Ditch manual work. These property managers did and saw big results.
If you’re in property management, you know the routine. Juggling spreadsheets for project budgets, tracking work orders on paper, and trying to keep teams coordinated with phone calls and emails. It’s a constant balancing act. These manual processes often create confusion and slow down your ability to serve tenants and report to clients. But what if there was a more straightforward way?
These property management teams are finding that moving away from manual work is the key. By adopting digital tools, they bring clarity to their operations. We looked at how three different firms transformed their day-to-day work by bringing on the right tools to better manage CapEx projects, improve operational efficiency, and keep tenants happy.
Taking capital expense projects from a challenge to a breeze
Managing capital expenditure projects is complex enough without wrestling with spreadsheets. For Swan Anderson, Retail Operations Manager for JLL at Union Depot, overseeing 15-20 CapEx projects annually across a 32-acre transit hub was a major challenge. The manual system was fragmented, leaving team members to constantly to ask for status updates. Creating financial reports for client meetings was a time-consuming chore.
By adopting a dedicated platform for property management, the whole process changed. The team gained a central place for all project information.
“My whole team has access to Prism so they’re not always coming to me asking where things are at,” Anderson said. “They’re able to go on there and see exactly where it is.” This change automated workflows and made it easier to work with vendors, even on complex jobs with multiple contractors. Instead of spending hours updating financials, Anderson could generate reports instantly. “Before, it was constantly going back, updating an Excel spreadsheet,” he said.
With that free time no longer spent on manual work, Anderson can take on numerous additional CapEx projects for Union Depot – improving the property and delivering what tenants need.
Read the full success story – Simplifying CapEx management: JLL’s journey with Prism Projects
Ditching the spreadsheets for unified building operations
When you manage a large portfolio of properties, operational chaos can quickly set in. That was the situation for Tsaiyun Chuang, a Property Manager at Transpacific Realty Advisors. Managing 265 retail, industrial, office, and residential buildings without the right tools was like working with one hand behind her back. “It was very messy before tech tools,” Chuang said. “When I first started nine years ago, it was paper. Everything was paper… It was mission impossible.”
Switching to a digital platform put an end to the paper chase. Now, their property management is united in one system. They could even work on the go with mobile capabilities. Staff could start a task and upload photos even without a network connection in a basement, and Prism would sync everything once they were back online.
Beyond getting more organized, this also gave Transpacific a new way to get in touch with clients. Meeting clients where they are is critical in communication – and Transpacific could make sure nothing got lost in the shuffle. “Using Prism gives us an advantage with clients,” Chuang notes. “With Prism, you can guide the workflow. It helps you to see things from head to toe.”
Read the full success story – A digital leap: Transpacific Realty Advisors revamps operations with Prism
Keeping tenants happy with better communication
Efficient operations have a direct effect on the tenant experience. At JEMB Realty Corporation, a tenant coordinator was managing five buildings totaling 1.86 million square feet with manual systems. Without a good way to track requests and staff, teams were confused, wait times grew longer for tenants, and nobody could tell who was accountable.
A centralized operations platform brought immediate visibility. The team could see where everyone was, how long each work order took, and what it cost. All tenant requests were logged through the software, and weekly reports helped managers identify which tenants needed the most attention.
The results went beyond faster response times. “It actually made the building cleaner, and it gave everyone a sense of responsibility from the youngest janitor to the highest chief engineer,” the tenant coordinator said. “Everyone has a say, and everyone can create a work order. Nothing ever gets missed.”
Read the full success story – Building Engines improves building management and tenant satisfaction for five JEMB Realty properties
Leaving manual processes in the past
The experiences at Union Depot, Transpacific, and JEMB Realty share a common theme: Moving away from disconnected, manual processes makes property management simpler for everyone. Whether it’s managing complex projects, coordinating teams across a massive portfolio, or responding to a tenant request, doing it in one unified platform makes manual processes irrelevant and keeps everyone on the same page – leading to better-run buildings and happier tenants.
