LLC

Tasked with the opportunity to consolidate redundant business applications managed in-house and introduce technology to streamline business processes, Essex turned to “The Cloud”. Over the past three years, we successfully migrated and adopted cloud delivered technologies driving the transformation of experiences throughout the Customer Journey from Prospect-to-Resident and enhanced Community Management experiences which included integration of managed services for telephony, office communication and online video collaboration.

Impact of Change

The use of Cloud-based applications has enabled us to focus on quickly rolling out streamlined ways of recording a prospect’s interest in leasing and submitting resident maintenance requests, as well as tracking the progress and reporting of accomplishments. For example, introducing a single pane of glass to view all communications with Prospects has been a game-changer for Essex. Repetitive tasks have been eliminated and our Leasing Specialists are achieving a higher rate of engagement 24x7 with internet-connected prospects using a combination of office, mobileand cloud-based solutions. In the case where our Maintenance team assistance is needed, residents easily submit online work orders, track, and update scheduling appointments, and have measured better than 50% improvement in resolution of work orders month-over-month.

Choosing and benefits deploying Cloud Apps

We began our move to the Cloud starting with the inventory of our key business use cases and completed process mapping to identify who does what tasks, and how, enabling the Essex team to define what key performance metrics would help us manage and measure ongoing improvement. As such, some degree of procedural changes was necessary so regular communication and training our business team members was essential for successful adoption of new cloud-based applications. Use of experienced Cloud solution partner resources was also quite helpful to avoid major obstacles in deployment.

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Repetitive tasks have been eliminated and our Leasing
Specialists are achieving a higher rate of engagement 24x7 with
internet-connected prospects using a combination of office, mobile and
cloud-based solutions

   

In addition to the ease of use and business process improvements, we clearly recognized lower up-front cost for implementation and now have a very predictive subscription service based, not license based, “Pay-as-you-Go” fully managed set of IT systems. We also substantially reduced the need to purchase capital hardware assets as well as the need to manage data center facilities in order to deliver traditional IT services. In addition, we are able to focus valuable resources on the business delivery model versus the need to maintain and upgrade application features and functions.

Although a company might believe using Cloud-based applications will achieve a totally hands-off management approach, IT leaders should not forget that it is still the business consumer’s responsibility to ensure your vendor and contract management practices are extended in this area. Taking proactive measures to review and stay abreast of your Cloud providers’ IT operations general controls, as well as risk and governance practices will help ensure your company’s successful implementation throughout your company’s cloud adoption journey.