Image processing for property management

Real Estate Weekly, March 30, 1994

B.J. Murray, Inc., a leading provider of property management computer systems in the New York metropolitan area, premiered its VIZABLES Image Processing product at this month's Buildings NY exhibition at the New York Hilton Hotel.

"The growing popularity and affordability of client-server technology coupled with the increased speed of contemporary hardware platforms has now made the implementation of image processing practical," relates Brian Murray, president of B.J. Murray, Inc.

"This [image processing] capability will revolutionize property management, as well as many other applications, since all traditional filing and retrieval of both long and short term documents will now be replaced by online access from any image-enabled workstation," says Murray in describing the company's two year development campaign. "A property manger will be able to both inquire on a tenant's balance and concurrently retrieve and review any document associated with that tenant or property. Beyond the substantial savings in filing, the impact on workflow overhead is enormous."

The VIZABLES Image Processing facility enables its users to scan, route, store, annotate, print and fax actual documents using a standard P/C running Microsoft Windows 3.1. This new addition to the family of B.J. Murray products allows for the instant retrieval of tenant leases, correspondence, checks, invoices, bank statements, floorplans, legal dossiers, mortgage documents, pictures, insurance policies, etc. These system can include any of these document images into the month-end management report packages, using the same technology as the familiar American Express statement.

Using the B.J. Murray STAX financial statement packaging facility with VIZABLES, property managers can arrange the printing of actual vendor invoices, bank statements, selected correspondence, etc., as part of their management report package. The package provides for the printing of paid or unpaid invoices, for example, in the same order as the supporting accounting statements, giving the reader a synchronized package with no extensive manual sorting and copying. "The cost savings of the manual sorting, collating, and copying alone will immediately cost justify these systems, not to mention the elimination of missorted or 'borrowed' documents," says Murray.

The system allows for concurrent access to any of the documents from any image-enabled workstation, providing for highlighting, magnification, and, annotating. "Annotation lets a series of management authorizations be overlaid on any document, for bill approval for example. These annotations can be included or excluded from the final printed image. The B.J. Murray system records these annotations to provide an exact audit trail of everyone's approval."

"Leasing, legal, subsidy certification, tenant correspondence, building compliance, all can be included on the VIZABLES screens through the company. We are very excited about this product," says Murray. "Imagine being able to peruse both a tenant's account and their legal documents on-screen, printing a court ready case with the click of a button. Imagine reviewing and approving a property's invoices without sending original papers all over the office. The applications are almost endless and the space and time savings potential enormous."

The system maintains current documents on the system disks, archiving older documents to high capacity optical CD disks, much the same as familiar music CDs.

Applications for such a tool span every business application. The common elements of all business applications can be impacted by an effectively thought out and implemented imaging system:

* Quick and Easy Access to All Documents: There is no need to travel to warehouses, sort through file cabinets, or search through store rooms. Original documents can be kept in sequential order by "image" number, allowing easy access to the original and eliminating filing.

* Increased Security: Only those people authorized to perform specific functions can do so. Access to sensitive documentation is prohibited to unauthorized personnel.

Better Control of Documents: By offering instant retrieval of related documents, imaging systems eliminate misfiled and lost documents. Digitized images are also included as part of standard daily backup procedures allowing for safe storage.

* Preservation of the Document in its Original Form: Annotations and notes can be added to documents without actually changing the original document. Original documentation is protected against catastrophic loss.

* Increased Productivity: Imaging systems allow for simultaneous access of documents. Instant access to images and data allows for one-stop processing.

* Better Service: Internally, departments will be able to access information more quickly and externally customers will be serviced more efficiently.

Murray concludes that "We are admittedly at the beginning of a major system revolution. While we expect to have several major systems installed by mid year, managing what we feel will be a burgeoning demand will be rigorous. As with our previous system innovations, it will take several generations to fully yield all the application possibilities. We will be focusing on the primary document applications initially, such as leasing, legal, and management reporting. Eventually, all permanent documents will find a niche in this application. Our mission is to supply property management owners and managers with the most complete and sophisticated system environments possible."