Posted by Jim Locker (24.209.104.73) on July 06, 2003 at 23:28:25:
In Reply to: Internet based property management posted by Leon Belor on July 06, 2003 at 23:27:35:
: : I am managing around 30 apartments and I do not have a permanent office. I am considering Internet-based Property management system versus laptop-based software. Can you comment on virtues each of the systems? Do you know any decent Internet based systems?
: : Thank you?
: : Leon Belor.
Is this question a setup? I couldn't have asked a better question if I had drafted it myself. As a matter of fact, just a couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for Units magazine (National Apt Assoc magazine) and I discussed this topic at length.
It is a subject that I hold strong opinions on.
Internet-based property management software is an example of a product provided by an Application Service Provider (ASP). Now, the ASP business model is being heavily touted these days, and there is a place for it in the marketplace. For example, streaming real-time stock quotes is, to my mind, an excellent example of a valid place for an ASP.
But the ASP model is being pushed for all kinds of things; personal finance, property management, even word processing and spreadsheet work. So, think about it. What do you get when you go with an ASP?
The main advantage you get is that you don't have to maintain your own server and database; this is handled for you by the ASP.
But the disadvantages are, to my mind, simply overwhelming. I consider the ASP model to be a disaster waiting to happen, when you are using it for property management.
Consider what you are doing. You are placing information crucial to your business, sensitive personal information about your tenants, and important historical information about your products out there. Somewhere. You are trusting the ASP to maintain your data for you.
You are trusting the ASP to keep the security patches up to date on his systems. You are trusting the ASP to guard against the rogue employee of his who might loot your data and use it for some inimical purpose - steal your tenants identities, for instance.
What if a hacker gets in, steals your data and the data of the ASP's other clients, and then proceeds to engage in rogue behavior using data you unwittingly made available?
You are trusting that the ASP is financially stable. What are you going to do one day if you try to log onto the system and get a message: "Sorry, we went broke. If you need your data, contact our attorneys; Bendover, Cheetum, and Howe."
Basically, you are giving away a substantial amount of control over your own business, and incurring an enormous potential liability. And for what? Just so you don't have to maintain your own database. And do your own backups.
To my way of thinking, it is a stupendously bad idea to go with the ASP model for property management.
I do not know of any decent internet-based property management company because in my opinion there is no good one and there cannot be a good one because their business model is fatally flawed.
If you want to carry your data with you, either take a laptop with high security (encrypted volumes, anti-theft devices) to protect the data if the laptop is stolen, or set up your own server and dial in remotely on a dedicated line. Our package will work in either of these scenarios.
I personally travel to trade shows with a laptop that contains the entire development environment for The Property Manager, as well as a copy of our own active property management database (with all the real data about tenants, buildings, etc). It is kept in a very high security environment on disk; if the laptop is stolen, it will be absolutely useless to the thief and the data will be safe.
If you are interested, I can assist you in setting up such an environment on your laptop.