The following is a guest post from our friends at MRI Software, a real estate and investment management software provider to real estate owners, investors and operators. Click HERE to learn more about AvidXchange’s partnership with MRI.
At MRI Software, we design solutions for the real estate visionary—the person who wants to revolutionize the industry for the future, or who simply recognizes there has to be a better way than the current grind of their day-to-day operations.
Empowering a real estate visionary—whether he or she is a commercial or residential owner or operator—requires market leading technology that is comprehensive and flexible, but also open and connected, giving users control of their technology strategy.
Our vision is two-fold: To provide our clients with an AI-First platform, and one that is open and connected. Read on as we discuss both aspects of our technology vision and how it drives value for our clients.
MRI’s open and connected solution gives clients control
Fundamental to MRI’s technology is our ecosystem of Partners. MRI solutions provide many functions for a variety of client types, but there are hundreds of situations where a Partner offers a best-in-breed solution that augments MRI’s core offerings to give clients exactly what they need.
An open and connected platform enables clients to control their technology strategy and work with the tools they love. If a client adds a complementary solution to MRI, it shouldn’t lessen the user experience or create data silos.
Instead, usability to work with MRI and preferred vendors is made possible through leading integrations:
First, many solutions, such as MRI Vendor Pay powered by AvidXchange, are embedded directly into MRI Property Management X. Through the integration, you can automate your payment process and manage all B2B payments from within the MRI financials application. Key stakeholders can also see the status and settlement method for invoices directly in MRI. Similarly, with AvidInvoice, the reliable integration centralizes information in the core ERP system, which increases visibility for users and improves efficiencies.
Secondly, if it’s not embedded, a single sign-on (SSO) with Partner products streamlines the user experience by allowing an individual to log in once and access the purpose-built products they need throughout the day.
Finally, from a strategic level, an open and connected framework enables data to be transferred and accessible where it’s needed. If MRI serves as a real estate business’ core accounting system, data from vendor payments or service requests or any other integrated solution can be accessed and reported on in one place. This eliminates the need for double-manual entry, improving team efficiency and data accuracy. And in the end, key stakeholders can get a complete picture of a property or business and use it for reporting, business planning, and strategic decision making.
Through an unprecedented number of integrations and quality of integrations, MRI gives clients control of their technology strategy and delivers an unparalleled experience for users to choose the tools they love. In the end, users access connected data to drive better and faster decisions.
Case study: How an open and connected platform drives results
As mentioned above, MRI Software and AvidXchange have a tight integration that delivers value to the individual contributor and the business overall. Borger Management, Inc., a real estate industry leader in the D.C. metropolitan area, experienced the value of these two interconnected solutions firsthand.
Borger Management, Inc., which manages over 7,000 multifamily housing units and 2.3 million square feet of commercial and retail space, needed a more efficient invoice and payments process, as well as real-time access to accurate financial reports.
Through MRI’s open and connected ecosystem, Borger Management was able to implement AvidXchange. This replaced paper-based, time-intensive processes with integrated accounts payable (AP) software, resulting in efficient processes and accurate reporting in real-time.
By the numbers:
- Processed invoices 10x faster with automation, and can complete the process from anywhere
- Reduced labor costs by 26%, as the team was able to do the same work (or more) in less time with the same headcount
- Increased financial accuracy by 30% thanks to the tight connection between MRI and AvidXchange that eliminated manual data entry
MRI Software is an AI-first platform
We are moving beyond the age of AI discovery, to the age of AI implementation. Artificial intelligence is not just an idea, but a technological advancement tangibly impacting your everyday life. MRI Software is now bringing—and has already introduced—AI-first solutions to PropTech.
This article is not a “how to” on artificial intelligence, but an opportunity to illustrate why being on the cutting edge of technology in PropTech can dramatically improve the daily experience of users and the ability of real estate businesses to cut costs and grow revenue.
The best way to understand AI is to talk about it in action. MRI Software has several examples.
One MRI solution powered by AI is MRI Contract Intelligence, which is revolutionizing the contract review process, saving time by 50-75%. Through machine learning and optical character recognition, MRI Contract Intelligence extracts data at a faster rate and with greater accuracy than manual processes.
The solution converts static contracts into machine-readable text, making it easy to search and find information in the document. It also enables the contract information to be used for custom reports, driving additional insights from your data.
Additional MRI Software products using AI today:
- CheckpointID: To combat the rise of fraud in multifamily communities, this modern ID verification software validates government-issued IDs across credit bureaus, fraud and watch lists, SSA records, and telecom and utilities databases. Enhanced AI capabilities automatically identify and match data from the front and back of an ID against DMV records.
- Resident Screening: This reliable resident screening tool allows you to decrease evictions by actively predicting risk for your leasing team. AI-powered screening uses machine learning to generate a resident score that predicts the applicant’s level of risk and optimizes your approval parameters over time. As needed, a human team of certified professional screeners personally validate criminal screening results, ensuring you’re accepting and denying the right candidates and maintaining Fair Housing Act compliance
- Intelligent Insurance: A resident insurance program helps multifamily properties increase coverage by using AI to automate the review process of third-party proof
As you can see, AI is already a key ingredient in many MRI products. It’s speeding up or eliminating many time-intensive real estate processes and making sense of millions of data points that would be impossible to interpret without machines.
There is still a long journey ahead for AI to be infused across the entire PropTech market and bring greater intelligence to the entire MRI platform. But at MRI, AI is fundamental to our platform vision because we know it that will change the way you do business for the better.
