This is likely easier said than done depending on the personnel you have and the size of your team, but I believe Subject Matter Experts and Super Users are essential to how much success you have with Yardi, or in fact any ERP software.
To save your super user(s) becoming a dumping ground for all manner of questions and queries throughout the business, there should be Subject Matter Experts throughout the organisation that users and team members can approach as a first port of call. These people may not have Yardi experience to begin with, and you don’t necessarily have to recruit for these roles, but you should encourage and grow people into these roles. It might be the line managers, or it might be the people who have been at the organisation the longest and know all the ins and outs of their department the best.
Your Super Users should be your points of contact between your business and Yardi whenever there is an issue, or for more complex system administration functions. They should be able to liaise with team members and offer solutions if known or available.
Of course, escalations to Yardi will always be possible when you have a problem – but with this structure in place, you will obtain more timely resolutions handling as much as possible in house.
If you are implementing Yardi, spend the time and effort going through a data cleanse/clean up in your legacy system prior. If you don’t, problems or data issues that existed in your legacy system will just migrate over into Yardi.
Data integrity in the migration process, as well as ongoing post implementation is integral not only to reduce risk of incorrect information, reporting results and general issues within Yardi, but also to maintain user engagement and confidence your system. If your users are not confident in using your ERP system that will create an uphill battle for your business to make sure they are not working outside of the system causing it to not be the source of truth for your data.
Things you could consider in the day to day running of Yardi to improve data integrity:
- where possible have review or approval processes in place
- encourage a culture that values data integrity, so your staff will want to “dot the I’s and cross the T’s”
- a custom report to pick up common mistakes or data issues in your database
You won’t catch everything of course, but it’s important to have processes in place to minimise issues that could arise from dodgy data.
“That will do” – never something you want to hear when going about more complex corrections.
A sense of dread can come about when you realise that something has gone very wrong somewhere along the line, and it is not going to be straightforward to fix.
As Yardi clients, you will have access to at least one Test database to explore and test out corrections. If the first fix doesn’t work, you can easily refresh Test and try again until you reach a desired result.
Talk to your colleagues and counterparts to get additional insight and ask others to check and confirm if the fix you’ve found looks correct in other areas. For example, if you have been working on a complex fix relating to a tenant ledger, and you’re finally happy with the result you’re seeing, ask your finance or accounting team to check the GL also to ensure that there are no issues on that side.
The final solution you land on may be the quick fix, but do not be afraid to put in the time and effort to ensure it is the right fix for everyone.
No one knows it all.
I touched on this in the prior point, but communication and collaboration between internal staff and teams as well as Yardi themselves or other parties will lead to the best solutions overall for your business.
You may be trying to figure out a solution or correction to a serious data issue, learning a new product or module, or you may be wanting to improve team efficiency with an updated process but you’re not quite sure how it could all fit together.
Take the time to sit in the problem at hand, brainstorm to the best of your abilities and then start bringing in counterparts from within the business that you know could add value. Also consider setting up a meeting or touching base with the Yardi team, or another client of Yardi who may have insight from their experience.
You would be surprised what can be achieved talking through a problem or asking theoretical questions out loud to a group. It may seem silly to you, but perhaps it has been addressed and resolved before or a solution was found for a different problem but it could be adapted and applied in the context of what your business is after.
As they say, teamwork makes the dream work.
(but not at the cost of previous points on Data Integrity and Don’t go for the Quick Fix!)
I think this one applies when your business and your team have been using Yardi or your ERP system for an extended time and the understanding and confidence in the system is at a high level.
You and your team can start to think of creative ways to use Yardi. It may not be the original purpose of design of the module or feature, but you may be able to fashion a solution that works for the needs of your business.
I have seen long standing clients setup and run non property related entities through Yardi, and others using the Insurance module to track not only insurances, but other date related items that they wanted easily identifiable or coming up in a dashboard.
It might not be an elegant or a perfect solution, but thinking outside the box like these examples could help you keep things streamlined within the same system, enable reporting options that otherwise wouldn’t be available, and require less manual involvement or additional training managing items outside of the system.
A note of caution on this, if you do decide to use products or modules outside of their intended design or purpose and you experience issues or difficulties, you may not be able to get a fix or solution from Yardi. I’m sure they will be willing to help, but they may not be able to find a resolution.
Now, this one might be a bit controversial for Yardi clients or ERP users, but I think it is important.
There will be times throughout your journey with Yardi or your ERP system where you are not happy with an outcome, or the response times to your support calls, or the way a project was handled or any number of things.
You might be inclined to start lodging all cases as critical or urgent, or to escalate your complaints up the chain and give them a piece of your mind every time something goes wrong. You are the client after all, and you pay good money to have an ERP system.
However, if everything is urgent, then nothing is urgent. If ERP managers are only accustomed to you based on unhappy or unpleasant phone calls or emails, well that might naturally narrow your opportunities with them to make progress.
The truth is, you bought primarily an out of the box product so your business will have to adjust to the software more often than not. You can absolutely be disappointed and frustrated, I know I am at times, but my suggestion instead is to weigh the event that wasn’t satisfactory against how truly critical it is to your business and respond accordingly.
Push back, challenge and escalate when it is a showstopper event, this should lead to the best outcomes for your business and your ongoing relationship with your ERP provider.
