Today, Colonial Properties Trust is one of the largest diversified REITs in the U.S. With a total market capitalization of more than 2.8 billion, Colonial Properties is a dynamic, growing leader in the development, ownership and management of multifamily, office and retail properties.

To meet the twin challenges of internal growth and industry evolution, Colonial Properties selected and implemented the Intuit Real Estate Solutions' (IRES) MRI Commercial property and asset management software system.

True business intelligence

"The real estate industry is moving towards managing what you've got, and shifting the focus away from acquisition," says Ken Howell, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Colonial Properties. "To successfully manage our portfolio, we needed better access to information, and to better use that information to support decision-making. We needed better financial reporting, analysis, and property management tools to support our growth efforts."

Fred Rixey, Vice President, Financial Services, agrees, "Our AS/400 was not giving us the kind of property management intelligence we needed. As a division, we created a wish list that included budgeting, forecasting and collections. We decided that a Windows-based client/server environment was what we needed in terms of functionality. And we insisted that the system should be user-friendly and easy to learn."

Colonial Properties formed a committee to explore information technology options. The group included one representative each from the technical group, accounting group, retail division, and office division.

Online, real-time access

"A major criteria was real-time, online access to all the databases in our home office," says Rixey. "Our field personnel need live data to process and manage tenant accounts, buildings, and invoices. They need to exist as a self-sustaining property management operation, as though they had the entire company in their own office.

“Before implementing MRI Commercial, only about 30-35 people had access to the data. Because the system is web-enabled, 320 employees throughout the organization can now run their own financial data,” adds Jack Kemph, Vice President of Technology Services.

People make the difference

"In my mind, a significant difference was the people," says Howell, who represented the accounting interest. "We like the structure of the organization. In the end, it was a unanimous decision." "It's amazing how close IRES came to our wish list," adds Rixey.

The IT perspective

Kemph provides the benefits from the IT perspective: "I like the open database design. I can customize the system; I can change the look, feel, taste and flavor of the software to accommodate our unique needs without compromising the system.

"I was looking for professionally developed, maintained and supported software that could give me 90% to 95% of my business functionality," continues the IT director. "The MRI system enables me to write the variations I need to reflect the unique needs of my organization. “For example, we are adding 18-20 more properties to our portfolio this year. Because of the scalability of the software, our business can grow without adding manpower.”

"We were also impressed with IRES' track record and IRES' commitment to the real estate industry," continues Kemph. "They've been around for almost 30 years. They blend experts in real estate with programming experts. There's a blend of entrepreneurial spirit with reality-based thinking, visionary ideas with concrete answers."

Powerful reporting from every angle

"One of the things we couldn't do in the past, and that we needed to be able to do as a public company, is to compare our earnings quarter-to-quarter," says Howell. "With the old system, you had to actually run two reports and key the results into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for comparison. Not only do we get more accurate information; we can produce analyses that satisfy upper management's requirements.

"One of the best features of the system is the ability to slice and dice from every angle, and access information at a variety of levels. I can tell the system how many months of data I want to analyze. I can compare actual versus budgeted results, and create the forecasts I need. That's a huge improvement from a financial reporting perspective. Your report should produce what you need in order to support your business," says Kemph.

“And these reports can be generated on the fly. Running key performance indicators like ROI, cashflow, rent, and occupancies rates used to take a day and a half. Now, we can run this report in three or four minutes. Not only does this help us better manage our properties, but also the properties of our clients.”

Similarly, their month end close went from a 10 hour to a one-hour process.

"Today our people are able to access a world of information they've never seen before," Kemph concludes. "Our analysts can use the information provided through the MRI Commercial system to evaluate the portfolio mix we need in order to continue to build a successful business and to drive investment decisions."

About Colonial Properties Trust

Founded in 1970, Colonial Properties Trust is one of the largest developers, owners and operators of multifamily, office and retail properties in the Sunbelt region of the United States. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, Colonial Properties Trust – through its subsidiaries – owns a portfolio of over 100 multifamily, office and retail properties. Colonial is one of the largest diversified REITs in the United States with a total market capitalization of $2.8 billion as of December 31, 2002.

The cornerstone of Colonial Properties' success is its live, work and shop diversified investment strategy. They manage more than 20,000 apartment units, 6.0 million square feet of office space and 15.0 million square feet of retail shopping space. The company's stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CLP. For more information, please visit their website at www.colonialprop.com.