Residential Leasing Group, Inc.
Client Business:
Residential Leasing Group Inc. (RLG) is an independent family owned property management company operating as a licensed brokerage in Calgary Alberta Canada since 1989. The brokerage is dedicated exclusively to property management of a niche portfolio of individually owned high-end properties in Calgary’s inner city and executive preferred communities. RLG’s reputation for professionalism and service has grown the business through personal referrals and recommendations.
Business Challenge:
RLG started with a basic Filemaker solution created by the previous owners as a simple record of the company’s properties and contacts at the time. As the company grew, the limitations of the solution became obvious and a collection of Excel sheets were developed to work around these limitations. Constant attention was required to keep duplicate data up-to-date between the Excel/Filemaker platforms. The company soon tripled in size and it became obvious that any further growth required a proper foundation for data to be recorded. Popular premade solutions had many limitations and didn’t fit the unique workflow and procedures that had been developed at RLG.
RLG recognized their need for custom software and had discussed doing business with a local developer (in Canada) and were advised that there would be a 3 month wait to begin development. Although they were quoted a low hourly rate, their final estimate was high based on the total hours expected for the project’s development.
RLG reconsidered after feeling uncomfortable with the local developer’s understanding of their business and industry.
Solution Provided:
RLG began searching for alternative to find a development company that grasped their industry well and quickly. Extensitech was the only FileMaker developer that they had found that had experience in Real Estate in North America.
“Extensitech understood our business and could start work immediately. Our project soon went beyond our original scope as we realized the potential.”
Extensitech created efficient Work Orders and Work Flow Steps which were integrated into the new system. A “Lease Creator” reduced the time to create leases and ensured employees had to follow the company standards when creating these leases. The lease creator proved to be a very effective “management by exception” tool ensuring that no steps were missed during the process.
When it came time to transfer the data, the limitations and workarounds of the existing system meant that most of the data required manual transferring. Extensitech had found opportunities where data transfer could be automated or simplified and were able to accommodate for the delay while the transfer took place.
“The Extensitech team always made sure they fully understood the issues being discussed and would take the time to explain the repercussions of a change and how it may remove or limit several other features on the database. Meetings with Extensitech were quick and efficient since they can always relate and understand our business, procedures, and industry. Extensitech was always available to discuss and implement small changes and tweaks.”
RLG continues to grow and Extensitech continues to enhance their solution to grow with them as their policies, procedures, etc. change and expand.
