Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/704472
from Ravti, a Y Combinator–backed firm, to view images, specs and histo- ries of the equipment. At DDR Corp., tenants are using an online portal called SnapPay RE to transmit rent pay- ments and report sales. DDR, bullish about such emerging solutions, even helped shape the focus of a local startup founded by graduates of Case Western Reserve University. "This group created an online platform that sources requests for proposals, or RFPs, and we helped them understand how it could work at a corporate-level commercial real estate company," said Kevin Moss, DDR's chief information officer. "They have now evolved into a growing startup called Scout RFP. We have already rolled this out internally for tenant co- ordination and construction and are preparing to extend it to the property management side as well." Landlords and property managers have used an array of tech tools since at least the late 1990s. Across the industry, however, many basic processes are still in need of an update, according to some proponents of real estate tech. Paying rent is a case in point. While national tenants with hundreds of stores often work with landlords to set up automatic electronic payments, most local retailers continue to rely on traditional methods to pay rent and report sales, says Christa Vesy, DDR's chief accounting officer. Besides being time-consuming and inefficient, this manual approach carries greater risk of mistakes. Across a large portfolio, even occasional differences can translate into sizable headaches. "We've got to match up every single payment with every single tenant charge," Vesy said, "and we need to do it down to the nickel." A growing number of retail landlords are now looking at using online portals to make rent payments and sales report- ing more efficient, says Moss. "Making online payments is a big change for re- tail real estate," he said. "There is a huge opportunity here." DDR began test- ing SnapPay RE (a product of Aurora, Ill.–based CDI Technology) in Janu- ary 2015. The platform was designed to integrate with Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software, which is used companywide at DDR. "The ability to integrate with JD Edwards was absolutely 48 S C T / A U G U S T 2 0 1 6 remaxcommercial.com Retail • Multi-family • Offi ce • Industrial Land • Commercial Development • Hospitality RE/MAX Commercial Practitioners are part of an industry-leading network of over 100,000 associates worldwide. The opportunity to exchange referrals with top-producing residential agents is available to you the day you join. That's huge. FIND YOURSELF AT RE/MAX ©2016 RE/MAX, LLC. Each RE/MAX® offi ce is independently owned and operated. 16_82382 We've got to match up every single payment with every single tenant charge, and we need to do it down to the nickel