Fifield Glyn achieves 50% greater efficiency and 2x ROI through system optimisation with MRI Software
Like many businesses in the property management sector, Fifield Glyn, a firm of chartered surveyors for commercial and residential property management, has departments which have expanded through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.
As organisations grow and teams evolve, operational processes naturally adapt over time, particularly in areas such as client accounting, reconciliations, and reporting. High staff turnover can also result in system knowledge loss, creating a risk that processes become more manual or even move outside the system.
Growing pains meet opportunity
Fifield Glyn had been using MRI Software’s property management solutions for a number of years to support its growing portfolio and recognised an opportunity to review how its teams were using existing technology and ensure it was fully leveraging automation and best-practice workflows to maintain efficiency, consistency, and financial governance.
As the leadership team reflected, “With our portfolio continuing to grow, it was important to ensure our systems and processes were optimised to support that growth.”
Automation in action
Fifield Glyn commissioned an operational review from MRI Software to assess how the existing solution was being used across finance and property management workflows. The review focused on identifying opportunities to streamline processes, increase automation and align teams with best-practice system usage.
Working closely with MRI’s Professional Services team, the business implemented a series of targeted improvements, including:
- Introducing automated three-way reconciliation between the bank, purchase ledger and property management system.
- Streamlining year-end processes with automated accruals and prepayments.
- Automating service charge and rental fee posting.
- Introducing automated arrears communications to support more consistent debtor management.
- Using batch imports and enhanced reporting to reduce manual processing and increase visibility.
These enhancements enabled the team to standardise processes while improving financial transparency and operational efficiency.
Efficiency realised; a 2x Annual ROI from a one-time investment
The improvements enabled the business to increase operational performance and improve outcomes for clients amidst natural staff turnover. Previously, the accounts team required six people to manage the portfolio; post-optimisation, the same workload is handled by three team members.
By comparing the cost of the operational review to the ongoing savings delivered, Fifield Glyn doubled their return on their investment, with the efficiency gains now contributing to annual savings.
Optimising our processes has transformed the way we work. By leveraging the full potential of our existing systems, our team can now manage a larger portfolio more efficiently while focusing on delivering outstanding service to our clients.
-Edward Fifield, Managing Director at Fifield Glyn
At the same time, financial governance and visibility improved, with faster reconciliations and smoother month-end and year-end processes. An improvement in the data has enabled the organisation to make better decisions.
How operational efficiencies are enabling growth
By optimising how it uses MRI’s property management solution, Fifield Glyn has been able to significantly improve operational efficiency across its finance and property management processes.
The business can now support the same portfolio with greater efficiency while also improving financial governance and visibility across client money processes.
By working in partnership with our clients, we’ve been able to help them uncover greater efficiency and truly maximise the solution’s value. Fifield Glyn’s experience demonstrates how targeted enhancements and best-practice workflows can drive both operational performance and financial transparency.
-Dan Foryszewski, Managing Director at MRI Software