Using Technology Vendors outside of the Industry?

Where do I even start!

First I guess I will say that I am the Marketing Director for an owner in Dallas, Tx. Yes we do have a management company but we are so focused on our "advanced" marketing techniques that it made sense to retain our own Marketing Department internally and we've always worked really well together. I handle almost everything online which includes but is definitely not limited to - Website maintenance, ILS updates, Free Rental Site updates (Craigslist, etc), and a wide array of other sources. I would say that in general we have about 50%-60% of our traffic come from our online sources. The problem is our website provider / hosting company.

I will say that in the past they have always been a cutting edge company and I have always worked well with their reps to get everything accomplished, recently however our relationship has gone from conducive to convoluted. In a technology focused world where things change rapidly, they've made very few updates to their services and have even started charging more for them. I also have a new rep who I am 100% certain is not as technologically well versed as I am and it has been a point of growing frustration. This isn't to say that this technology provider isn't great for some who aren't as dependent on the web source for traffic, actually they provide a very affordable option to many people in that category.

This post is not at all to attack the company we have been using but rather to ask if anyone out there is using a company outside of the industry for their Websites and if so is there someone that you recommend as a technology partner?

Page, there are plenty of options outside of the industry (and probably some right in your back yard). Unfortunately the typical industry vendor sticks to cookie-cutter options they don't like to stray from. That said, it's not necessarily less expensive to go with a non-industry company, but you can get much better results. We use Firebelly Marketing here in Indianapolis for our websites, and my friend Mike Whaling offers website solutions as well. There are non cookie-cutter options out there and these are two groups that can make that happen. They also have industry insight which is good. If you go with a company that does not have industry experience you can get some great work done, but you will need to be a big part of the action. There are pluses and minuses to everything of course. Feel free to contact me if you like to further discuss. [email protected]

Mark, I really appreciate the mention ... this is a great industry, and I've had a lot of fun helping my apartment clients improve their online marketing efforts.

Page, I agree with Mark that I think it's important to work with someone who has at least some level of knowledge of the industry, especially if you want them to integrate with third-party vendors like your accounting, availability and screening software vendors. That said, I am constantly looking outside the industry for inspiration and to keep up with the latest technologies available to online marketers.

We have to keep in mind that visitors to property websites don't just compare their experience to that of other property websites. Those visitors also judge your website against every other experience on the Web, including airline sites, Amazon, Apple and many more. If your site isn't at least comparable, I think a lot of people notice. Can you tell the difference between a poorly-done local ad on TV compared to higher-production quality commercials? Same thought process.

I hope your provider is able to step up to the plate to help you out. Keep asking questions that push them ... and if you don't get the answers you want, don't be afraid to look outside the industry. There are a lot of smart Internet marketers out there who aren't selling apartments.

Thanks Mark -
Our sites are really well designed I have been worried more about integration and hosting than anything. The company you use for design are they also your hosting company?

Page, I am in the same position as you. For the last several months I have networked, sent out RFPs & even looked outside our industry to develop a new web site for our company. Just as Mark stated the industry vendors offer the "cookie cutter" approach.on design & development, but have us hooked by their ability to develop integration platforms that we all want & need. I've even had industry vendors respectfully decline to work with me due to unreasonable expectations. Were they really unreasonable expectations or just the lack of interest to grow & develop following the latest in technology trends? When I sent bids outside the industry for design & development then have the industry vendor host, support and add in integration platforms, the cost was so off the charts making it impossible for me to leave my current vendor. Maybe it's not forcing the industry website companies to step up, but maybe the management systems we use like Yardi to play nice in each others sandbox by giving us the embedded codes needed for the integration. When this happens then maybe we will be able to look outside the industry for new website concepts & designs, but until then I am forced to stay with a vendor & product I don't want. With the amount of online applications & service request we receive daily & monthly it is a necessity for integration not just a want, so with this said I am staying with my vendor another year. I guess it's like dating, but they are doing all the taking & I'm doing all the giving...shouldn't this be a mutual beneficial relationship? Best of luck!

Kim, you bring up a great point.

Every day, I use web-based tools like Google Apps, MailChimp, Freshbooks, Flowtown, Basecamp, Highrise, PayPal and others to manage or automate various parts of my business. In many cases, the open APIs and integrations with other related online tools played a large part in the decision to go with these vendors over their competitors. The ability to share information openly and easily allows these companies to focus on what they do best, while complementary services can take bits and pieces of the data and make something even more useful for me as a marketer. Cooperation with other vendors is a selling point that helps all of these vendors grow their businesses together.

The downside to this approach is that I have more pieces to manage. I know that can be an issue, especially for larger organizations who are training a lot of people on the same applications. (But then again, why not have a centralized Internet marketing team that specializes in these items, rather than expecting the onsite staff at each location to learn and manage all of the pieces...)

Knowing what I little know about what you're looking for, I don't think your expectations for your site are out of line, especially considering what many sites outside the industry currently offer to their users today. I would *love* to be able to integrate elements from Yardi or RealPage into a property website as easily as I can integrate elements from Facebook and Walk Score, and I don't think that's too much for any apartment marketer to ask. You're on to something ... keep shouting.

@Page, yes, they do handle the hosting for us as well as assist us with our social media efforts, search engine optimization, and other marketing efforts.

Take a look at www.sitesprocket.com - contact Ty Barho 512-924-0586 [email protected]

Mike,

The reality is those companies who do and have a centralized marketing team utitlize their own custom tools, so no need for inside or outside the industry vendors. If you are large enough and can afford the capacity, I agree on having a group focus on these tools rather than the site staff. But this is not the masses. The majority of owner operators out there are similar in size to our company, Mark's, Justin, Mike, etc. So what happens to us? We can't even imagine what it would be like to have a marketing operation like this on staff, so we are left to rely on the vendors in the industry or outside to provide us with the tools. With this said many of us are left frustrated, overwhelmed with what we need to spend time on and learning new applications when our main focus should be about people and not tools!

Speaking for myself here I want to become a better marketer and leader by focusing on my people from my staff to my residents. Why should I be spending all this time chasing tools that quite frankly I don't want to care about. Shouldn't they already be in place and available for me to jump up and embrace? All I want is for the vendors to step up to the plate and take on technology challenges much like I have to step it up and learn to take on new challenges in marketing my products to training my team. At the end of the day the tools are a necessity in today's business practices, so why does it have to be so complicated?

Great topic Page. Kim I agree wholeheartedly that vendors/industry partners need to be on the cutting edge of technology and also need to come up with a clean and easy way to implement the services. We can't sit on our hands and stick with traditional services. We live in such a fast paced environment and technology is evolving faster than we can grasp sometimes. However this is not an excuse. Industry partners need to continue to investigate their model and poll their clients to see how they can do a better job today and tomorrow.

@Kim-
I think you and I have the exact same issue. I have been told by the numerous tech vendors that I am asking for unreasonable things or that if I can have those things they will cost me some exorbitant amount of money. I graduated with a degree in Communication Technology so I am not unfamiliar with the time it takes to develop proper coding but it seems like some of these vendors take advantage of the fact that most people are unfamiliar with computer programming. The integration process is slow and unreliable at best and you are right, it has a lot to do with our Property Management Software companies not developing a versatile program and not wanting to share anything that might be "propritary". RealPage has always tried to cater to my requests providing me with codes that can be easily inserted to our websites (that is provided everyone in the world uses Internet Explorer because as far as I know that is the only browser language any software company seems to speak), but then having someone add that code seems to be impossible like I am asking them to give up nuclear missle codes.

@Mike-
I am that dedicated person at my company. As a matter of fact I manage every piece of Online marketing that is present on our properties. Across 5 communities I handle website updates, ILS updates, Craigslist posts, and have even hired someone to manage the leads that come from those sources. It works so much better than having an onsite staff memeber manage things that are sometimes time consuming and outdated. The only problem with running an indepth online marketing campaign is I am constantly seeing how outside industries do it better. I think you are right maybe if Kim and I shout loud enough someone will hear us!

Good discussion all around, and I agree with the importance of integration. And I agree that we do have some very good solutions already within the industry. That said, if price is a concern, you might want to consider a developer who focuses on open-source solutions. Depending on the implementation, the price can be much less than custom work. Now, that doesn't mean it's a perfect solution, as there are always pros and cons to any strategy, but it's definitely something to consider. (This website was built in-house on an open-source framework with a mix of open-source and commercial components. Of course, we didn't have to worry about integrations with PM software, etc.)

Maybe it's just me but I feel that the responsibility falls to the vendors of management systems (Yardi, RealPage, etc.) to make their product compatible with typical web standards. If they step up and create the integration tools it wouldn't matter what web provider you select. Perhaps our expectations are too high?

Saar from ActiveBuilding here; we are a vendor within the industry and I completely agree with all that has been said above. Just to throw in some supportive evidence, a good example is that we have been on Yardi's "waiting list" for integration purposes for over 2 years. We have 0 visibility as to where we are "in line", what the requirements are (so we can prepare when that day comes) or what we need to do to improve our prospects for being approved (and when). Just wanted to share with you how it looks on the vendor side of things which somewhat explains the technical state of our industry...

Integration is of utmost importance to us. From an investment standpoint it has the highest priority. If you look at most other industries, as some have mentioned in this thread, they evolved into maturity by opening up and investing in integration, standardization and collaboration (for the benefit of the mutual client). Since our industry is not at this stage (and the proof is that most of the leading vendors in our industry are proprietary and "closed"), we still are in the "infancy" phase from a technical standpoint and that is a real shame since our clients' clients (Residents) are way advanced and expect much more from a service standpoint.

The reason some multifamily vendors provide cookie cutter websites is that it's simply more profitable to sell a platform-based product that offers the potential for recurring revenue. Some platforms are pretty rigid, and that's why the look and feel across sites seems so similar. That said, there are multiple vendors that have industry experience that will do completely custom websites, and offer you the opportunity to pay for them outright rather than have indefinite monthly fees.

While I think it makes sense to have a look and feel that is all your own, by working with someone with multifamily experience you will ensure that the database that powers your site was built with data integration standards in mind (MITS). Even if an outside vendor can develop the back end, they are at the mercy of the property management software companies for integration support. In fact, it took 4 Walls years to integrate with one major player, and despite numerous attempts and pleas from clients, another one has simply refused to work with us (and we run ILS - we're not looking to integrate a single client website).

I've also seen outside developers mangle SEO. Most of our clients view the ability to generate leads from their website as a non negotiable requirement. While there are plenty of outside vendors that can do this, I don't often see sites with good results.

The biggest lesson I have learned in the past 8 years is there is no single right solution to solve any multifamily problem. Find a vendor you are completely comfortable with, and don't compromise.

You also must understand a lot of the vendors have very old code bases that are difficult to manage and change. While integrations are fabulous when they work, from the vendor side you have to deal with the terrible documentation and support from the integrating partner. For example, Facebook's API is a patchwork of code with unclear documentation. Add to that the lack of support for troubleshooting connection and error messages, the overhead in communicating with a representative on their end, and unpublished updates to the feeds that break the integrations. This is why integrations take so long to implement and get right.

That being said, the value of these integrations is very high. Which integrations do you feel would bring the greatest value for you, your staff, applicants and residents?