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Beepo and Rockend partner to provide accreditation for offshore employees

As agencies across Australia look for ways to create efficiencies, provide exceptional service and improve margins, offshoring is an increasingly popular solution. Now it’s been made a whole lot easier with a partnership between Beepo and Rockend; providing trained and accredited employees ready to start work. Samantha McLean talks to Mark Engelmann and Fletcher Celand about what’s included in the training, and how it might help PM businesses of all sizes.

Adequate training is usually one of the biggest challenges in implementing offshore teams. One of the main issues has always been the struggle with a large number of unique software products along with legislative and geographical knowledge requirements.

But Beepo has recently decided to tackle this challenge head-on by partnering with Rockend to develop trained resources, otherwise known as ‘Rockend Property Assistants’.

With a Rockend Property Assistant, you can outsource a whole range of simple yet time-consuming administrative support tasks while, it seems, skipping the usually frustrating and complex training process.

It’s a one of a kind solution that Mark Engelmann says will revolutionise the way people in the industry look at outsourcing, providing an instant assistant who is ‘ready to hit the ground running’.

“From chasing arrears, uploading listings to portals or doing tenant checks to preparing leases, scheduling inspections and much more, the list of tasks that can be carried out is almost endless,” says Engelmann.

“Now, when you outsource, you can engage someone who is fully trained to carry out the same tasks as you – as an accredited user of Rockend’s software”.

The idea to upskill employees in real estate software packages came about through years of experience in outsourcing to the real estate industry.

“Obviously, we are firm believers in the benefits of outsourcing, but if someone isn’t comprehensively trained and doesn’t know how to harness the power of the tools they’re given, including the software, they won’t achieve the results you need in your business.

“We know that training is a barrier and can be a significant drain on resources, especially for small agencies.

“Now we have a pool of trained assistants ready to go.”

COMBINING TECH AND BEST PRACTICE

The training programs for Rockend Property Assistants were developed in collaboration with Rockend. The materials cover the features and functionalities of both REST Professional and PropertyTree, and are delivered over a five-week period. The training program also includes an explanation of how the property management industry works in Australia and New Zealand, including the legislation underpinning the tasks, as well as how to complete those tasks in a best-practice way.

At the end of the training, each Rockend Property Assistant is measured on their knowledge, competency and speed.

“It is possible,” says Engelmann, “that Beepo staff may be more thoroughly trained on best practice and using every part of the software than some experienced property managers here in Australia.”

At the end of the training, each Rockend Property Assistant is measured on their knowledge, competency and speed.

“It’s only when they have successfully passed those tests that they are able to be matched with clients and start working on tasks,” says Engelmann.

NO DOWNTIME

Software service provider Rockend is also excited about the possibilities the partnership will bring, as both organisations share the same customer service values.

Beepo is a trusted provider of outsourcing services to the real estate industry and has a proven track record of connecting agencies with professional, qualified staff. Now, by teaming up with Rockend, their offering moves to the next level,” Fletcher Celand, Head of Operations – Customer Experience at Rockend, explains.

Celand says they teamed up with Beepo to develop Rockend Property Assistant after experiencing Beepo’s stellar service first hand.

“We originally started working with Beepo to support some of our internal processes relating to the migration
of our customers from one piece of software to another,” Celand says.

“From there the relationship grew, and we started to look for other opportunities – and the idea
for Rockend Property Assistant was hatched.

“So when you outsource to a Rockend Property Assistant, you get someone who is qualified, can hit the ground running, and you don’t need to worry about any downtime.”

SECURITY ASSURED

Underlining Beepo’s standing as a leader in outsourcing for the real estate industry is their commitment to security.

“Our facility in the Philippines has finance industry standard, triple-layered security,” Engelmann explains. “This level of security allows work of all kinds to be completed in the facility.”

Access to clients’ cloud-based applications is also subject to the highest security measures, with staff not being given passwords directly and access locked down to the Beepo building.

“Our employees log in with a single sign-in to ‘Beepo Secure’, which then allows them to access the client’s applications. Access is locked down to the IP address of the Beepo offices so that they can’t be accessed from outside computers,” says Engelmann.

COVERING ALL BASES

“The launch of Rockend Property Assistant reinforces our core proposition to help real estate agencies focus on high-value tasks,” says Engelmann.

“By having access to a pool of assistants, service levels need not be impacted by things like the usual holidays or sick leave. It also means that all knowledge about an agency is not held by a single person. If an assistant leaves or isn’t available, there’s another assistant who can provide an equal level of service.”

Rockend Property Assistants are trained across nine fundamental areas of property management:

  1. Property Listing
  2. Tenancy Marketing
  3. Tenant Application Processing
  4. Pre-Occupancy
  5. Arrears Management
  6. Routine Inspection Management
  7. Maintenance and Repair Management
  8. Lease Renewal Management
  9. Tenancy Exit Administration

In addition to being highly skilled in the use of Rockend products, the Rockend Property Assistants are also trained in integrated platforms such as HappyCo, Inspection Express, Inspection Manager, Property Inspection Manager and Rentfind Inspector.

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Samantha McLean

Samantha McLean is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of Elite Agent and Host of the Elevate Podcast.