Cologne, Germany, 25 March 2010 – The housing industry affiliate of R+V Insurance, the GWG Group in Stuttgart, Germany, has completely transferred the technical property management of over 15,000 residences to a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution model. All processes, including ongoing maintenance and repairs, dynamic asset management and new construction project management may be managed, monitored and optimized with the BTS system. The SaaS application links the various branch offices in Germany with the GWG headquarters in Stuttgart and allows the Group to centrally record the complete lifecycle of all individual properties, including investments made and/or pending. The software company BTS is cooperating with Pironet NDH Datacenter, an outsourcing specialist, to ensure the secure and smooth operation of the business critical solution.

New approaches to real estate management thanks to SaaS
“An in-house, round-the-clock, location-independent solution with the same high level of online accessibility is not a cost-effective solution for real estate companies“, explains BTS Managing Director Hans-Joachim Wilken. “The SaaS model has opened up the possibility for integrated approaches to technical property management”, comments Wilken. The SaaS solution is designed as an online portal and is accessible to users via the Internet and web browser. The GWG Group can now centrally manage enquiries and damage reports from renters and respond to them online. The portal administrates and documents the entire property management workflow and offers interfaces to the standard business systems. If, for example, a renter reports damage via email or per telephone, a GWG employee collects and prepares the information using the SaaS solution and immediately contracts a maintenance company to carry out the repairs. As soon as the damage has been repaired, the online invoice for the repairs and/or new materials is entered into the system, which flows directly into the calculation of the property value.

A high level of data security promotes trust in SaaS model
Data security and data protection were decisive factors for the GWG Group when deciding on a SaaS solution, according to Wilken: "Thanks to Pironet NDH’s outstanding security references, large real estate companies like the GWG Group are willing to transfer their valuable data to an external partner. With our partner, we have passed one of the industry’s toughest data protection audits, conducted by HP Services - Consulting & Integration, commissioned by Bosch.“

Felix Hoeger, executive board member at Pironet NDH AG, views SaaS partnerships between outsourcing specialists and software vendors as the future model for the software market: "When partners are able to concentrate on their specific areas of expertise, this allows small- and medium-sized software enterprises to develop new ideas for their products and increase their customers’ value proposition.“
v R+V and the GWG Group are effectively using the SaaS model for their business strategy: "Real estate-related tasks are becoming increasingly complex. We are focussing on the long-term improvement of our core processes, and therewith maximum efficiency, to extend our property portfolio. Information technology is a key factor for achieving this goal. The BTS solution managed by Pironet NDH at their high-security data center provides us with a dynamic portfolio management system with which we are able to control and reduce maintenance costs while significantly reducing processing time“, comments Birgit Martin, member of the executive board of the GWG Group.

BTS Software
http://www.bts-software.de

Pironet NDH Datacenter is a leading ICT outsourcing vendor for German small- and medium sized businesses (SMBs) and offers a full range of services for the efficient and secure operation of business applications and ICT infrastructures. Core services include holistic solutions and flexible cost/use billing models for the provision of IT resources according to modern on-demand concepts like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Cloud Computing.

The centralization and outsourcing of, for example, business applications from SAP and Microsoft, as well as the use of a network infrastructure also provided by Pironet NDH allows SMBs to significantly reduce their investment and operational expenses for the management of information and communication and concentrate on their core business tasks.

Customers include numerous SMBs as well as international corporations.

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