Infinite Possibilities at YASC Europe 2023

YASC Europe returned for its 10^th anniversary for an insightful event at the InterContinental London – The O2. We welcomed over 800 clients, partners and staff for two days of learning, networking, new solutions and an evening of entertainment.

The Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) connects property managers, owners, operators and investors with software solutions that help them grow and innovate.

Yardi’s Neal Gemassmer, vice president and general manager for international, opened day one alongside Rob Teel, senior vice president, and Esther Bonardi, vice president.

Yardi Growth

Since last year, Yardi has over 9,200 employees, 1,500 developers, with 50% of staff being client-facing. Yardi continues to grow at 20% and operates from 44 offices worldwide.

“Globally, about 50% of our team is based internationally. In Europe, we have over 1800 people based across four offices in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Romania. We continue to invest in these teams to support you and understand local requirements of each regional market,” expressed Gemassmer.

Industry Update

Since 2020, we’ve seen the market change and adapt to new ways of working. Gemassmer gave an update on how Yardi is supporting the market with its unified solution to manage diverse assets. “So many people are now working from home, and on a global basis, we continue to see vacancy rates in core grade A type buildings. Our focus is to have a platform that enables you to have flexibility. For example, how a building needs to be managed according to different types of sectors and leases in operation. It’s an important focus for us at Yardi.”

Unified Solution - Diverse Assets

Connected by Yardi

Teel also spoke about coworking and how the changes in commercial real estate are seeing flex and coworking taking over in vacant commercial offices. “Yardi’s flex offering is quite mature. It’s been around for six years. We’ve just started rolling it out in the UK over the last two years and have seen amazing interest. We now have a large team in the UK to support implementation of coworking and flex operations within an office environment,” stated Teel.

New Products Showcase

Pulse Energy Management and GRESB reporting

During the opening session, Rob Teel introduced Yardi Pulse, our new energy management solution coming end of 2024. This solution will help clients to explore methods of reducing their property’s energy consumption, enhancing resident comfort and simplifying analysis and reporting with automated energy management solutions. “We’ve started rolling out our utility invoice processing in Europe, which is a companion to our full service pay scan offering. Instead of abstracting the payable, we’re abstracting how much energy you’re using in each of your buildings to help complete returns for GRESB reporting, ENERGY STAR or ESG reporting at the end of the year,” explained Rob Teel.

Yardi Voyager 8 Preview

One of the main focuses of YASC Europe was the introduction of Voyager 8. “Voyager 8 is going to be the next level of Voyager – it’s a huge step forward. We already have some large clients in North America live on Voyager 8 and the feedback has been phenomenal with the ease of use of the system,” expressed Teel. “The timeline for general release will be mid Q4 next year, with early adopters in Europe during Q1 and UK early adopters in Q2.”

Yardi Virtuoso

In addition to Voyager 8, Teel and Gemassmer announced Yardi Virtuoso, Yardi’s human-centred approach to AI. “Voyager 8 is our platform for AI and our name for artificial intelligence at Yardi is Virtuoso. There are a few key things we’re focusing on in Virtuoso and AI. The first is chatbots and interactions with your customer. We already have AI engines that carry a conversation and help prospects through the leasing process in both our residential and student offerings. The second is maintenance – another type of customer request. A chatbot will help them with self-service and auto assign their work orders.”

“So, we have a chatbot for your customers, but what about a chatbot for your employees? This chatbot, Virtuoso, is going to help your employees navigate the system. For example, you can ask it to show you all the open construction projects or projects that have exceeded their timeline etc. Furthermore, Virtuoso will help you navigate reporting, analytics, pre-built filters and provide guidance.” For more information on Virtuoso, read the press release.