Background

The Broll Property Management System has evolved with the business from its early years. Since 1988, it has been recognised that, IT infrastructure and capability would play a crucial role in the maintaining the competitive edge. With this philosophy, the Broll Property Management System is undergoing continual change.

We could say that the system has been under development for the last 18 years, and we will strive to introduce new methodologies to keep abreast with the changing business, and technological requirements for the next 18 years.

Humble beginnings – circa 1988

1988 marked the start of this symbiosis of technology and property management. The first version of the Broll Property management system was DOS based, utilising the Dataease database system. This system resided on a single server, servicing four users in the Cape Town Office. This system managed 72 buildings, 570 Tenants and processed 5500 transactions per Month.

Microsoft Client server – circa 1999

The next milestone in computing history, and in the history of the system, was the advent of client server. This technology enabled us to give access to remote sites for the processing of data. The platform of choice was Microsoft windows. The database was Microsoft SQL server, with Visual basic Front-end and business layers. Data access, and communications reached a new level with the advent of the Microsoft Platform.

We were now running a wide area network with four Branches nationally, and eight remote sites. The number of servers expanded to four, servicing 200 users. The company had now reached 214 buildings, 3142 tenants, and we were processing approximately 30 000 transactions per month.

.Net – to infinity and beyond

Approximately thirty-six months ago, Broll took the decision to once again lead the way in property management systems. With the advent of .Net, computing has once again taken a great leap in its evolutionary process. .Net allows us to develop applications for consumption on the internet and/or intranet.

From a development point of view, the greatest advantage lies in the rollout process. Once a module has found its way through the development process, the completed module is published on our web server. With appropriate permissions, the user will have that module available the very next time they log on.

Our user base has the capability to include internet users, e.g. Landlords, tenants, and remote shopping centres. The business opportunities are endless. Our landlords will have the ability to draw reports from directly from the system, without having to go through the process of requesting the same report from someone at Broll. Tenants will be able to check their accounts online, make queries and log maintenance issues online. Remote sites have access to the system via a local internet connection, obviating any expensive dedicated data lines.

We currently have a mixture of branches and remote sites. There are thirty-four servers servicing in excess of 500 users. Currently a 135 000 transactions are being processed per month.

Brief System overview

For all intents and purposes, the system is a single operating entity, with different views, depending on each user’s profile. The core system comprises the Property management and accounting components.

Property Management component

The property management component handles the management of space, tenants, leases, billings raised, and cash received. This module could function as a standalone property management system.

We use the building module to register amongst others, landlord details, admin fee types, demographics and sector types, users and roles, interest calc parameters, portfolio allocation, etc.

The Premises module registers and maintains the space within the building. It handles the dynamics of space relating to rentable and usable areas, as per the SAPOA definition.

The Lease module is used to capture the details of the lease, eg. Tenant, fixed charges, tenant types, tenant rating, and any specific clauses on the lease. We essentially prepare the system to generate the fixed charges on the lease. We also supply the debit order information and the type of interest / if any we will levy on the arrears. This is the binding document that links all modules.

The credit controllers have a last opportunity to amend the tenant’s account before the statement run. They would normally print the pre statement run. This report displays tenant’s next statement.

Once the statement run takes place, the tenants will have their statements sent thru to them. The ones on debit order will have their bank accounts debited, and the others will either send their payments through to us or deposit directly into our bank accounts.

The receipting module is then used to import the bank statements on a daily basis. Once the bank statement has been released, all the credit controllers set about allocating items on the bank statement to individual debtors. They can also dispute items that other credit controllers have allocated. At the end of the day, the allocated items will be posted to the various accounts.

All tenant queries are on the live system. As soon as an entry is passed against an account, it reflects on our query screen.

The Accounting aspect of the system caters for non tenant movement e.g. Accruals, budgeting and consolidations. We provide the full accounting function for some listed funds.

We also have a creditors module to capture creditor invoices and record payments made. This module is earmarked to incorporate an approved vendor list, and to handle the process from requisition, through to approval and payment.

Our budgeting module enables the capture of budgets and forecasts into the system. The enhancements to this module includes budgeting at premises level. Using this module, we are able to project earnings for any period into the future.

Reporting Module

The reporting module is used to produce packs of predefined reports. We have a list of reports that can either be printed to screen or printer, saved to disk or sent via e-mail in any number of formats. Furthermore, these reports can be run against any group of buildings for any ad hoc period.

We have started to publish building level reports on the web server. This module will grow to allow landlord access.

Fault centre

The fault centre is currently being used by Broll for logging all calls and faults. This includes IT calls, building and tenant calls.

Utilities system

The utilities dept ensures that utility service providers are paid correctly and on time. The dept. also monitors billing and consumption trends for each building, ensuring that the landlord is being billed correctly for the type of usage of that particular development.

The Rent run and interest run are calculated on the 18th of each month. These are based on the parameters supplied in the lease module.

At this same time, the recoveries are imported from the meter readings.