Rebosis Property Fund switch to MRI Property Central to drive new operational efficiencies
Rebosis Property Fund was established in 2010 and became the first black-managed and substantially black-held property fund to be listed on the JSE. The R17.5bn portfolio is made up of 79 commercial and retail properties with just over 2000 tenants.
Business challenge
As part of their business growth, Rebosis are currently focussing on improving their internal systems and procedures. With their previous system, the team at Rebosis found that their facilities management capabilities were lacking. They were relying on manual operations for functions like order books, and spending large amounts of time on paperwork, scanning and printing. This was costing the team a lot of time to complete administrative tasks, slowing down operations, and leading to frustration within the property management and finance teams.
Reporting features were also not meeting Rebosis’ needs, as reports were being compiled manually, including the supplier analysis report which had to be extracted from the cash book by hand.
Business solution
It was clear that a new management system was needed to drive efficiencies and allow the team to focus on growing the business and providing excellent customer service. Having been familiar with MRI Property Central from a previous position, Collections Manager Ugresen Perumaal knew that a solution to the business’s problems was close at hand.
“MRI Property Central simplified everything for us. All of the information and data on amounts outstanding was on one screen, and the functionality was perfect for us.”
– Ugresen Perumaal, Collections Manager, Rebosis Property Fund.
Streamlined order facility
Instead of raising orders leading to inordinate amounts of scanning and printing, with MRI Property Central the team at Rebosis can now manage quotes, raise jobs, and open order reports all in one place, in a fraction of the time. This means a more streamlined ordering process, and reduced resource expended on administrating paperwork.
Faster, more efficient reporting
Instead of spending large amounts of time compiling reports for various stakeholders, the team at Rebosis can now achieve customized reports in a fraction of the time.
“For me and my team it’s that much easier as far as reporting is concerned, all my reporting is just there. It now takes about half an hour to accomplish what I need to do. It’s a pleasure.”
– Ugresen Perumaal, Collections Manager, Rebosis.
Easy to manage accounting tools
Comparing their previous system to MRI Property Central, the accounting team are finding huge benefits in terms of time saving and ease of use. Where previously uploads to the accounting system had to be done manually, now it takes seconds, while queries and drilldowns are simpler to navigate.
Segmentation of the balance sheet and annotation can now be done instantly, meaning reconciling the accounts is much easier and quicker.
User friendly processes
The team at Rebosis found their previous system was not user friendly, and exporting tenant transactions was a difficult and time consuming procedure. As information could not be exported to Excel, and data columns could not be copied and pasted, information needed to be manually typed into spreadsheets. Even after moving to an Excel based export system, the data was difficult to manipulate into meaningful reports.
With MRI Property Central, the team can now efficiently and quickly deal with tenant transactions, as well minimise errors within their datasets and improve overall accuracy.
“Human error and slip ups would cause incorrect entries which would cause reconciliation not to balance. We could spend hours looking for that error over months and months’ worth of data. Now we have the ability to save time moving forward.”
– Sophia Phaahla, Commercial Financial Manager, Rebosis Property Fund.
A smooth implementation
Moving from the previous system to MRI Property Central was a smooth process thanks to the Rebosis team’s proactive and open approach. Account manager Muhammad Osman guided the team through the process, ensuring that training was provided and any questions answered.
“When the project started we had a very clear schedule of what would be happening where and what needed to be done by when… in the conversion process all our questions were answered very quickly. I’ve been involved in a few migrations and this was definitely one of the better ones.”
– Elmie Marais, Finance Manager, Rebosis Property Fund.
Room to grow
With the team now able to capitalise on the operational benefits of MRI Property Central, Rebosis can continue to grow and provide excellent service.
“MRI has assisted a great deal in improving our operational efficiencies. We are coming from a system that had a lot of limitations when it comes to reporting, as well as limitations with facilities management. These have now improved a lot since the migration to MRI, and there are a number of additional MRI systems we looking to implement into our business that will improve our operational efficiencies still further.”
– Mfanafuthi Gumede, General Manager – Property Finance
Looking to revolutionise your property management operations? Talk to our team today to discuss the benefits of using the MRI suite of property management solutions.
