Early investment in technology paves the way to enhanced customer service at Principle Estate Management

In numbers:

• MRI Qube Property Management client since 2018
• 16,500 homes under management
• Estimated 300% ROI each year, equivalent to employing 10 staff members

 

Principle Estate Management is a nationally expanding block and estate management company founded by Brett Williams, a highly experienced figure in the leasehold profession. Working on behalf of freeholders, developers and RMCs, the company has rapidly scaled from a standing start to 16,500 homes in the space of six years. The group began in the West Midlands focusing solely on block management and quickly evolved to new asset classes and regions. Three years ago, Principle completed their first acquisition to bolster their southern presence, particularly in the Prime Central London space.

 

Back in 2018, Principle saw technology as a priority investment for their business operations and invested in MRI’s Qube Property Management solution at an early stage of their business setup. In Principle’s view, this gave them the benefit of having a recognised solution to form the solid foundations of their business, without the headache of legacy data to migrate at some point in the future. The time savings delivered by MRI Qube Property Management were apparent early on, allowing Principle to automate processes like tenant correspondence production and client accounting procedures. This freed up time for the team to pitch for more business in their early days allowing them to scale quickly and in a measured way.

When we set up Principle, amongst the many decisions you have to make as a business owner was the key question of which property management software system to use. We decided to use MRI Qube PM as we feel it is the best in the market. It is used by a number of our larger clients as well as by many of the larger managing agents. We know it is highly configurable and we have used its flexibility to ensure it mirrors our systems and processes. We use it to track all of our KPIs to ensure we are compliant and provide the high service levels we want to. MRI continually develop the product and we take advantage of this development via our internal Qube Working Group.

Brett Williams.

 

More time to spend on customer service

Customer service is at the heart of Principle’s ethos and one of the ways they achieve this is by freeing up staff time to deliver value added services. A key enabler of this time saving has been through the automation of key processes, thanks to MRI Qube PM. This is evident in Principle’s client reporting capabilities which, through the flexibility and software automation, has freed Principle from generating reports manually, allowing their teams more time to better service their clients.

 

Managing new clients with ease

Following the acquisition of a London-based agent, Principle has expanded their geographic footprint, winning the property management of key clients such as the prestigious Calthorpe Estate portfolio earlier this year which added over 4,000 homes across Edgbaston to the portfolio.

Having MRI’s Qube Property Management as a foundational platform has made adding new acquisitions an easier process, especially using the import functionality. We have been able to deliver some key quick wins using simple functionality in Qube such as payment receipt acknowledgements. For the acquired leaseholder customers, it can be daunting to have your management company and bank account switched. So being able to automatically let them know we have received funds gives our customers great peace of mind.

Brett Williams.

 

Principle has now comfortably crossed the 16,500 home barrier and continue to grow across their key geographies and asset classes. Whilst software is important in this process, Brett stressed that the impact of good people cannot be underestimated.

As business owners, we know we only have three things: our processes, our people and our reputation. Having MRI Qube PM helps us to align our systems, allowing our processes to run smoothly. In turn, this helps our people to operate unimpeded which, along with our people development programmes, means we have high-performing teams of motivated professionals wanting to do a good job for our clients’ and customers’ properties, playing to our vision to positively impact the everyday lives of our communities.

Brett Williams.

 

Value from MRI Software

Technology transformation stories like Principle Estate Management are notable examples of how what feels like a dauntingly large investment into technology can result in significant returns.

My advice to anyone looking to scale a block management business would be to invest in a tool like MRI as early as possible. It meant we never had the headache of legacy data, and we were able to benefit from robust and efficient processes from day one. If we didn’t have MRI Qube Property Management, I estimate we would need at least ten more staff across the business. That’s over a 300% return on investment vs what we pay per year for the software.

Brett Williams.

 

Dan Foryszewski, Director of investor solutions at MRI Software has seen Principle grow into the visionary organisation it has become today. “It has been a great journey so far with Principle Estate Management. Seeing their business continue to scale and go from strength to strength using our solution has been rewarding for MRI Software and we wish them the best in their continual growth.”