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Across Australia, thousands of agencies are making the move to cloud property management system. And they’re not alone.
In fact, according to the ABS, the number of Australian businesses harnessing cloud computing jumped from 31% in 2015-16 to 42% in 2017-18, with businesses of 200 or more employees being the keenest adopters.
But whether your agency is large or small, there are plenty of benefits to be had from moving to a cloud-based property management and trust accounting system.
One of the most immediate and obvious benefits of cloud-based property management software is that it doesn't require costly IT infrastructure to run.
Storing all of your property, trust accounting. tenant, and owner data locally requires large, in-office servers, which lead to a whole range of other additional expenses—from installation and upgrades to constant cooling and power. Not only that, but such set-ups also require regular maintenance from IT professionals to ensure everything keeps working smoothly.
With cloud-based software, all of your data is stored remotely, so you never even have to see a server, let alone buy one. And because pay-as-you-go subscriptions are the norm for cloud-based Property Management systems, it’s also much simpler to upgrade or downsize the amount of storage you need. That means you can be more flexible and cost-efficient, and free up funds to invest in other areas of your business.
With all of your Property Management data stored remotely, it’s easily and securely accessible from anywhere you have an internet connection. That means unlike with server-based software, there’s no need for you and your team to travel to the office to get things done.
Instead, you can update a property's, tenant’s, or owner’s details using your tablet in the car, upload the details of an inspection as you go on your phone, and even perform end of month at the kitchen table with a glass of wine.
Another huge advantage of cloud-based Property Management software is that it’s also much easier for your clients to obtain up-to-date information. Even better, many of these options are self-serve, which means that they don’t just delight your clients, but they save you and your team time as well.
For example, with Console Cloud, owners can view rental information about the properties you manage for them through the Owner Portal, while tenants can view the details of their tenancy and raise maintenance requests on their phone via Console Tenant.
Cloud-based Property Management software also allows for easier and more seamless collaboration. Unlike with server-based software, everyone in the team can access, edit and share the same documents and data in real-time, whether they’re in a room together or on the other side of the globe.
For example, when someone in the office adds a file into Console Cloud’s document storage, it’s immediately accessible to everyone else who’s logged in. Likewise, when a tenant creates a maintenance request through the Console Tenant, that request—along with any notes and photos—automatically populates into Console Cloud for the whole team to see.
For anyone who’s worked with server-based Property Management software before, this one is a big deal. When all of your data is stored on an in-office server, manual backups are an essential but painful part of doing business. They take hours, they can fail, and they’re expensive; storing large volumes of data isn’t cheap, and it’s an ongoing cost.
Cloud-based Property Management software can automatically save and backup your data constantly, ensuring nothing is ever lost, with no effort or outlay required on your part. This eliminates the risk of losing your own—or a customer’s—data, and makes it easy to hold permanent records for auditing purposes.
Likewise, cloud-based software is just as simple to keep up to date. Unlike with server-based software where bug fixes and new features are released periodically and must be downloaded and installed, cloud-based software makes it possible for updates to be rolled out instantly with no downtime required.
That’s why when new features are released for Console Cloud, they’re automatically available for all of our users immediately.
Another benefit of making the move to cloud-based property software is increased security and business continuity. When all of your data is stored locally, it’s at significant risk of being corrupted or compromised: servers can fail or lose power and laptops can be lost, stolen, and damaged.
But when your data is held in the cloud, it’s backed up and secured by multiple layers of security, including authentication gateways and high-grade firewalls.
At Console, all of our data is stored and backed up securely via Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the world’s leading providers of on-demand cloud services. All data that flows across the AWS global network is automatically encrypted for maximum security and backed up across multiple data centres to ensure it’s never at risk of being lost.
At the office level, Console Cloud also allows you to assign users with various levels of permission, depending on what access your staff require to complete their job: property management, trust accounting, or office administrator. This further increases security by locking down sensitive information. On top of this, Console Cloud also features an in-depth change log, so if something does go amiss, it’s quick and easy to discover the source of the error.
Cloud-based Property Management software is designed with seamless scalability in mind. It offers unlimited on-demand storage, effortless collaboration, and greater accessibility and flexibility. That means no matter how large your team of property managers gets, or how many properties you add to your portfolio, cloud-based software is capable of growing with you.
But Console Cloud also empowers growth through advanced automation and increased productivity that’s only possible because of it’s all-online design. All of Console Cloud’s workflows take full advantage of cloud-based technology to drive efficiency by cutting out redundant data entry and busywork, automating manual processes, and alerting property managers to what’s next on their to-do list.
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of cloud-based Property Management software, or are thinking about making the move to one now or in the future, it’s time to get in touch.
Console Cloud is already powering more than 3500 Property Management agencies across Australia and New Zealand. Why not join them?
