TOPS Is the Right Choice for HMS
| "HMS
is satisfied with the functionality and the support service.
And that’s what counts!" |
We asked Pat Hillen of Homeowner Management Services
Inc. to participate in an interview detailing why HMS made the choice
in selecting TOPS Software as their management solution. Her answers
were so elegant, that we have decided to include them en masse,
without our comments.
Creating HMS
"Homeowner Management Services Inc. (HMS) was started in
1993 by Mike Crew, my partner in both business and life, and myself,
Pat Hillen. We started the business because we wanted to provide
a consultative management service to homeowner associations.
Mike was the Treasurer for our own homeowner association and
recognized that there was a need for professional advice in the
marketplace. He initially participated part-time while I built
the business, until it was sufficient to provide a stable income
for us. Mike left 'the other' corporate America four years ago
to participate full-time in our own miniature version of corporate
life.
Today we have 11 employees. Our client family includes 37 communities
with monthly service agreements, and HMS consults on an ad-hoc
basis to several other communities. Our high quality and flexible
service has enabled HMS to retain 9 of our first 10 clients. "
Choosing TOPS Software
"HMS learned about TOPS Software from CAI publications,
references from our friendly competitors, and from the vendor
displays at the national CAI meetings. Mike and I spent a lot
of time looking at software.
Selecting TOPS 2000™ was a tough call. There are several
good packages available, but we felt that TOPS had several advantages,
including:
- Most breadth of functionality
- Stable company providing the product
- Accessible support services
- Proven product enhancement record
These items, along with the reasonable costs for a firm our
size, made TOPS Software a clear winner.
HMS purchased TOPS 2000™ in October 2001. We initially
began training our staff and converting our client information
in late 2001 with the intent of a complete switch to TOPS 2000™
effective January 1st, 2002.
Our schedule was successfully met, including some custom programming
performed by the TOPS Software staff. With the help of TOPS’
staff, and Mike Furnia (an independent TOPS trainer), HMS successfully
converted all our data and processes in one step. "
Benefits of TOPS 2000™
"Our Accounting Manager, Bonnie Jirschele appreciates the
flexibility while assessing late charges and late interest. Because
we provide clients several differing payment options, she says
“The ability to edit charges before they are posted has
been a great help”.
Our prior software did not have a mail-merge function, and that
made sending letters a cumbersome task. Both Bonnie (Accounting)
and our Services Manager, Carole Martucci have utilized the TOPS
Form Letter Manager to greatly reduce the time it takes to print
notices such as, late notices, proxies and other standard letters.
Our management staff likes the ability to generate letters to
one or a group of homeowners.
I’m not sure that there is only one benefit that we have
realized. Bonnie likes the ability to write notes directly into
the A/R module… “A really good feature,” she
says. “When a homeowner calls, being able to write notes
directly into his or her file gives us a history that would be
harder to maintain if the function were not available. HMS staff
always has instant information when talking to a customer.”
However, clients don’t directly SEE that kind of benefit.
Our recent conversion to sending financial reports to board members
via email is a benefit that board members see every month."
Desired Improvements
"Functions like producing budgets and graphs with Excel
could greatly improve our use of TOPS 2000™. Another really
useful feature would be an ad-hoc report writer. And, of course,
keep working on user interface consistency."
Advice to Others
"First, training, training, training, then practice, practice,
practice. TOPS 2000™ is a complex product with many features.
This isn’t saying that it’s complicated, but there
is a lot to learn. Figuring out how to best use the features takes
time.
TOPS 2000™, like any software, isn’t perfect. However,
it does the job well, and TOPS Software continues
to make valuable improvements (like job streaming). HMS is satisfied
with the functionality and the support service. And that’s
what counts!"
Pat Hillen, Homeowner Management Services
|
