IBS Leverages Browser Interface to Revamp Lease Abstract

June 3, 2011 - PRLog -- When real estate property management and accounting systems provider Integrated Business Systems (IBS) of Totowa developed IBS 10.0i, the browser-enabled version of its product, the firm knew that it had opened doors to new levels of functionality. Today, the firm is partnering with clients, like Vornado Realty Trust of Paramus, N.J., to leverage this potential by revamping key features to strengthen capabilities and improve efficiencies.

IBS and Vornado, one of the country's largest real estate investment trusts, recently completed a custom redevelopment of the IBS system's lease abstract feature. The abstract capability always has enabled users to store, access and create reports from detailed, technical tenant lease information - including square footage, lease term, base rent, percentage rent, taxes, parking options and other data. However, on the traditional IBS Legacy system, the feature had limitations.

"As technology consumers, we have become accustomed to being able to insert copy, cut-and-paste and create attractive reports as basic functions of most programs we use," noted David Perl, vice president of lease administration at Vornado. "And while the IBS system always has been reliable in terms of data integrity, the abstract function was utilitarian. What this project has done is take us from a Model T Ford to top-of-class Lexus in a single step. It has every modern capability we could imagine."

IBS redesigned the abstract feature to capture information on customized pages. "Now, users can choose what sections they want to include in their abstracts and define the fields on each page," explained Diana English, an IBS senior trainer dedicated to the Vornado account. "Through a series of startup utilities, we can then configure the pages accordingly, adding drop-down lists, text boxes, yes/no options and other navigation tools - and even position those tools just where the client wants them to be on the screen."

FLEXIBILITY FOR INFORMATION-HUNGRY USERS

Perl noted that the feature's reporting flexibility is critically important for Vornado. "We are an information-hungry company, and we have many different groups that need to access various types of information captured in our tenant data base," he said. "As such, the abstract needs not only to provide detailed information but enable us to sort that information in a variety of ways - and get to it easily, quickly and accurately."

Vornado's "Tickler Report" illustrates this point. "The life of a lease includes contingent events that put obligations on us as a landlord or on our tenants to do certain things at specific times," Perl noted. "In the old abstract feature, we had a bare-bones system to remind us when key dates were coming up. One of the sections in our new abstract setup captures dates within the lease, and generates a report of action items within a specified date range. We created the report with all sorts of permutations - it can be run in a number of ways."

The new abstract function also is easy to modify and maintain, according to English. "Pages and fields can be added at any time," English said. "For example, if an IBS user decides to write a new clause into its tenant leases, we can run a utility to add that. The new abstract provides for data sharing as well; if a company has more than one tenant i.d. at a property, its master information can be ‘inherited' by multiple abstracts."

Beyond the day-to-day functionality benefits, the fact that the new lease abstract functions is within the browser-enabled IBS product provides the ability to outsource data entry. "This is particularly advantageous to large real estate organizations as they grow," English said. "Acquisitions can bring with them hundreds of new leases that need to be put into the system. With IBS 10.0i, that can be done by anyone, from anywhere."

According to Perl, the fluidity of the IBS application is among its greatest attributes. "Because IBS is not an out-of-the-box solution, its development is ongoing and often ties directly to a specific need - like our request for an improved lease abstract function," he said. "The programmers worked directly with our team - there was no intermediate layer. This led to an efficient and effective result."

The IBS software - written by real estate development, management and accounting professionals over the past 31 years - addresses virtually every property management, accounting and construction management task. The IBS 10.0i product can be run as an Intranet within a firewall and corporate network, or over the Internet via an Application Service Provider (ASP) model. IBS serves more than 100 prominent commercial and residential real estate owners, developers and property managers.

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About Integrated Business Systems: Founded in 1979, Integrated Business Systems (IBS) provides in-house real estate automation systems for commercial and residential real estate owners, developers and property managers. The IBS software addresses virtually all property management, accounting and construction management tasks. Reflecting three decades of development history, the system offers unparalleled functionality and auditability. IBS is well known for its superior product and unparalleled service. As a result, IBS's client list boasts more than 100 prominent real estate companies' including many of the industry's most elite organizations in the United States.