D2RE praises Mojo innovation
One of the leading commercial property agencies in the Channel Islands has discovered the benefit of putting Mojo into their operations.
The challenges of 2020/21 have thrown an enormous curve ball at organisations in every sector. Chartered Surveyor Bulleys, however, was able to continue its operations remotely, remaining agile and fully operational for its clients.
Prior to the pandemic Bulleys had already stated a desire to ‘work smarter, not harder’. So the organisation was ready for what lay ahead of them and were able to adapt quickly to the change in work conditions.
Bulleys has been a Trace customer for twelve years. At the core of its IT operations, it uses Trace Solutions’ TRAMPS property management software, which provides everything it needs to manage its substantial property portfolio.
TRAMPS also contains the property accounting features and the tools needed to automate property management at scale.
However, TRAMPS is aimed at expert users, making it difficult for anyone to interact with it on a casual basis – such as surveyors, who operate largely out of the office. Creditor invoice approval was challenging to administer, involving multiple chains of command for reconciliation and sign-off, and forcing the Bulleys team to work hard to recharge costs, or to pay invoices swiftly and efficiently.
“The daily grind of data entry and processing of invoices was as efficient as it could be, but there’s no doubt that we had more paper and chains of command for sign off than was desired,” explains Steve Perriton, MRICS partner at Bulleys.
“What we needed was a way to work smarter, not harder – and to bring the benefit of TRAMPS to everyone in the organisation making the whole process more efficient, transparent and timely.”
"We needed a way to bring the benefit of TRAMPS to everyone in the organisation, making the whole process more efficient, transparent and timely"
Steve Perriton, MRICS partner at Bulleys
While Bulleys is growing and hiring more staff, the focus is very much on maintaining quality of service and making working practices better for everyone.
The organisation has increasingly adopted cloud-based IT systems to help it digitise and grow, and so it looked to implement the cloud-based Mojo apps that Trace offers, to deliver the power of TRAMPS to everyone, with a great user experience for the whole team.
Bulleys went live with Mojo in January 2020, just weeks before the lockdown commenced and forced companies to work remotely. The app allows creditor invoices to be seamlessly passed between accounting staff, surveyors and partners for service charge coding, sign off, recharge and supplier payment.
“What I absolutely love about Mojo is the traceability of the process – every step is date and ID evidenced, and the approvals are captured, so that there is full end-to-end compliance and accountability for each invoice,” explains Steve Perriton.
“There is much less opportunity to lose a document, signature or invoice, because it’s all captured in Mojo and the data is maintained in the core TRAMPS system.”
“Surveyors can sign off their own invoices whilst on-the-go and it’s undoubtedly made us more efficient.”
“It really couldn’t have been implemented at a better time, because it has enabled the entire Bulleys team of accounting staff and surveyors to operate remotely and keep a secure, agile and customer focused service going through challenging world-events.”
"What I absolutely love about Mojo is the traceability of the process"
Steve Perriton, MRICS partner at Bulleys
The Mojo system has brought many benefits to the team at Bulleys.
It has:
• Reduced the approvals process down from an average of one week to around 24-48 hours.
• Delivered traceability in the process – and, in turn, compliance and accountability.
• Delivered the power of TRAMPS to everyone, in a user-friendly app.
• Provided a cloud-based application that can be accessed and operated remotely
• Provided Bulleys with the ability to remain fully operational during the pandemic and continue to process supplier payments in the usual way.
• Reduced the amount of paper administration and documentation – working smarter, not harder
• Made interdepartmental working – between accounts, surveyors and partners – more efficient.
"Surveyors can sign off their own invoices whilst on-the-go and it’s undoubtedly made us more efficient"
Steve Perriton, MRICS partner at Bulleys
Bulleys is an award-winning firm of chartered surveyors and a property consultancy with a team of over 40 employees and an established history in the Midlands since 1965.
With around 1,000 individual tenants, it manages a large property portfolio of both industrial and commercial properties.
As a niche player in a highly specialised local and regional market, it focuses on providing a bespoke service with clients ranging from individuals with a single unit to local authorities, pension funds and property companies with portfolios around the UK.
With over 50 years of experience, its depth of knowledge and expertise gives it excellent coverage in the wider West Midlands locality and has helped it build an enviable reputation as a local specialist.
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