Budgeting and forecasting can be a long, painful process that hinges on an organization’s ability to make accurate assumptions in order to balance the long term planning and short term management of the business.

It’s possible to simplify this process, but like all good things, it will take some work! When dealing with such a complex process, it’s not enough to simply try to do everything faster. You’ve got to break down each level of your budgeting and forecasting and look at how to improve each moving piece, which will then affect the larger whole. Increasing efficiency and accuracy starts by evaluating how you make assumptions and continues by balancing your short term management vs. your long term strategy.

The need for assumptions

The first step of improving your budgeting and forecasting is asking yourself how you can start with better assumptions and end at more accurate budgets, forecasts or strategic models.

In many ways, the old adage about assumptions still rings true. After all, making assumptions revolves around guessing, and guessing is often risky. There are always going to be some gaps in your data, whether you’re simply trying to estimate future events and performance or if you’re simply not able to find certain concrete data.

Making more accurate assumptions

Improving your assumptions is all about testing to see what works and what doesn’t work. Before you get to short term and long term planning, you start only with what you know and what you don’t know. By grouping together what you know and what you don’t know, you can pull different levers and see how one outcome can affect the other.

For example, you can creating speculative leases. By assigning probabilities and adjusting lease terms, you can see how making adjustments to the things you don’t know might impact the things you do. What does your projected rent look like when adjusted against market rent? What kind of effect will tenant exposure have on tenant mix? By tooling around with these different metrics, you can get a better sense of what might work for your budget.

Short term management vs long term strategy

Management consultant and author, John Hagel, advocates an approach for tech companies called the zoom out, zoom in strategy. If you “zoom out” on your industry and think about the next 10 to 20 years, what do you see? Where are market trends leading you? How do you think the industry is going to change in that time horizon, and how do you want to fit into it all?

Now zoom In. Plan out your next 12-24 months by building budgets and crafting forecasts. What do your short term metrics look like? Are they pulling you towards or away from your long term goals?

How to align the short term and long term

How you manage your organization in the short term will inevitably have an effect on the long term strategy. To properly align the activities in the Zoom In/Zoom Out approach, you’ve got to make sure that the teams who are producing these two outputs (long term and short term) are consuming the same, reliable data. Furthermore, you’ve got to be thinking about these key questions:

1) Does the short term annual budget support the long term strategic plan?
2) Are we using the assumptions from the long term plan in the budget?
3) Does performance against the budget suggest altering the long term plan?

The two teams must be agile enough to respond to volatility while at the same time drive the business forward against a long term strategy. Establishing a single source for all your data, making that information available across all teams, and delivering relevant and personalized reporting can go a long way in enabling the two teams to join together.

Budgeting and forecasting is a grueling process for every organization, and the best way to simplify it is to improve every individual step of the greater whole. By taking a critical standpoint and committing the proper time and resources, you can get the full potential out of your budgeting and forecasting.

Learn more about how best to reinforce your budgeting and forecasting operations from subject experts in this webinar.

On 1 April, 2019, a new RICS professional statement, Service Charges in Commercial Property, 1st edition, went into effect for members and regulated organisations in the UK. This sixth iteration of what is commonly referred to as the Service Charge Code sets out nine mandatory requirements, with a stated aim to:

• Improve general standards and promote best practice, uniformity, fairness and transparency in the management and administration of services charges in commercial property
• Ensure timely issue of budgets and year-end certificates
• Reduce the causes of disputes and to provide guidance on resolution
• Provide guidance to solicitors, their clients (whether owners or occupiers) and managers of service charges in the negotiation, drafting, interpretation and operation of leases, in accordance with best practice

At MRI Software, functionality that helps our clients adhere to the rules, regulations and legislations in their respective market sectors is a fundamental element of our comprehensive range of real estate technology solutions. As such, we have significant and proven experience in the UK supporting service charge processes across block management, retail and mixed-use portfolios – and provide a platform that enables your compliance.

In parallel to the new statement, across our multiple solutions for managing service charges, our latest software releases will include updated functionality to help you meet new obligations. Indeed, in some instances these are already available.

More information on these features, and details on software upgrades, is being, and will be, communicated to users of each product as part of regular updates. But, in the meantime, if you have any questions or queries then please contact your Account Manager via the usual channels.

We’re pleased and proud to offer continued support for our current and future clients managing service charges, and remain fully committed to delivering the software you need to ensure your business grows and flourishes into the future.

Learn more about our service charge management functionality in the UK here.

Earlier this year the UK government introduced the Tenant Fees Act, banning landlords from charging renters hundreds of pounds in administration fees for tenancies signed after 1 June, 2019. The move is the government’s attempt to make the rental market more affordable and fairer for tenants who’ve faced the prospect of having to scrape together thousands of pounds to simply move home. While it’s unlikely you’d disagree with the aims, it doesn’t change the fact that agencies are now under pressure to find ways of reducing and absorbing these costs, while still remaining competitive. And it’s not the only obstacle they face.

The lettings fee ban is just the latest in a series of regulatory changes and industry challenges that have made life more complex for estate and letting agents over the last couple of years. Others include ‘Right to Rent’ document checks and the requirement to join ‘Client Money Protection’ schemes as of 1 April. Throw into the mix GDPR requirements, the need to ensure rental properties meet minimum energy efficiency standards, new regulations on five-year electrical safety checks and the need to make tax digital – along with all supporting records – and a pattern of continual change and adjustment for lettings agents emerges.

On top of these operational obstacles, letting agents are also trying to work out how their businesses will be impacted strategically by the tremendous growth in Build-to-Rent (BTR) market. There are going to be thousands of new, purpose-built rental properties in the coming years, in communities that include concierge services, gym facilities and other such attractive benefits. Letting agents are going to have to work with BTR investors, owners and managers to carve out new roles for themselves – and do so before their competitors get in there first.

All of the above shows that, while the Tenant Fees Act is a significant landmark, agents were already under pressure in a challenging and increasingly costly market. As a result, it is becoming more and more important for those agencies to look at ways they can reduce expenditure, without compromising (in fact, increasing) efficiency or the high level of service they offer their customers. Many of them are achieving this by employing estate agency software that helps them manage their portfolios, and we are seeing this growth first-hand. A recently published MRI Software survey of CEOs, directors and top managers in the property sector revealed that the overall uptake of property technology in the UK is strong, with two thirds (66%) of survey respondents already adopting a specialist solution.

By making use of technology to streamline processes and centralise all information such as notes, activities, leases and opportunities, agents can complete daily tasks more efficiently and better track key business activities and relationships. It is crucial to adopt a data-driven culture when managing consumers, clients and stakeholders today because it allows agencies to gain actionable insight into their operations to better inform business strategies and activities. We can see this growing importance from the results of the MRI survey where half of the respondents (49%) see specialist technology as critical to growing their business, boosting productivity and tackling regulatory challenges.

By employing such technology, agents will also radically modernise their systems, which in turn will help them meet the expectations of today’s tech savvy renters, landlords and employees who demand fast, efficient and top-quality services from businesses. These high expectations mean businesses who do not adopt modern practices will not be able to survive, let alone thrive, in this fast-changing UK rental sector. Without digital solutions, agencies can no longer keep up, and investing in technology is quickly becoming non-negotiable. This is not only so that they can deliver better value for their customers, but also to equip themselves with data and analytics that can help them seize commercial opportunities and can take their businesses to the next level.

MRI Software has won a silver Stevie® Award in the Large Computer Software Company of the Year category at the 16th Annual International Business Awards®! For the second year in a row, MRI Software is featured among a prestigious list of winners, and we could not be more thrilled to see our company name alongside such great organizations.

We’re also thrilled that one of the newest members of the MRI family, LEVERTON, has won a silver Stevie® Award in the same category! Working with the team at LEVERTON as partners over the past few years has been a joy, and we’re excited to bring all our talented professionals together into one award-winning organization.

We’re thankful to the International Business Awards for recognizing MRI Software based on our achievements in 2018. Last year, our revenue grew by 56% compared to 2017, bookings were up by a record 71%, and the number of new clients grew by 44%. In addition to this growth, we created 75 new technology integrations with partners and recorded 192 million data exchanges between clients and partners. We built upon the success of the open and connected ecosystem with 21 additions to our Partner Connect network and solidified our offerings in the US Affordable and Public Housing markets through the acquisitions of Happy Software, IPM Software, and TCAM Asset Management.

We also pushed the boundaries of real estate software on a global level. After acquiring CML Software and Thesaurus Technology in the UK, we established our Agency Solutions business, boosting the sales and lettings solutions we gained in 2017 from our acquisition of Qube Global Software. MRI Software solidified our standing in South Africa with the acquisition of PropSys, bringing all of its offerings under the MRI umbrella.

In 2018, we made huge strides in our global growth strategy to support our mission of providing the most comprehensive, flexible, open and connected technology platform in the industry. But we’re not done — 2019 has already seen several new additions to the MRI family, and we can’t wait to see what else the future holds!

When it comes to business intelligence tools for real estate, you can’t afford to bend over backwards dealing with a solution that doesn’t work for your specific needs, but you also can’t spend too much time or money dealing with a real estate analytics tool that’s over-customized and ineffective. You need something in the middle.

Business intelligence projects often run into two major issues, both of which stem from the natural limitations of different types of BI tools.

• If you use an off-the-shelf BI tool, you may need to customize it for your specific purposes, often by spending an excessive amount of time and money to craft the queries and reports. Ultimately, your needs are not fully met or they need significant support.
• If you use a highly customized solution, the value of the tool won’t be realized unless requirements are fully developed and executed properly. You’ll spend too much time and money getting it to work for your specific objectives, and it could take months before you reap any value from the new system.

You don’t need to settle for a do-it-yourself solution or a “one size fits all” solution.

You need a centralized and flexible business intelligence and data visualization platform designed for real estate that enables you to effectively explore and understand your data. Implementing this type of solution can help you make better, more knowledgeable decisions and inform key stakeholders in actionable and impactful ways.

Here’s why.

Reason 1: You need easy integration with your current system

The perfect solution for your organization should include a plug-and-play portal that’s integrated with your MRI products and data. Luckily, MRI Analytix, a BI tool that’s already been built by MRI to fit the needs of real estate organizations, has been designed specifically for use with MRI tools, meaning you can be confident that the data and the output is aligned with the information you and your organization require.

Reason 2: You need a centralized data store

Real estate firms have different key metrics than other industries, and MRI Analytix meets this need by being a curated, centralized, fit-for-purpose data store that enables analysis of relevant real estate metrics. With the ability to extract the data, apply filters to narrow or expand results and populate visual representation of the data, MRI Analytix even eliminates the need for IT or technical support. Additionally, you shouldn’t have to add those real estate specific features yourself, which is why any customizations you need will be simple add-ons; not whole updates that might break in the implementation process.

Reason 3: You need to plan for the future

Your BI tool should be a flexible system with the ability to adapt and access the latest advancements to stay competitive. Through visual representation of large and complex data sets, MRI Analytix gives analysts and decision makers easy access to spot trends and identify areas for deeper discovery. MRI Analytix is built off of Tableau, one of the leading innovators in data science to leverage continuously evolving data science capabilities to move your organization into the future. We analyze each update and innovation from Tableau and apply the most relevant ones to MRI Analytix. By using the latest in BI tech tools, you also signal to incoming and prospective talent that your organization is at the forefront of data science and business intelligence.

You shouldn’t have to settle for a clunky, customizable tool or an off-the-shelf solution that doesn’t work for you. MRI Analytix allows to utilize your data without getting in the way of your operations. Learn more about how you can leverage MRI Analytix for the success of your real estate organization.

As MRI Software employees will tell you, we like to call ourselves the “MRI family” because of how we take care of one another. No one person at our organization can do their job without the others, and so it is vitally important for us to look out for our employees across the company.

This past month, our commitment to our employees and our employees commitment to one another was recognized in Aetna’s Workplace Well-being Awards of 2019.

MRI Software won both a “Changing the World” Award for workplaces in the Mid-Atlantic region and the “Above and Beyond” Award for general well-being in the workplace across the country. We are proud to accept these awards, and we are committed to the continuous care of our employees to promote excellence in the workplace and to foster a community where kindness, honesty, tolerance, and inclusion are part of the culture.

Employees at the MRI Software headquarters in Northeast Ohio (and in other offices throughout the globe) have been experiencing the benefits of working at MRI, where we consider ourselves one family. In fact, our Ohio headquarters have just recently been renovated to be an even better workplace for our employees. The renovations include a refurbished gym, a new walking track throughout the office, and a ‘living wall’ for oxygenation so that our employees can get the most out of their in-office experience.

In addition to these renovations, all MRI employees have access to a rewards program that incentivizes healthy living, active lifestyles, and taking care of oneself at work and at home. Whether at MRI headquarters or at one of our many offices across the globe, the well-being of the MRI family is our top priority, and we are proud to be champions of one another.

Are you looking for new opportunities at an award-winning employer? Visit our careers page.