Prime Public Partnerships Limited chooses Hexagon LandMark for core portfolio asset management
Prime Public Partnerships Ltd was established in 1996 with a clear purpose, to develop buildings that support communities. With extensive and successful experience in delivering new primary health care facilities, Prime is now the UK’s largest investor and developer in the primary and social care sector. In partnership with the NHS, local authorities and regeneration agencies it has completed over 51 projects, representing an investment of over £150 million.
The company offers the complete solution and manages every aspect, including design, site acquisition, planning approval and construction. It looks after the properties for decades after completion. With a core portfolio that has in excess of forty properties in England, Scotland and Wales, it has found Hexagon’s LandMark a key tool for effective management.
Single point of entry
Michelle Whitfield is Assets Manager for Prime, responsible for its core portfolio management. When she joined the company in 1999 she looked for the right software to support her role. The key criterion was that it had to interface with Sage Line 50 , the company’s chosen accounting system:
"We needed to be able to do property accounting, rent demands, service charge demands, insurance in one package, so that we didn’t spend hours doing spreadsheets or entering everything twice, first on the property management system and then in Sage. We wanted it to go into one application and then flow all the way through."
"And that’s what we got with LandMark, now I can raise my invoices and demands at the touch of a button and all the accounting information that Sage needs goes through in a seamless transaction in the required format."
"When it comes to things like issuing invoices for quarterly rent demands, it has cut the time it takes me to generate them from hours or even days down to minutes. With one click they are all printed out, and with another, they are sent across to Sage. It literally takes no time at all."
"It used to be a case of someone double-entering, going through all the invoices I had produced and entering the amounts into Sage manually. It was tortuous when you’ve got forty plus properties with up to three tenants in each. It was a lot of hard work, so LandMark saves us vast amounts of time."
Seamless integration with Sage
It is not just time that is saved. LandMark’s seamless integration with Sage means the risks inherent in intermediate offline stages of processing are eliminated. There is also less chance of error and for Michelle, this integration makes the whole reporting and reconciliation process easier. "It is very easy to use, and took only hours to learn. The support is excellent and the Hexagon team understand the business and they’re there to help you. The help they offer is invaluable."
The best solution
Flexible, reliable and user-friendly property management functionality is the key to LandMark’s success, but for Prime, says Michelle, the overriding factor was its ability to integrate with Sage:
"If anyone asked why did you choose LandMark, I would have to say it was the accounting interface. I think that can be a big selling point for the Hexagon client base. When I started looking for the best solution, I visited the Sage website to see if they had any preferred suppliers of property management software. I found LandMark listed as a fully compliant and conversant, so I chose to approach Hexagon."
"Because of that, we were fairly confident it would do what it said it would do. Some companies promise you the earth and our Accounts department were a bit sceptical. When the time came for me to do my first rent demands, I don’t think they quite believed that Sage would be populated correctly with all the relevant information in a readable form that they wouldn’t have to do anything to. But it was, it worked and the general reaction was one of wonderment! Everybody was happy and the Accounts people most of all."
Time saving functionality leads to pro-active management
"LandMark has definitely made life simpler. My time is freed up for the important pro-active management work. I can view the status of our tenants accounts and payment history via LandMark viewing Sage without bothering our accounts team. I can generate both property management reports and accounting reports ensuring that I manage the portfolio effectively with real-time accounting information . LandMark has provided a proactive and seamless approach to property management and accounting."
