meravis: Office on the go

The job of a property manager can be stressful. Water damage here, a broken doorbell there, refuse left improperly disposed of on the premises... The larger the building stock, the greater the number of tasks that arise – all of which create added office work. What if personnel could simply handle these matters with a few clicks while on the move, without losing their overview of all the tasks at hand? They can – and Datatrain’s Cockpit for Mobile Employees is the ideal tool for the job.

The Cockpit for Mobile Employees is an application for the detailed, automated registering and processing of all kinds of building-related concerns. It is designed to optimally adapt to the specific role and work activities of the respective user. The philosophy behind it: users, in most cases building managers, should be able to concentrate on their work tasks without feeling hassled by complicated technology. This is made possible by a web application they can call up on a Windows tablet while on the go. For customer account managers, too, the solution facilitates routine tasks such as apartment inspection and turnover.

On the home page of the clear, cleanly structured cockpit application, the user can choose between multiple tiles. “My tasks” gives an overview of pending activities, while the helpful map function shows their locations. This enables the employee to group geographically proximate tasks, saving valuable time. And if a resident calls seeking confirmation of his termination of his rental agreement, for example, its current processing status can be called up under the menu item “My tenants.”

If a tenant reports a problem, for instance a clogged drain, the processor can create a new ticket. There is no need for handwritten documentation, as the employee can browse through an extensive catalog system and simply click to select the relevant type of damage. For every damage report, a photo can be taken with the tablet and immediately uploaded into the system. Each ticket is categorized by priority to ensure that major cases of damage, such as a broken window pane, are taken care of first. In minor cases, depending on the quantity of orders, the contractor can be notified automatically without an ordering process having to be manually initiated. Parallel to this, the Datatrain ticket system informs the tenant by email as to the processing status of his concern.

“This solution slims down processes, increasing efficiency for our company,” says Danilo Kardel, the head of IT at the Hanover-based housing company meravis Immobilien- und Wohnungsbau GmbH, where the Cockpit for Mobile Employees was recently implemented. Around 40 employees, including not just building managers, but also personnel who deal with property rental and technical customer service, are to be brought into the project in the coming months.

“When you consider that there are 1.5 damage reports per apartment per year, automation makes sense, especially for larger housing companies,” says Sabine Wiedemann, who heads the sales department at Datatrain. “Solutions like this create added value.” Wiedemann draws on the expertise she has acquired through her many years of consulting in housing industry companies, including supporting meravis in its introduction of the Datatrain solution over the last year and a half. As a “translator” between IT and specialized departments, she possesses close knowledge of both the programming and operational sides. Every client needs their own solution. Jointly with the client, Wiedemann works out the requirements, which are then mapped in the software.

According to Sabine Wiedemann, the greatest challenge lies in the implementation itself. After all, however user-friendly it may be, new software always means change. “Many employees don’t have extensive IT experience, so a lot of support is necessary in the initial phase,” says Wiedemann, who recognizes in this a frequently underestimated executive role. To yet further optimize the mobile application for the users, and to help them incorporate it into their daily routine, one of the cockpit’s primary developers accompanies personnel during the testing phase and observes how they employ it in their day-to-day operations. “Our experience in the first few weeks has been very good,” reports Danilo Kardel. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the employees.” Nonetheless, he says, especially in the initial phase, it is important that all processes in the system be cleanly structured and that instruction be continued until every single employee is brought up to speed in using it.

What looks so simple to the user in fact has a complex backend: the Cockpit for Mobile Employees is enabled by a Datatrain-conceived ticket system working behind the scenes. This saves the client double data administration, which is expensive and laborious, and lets him use the familiar SAP interface.

In its implementation of the Cockpit for Mobile Employees, the meravis company has taken a new step, becoming the first housing company to run the solution on the SAP Cloud Platform. Docking a mobile web application in an SAP system used to require expensive on-premise middleware. The SAP Cloud Platform replaces this software, which is otherwise needed to create the connection with the system, and additionally offers an infrastructure and numerous services that can be used to develop modern applications and provide them to clients. As one of the first companies in the housing market to choose this option, meravis is sending an important signal to an industry that is traditionally reserved when it comes to new technologies. “How do you want to operate IT in the future? That’s always a basic question,” says Danilo Kardel of meravis. “In this case, the cloud solution is the best, most secure concept we can imagine – a technological treat.”

Sabine Wiedemann sees the advantage of the cockpit above all in the fact that the mobile application allows employees to spend less time in the office and more time on-site, where they are visible to tenants. And that is important, she says: “When the bill for utility costs goes out and the building manager isn’t there to be seen, there’s trouble.” Moreover, the Cockpit for Mobile Employees enables flexible data gathering. The in-office documentation and paperwork formerly generated by apartment walkthroughs, playground inspections and other such activities can now be dispensed with.

The application also enables the company to make precise analyses: Why does a customer contact management in the first place? How long does it take to process a tenant concern from start to finish? What snags can arise? These are key questions that can contribute to improving quality management. “A lot of companies put the same amount of work into handling all cases of damage, whether they cost 50 euros or 2,000,” says Wiedemann. “With this solution, processes and costs can be optimized.”

The Cockpit for Mobile Employees was introduced at meravis as part of a large digitalization project. For a long time now, tenants have been able to voice certain concerns, such as damage reports, to the company digitally. Danilo Kardel: “For us, automation isn’t just about efficiency for the company. It also lets us accelerate and improve our services – and that benefits customer service first and foremost.”

• Intuitive use: The cockpit’s simple operation is well-suited even to users with little IT experience. No special training is necessary.
• Saves time, paper and redundant data entry: Enables mobile documentation of damage, apartment inspections and other events concerning the housing stock, making a trip back to the office unnecessary.
• Map function: At any time, the application tells users the tasks to be done next and shows them which ones are located nearby.
• Quality management: Tenant inquiries are analyzed end to end and processes made transparent.

• Hanover-based meravis, founded in 1949, created its name out of the motto “Mensch, Raum, Vision” – or people, space, vision.
• Today, meravis has some 200 employees.
• The company currently manages more than 15,000 residential and commercial units in Hamburg, Hanover and North Rhine-Westphalia.
• Its business portfolio encompasses property rental, real estate management and new construction as well as sales.