger comments on this option: “Peach is also examining whether the current solution can be supplemented with other standard functionalities and solutions from PROMOS, so that even prospective tenant management can be mapped in SAP^® and thus complete the process.”

Conclusion

Thanks to the introduction of a digital rental agreement process, Peach benefits from standardised and efficient rental processes. The integration of the customised easysquare workflow process and Docusign enables contracts to be signed securely and efficiently – and all of this is fully integrated into the company’s modern SAP S/4HANA^® system. In conclusion, Erdenberger comments on the current situation: “Peach Property is very satisfied with the process that has been created. For the first time, they are able to guarantee a process according to centrally defined standards and procedures at every location. This significantly increases their transparency and data quality. No matter what comes in the future, I think we have created a wonderful, customised starting point here.”