Property Management Case Study: Success in Full
How SimpleRent built its disruptive payments software on the shoulders of Payrix
SimpleRent has become the leader in payments and leasing automation for the residential property market in Australia.
It wins clients by dramatically speeding up the leasing process; automating time-consuming payment collection processes; and rewarding tenants with shopping discounts to top retailers nationwide.
According to Matt Kesby, the company’s Head of Simplification, success didn’t happen overnight for the property management software innovator. It took time, some trial and error, and a key, integrated payments partnership on which to build something great.
“Historically, the residential property market has been underserved from payments perspective with limited choices and no real growth. The market has also been overwhelmed with a tremendous volume of changes to different industry software systems, and the additional challenges those changes are creating for our customers can be very stressful.”
Matt explained that property managers can spend 20% of any given week on payment-related activities, involving detailed repeatable-style tasks. And despite having to use multiple systems that can often result in double data entry and wasted time, people naturally resisted change even if it was for the better.
It was clear that SimpleRent had to eliminate all barriers to adoption. So they focused on building a seamless experience and chose a disruptive business model that made the software free to use, adding value for agencies. To generate revenue, SimpleRent makes a margin on the transaction fee instead. The value-add for tenants is access to special discounts at top retailers through the company’s SimpleDiscount program.
You Can Stay Focused on Your Core Business
payments as a part of an
overall customer journey
“We mapped the property manager journey from start to finish and essentially tied it all up in a solution that automates all of their payment and leasing tasks. We created a highly specific tool set for the industry and invested a huge amount in personalization and integrations with property management software systems, like PropertyMe, to create a truly rich user experience that is both seamless and effortless.”
Being able to focus on the customer journey was possible because of SimpleRent’s decision to leverage the expertise and technology of an integrated payments partner. “With Payrix, we don’t have to think about a transaction engine component or the Australian Financial Services license. We can concentrate on the tool set we provide. The challenge, of course, with payments is that it always sounds easy at first. But when you get down to real detail, there are a lot of considerations.”
The crucial element for SimpleRent was to be able to build on a powerful payments foundation and Payrix fit the bill. “We see Payrix as the engine, and we built an overlay view for some core components and a whole range of other automations and integration tools.”
Looking back at the process that started four and half years ago, Matt confessed they would have taken greater advantage of the planning process that Payrix had available before jumping straight into a full prototype environment. “In the early days, there was definitely some learning and lots of back and forth to figure it all out and make it work. If we were to do it over, one thing we’d do differently is to take the time to design out all of our payment flows.”
Despite the zeal of its ambitious development team, SimpleRent could always rely on Payrix’s open, transparent, and flexible approach to working together. “It was a good fit from the start. Payrix understood our model straightaway and knew what we were trying to achieve. We hit a lot of challenges with our complexity around pricing and different tiers and so forth, but Payrix was always highly responsive and mindful of budget. Absolutely.”
Payrix understood our model straightaway and knew what we were trying to achieve. We hit a lot of challenges with our complexity around pricing and different tiers and so forth, but Payrix was always highly responsive and mindful of budget.
– Matt Kesby, SimpleRentThe Right Partner Makes All the Difference
Without a doubt, Matt said that SimpleRent wouldn’t be where it is today without Payrix. “I told the team from the early days that we’re standing on the shoulders of giants. We couldn’t do this without open source and programming languages, cloud services and communications, hosting and so forth. As you go through the journey of building something great, have the humility and the gratitude to acknowledge those that are around you.”
That’s amazing advice for any startup. So what would Matt say to a young company considering payments?
“If you’re a startup, it will take three times as long and twice as much or twice as long and three times as much to get there [if you build it on your own]. Payments is a volume game if it’s a key part of your revenue model. Be willing to invest so that you can buy for the long term. It isn’t a short sprint. And take the time to plan, so you can make sure you get the most out of all services that are provided by an integrated payments partner like Payrix. There’s a lot, a huge amount, in the underlying Payrix system to take advantage of.”
To view SimpleRent’s website, head to https://go.simplerent.com.au/.