Success Stories

DeSantis Commercial, Inc

For the past 35 years, DeSantis Commercial, Inc. has been a full-service commercial realtor located on Florida’s Treasure Coast. Operating throughout the state of Florida, DeSantis Commercial handles all facets of commercial real estate including Buyer/Tenant Representation, Consulting, Sales and Leasing, and Property Management.

Karen McCormick, Finance Manager, tells the story of how she chose Maxwell Systems™ Colonial™ as the software solution for DeSantis, how quickly they implemented the system, and how she’s using it to streamline document management for the company.

Challenges

DeSantis needed a system that offered reporting flexibility and one that could help control the numerous documents of multi-unit commercial properties.

Solution

For its robust, customizable reporting and complete document management capabilities, DeSantis Commercial chose Colonial.

Results

Colonial helps DeSantis maximize profits for every unit of every property. Customizable reports give company owners the information they need to manage their business, and document management provides tools for improved organization and efficiency.

Flexibility: Driving Force Behind Change at DeSantis

When Karen McCormick started looking for software to help manage properties for DeSantis, she was looking for one thing in particular: flexibility. In fact, the whole decision boiled down to being able to generate financial statements needed by the company’s owners.

“We chose Colonial because it was affordable and flexible,” McCormick said. “Our previous software did not give me the ability to run reports the way the owners wanted to see them. It had canned reports that couldn’t be changed.” With Colonial, McCormick can provide the owners of DeSantis with the financial statements that they need. And with the ability to customize reports, McCormick can easily modify reports to display what’s important to DeSantis’ owners.

Extreme Implementation: “0-60” Meant “Days” for DeSantis

Once DeSantis decided to go with Colonial in early 2006, McCormick didn’t waste any time implementing the new system. Within two months, McCormick had the program up and running with two years’ trial balances and all tenant information.

After a few working weekends and running their then-current software system in tandem for one month, DeSantis went live on Colonial and never looked back. “When we finished implementing Colonial,” McCormick recalls, “Our accountant said that this was the smoothest transition from one product to another that he’s ever seen.”

Better Organization through Document Management

In addition to handing all outgoing correspondence through Colonial memorandum templates and Document Management, McCormick uses Document Management to track three-day notices and letters for required certificates (insurance, pest control, HVAC). She processes documents every Monday with tickler notifications so she never misses a beat.

McCormick scans in the received documents and attaches them to tenant records. By doing so, the owner can view documentation as desired.

“This allows the owner to look at leases without having to dig,” McCormick said. “He can pull up records on his screen and see if the tenant has sent in the required documents.”

McCormick believes that Colonial Document Management will allow DeSantis to go paperless—sooner rather than later. In fact, McCormick will soon begin attaching invoices to vendor records and implementing the routing/approval processes for invoices and purchase orders. And if the initial implementation is any indication, McCormick will have this done in no time.

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