Home Ownership Made Easy
“
Before working with Patrick, I was ready to give up on Salesforce because I felt that their reps and I spoke different languages. I haven't felt that way with Patrick. He communicates in a straightforward and user-friendly manner and is always willing to walk us through the process.
Norma Delgado
Executive Director
“
"It takes time to figure out what you need. You think what’s in front of you is all you have and you don't have the option to make it better. Patrick helps you realize, 'We can change it and we can make it better!' And that’s great. I didn't realize how flexible Salesforce could be."
Gwendolyn Wood
Tenant Coordinator
ORG LOCATION
Culver City, CA
TYPE OF SERVICE
Property Management
STAFF SIZE
~10
FAVORITE FEATURE
Property Expense Allocation Process
One Database To Unite Them All
Home Ownership Made Easy (HOME) owns and manages 42 properties comprising 73 units of affordable housing throughout Los Angeles. They’ve been providing housing opportunities to people with developmental disabilities since 1989 and currently house 150 residents. Some of their units also are specifically
Providing property management services for this number of properties and residents is no small feat. Before Salesforce, HOME was using many different systems and spreadsheets to document property information, client information, and staff time. Additionally, allocating staff time and expenses to all of HOME's different properties was very, very time-consuming.
Norma Delgado, Executive Director of HOME, knew there had to be a better way and reached out to me to see if I could help.
Integrating Many Databases into One
Before working together, HOME had many different systems to track key data. They had (1) a web-based database program to track staff hours worked with clients and at different properties; (2) an internal server on which they tracked client information; (3) an Excel sheet of the clients on their official waitlist; and (4) their word document-based system of maintenance requests. Now their data is integrated in the same place, making it easier for staff to input and update, and easier for management to generate useful reports.
Before Salesforce, we were operating on different islands. Everybody had their database, and it wasn't centralized. If we wanted information on a property or client, we'd have to track someone down and say, "Hey, what's going on here?" Now I can go into Salesforce and see what's happening with case notes and other stuff.
norma
Allocations Simplified
Another major enhancement has been creating an easy-to-use system of allocations. HOME has to allocate every minute of staff time and every cent in maintenance expenses back to one of their cost centers. HOME has been through a few different iterations of this process, all of which involved looking at many different spreadsheets at the end of the month and having to go through line by line and allocate everything. This was especially difficult if a staff member's time needed to be allocated among many different cost centers – sometimes up to as many as 15.
I went from doing 24 hours of billing work each month to just 5 hours with Salesforce. I'm also saving time on quarterly billing, so I'm saving around 250 hours of my time annually! Previously, I would have to export information from two databases into different excel sheets and then do numerous manual excel calculations. Now, I go into Salesforce, pull the report, and it's already done.
NORMA
Working Offsite
Another major improvement has been having access to Salesforce anywhere and all the time. Previously, HOME relied on a combination of some online databases, some internal servers that required staff to either be in the office or at a computer in their home offices, and physical papers and files.
Many of us work offsite, and Salesforce allows us to get the information we need. I have the Salesforce app, so I don't even have to be by a computer. For example, a tenant had an emergency recently, and our Tenant Coordinator would generally handle the incident, but she was on vacation. With the Salesforce app, I was able to get the information and make the necessary calls with no problem.
NORMA
On working with Patrick
Patrick is flexible and often can read between the lines when it comes to figuring out what we're trying to say and do. He knows when there's a lack of clarity that I haven't provided. He helps me to think through everything and how it could work better. He also responds very quickly and is willing to jump online and help us through the process. Two thumbs up!
gwen
Patrick really hears what our needs are and then works on something that's going to be effective for us. He doesn't try to sell us on something simply because it works for someone else. He works with a lot of different nonprofits and sometimes there’s useful ways to learn from each other's databases. But he also makes sure that what we're implementing is tailored specifically for us. We're not all going to do it exactly the same way and Patrick finds unique answers for our needs.
norma
Challenges
Results
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