Rental property cannot be considered a sector adhering to generally accepted business practices for decades. In particular, its representatives are actively using advanced digital technologies that help them automate internal business processes, maintain competitiveness, expand the reach of the target audience, receive more accurate data, and process it faster, etc.
Below, we will talk about one of these technologies: the cloud. We will also look at the main advantages that cloud providers can give your business and talk about the main challenges that you are more likely to face with cloud adoption.
The Accessibility Advantage
Availability of applications and services in the context of cloud computing means unlimited access to them both for employees of rental property management companies and their clients. This means that they can freely use these services and applications wherever they are if they have access to the Internet.
Indeed, given that many agents of such organizations work "in the field", being able to use the company's software only through a local PC or laptop is an extremely inconvenient option. Moreover, due to the global changes in the organization of work processes that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, working outside the office has become the only option for many businesses to maintain their further viability.
In turn, cloud property management technologies can be the best tool to ensure this availability: all you need is to host your service or application not on your company's local servers but in the public cloud. Thus, you can delimit access rights to parts of your property management cloud software and provide end users with the functionality they need – whether it be an employee of your company or a client.
As for real examples of cloud-based software that provides the ubiquitous availability of its functionality, we suggest paying attention to TurboTenant cloud-based property management software. This product is currently used by more than 400,000 landlords (for them, it is free, and only tenants have to pay for their insurance within this platform), and the volume of investments collected for its development has reached 10 million dollars since 2015.
The Scalability Factor
In many cases, achieving scalability most cost-effectively is the primary reason for migrating existing applications and services to the cloud or creating a custom cloud based property management system from scratch. The fact is that no matter how large the company’s budget allocated for digital transformation is, investing in regular updates of on-premise server capacities is an irrational idea since the increase and decrease in customer activity can occur in bursts, and such sharp drops in performance requirements even in the long term prospects are unlikely justified.
In turn, the vast majority of cloud vendors provide auto-scaling capabilities, allocating computing power equally in the amount that a cloud-based property management application or service needs at a particular moment. This approach eliminates the possibility that you will overpay for something that you do not use. At the same time, you will not have to upgrade your in-house server equipment head-on to eliminate problems with its overload due to increased customer demand (which is often only a seasonal phenomenon).
If we talk about the popularity of the introduction of cloud technologies by companies in the rental property management sector, it is confirmed by statistics for a cloud property management software. In particular, the independent web resource GrandViewResearch claims that a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6%, which will be typical for the entire period from 2022 to 2030, is caused mainly by the transition of companies’ software to the property data cloud.
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Ensuring Data Security
As generally accepted requirements for user data security become more stringent, causing the implementation of such standards and policies as GDPR and HIPAA, many companies in the rental property management sector, to maintain their business processes in a legal field, are forced to globally reorganize their digital solutions to comply with the updated legislation.
At the same time, when an application or service is hosted on local server hardware, the responsibility for managing security policies falls on the shoulders of your IT staff, which can be quite a complex and time-consuming task. Moreover, even at the development stage, you will have to implement such features as data encryption, access control, disaster recovery, backup, and much more. It's all pretty complicated and, in theory, doesn't make sense if you're considering moving your digital solutions to the cloud or creating a new custom cloud based property management software.
In this case, all these tasks will be the prerogative of your property management software cloud provider, and your development team will be able to focus only on creating business logic and interface for your cloud based rental software. The same benefit applies to post-release support for this software: your IT department doesn't have to worry about potential server-side vulnerabilities.
As a real example of cloud based hotel property management software, we suggest checking GDPR and PCI-compliant Jotform. Its capabilities cover a much more comprehensive range of tasks than just rental property management. However, companies from this business sector often use it to create online forms.
Cost-Efficiency and Return on Investment (ROI)
Finally, let's not forget the economic benefits of cloud technologies. The fact is that in addition to eliminating the need to purchase more and more powerful server equipment as they grow, companies get unhindered access to proprietary tools and services offered by cloud providers. In particular, when it comes to custom cloud based property management software, with the help of cloud technologies, you will be able to enrich it with artificial intelligence, big data, integrations with IoT systems, and many other things already available in the cloud.
Thus, these cutting-edge technology concepts become democratic and accessible to businesses of any size. In turn, companies that use them in their cloud based property management system discover new, more advanced automation, analytics, and cost reduction possibilities.
Let’s refer to real-life use cases of property management cloud technologies. Today, a well-known company in the real estate sector, Nest, actively benefits from IoT technologies after launching a cloud-based property management software for its clients allowing them to remote control of real estate life support systems. Thanks to this, the company managed to reduce by 10-12% on heating tenant cloud payments only.
Overcoming Challenges and Implementing Cloud Technology
Along with the above benefits, you should understand that migrating existing software to the cloud or initially binding all internal services and applications to a specific cloud provider can have some problems. As the architecture of a stand-alone digital solution or the whole company's network infrastructure becomes more complicated, your cloud costs can begin to skyrocket. Therefore, you may need additional auditing services to help identify and optimize cloud resource redundancy.
You may also face problems associated with being tied to one property manager cloud vendor, which sometimes can limit your access to advanced cloud developments provided by other cloud providers.
Another serious challenge may be the lack of a detailed plan for migration to cloud-based systems. Because of this, you risk losing data critical to your company or migrating this in an unoptimized format.
Finally, you will need to prepare your employees for cloud innovation and provide appropriate training to minimize the risk of misuse of cloud services.
In general, these are the main risks that you may face when adopting the cloud, however, for a more comprehensive understanding, it is better for you to discuss possible problems with your development team and internal IT department.
Conclusion
Property manager cloud software is one of the most outstanding technological breakthroughs in the property management business sector. Indeed, cloud services give companies the most convenient and cost-effective access to almost any working digital tools.
Cloud is often used in proptech applications, particularly for lending and signing a rental agreement. Also, in the coming years, the use of electronic signatures on documents is expected to increase. This will significantly change the property management market.
As for the rental property management software, as we have already indicated above, it constantly grows. On the other hand, off-the-shelf solutions, in many cases, do not cover all business processes inherent in a particular company and thus, do not allow it to achieve the desired level of automation. If we add to this the need to pay a monthly fee for updating a subscription, it becomes clear that sooner or later, many representatives of the rental property management sector have to resort to custom development.
If you are also considering this option for your business, feel free to contact us. Our experts have impressive expertise in creating custom real estate solutions and have already successfully implemented more than a dozen projects of various sizes. Therefore, we will be happy to bring your idea to life, guiding you from collecting the project requirements to its launch and updates.
FAQ
What are the advantages of adopting cloud technology in rental property management?
Adopting cloud technology in rental property management offers several key advantages. Firstly, it provides unlimited accessibility to applications and services for employees and clients, allowing them to use the software from anywhere with an internet connection. This is especially valuable for property management agents who often work "in the field." Cloud technology also ensures scalability, automatically allocating computing power as needed, eliminating the need for costly hardware upgrades. Additionally, cloud providers handle data security, compliance, and maintenance, freeing up the IT staff to focus on other critical tasks. Finally, cloud-based solutions offer cost-efficiency by eliminating the need for on-premise server investments and providing access to advanced tools like artificial intelligence and big data analytics.
Are there any challenges to consider when adopting cloud technology for rental property management?
Yes, there are challenges that companies may face when adopting cloud technology for rental property management. One challenge is the potential for increased cloud costs as the network infrastructure becomes more complicated. To optimize cloud resource usage, additional auditing services may be needed. Another challenge is vendor lock-in, where relying on a specific cloud provider limits access to advanced cloud developments from other providers. Proper planning is crucial to avoid data loss during migration and ensure that the process is optimized. Finally, employee readiness and training are important to minimize the risk of misusing cloud services.
Can you provide examples of successful cloud-based property management software?
Yes, there are several successful cloud-based property management software examples. One such example is the TurboTenant cloud-based property management software, which is used by more than 400,000 landlords and offers ubiquitous accessibility for employees and clients. Another example is Jotform, a GDPR and PCI-compliant cloud-based software that covers a wide range of tasks, including rental property management. Additionally, Nest, a well-known company in the real estate sector, benefits from IoT technologies after launching a cloud-based property management software for remote control of real estate life support systems, leading to cost savings on tenant cloud payments.
